copyright – information labs

July 1, 2026

Two Megaphones and an Empty Room: The Need to Write the Copyright Reform for the Empty Seats

The EU copyright review is being argued by two blocs of private interests. The party that will live with the result, the public, was never really in the room. That was a choice by those who drafted the consultation. That is not a good thing. Two private interests are shouting at each other across the European Commission's copyright review, and the room they are shouting in is empty. On one side stand rightholders. On the...

artificial intelligence, Blog Post, copyright

June 24, 2026

Ownership 2.0: A Gamer, a Librarian, and a Random Mum Walk Into a Bar…

A video gamer, a librarian, and a random mum walk into a bar. That could be the start of a great joke. Sadly, it is not. It reflects a convergence of interests that most EU policymakers have not yet noticed: three communities, fighting separately, over the same broken promise. The European Parliament’s IMCO Committee meets today, 24 June 2026, to examine digital ownership under the heading “Ownership 2.0.” What that entails, whether the Members...

Blog Post, copyright

June 22, 2026

Brussels Revisits Copyright – Part 3: Why an Optional Research Exception Is No Exception at All

This is the third and final installment in a series analysing the European Commission's current call for evidence on EU copyright rules. Part 1 examined live content piracy and the fundamental rights implications of enforcement without safeguards. Part 2 examined the push for mandatory AI training licences and why the mechanism would harm the creators it claims to protect. This post focuses on the research exception: a provision that has been optional for twenty-five...

artificial intelligence, Blog Post, copyright

June 17, 2026

Brussels Revisits Copyright – Part 2: Why Mandatory AI Licensing Is Not a Silver Bullet And Could Ricochet

This is the second installment in a three-part series analysing the European Commission's current call for evidence on EU copyright rules. Part 1 examined live content piracy and the fundamental rights implications of enforcement without safeguards. This post focuses on text and data mining (TDM) and the push for mandatory AI training licences; the third piece will explore the research exception. The European Commission's call for evidence to support its review of the Directive on...

artificial intelligence, Blog Post, copyright

June 15, 2026

Brussels Revisits Copyright – Part 1: Why the Rush to Block Live Sports Piracy Threatens Fundamental Rights

This is the first installment in a three-part series analyzing the European Commission’s current call for evidence on EU copyright rules. This post focuses on live content piracy; subsequent pieces will explore text and data mining (TDM) and the research exception. The European Commission has launched a call for evidence, which closes on 25 June, to support two parallel workstreams: the review of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (DCDSM); and, the preparatory work...

artificial intelligence, Blog Post, copyright

May 27, 2026

It’s a Trap: Why Strengthening Copyright to Protect Creators Will Do The Opposite

Admiral Ackbar, the rebel commander from Return of the Jedi, is remembered for exactly one line: "It's a trap." The European Commission's call for evidence on the CDSM Directive review, open until 25 June 2026, deserves the same warning. Two recent analyses, one legal, one economic, converge on the same conclusion: reaching for copyright to manage the disruption caused by generative AI is a misdiagnosis. The legal framework was not built for this problem. The...

artificial intelligence, Blog Post, copyright

March 4, 2026

Deepfakes Are Not a Copyright Problem. Stop Pretending They Are.

There is a thought experiment in legal philosophy about the drunk man and the lamp post. A man loses his keys in a dark alley but searches for them under the lamp post, because the light is better there. When asked why he is not looking in the alley, he says: "Well, I can see here." Several policymakers and legislative drafters, from the Netherlands to the United States, are currently searching for their keys under...

artificial intelligence, Blog Post, copyright

February 25, 2026

Designed for Atoms, Broken for Bits: How Copyright Law is Locking Europe Out of Its Own Knowledge

Imagine inheriting a magnificent library. Shelves floor to ceiling. Rare manuscripts, out-of-print novels, decades of scientific journals. You are entrusted with it not as an owner, but as a custodian: the person whose job is to make sure it is still there for the next generation. Now imagine that, one by one, someone begins replacing those books with laminated cards. Each card says the same thing: "The content of this book is available. Please...

artificial intelligence, Blog Post, copyright, digital rights

December 22, 2025

India’s AI & Copyright Consultation: Why the Proposed Model Misses the Mark

Technology policy often struggles because of how problems are framed. Small definitional choices—about what a technology does, what a legal right protects, or where harm actually occurs—can have outsized regulatory consequences. India’s consultation on generative AI and copyright sits squarely within this global challenge. The key question is not whether to act, but whether the model being proposed accurately reflects how AI systems work and what copyright law is designed to regulate. Concern and ambition...

artificial intelligence, Blog Post, copyright

December 18, 2025

Building or Buying AI? What the TDM Debate Means for Europe

As Europe approaches the 2026 review of the Copyright Directive, we are making a choice that goes far beyond copyright. We are deciding whether Europe will be a builder in the AI century—or merely a client. Whether the next unicorn is built in Berlin, or rented from Boston or Beijing. That was the core message I brought to the SME Connect discussion on “TDM Reform and Creativity – What Would It Mean for Europe’s AI Ecosystem?” It...