Author ORCID Identifier
Carys Craig: 0000-0003-2035-9494
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2025
Keywords
Copyright Law, Artificial Intelligence, Generative AI, Training AI Models, Text and Data Mining
Abstract
As AI tools proliferate, policy makers are increasingly being called upon to protect creators and the cultural industries from the extractive, exploitative, and even existential threats posed by generative AI. In the haste to act, however, they risk running headlong into the Copyright Trap: the mistaken conviction that copyright law is the best tool to support human creators and culture in our new technological reality, when in fact it is likely to do more harm than good. This is a trap in the sense that it may satisfy the wants of a small group of powerful stakeholders, but it will harm the interests of the more vulnerable actors who are, perhaps, most drawn to it. Once entered, it will also prove practically impossible to escape. I identify three routes into the copyright trap in current AI debates: first is the “if value, then (property) right” fallacy; second is the idea that unauthorized copying is inherently wrongful; and third is the resurrection of the starving artist trope to justify copyright’s expansion. Ultimately, this article urges AI critics to sidestep the copyright trap, resisting the lure of its proprietary logic in favor of more appropriate routes towards addressing the risks and harms of generative AI.
Repository Citation
Craig, Carys, "The AI-Copyright Trap" (2025). All Papers. 391.
https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/all_papers/391
Comments
100 Chicago-Kent Law Review (Forthcoming 2025)