2025/04/01 by David Atkinson, Atkinson, David
Business, Management and Accounting · Computer Science · Social Sciences · #Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI) #Computers and Society (cs.CY) #Copyright and Intellectual Property #Ethics and Social Impacts of AI #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Law, AI, and Intellectual Property
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2504.00955
openalex publication_date 2025/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
This paper challenges the argument that generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is entitled to broad immunity from copyright law for reproducing copyrighted works without authorization due to a fair use defense. It examines fair use legal arguments and eight distinct substantive arguments, contending that every legal and substantive argument favoring fair use for GenAI applies equally, if not more so, to humans. Therefore, granting GenAI exceptional privileges in this domain is legally and logically inconsistent with withholding broad fair use exemptions from individual humans. It would mean no human would need to pay for virtually any copyright work again. The solution is to take a circumspect view of any fair use claim for mass copyright reproduction by any entity and focus on the first principles of whether permitting such exceptionalism for GenAI promotes science and the arts.