SSP Forum: Mark Lemley on AI and Copyright Law

The
Symbolic Systems Forum 
presents

How Generative AI Turns Copyright Law on its Head

Mark Lemley
Law School

Monday, October 16, 2023 12;30-1:20 pm PDT
Margaret Jacks Hall (Bldg. 460), Room 126
In-person event, not recorded (see below for entry instructions if you are not an active Stanford affiliate)

Note: Lunch is provided for enrolled students only, if pre-ordered, but others are welcome to bring a lunch and eat during the presentation.

ABSTRACT:

While courts are litigating many copyright issues involving generative AI, from who owns AI-generated works to the fair use of training to infringement by AI outputs, the most fundamental changes generative AI will bring to copyright law don't fit in any of those categories. The new model of creativity generative AI brings puts considerable strain on copyright’s two most fundamental legal doctrines: the idea-expression dichotomy and the substantial similarity test for infringement. Increasingly creativity will be lodged in asking the right questions, not in creating the answers. Asking questions may sometimes be creative, but the AI does the bulk of the work that copyright traditionally exists to reward, and that work will not be protected. That inverts what copyright law now prizes. And because asking the questions will be the basis for copyrightability, similarity of expression in the answers will no longer be of much use in proving the fact of copying of the questions. That means we may need to throw out our test for infringement, or at least apply it in fundamentally different ways.

For the full paper on which this talk will be based, see https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4517702. 

NOTES ON ENTRY TO THE MEETING ROOM:

Entry to the building is open to anyone with an active Stanford ID via the card readers next to each door. If you do not have a Stanford ID, you can gain entry between 12:15 and 12:30pm ONLY by knocking on the exterior windows of room 126. These windows are to the left of the west side exterior door on the first floor of Margaret Jacks Hall, which faces the back east side of Building 420. Please do not knock on these windows after 12:30pm when the talk has started. We will not be able to come out and open the door for you at that point.