AI data-suckers would have to ask permission first under new bill
(2025/07/24)
- Reference: 1753362127
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/07/24/ai_copyright_bill_floated/
- Source link:
A bipartisan pair of US Senators introduced a bill this week that would protect copyrighted content from being used for AI training without the owner's permission. Content creators from large media companies to individual bloggers could effectively block Google, Meta, OpenAI, Anthropic, and others from appropriating their work.
If passed into law, the [1]AI Accountability and Personal Data Protection Act [PDF] from Senators Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) would add a new federal tort allowing individuals to sue companies that use copyrighted works or personally identifiable information to train AI without the owner's express prior consent.
Arguably the most important question in the media industry today is whether AI companies' use of copyrighted training materials constitutes "fair use," a legal shield against infringement claims. Fair use allows third parties to use copyrighted works for criticism, news reporting, commentary, and research. AI makers claim that training their models is protected by this doctrine and some courts have agreed.
[2]
Last month, a group of authors [3]lost in court when a judge accepted Anthropic's claim that the company has the right to use their books to train Claude AI, all without compensation or permission. That kind of thing doesn't seem to sit well with Hawley.
[4]
[5]
"AI companies are robbing the American people blind while leaving artists, writers, and other creators with zero recourse," the Republican Senator noted in a [6]press release . "My bipartisan legislation would finally empower working Americans who now find their livelihoods in the crosshairs of Big Tech's lawlessness."
The AI Accountability and Data Protection Act's text does not mention fair use. However, it does present both personally identifiable information and copyrighted material as types of "covered data" that require the data owner's prior consent to be used for training.
[7]
Blumenthal, a frequent legislative partner of Hawley's, agreed with his take, noting that AI safeguards are urgently needed.
"Consumers must be given rights and remedies — and legal tools to make them real — not relying on government enforcement alone," Blumenthal added in the press release.
The bill spells out what it considers to be express prior consent, and those rules are strict, too. AI vendors have to clearly inform individuals of what their data is being used for and who will have access to it.
[8]
Companies have to ask for consent explicitly, and can't tie it to the usability of a product if said data collection isn't reasonably necessary. Consent requests can't be mixed into other agreements, and they can't just link out to a full explanation, either - it's all gotta be stated up front to meet the terms of this legislation.
The bill also proposes to make illegal any arbitration agreements that prevent individuals from suing companies who improperly collected or used their data, freeing victims up to lob sueballs at AI companies to their heart's content.
Covered data includes unique identifiers such as device IDs, IP addresses, advertising IDs, geolocation data, biometric identifiers, behavioral data (e.g., browning history and purchase patterns) and even information companies use to [9]build profiles .
[10]US Copyright Office found AI companies sometimes breach copyright. Next day its boss was fired
[11]US moves ahead with crackdown on data brokers selling to six 'countries of concern'
[12]America's consumer watchdog drops leash on proposed data broker crackdown
[13]FTC scolds two data brokers for allegedly selling your location to the meter
The end of AI scraping?
If this bill redefines fair use in favor of content creators, the entire information economy could change. At present, online publishers are suffering from a "traffic apocalypse" as Google's AI Overviews compete with their content, [14]depriving them of the ad impressions they need to stay in business. AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and almost every other LLM has been built by scraping huge portions of the web without permission.
Major AI companies like Google have long argued that AI scraping of websites [15]constitutes fair use , but the matter is hardly settled, as demonstrated by a recent research paper commissioned by the EU Parliament that concluded AI scraping does [16]not , in fact, constitute fair use , because AIs don't learn like humans do.
The head of the US Copyright Office similarly said last month that AI scraping [17]went beyond the limits of fair use , and while the opinion may have cost him his job, it seems that elected officials have been paying attention.
Introduced Monday and referred to committee, the bill may be a hard sell. There's no indication when it could be up for review by the Senate Judiciary Committee, nor if it would pass muster for a full Senate vote after that. Neither Hawley nor Blumenthal's offices responded to our questions. ®
Get our [18]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.hawley.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Hawley-AI-Accountability-and-Personal-Data-Protection-Act.pdf
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aIZNNzAeBIxAZGLNCQQxwgAAAEU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/24/anthropic_book_llm_training_ok/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aIZNNzAeBIxAZGLNCQQxwgAAAEU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aIZNNzAeBIxAZGLNCQQxwgAAAEU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-blumenthal-unveil-bipartisan-bill-empowering-working-americans-to-sue-big-tech-ai-companies-for-stealing-creative-works/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aIZNNzAeBIxAZGLNCQQxwgAAAEU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aIZNNzAeBIxAZGLNCQQxwgAAAEU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/30/opinion_browser/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/12/us_copyright_office_ai_copyright/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/21/us_crackdown_data_brokers/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/16/cfpb_data_broker/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/04/ftc_data_brokers/
[14] http://theregister.com/2025/07/22/google_ai_overviews_suppress_search/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/06/google_ai_models_internet_scraping/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/14/eu_genai_fair_use/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/12/us_copyright_office_ai_copyright/
[18] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
If passed into law, the [1]AI Accountability and Personal Data Protection Act [PDF] from Senators Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) would add a new federal tort allowing individuals to sue companies that use copyrighted works or personally identifiable information to train AI without the owner's express prior consent.
Arguably the most important question in the media industry today is whether AI companies' use of copyrighted training materials constitutes "fair use," a legal shield against infringement claims. Fair use allows third parties to use copyrighted works for criticism, news reporting, commentary, and research. AI makers claim that training their models is protected by this doctrine and some courts have agreed.
[2]
Last month, a group of authors [3]lost in court when a judge accepted Anthropic's claim that the company has the right to use their books to train Claude AI, all without compensation or permission. That kind of thing doesn't seem to sit well with Hawley.
