European Parliament lawmakers on Wednesday called for stricter copyright rules on generative artificial intelligence, insisting that AI providers must pay fair remuneration for using protected European content and give news media full control — including the right to opt out — over how their material is used for training AI systems.
The demand came in a report adopted by the Parliament’s legal affairs committee (JURI), which was approved by a wide majority. The non-binding resolution urges the European Commission to revise EU copyright law to ensure transparency, legal certainty, and compensation for creators whose works are scraped or used in AI training.
“Generative AI must not operate outside the rule of law,” said German MEP Axel Voss (EPP), the rapporteur steering the initiative. “If copyrighted works are used to train AI systems, creators are entitled to transparency, legal certainty, and fair compensation. Innovation cannot come at the expense of copyright; both can and must coexist.”
The committee’s report highlights ongoing uncertainty in applying existing copyright rules — particularly text and data mining exceptions — to general-purpose AI models with broad capabilities. Parliamentary research cited in the document notes that current exceptions “are not clear enough, thus legal limitations and uncertainty remain problematic,” especially for non-commercial academic research and commercial generative AI.
Key demands include:
- Full transparency on datasets used to train generative AI systems.
- Mandatory fair remuneration for rights holders whenever copyrighted material is used.
- The right for news publishers and media companies to refuse or authorise the use of their content for AI training.
- Extraterritorial application: EU copyright law should cover all generative AI systems available in the European market, regardless of where training occurs.
Lawmakers stressed that the existing EU AI Act (adopted in 2024) requires compliance with copyright law but lacks specific mechanisms for enforcement and compensation in the context of large-scale generative models.
The resolution arrives ahead of the European Commission’s planned review of EU copyright rules scheduled for summer 2026. The committee’s position will now go to a plenary vote during the Parliament’s March session, where it could shape the Commission’s legislative proposals.
The push reflects growing pressure from creators, publishers, and the news industry, who argue that generative AI systems have profited enormously from scraping vast amounts of copyrighted material without permission or payment. Media organisations have warned that unchecked use threatens journalism sustainability and cultural diversity.
The report does not propose new legislation but serves as a strong political signal to the Commission as it prepares its copyright review.
