The Ethical Use of Intellectual Property for AI Development

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Key Legal Cases

Key Legal Cases

Several landmark legal cases shape the framework for understanding AI’s use of copyrighted material. These cases help define when AI’s use of intellectual property is legal under the fair use doctrine and other related laws.

Next Step: Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music (1994)

Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music (1994)

This landmark Supreme Court case established the concept of “transformative use” under the fair use doctrine. The case involved 2 Live Crew’s parody of the song “Oh, Pretty Woman,” and the court ruled that the parody was protected as fair use because it added new expression and meaning to the original work.

The court’s decision emphasized that works are not infringing if they transform the original in a way that provides new insights, ideas, or expressions. For AI, this case is crucial, as it supports the idea that AI-generated outputs—if transformative—may also be protected under the fair use doctrine. As AI models often use existing copyrighted material to create something new, this case serves as a fundamental precedent for defending AI’s use of copyrighted content.

Figure 16.

Next Step: Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studios (1984)

Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studios (1984)

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In the 1984 case of Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studios, the Supreme Court ruled that technologies capable of both infringing and non-infringing uses—such as VCRs—are not illegal by nature. This ruling meant that technologies like VCRs, which could be used to record copyrighted television shows, could not be banned solely because they had the potential to be used for infringement.

This ruling has profound implications for AI technologies. Like VCRs, AI models can be used for both legitimate purposes, such as generating original content, and potentially infringing uses, such as reproducing copyrighted works. The defense of AI’s use of copyrighted material often hinges on this case, as it establishes that the mere potential for infringement does not make a technology illegal or subject to broad restrictions.

Next Step: Recent Copyright Lawsuits

Recent Copyright Lawsuits

As AI continues to grow and develop, several recent legal battles are testing the boundaries of copyright law. Cases such as those involving Stability AI, which focuses on image generation, and GitHub’s Copilot, which assists in coding, have raised new concerns about how AI uses copyrighted material.

For instance, Stability AI is currently facing lawsuits from artists who argue that the AI’s use of their artwork to train its models constitutes copyright infringement. Similarly, GitHub’s Copilot has been the subject of controversy for allegedly using publicly available code repositories without proper attribution. These lawsuits are likely to shape the future of how intellectual property law applies to AI technologies and may result in new regulations that affect how AI can be trained and what data it can access.

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