NEWS from the LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Aug. 30, 2023

Media Contact: María Peña, mpena@loc.gov, Nora Scheland, U.S. Copyright Office, nscheland@copyright.gov

Public Contact: George Thuronyi, U.S. Copyright Office, gthu@copyright.gov

Copyright Office Issues Notice of Inquiry on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence

The U.S. Copyright Office today issued a notice of inquiry in the Federal Register on copyright and artificial intelligence. The Copyright Office is undertaking a study of the copyright law and policy issues raised by generative AI and is assessing whether legislative or regulatory steps are warranted.

The Copyright Office will use the record it assembles to advise Congress; inform its regulatory work; and offer information and resources to the public, courts, and other government entities considering these issues.

The notice of inquiry seeks factual information and views on a number of copyright issues raised by recent advances in generative AI. These issues include the use of copyrighted works to train AI models, the appropriate levels of transparency and disclosure with respect to the use of copyrighted works, the legal status of AI-generated outputs, and the appropriate treatment of AI-generated outputs that mimic personal attributes of human artists.

The notice of inquiry is an integral next step for the Copyright Office’s AI initiative, which was launched in early 2023. So far this year, the Copyright Office has held four public listening sessions and two webinars. This notice of inquiry builds on the feedback and questions the Copyright Office has received so far and seeks public input from the broadest audience to date in the initiative.

“We launched this initiative at the beginning of the year to focus on the increasingly complex issues raised by generative AI. This notice of inquiry and the public comments we will receive represent a critical next step,” said Shira Perlmutter, register of copyrights and director of the U.S. Copyright Office. “We look forward to continuing to examine these issues of vital importance to the evolution of technology and the future of human creativity.” 

Written comments are due by 11:59 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023. Reply comments are due by 11:59 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2023. Instructions for submitting comments are available on the Office’s website. Commenters may choose which and how many questions to respond to in the notice of inquiry.

For more general information about the Copyright Office’s AI initiative, please visit our website.

The Copyright Office is the principal federal entity charged by statute with the administration of the U.S. copyright law. Among other statutory duties, the Register oversees the copyright registration and recordation systems of the United States, manages statutory royalty fees totaling more than a billion dollars annually, advises Congress on domestic and international copyright policy issues, and provides support on copyright matters to courts and executive branch agencies.

The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States, and extensive materials from around the world, both on-site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at loc.gov, access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov, and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov.

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PR 23-076

08/30/2023

ISSN 0731-3527