Google's use of press by AI chatbot may infringe copyright rules, EU court

Synopsis

A recent advisory from a leading legal authority in Europe highlights that press publications can sometimes violate copyright laws. The Advocate General emphasized that while copyright covers unique expressions, using such material for the development of large language models may fall under the text and data mining exception. This advisory is part of a legal challenge brought by Like Company against Google.

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An adviser to Europe's highest court said on Tuesday that the use of press publications by Google's artificial intelligence chatbot Gemini may in certain circumstances infringe copyright rules.

"When an LLM-driven chatbot retrieves a publication from a press publisher's website, reuses that publication to generate an answer, and provides that answer to the user, the press publisher's right may be infringed in certain circumstances," Advocate General Maciej Szpunar said.

Copyright rules do not protect the "mere facts" reported by press publications, but "only the specific form of expression", he added.

On the other hand, he said the use of material protected by copyright to train large language models is "freely permitted under the text and data mining exception."

Szpunar was advising the court in a case brought by Hungarian website operator Like Company against Google.

Opinions of the advocate-general are usually followed by the court's judges. Add as a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now!

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