According to the rule set to be published in the Federal Register on Monday, the Library of Congress adopted the U.S. Copyright Office's recommendation against instituting an exemption to the DMCA's anticircumvention provision — which makes it illegal to bypass technological measures, like encryption, that protect a copyrighted work — that certain AI researchers wanted.
The proponents of the exemption wanted it "for the purpose of conducting 'trustworthiness' research on AI systems," including "research on harmful or undesirable outputs from generative AI systems, including content that is biased, is sexually explicit or infringes copyrights," according to the rule.
But Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter recommended against it. She said that while she knows the trustworthiness of AI systems is important, the issue at hand may be better suited for legislators or another agency to tackle. Perlmutter noted that "the adverse effects identified by proponents arise from third-party control of online platforms rather than the operation of" the anticircumvention provision, which is Section 1201 of the DMCA.
The Copyright Office's recommendation differed from that of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which said it would support an AI-related exemption that would be similar in style to another exemption relating to security research, according to the rule.
Copyright Office General Counsel Suzy Wilson said during a Friday press call that the Copyright Office and the NTIA disagreeing on recommendations is "not necessarily new." Wilson noted that the NTIA typically looks at things more from a policy perspective, while the Copyright Office looks at the question of what Section 1201 gives it the authority to do.
"Our statutory instructions in 1201 are not what NTIA is required to consider when they provide their recommendations to us," Wilson said. "So there may be places where we disagree, and that has happened over the years."
Wilson said the office made it clear that this was not a policy decision or judgment on its part.
She said that "one of the key things that a petitioner must demonstrate is that either now or in the next three years, the anticircumvention provision on technical protection measures ... will have adverse effects on the conduct ... that the petitioner wants to engage in."
Wilson said the Copyright Office "looked at each of the alleged adverse effects and determined that in fact an exemption would not ... resolve or ameliorate the adverse effects being experienced and identified in the petition."
"We also made it clear this is not a statement by us regarding the underlying policy around the proposed research; it simply was not within the scope of 1201, which is a pretty technical statute," Wilson said.
--Editing by Rich Mills.
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