What changed between the draft committee report and the plenary report

MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION

Changed:on Copyrightcopyright and generative artificial intelligence – opportunities and challenges

(2025/2058(INI))

The European Parliament,

Changed:– having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, in particular Articles 4, 16, 26, 114114, 118 and 118179 thereof,

Changed:– having regard to Article 17(2) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union,Union (the Charter),

Changed:– having regard to Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948 (Resolution 217 A), which affirms both the right to freely participate in the cultural life of the community, the right to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits, and the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary, or artistic production,

Changed:– having regard to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, as amended on 28 September 1979, and to the Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organisations of 26 October 1961,

4 unchanged paragraphs

– having regard to the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of 15 April 1994,

– having regard to Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 1996 on the legal protection of databases (Database Directive),

– having regard to Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society (InfoSoc Directive),

– having regard to Directive 2004/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the enforcement of intellectual property rights,

Changed:– having regard to Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ETS No. 009), which guarantees the right to the peaceful enjoyment of possessions and has been interpreted by the European Court of Human Rights as encompassing intellectual property rights, including in the case of Anheuser-Busch Inc. v.v Portugal (11 January 2007),

– having regard to Directive 2009/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the legal protection of computer programs,

Changed:– having regard to Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC,95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation),

6 unchanged paragraphs

– having regard to Directive (EU) 2016/943 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2016 on the protection of undisclosed know-how and business information (trade secrets) against their unlawful acquisition, use and disclosure,

– having regard to Regulation (EU) 2018/1807 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 November 2018 on a framework for the free flow of non-personal data in the European Union,

– having regard to Directive (EU) 2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market and amending Directives 96/9/EC and 2001/29/EC (CDSM Directive),

– having regard to Directive (EU) 2019/1024 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on open data and the re-use of public sector information,

– having regard to Regulation (EU) 2019/1150 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on promoting fairness and transparency for business users of online intermediation services,

– having regard to the Commission White Paper of 19 February 2020 on Artificial Intelligence - A European approach to excellence and trust (COM(2020)0065),

Changed:– having regard to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) Copyright Treaty and the Revised Issues Paper on Intellectual Property Policy and Artificial Intelligence (WIPO/IP/AI/2/GE/20/1 REV) of 29 May 2020,

Changed:– having regard to the Parliamentits resolution of 20 October 2020 on Intellectualintellectual property rights for the development of artificial intelligence technologies of 20 October 2020,technologies,

Changed:– having regard to Regulation (EU) 2022/868 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2022 on European data governance (DGA),and amending Regulation (EU) 2018/1724 (Data Governance Act),

Changed:– having regard to Regulation (EU) 2023/2854 of the joint European ParliamentDeclaration andon ofDigital theRights Counciland ofPrinciples 13for Decemberthe 2023Digital onDecade harmonisedof rulesthe onEuropean fairParliament, accessthe toCouncil and usethe Commission of data23 (DataJanuary act),2023;

Changed:– having regard to Regulation (EU) 2024/16892023/2854 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2024December laying2023 downon harmonised rules on artificialfair intelligenceaccess (AIto and use of data and amending Regulation (EU) 2017/2394 and Directive (EU) 2020/1828 (Data Act),

Added:– having regard to Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2024 laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence and amending Regulations (EC) No 300/2008, (EU) No 167/2013, (EU) No 168/2013, (EU) 2018/858, (EU) 2018/1139 and (EU) 2019/2144 and Directives 2014/90/EU, (EU) 2016/797 and (EU) 2020/1828 (Artificial Intelligence Act),

Added:– having regard to the report of 9 September 2024 entitled ‘The future of European competitiveness’ by Mario Draghi,

Added:– having regard to the Commission communication of 29 January 2025 entitled ‘A Competitiveness Compass for the EU’(COM(2025)0030),

Added:– having regard to the report of 12 May 2025 of the European Union Intellectual Property Office entitled ‘The Development of Generative Artificial Intelligence from a Copyright Perspective’,

Added:– having regard to the Commission communication of 16 June 2025 entitled ‘State of the Digital Decade 2025: Keep building the EU’s sovereignty and digital future’ (COM(2025)0290),

