AI Is Reigniting Decades-Old Questions Over Digital Rights, but Fair Use Prevails – Association of Research Libraries

‘More than two decades ago, libraries raised concerns about licenses for digital works restricting fair use and other library rights as part of the US Copyright Office DMCA Section 104 study. ARL and other library associations explained how restrictive licensing terms and pay-per-use models force institutions to accept limiting conditions to provide essential resources for faculty and students, or pay to perform certain functions with content that has already been licensed and paid for. The libraries made the case that fair use rights are as important in the new digital environment as they are in the print world, and that federal copyright law should preempt restrictive license terms. At the time, the Copyright Office suggested that there was no current evidence of the problem of license terms determining the landscape of library and user rights. Unfortunately, those early warnings of how restrictive licensing terms and pay-per-use models can impede research proved to be prescient.’

Link: https://www.arl.org/blog/ai-is-reigniting-decades-old-questions-over-digital-rights-but-fair-use-prevails/