EU parliament urges new rules to protect copyrighted work

The European Parliament on Tuesday called for new EU-wide rules to protect copyrighted content in the bloc from generative AI use.

In a non-binding report adopted by a majority, lawmakers said European Union copyright law should apply to all systems of generative AI on the bloc’s market.

“We need clear rules for the use of copyright-protected content for AI training. Legal certainty would let AI developers know which content can be used and how licences can be obtained,” the MEP pushing the report, Axel Voss, said.

The demand comes ahead of a review of the EU’s copyright rules this summer.

The parliament also called on the European Commission, the EU’s executive, to ensure use of copyrighted material by generative AI is “fairly remunerated”.

The European Composer and Songwriter Alliance welcomed the report and urged the commission to “duly take into account” the parliament’s recommendations.

But tech lobby group CCIA Europe’s AI policy lead, Boniface de Champris, said the report “sends the wrong signal to innovators, and risks holding back Europe’s digital competitiveness on the global stage”.

He insisted the EU already has “rules that carefully balance the interests of rightsholders with AI innovation”.

The EU has wide-ranging rules on AI, adopted in 2024, which force systems to comply with current copyright law.

But parliament research found it was not clear how they should apply to general purpose AI, systems that have a vast range of functions.