Added:– having regard to the General-Purpose AI Code of Practice, in particular its copyright chapter, published by the Commission on 10 July 2025 and in force from 2 August 2025,

Added:– having regard to the Explanatory Notice and Template for the Public Summary of Training Content for general-purpose AI published by the Commission on 24 July 2025 and in force from 2 August 2025,

Added:– having regard to the study entitled ‘Generative AI and Copyright – Training, Creation, Regulation’ commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Justice, Civil Liberties and Institutional Affairs at the request of the Committee on Legal Affairs,

– having regard to Rule 55 of its Rules of Procedure,

Changed:– having regard to the report of the Committee on Legal Affairs (XXXX/2025),(A10-0019/2026),

Change 1

Removed:Context

Added:A. whereas the right to property, including intellectual property, is enshrined as a fundamental right in Article 17 of the Charter and has been clearly qualified in case-law; whereas respect for this right must be guaranteed at all stages of the digital transformation and of the development of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI);

Removed:A whereas the right to property, including intellectual property, is enshrined as a fundamental right in Article 17 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union;

Added:B. whereas the EU faces the strategic challenge of lagging behind international developments in the field of artificial intelligence (AI); whereas at the AI Action Summit in February 2025 in Paris, the Commission announced the AI Continent Action Plan, with the objective of making Europe a world leader in AI; whereas it is therefore essential to promote, rather than impede, the advancement of GenAI technologies and services in the public interest within the EU in order to safeguard Europe’s technological sovereignty, competitiveness, multi-linguistic culture, and capacity for innovation while staying true to its values and ensuring that technological development supports sustainable economic growth, competitiveness and innovation while facilitating broad access to AI technologies across the EU; whereas maintaining competitiveness in the race to improve GenAI also requires access to high-quality content, underlining the importance of a fairly remunerated creative sector as a source of high-quality AI training data;

Removed:B. whereas the European Union faces the strategic challenge of lagging behind international developments in the field of artificial intelligence; whereas it is therefore essential to promote, rather than impede, the advancement of AI technologies within the Union in order to safeguard Europe’s technological sovereignty, competitiveness, and capacity for innovation;

Added:C. whereas the creative and cultural sector plays a key role in safeguarding European values and cultural diversity, representing approximately 4 % of EU value added and 6.9 % of the EU’s gross domestic product; whereas the sector employs around 8 million people, underpinning Europe’s cultural diversity, social cohesion, values and democratic dialogue;

Removed:C. whereas copyright and related rights come into effect automatically and confer extensive exclusive rights, including those to reproduce works and other subject matter and adapt, distribute and communicate them to the public;

Added:D. whereas the Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade established the objective of ensuring a just, safe and secure digital environment, where everyone, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), should have the possibility to compete fairly and in an innovative way; whereas this entails measures to promote the traceability, safety and compliance of products and services offered on the digital single market; whereas the signatories commit to promoting human-centric, trustworthy and ethical AI systems, used in a transparent way and in line with EU values; whereas the declaration insists that the digital transformation should contribute to a fair and inclusive society and economy, and to promoting cultural and linguistic diversity, as well as to open technologies and standards, as a way to further strengthen trust in technology and consumers’ ability to make autonomous and informed choices;

Removed:D. whereas generative AI (GenAI) is a type of artificial intelligence that, unlike traditional AI systems that only classify or predict, creates content, such as text, images, music, videos and code, often mimicking human creativity, thereby relying on pre-existing content, including copyright-protected materials;

Added:E. whereas it appears that the EU’s Digital Decade objectives will not be achieved without a transformative shift in its investment landscape;

Removed:E. whereas the development, the deployment and the use of artificial intelligence must be fully compliant with the existing legal framework; whereas it is unacceptable that such technological advancements disregard established rights, in particular those enshrined in copyright law;

Added:F. whereas the Competitiveness Compass for the EU intends to boost innovation, in particular by creating a friendly environment for young companies in Europe to start up and expand, under a dedicated EU start-up and scale-up strategy that launched on 28 May 2025; whereas this should be accompanied by an ‘apply AI’ initiative for companies of all sizes to accelerate the integration of AI technologies across strategic sectors and reinforce the EU’s technological sovereignty; whereas the cultural and creative sectors create new and skilled jobs, and contribute to Europe’s economic growth, diplomatic power and the emergence of talents; whereas SMEs comprise the overwhelming majority of businesses in the creative sector;

