Matthias Leistner (Ludwig Maximilian U Munich (LMU) Institute Civil Law and Procedure) and Lucie Antoine (Ludwig Maximilian U Munich (LMU) Law) have posted “TDM and AI training in the European Union – The Hamburg Regional Court’s “LAION” judgment” on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
The Hamburg Regional Court’s decision in the “LAION” case is the first judgment of a European court assessing certain (preparatory) AI training activities (namely the creation of a freely available database (the LAION database) consisting of text-image descriptions and URLs) from a copyright perspective. The court decides the case based on the text and data mining exception specifically for purposes of nonprofit scientific research (Sec. 60d German Copyright Act, Art. 3 DSM Directive). However, in an obiter dictum the court also comprehensively addresses the general exception for (commercial) text and data mining (Sec. 44b German Copyright Act, Art. 4 DSM Directive) providing important considerations for the provision’s future interpretation. The decision underscores once more that defining the requirements for a machine-readable opt out pursuant to Art. 4 (3) DSM Directive is currently one of the most pressing issues in the discussion on EU copyright and AI training-even more so since Art. 53 (1) (c) AI Act obliges providers of general-purpose AI models to put in place a policy to identify and comply with respective reservations of rights during the training process-even when carried out in a third country outside the EU.