The latest update of the draft Act on Copyright and Related Rights (hereinafter referred to as the Act ) enables the use of artificial intelligence algorithms for text and data mining, unless the rightholder has stipulated otherwise.
Poland has been delaying the implementation of EU copyright directives for years, even though the deadline for their implementation had already passed. After a long wait, as the legislative process gained momentum, the Polish legal community anxiously awaited the results. However, the initial drafts of the law did not address aspects related to generative artificial intelligence, a situation that changed with the publication of the new version of the Copyright Act on Thursday, March 14, 2024.
The modification introduced by the Ministry of Culture may seem subtle, but it's significant. According to the proposed amendment to Article 263 of the Act, it allows the reproduction of works for the purpose of text and data analysis, unless the author or other rightholder decides otherwise. Until recently, this provision prohibited the training of generative AI models. One might wonder where this restriction came from and why it was ultimately abandoned.
The reasons for this initial limitation were not entirely clear. The justification for the project suggested that the directives' design failed to anticipate the scale of possibilities offered by generative AI algorithms. This led to the conclusion that the directives were not adapted to the current role of AI, prompting the authors to limit its capabilities.
However, this argument lost its validity when other European countries adopted the directive without such restrictions for AI, and the latest European Union regulations clearly support such solutions, as confirmed by the AI Act, the European act on artificial intelligence, adopted on 13 March 2024 in the European Parliament, and referring to the DSM Directive (read: EU Directive on Copyright and Related Rights in the Digital Single Market).
The decision to waive the AI restrictions stemmed from feedback submitted during a public consultation. Criticism pointed to inconsistency with EU law, and maintaining the previous version of the regulations would have resulted in incomplete transposition of EU law. However, concerns about generative AI remain, particularly among creators concerned about their position in a market flooded with AI works. The new law, however, offers the possibility for creators to exclude their works from AI analysis, although effective safeguards against excessive use of AI-generated content have not yet been introduced.
It remains to be hoped that the market will appreciate authentic, creative and original human work.
This alert is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
Legal status as of March 21, 2024
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