Laws key to improving AI copyright protection

Experts attending a national conference in Hefei, Anhui province, on Thursday called for stronger legislation to protect copyrights in the face of rapidly developing artificial intelligence, even as AI also offers tools to aid those efforts.

The Ninth National Conference on Copyright Protection and Development in Digital Environment highlighted both the challenges and opportunities AI presents for copyright.

China has been proactive in addressing AI's impact on intellectual property.

As early as 2023, the Cyberspace Administration of China issued the country's first AI management regulation, which mandates the use of legally sourced data and technology models and emphasizes that AI use must not infringe on existing intellectual property rights.

"From this perspective, China is very forward-looking, hoping to establish more comprehensive laws and regulations in the future to strengthen the protection of digital copyrights," said Tong Zhilei, chairman and president of COL Group.

The National Copyright Administration recently released "Opinions on Accelerating the High-Quality Development of Copyright Undertakings", outlining goals to be achieved by 2030, with the top priority being the improvement of the copyright legal system.

Central authorities plan to intensify legislative efforts, accelerate revisions of administrative regulations supporting the Copyright Law and establish a robust legal system to bolster copyright protection in the digital sphere. They aim to make legislation more forward-looking, enhance theoretical research on new technologies and improve copyright protection for emerging areas such as blockchain, big data, cloud computing and AI.

"We have always regarded works as property, hence the existence of copyright systems," said Guo He, a professor at the Renmin University of China in Beijing.

However, Guo raised a critical point: with the widespread and convenient use of AI to generate content, such content may lose its scarcity.

"Do we still need to protect something that is not scarce as property? So, I think this is a matter worth discussing seriously," he said.

Under China's current Copyright Law, AI-generated content does not fall under the category of "works".

"Content generated by AI can be used by anyone, but it must be strictly labeled," said Liu Qingfeng, chairman of iFlytek, a major AI developer based in Hefei. "However, in the future, it will be a significant challenge to trace the content back to its original creator and determine how to protect it. This is a major issue awaiting exploration in this era."

Zou Tao, CEO of Kingsoft Corp, noted that AI development relies on shared data.

"However, to what extent should sharing be done, and what is the relationship between secondary creations and original creators? This is still a major challenge that requires legislative support, law enforcement agencies, and our joint technological means to uphold and consolidate," Zou said.

A court ruling from 2024 underscored the importance of respecting intellectual property when using AI tools. A company was ordered to pay 800,000 yuan ($111,180) for copyright infringement after using another company's one-click composition AI tool to create a short video of a popular drama. This case further confirms that "even when using AI tools in the field of copyright, respect for intellectual property rights is paramount," Tong said.

Liu also highlighted the challenge of "AI illusions" from generative AI, which can lead to risks such as fabricating public figures, creating false information and leaking personal privacy.

iFlytek is developing digital watermarking technology to authenticate AI-generated content, verifying the authenticity of text and video.

The company is also working on an intellectual property protection tool to assist copyright owners and judges in tracing sources, conducting cross-modal comparisons, providing legal advice and drafting litigation documents.