Members of the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee have called for stronger protections for copyrighted works used to train generative artificial intelligence systems, urging full transparency and fair remuneration for creators across the EU.
In a vote held late January, MEPs adopted a series of proposals by 17 votes to three, with two abstentions, aimed at clarifying how EU copyright law should apply to generative AI systems placed on the EU market, regardless of where their training takes place.
Lawmakers stressed that because generative AI systems rely on and reproduce protected content, rightsholders must be informed about how their works are used. They are calling for AI providers and deployers to publish detailed records of automated data crawling activities and to provide a list of copyrighted works used in training. Failure to meet transparency requirements, they warned, could amount to copyright infringement and carry legal consequences.
The committee also emphasized that creators and rightsholders must receive fair remuneration when their works are used to train AI systems. MEPs rejected the idea of a global flat-rate licensing scheme that would allow providers to train models in exchange for a single payment, arguing that such an approach could undermine Europe’s creative industries. They urged the European Commission to examine whether remuneration mechanisms could also apply to past uses of copyrighted material.
Beyond compensation, lawmakers raised concerns about the impact of AI systems on media pluralism. They said news publishers must retain full control over whether their content is used for AI training and should be adequately compensated if they agree. The report also states that fully AI-generated content should not qualify for copyright protection and calls for measures to combat the spread of manipulated or AI-generated illegal content.
Rapporteur Axel Voss said innovation and copyright “must coexist” and that clear, enforceable rules are essential to safeguarding creators while fostering technological sovereignty. The report will go to a plenary vote in March.
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