Removed:F. whereas the key legal questions about the interplay between GenAI and copyright and related rights include whether the new kind of use of copyrighted works and other subject matter in training datasets is lawful under EU law and what the status of AI-generated content should be;

Added:G. whereas copyright and related rights come into effect automatically without registration requirements; whereas extensive exclusive rights are thus conferred on a variety of holders (authors, performers, producers, publishers and broadcasters), including the rights to reproduce works and other subject matter and to adapt, distribute and communicate them to the public;

Removed:G. whereas the reference to the CDSM Directive in the AI Act is inadequate and fails to provide an appropriate and proportionate solution; whereas copyright and related rights, as fundamental rights enshrined in the Charter of fundamental rights of the European Union, are not overridden by the AI Act;

Added:H. whereas there is great diversity in European cultural and creative industries, whose contractual practices, value chains, and types of content protected by copyright and related rights differ significantly; whereas in some sectors, rights holders organise collectively to defend their interests; whereas the works produced by this diverse range of actors are equally diverse and can therefore have different values;

Removed:H. whereas fair remuneration for the use of protected content is the backbone of the creative industry in Europe; whereas the use of content protected by copyright and related rights as training data for generative AI models, without remuneration to rights holders, creates a systemic imbalance in the copyright ecosystem to their detriment, thereby undermining the economic sustainability of the creative sector in the European Union, particularly given that, at present, rights holders cannot easily or effectively exercise their right to opt out from the exception provided for in Article 4 of the CDSM Directive, nor verify whether their opt-out has been respected;

Added:I. whereas copyright needs to keep pace with the development of new technologies, both legally and technically; whereas a harmonisation of national copyright regimes would be crucial in a digital world;

Removed:I. whereas ensuring proper enforcement of the law and a level playing field across the Union requires that European rules on copyright and related rights apply uniformly to all AI providers deploying products or offering services within the European Union, irrespective of their place of establishment and of where any use of protected content took place prior to such deployment or offer;

Added:J. whereas GenAI is a type of AI that, unlike other AI systems designed to primarily classify or predict, generates new content, such as text, images, music, videos and code, on the basis of training using very large datasets from which they learn patterns and structures; whereas GenAI outputs are created through predictions based on statistical models, generally mimic human creativity and rely on pre-existing content, which may include copyright-protected materials; whereas this digital use of copyright-protected content makes it necessary to adapt the protection of copyrighted content digitally;

Removed:GenAI training

Added:K. whereas the development, deployment and use of AI must be fully compliant with the current legal framework; whereas it is unacceptable that these technological developments infringe upon currently established rights; whereas the current systems for the reservation of rights (‘opt out’) to copyright-protected content are often impractical, may not cover all relevant acts of text and data mining, and lack the necessary transparency for effective implementation and enforcement; whereas the development of new technologies such as AI and the upholding of established rights, including those enshrined in copyright law, should not be mutually exclusive, but should rather be advanced together;

Removed:J. whereas Article 4 of Directive (EU) 2019/790 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market (CDSM Directive) introduced an exception for the reproduction and the extraction of works and other subject matter for the purpose of text and data mining (TDM), which, under Article 2 of that Directive, is defined as ‘any automated analytical technique aimed at analysing text and data in digital form in order to generate information [...]’; whereas Article 4 was neither drafted nor intended to regulate the specific practices involved in AI training;

Added:L. whereas there is evidence of the widespread violation of copyright rules by GenAI providers, including the unauthorised collection of works from the internet, the non-compliance with rights holders’ text and data mining rights reservations, the use of pirated sources to obtain works, and the failure to seek licences; whereas this pattern, which constitutes a clear violation of creators’ fundamental rights and a misappropriation of value to the detriment of the EU’s cultural and information sector, demonstrates the need for strong measures to ensure that the AI ecosystem in the EU is fair and ethical;