Artful creativity: the State Duma wants to consolidate copyright on works with AI
Deputies decide who is the author of the content created by neural networks: they want to consolidate the copyright for such works in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, Izvestia found out. Currently, this issue has not been determined, which creates difficulties for both users and courts. A working group will meet in the fall to determine who owns the rights to a product created using neural networks and prepare amendments.
How is the copyright issue proposed to be resolved
The State Duma plans to discuss amendments to Article 1259 of the Civil Code in the fall, which for the first time will consolidate copyrights to works created with the participation of neural networks, the lower house of parliament told Izvestia. The initiative is aimed at regulating the rapidly developing field of AI and protecting the rights of content authors using such technologies. The proposal was supported by Andrei Svintsov, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, who was approached by the Bloggers' Council.
Since 2020, the term "artificial intelligence" has been officially enshrined in Russian legislation, but the copyright issue has not yet been resolved. Article 2 of Federal Law No. 123 states that AI is a complex of technological solutions that allows simulating human cognitive functions and obtaining results comparable to at least the results of human intellectual activity when performing specific tasks.
— We plan to hold a round table in the fall. In the user agreements of most companies providing services using artificial intelligence algorithms, it is stated that all rights to the results of activities belong to the company itself," said Andrey Svintsov.
According to him, this creates serious risks for authors who use AI in their work — whether writing texts, creating logos, music, songs, scripts, essays and other works of both literary and scientific nature.
— At one point, they may face a situation where all the rights to the content they create will be held by a foreign company. That is why we consider it necessary to resolve this issue at the legislative level," the deputy stressed.
Valeria Rytvina, the founder of the Bloggers' Council, said that the lack of legal norms in this area creates legal uncertainty for the authors.
— Systemic amendments to the current legislation are needed, including a clear elaboration of the issues of authorship, responsibility and rights to the generated content. It's important to protect our users and their intellectual property," she said.
In addition, together with IT experts, key definitions such as "neural network" and "deepfake" will have to be developed and fixed in the legal field, since without this it is impossible to ensure the legal protection of citizens and businesses, as well as to combat potential abuses.
There are few court precedents yet, but there are some. So, in 2024, the Moscow Arbitration Court considered the case of deepfake with Keanu Reeves. The Business Analytics company used a video created using neural networks commissioned by the company "Reface Technologies". The court ruled that the video is an object of copyright. As a result, the company "Business Analytics" was ordered to pay 500 thousand rubles of compensation to the company "Reface Technologies".
What do experts think about the initiative?
The lack of clear legislative norms in this area creates legal uncertainty and can slow down the development of innovations, says Yulia Yezerskaya, senior associate at the Intellectual Property practice at Lemchik, Krupsky and Partners Law Firm. The initiative is designed to help courts resolve disputes.
— In the current situation, when the Civil Code is focused on human authorship, courts often have to face difficulties when considering cases related to AI content. The amendments will allow the courts to have a clear basis for determining the copyright holder, which will greatly simplify the process of proving and making fair decisions. It will also make it possible to more effectively combat the unfair use of products created using neural networks," the expert said.
Irina Poddubnaya, an expert in e-commerce and founder of the EW Club, told Izvestia that the main area of discussion around AI content is related to product cards, whether they are images of generated models or digital avatars in videos.
— Algorithms speed up the process, but at the same time increase the risks: the consumer feels a pattern, and a competitor can take the original and reproduce it in a neural network, actually creating a copy. At the same time, the issue of copyright remains in a legal vacuum.: It is unclear who owns the rights to such content and how to protect the interests of the brand," she stressed.
At the moment, judicial practice on this issue is insignificant in Russia, and the positions of the higher courts, for example, paragraph 80 of the resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of April 23, 2019, only state that the results created by technical means without human creative contribution are not protected by copyright, without offering specific evaluation criteria, said the partner of the law firm. "Asterisk" by Fyodor Zakabunya.
He explained that the legislative consolidation of concepts will help courts determine the degree of a user's creative contribution, distinguishing between when a neural network is a tool and when a work is created autonomously. This will make it possible to determine who owns the rights — the user, the software developer, or the work is considered public domain, which will eliminate legal uncertainty and form a uniform judicial practice, the expert concluded.
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