Systems alone aren’t enough. They need to update their policies too.

Copyright laws must be modernized for the digital age. The methods of creating, citing and utilizing creative works have changed dramatically since current laws were written. The definition of “publisher” becomes nebulous when anyone with an internet connection can create and share their work. It is challenging to propose and debate modernization strategies without fully understanding who and what would be affected or how these challenges vary by country, which may harm journalists’ ability to participate in that process. More informed and comprehensive discussions among publishers, technology companies and policymakers are needed to structure new laws in a way that protects journalistic work while also recognizing the ways the public accesses and interacts with creative works in our digital societies.

THE ISSUE

Copyright is a type of intellectual property that describes the legal rights a creator has over a wide range of content, including books, music, film, artwork, software and images. Copyrights give creators the ability to prevent others from using their work without permission and to be compensated for approved uses by others. Use of copyrighted works is dependent on copyright laws in the country of origin as well as various international copyright conventions and treaties that have been adopted to provide clearer rights for creators in a global economy.

Journalists and news publishers create original text, photo, audio and video content. They also incorporate copyrighted content into their work by quoting, paraphrasing or providing evidence from outside content. In many countries, “fair use” and “fair dealing” provisions or “quotation rights” allow for limited use of copyrighted material in circumstances such as journalism, research and teaching without the need to obtain permission from the copyright holder. But, depending on the legal system, these allowances vary significantly.

The digital age has introduced new copyright use cases that are not sufficiently addressed in current law. For example, now news aggregators, social media sites and search engines often publish headlines or snippets of and links to a publisher’s news story. Another new use case emerged with the creation of generative AI, which ‘learns’ from amassed digital content created by others to produce its own derivative content, which may or may not be considered original created work. Journalists increasingly use generative AI in news production, and the original content is also used to train AI tools.

Modernizing copyright law and fair use doctrine for the global digital age is increasingly central to an open internet and competitive news environment and raises a slew of new challenges. How will policy differentiate between snippets of licensed content in a citizen’s post or email, a news story, a freelancer’s news column, a search result, a news feed, and more? What elements of building a generative AI tool fall under fair use? How should societies define original work created in a global, digital environment? While questions surrounding AI and its use in journalism are addressed more fully in a separate issue primer, rapid technological developments reflect how important it is that copyright policy is forward-looking.