[4]
[5]
"AI companies are robbing the American people blind while leaving artists, writers, and other creators with zero recourse," the Republican Senator noted in a [6]press release . "My bipartisan legislation would finally empower working Americans who now find their livelihoods in the crosshairs of Big Tech's lawlessness."
The AI Accountability and Data Protection Act's text does not mention fair use. However, it does present both personally identifiable information and copyrighted material as types of "covered data" that require the data owner's prior consent to be used for training.
[7]
Blumenthal, a frequent legislative partner of Hawley's, agreed with his take, noting that AI safeguards are urgently needed.
"Consumers must be given rights and remedies — and legal tools to make them real — not relying on government enforcement alone," Blumenthal added in the press release.
The bill spells out what it considers to be express prior consent, and those rules are strict, too. AI vendors have to clearly inform individuals of what their data is being used for and who will have access to it.
[8]
Companies have to ask for consent explicitly, and can't tie it to the usability of a product if said data collection isn't reasonably necessary. Consent requests can't be mixed into other agreements, and they can't just link out to a full explanation, either - it's all gotta be stated up front to meet the terms of this legislation.
The bill also proposes to make illegal any arbitration agreements that prevent individuals from suing companies who improperly collected or used their data, freeing victims up to lob sueballs at AI companies to their heart's content.
Covered data includes unique identifiers such as device IDs, IP addresses, advertising IDs, geolocation data, biometric identifiers, behavioral data (e.g., browning history and purchase patterns) and even information companies use to [9]build profiles .
[10]US Copyright Office found AI companies sometimes breach copyright. Next day its boss was fired
[11]US moves ahead with crackdown on data brokers selling to six 'countries of concern'
[12]America's consumer watchdog drops leash on proposed data broker crackdown
[13]FTC scolds two data brokers for allegedly selling your location to the meter
The end of AI scraping?
If this bill redefines fair use in favor of content creators, the entire information economy could change. At present, online publishers are suffering from a "traffic apocalypse" as Google's AI Overviews compete with their content, [14]depriving them of the ad impressions they need to stay in business. AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and almost every other LLM has been built by scraping huge portions of the web without permission.
Major AI companies like Google have long argued that AI scraping of websites [15]constitutes fair use , but the matter is hardly settled, as demonstrated by a recent research paper commissioned by the EU Parliament that concluded AI scraping does [16]not , in fact, constitute fair use , because AIs don't learn like humans do.
The head of the US Copyright Office similarly said last month that AI scraping [17]went beyond the limits of fair use , and while the opinion may have cost him his job, it seems that elected officials have been paying attention.
Introduced Monday and referred to committee, the bill may be a hard sell. There's no indication when it could be up for review by the Senate Judiciary Committee, nor if it would pass muster for a full Senate vote after that. Neither Hawley nor Blumenthal's offices responded to our questions. ®
Get our [18]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.hawley.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Hawley-AI-Accountability-and-Personal-Data-Protection-Act.pdf
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aIZNNzAeBIxAZGLNCQQxwgAAAEU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/24/anthropic_book_llm_training_ok/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aIZNNzAeBIxAZGLNCQQxwgAAAEU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aIZNNzAeBIxAZGLNCQQxwgAAAEU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-blumenthal-unveil-bipartisan-bill-empowering-working-americans-to-sue-big-tech-ai-companies-for-stealing-creative-works/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aIZNNzAeBIxAZGLNCQQxwgAAAEU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aIZNNzAeBIxAZGLNCQQxwgAAAEU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/30/opinion_browser/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/12/us_copyright_office_ai_copyright/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/21/us_crackdown_data_brokers/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/16/cfpb_data_broker/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/04/ftc_data_brokers/
[14] http://theregister.com/2025/07/22/google_ai_overviews_suppress_search/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/06/google_ai_models_internet_scraping/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/14/eu_genai_fair_use/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/12/us_copyright_office_ai_copyright/
[18] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Anonymous Coward
So to beat China, the US has to reduce personal freedoms - so becoming more like the China?
Anonymous Coward
I don't know, I guess? Did I make it sound like I was happy about it? I don't know why I visit this comment section when posts trying to have a normal discussion are punished and posts that are just angsty shitposts are rewarded. This place is like Reddit, you're not supposed to contribute to the discussion, you just have to write something that makes everyone feel good about themselves.
Doctor Syntax
"Did I make it sound like I was happy about it?"
I don't know? Are you the original A/C, the 2nd A/C's sock puppet or a 3rd A/C?
Trying to conduct a conversation as A/C doesn't work.
may_i
Even if this does pass, the mad orange king will simply issue a decree to restore the "steal everything you can" approach loved by his tech buddies.
Doctor Syntax
Are they still buddies? It's hard to keep up sho's siding with whom in a bunch of squabbling toddlers.
AI like humans
Primus Secundus Tertius
"AIs don't learn like humans do"
It seems to me there are many likenesses between AI and the majority of humans. Both sweep, or are swept, through a vast amount of data with very little understanding.
Re: AI like humans
Anonymous Coward
I strongly disagree. I can only imagine that the vast majority of humans would not be fooled into giving away their Windows product keys just because someone asked them to play a guessing game. An "AI", however...
https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/09/chatgpt_jailbreak_windows_keys/
In other words, however limited it might be, humans DO have a bit of common sense.
Re: AI like humans
Doctor Syntax
"I can only imagine that the vast majority of humans would not be fooled into giving away their Windows product keys just because someone asked them to play a guessing game."
True but only because the vast majority of humans wouldn't be able to find their Windows product keys. Something easier - no problem.
A Couple of old geeks me thinks
johnrobyclayton
AI Accountability and Personal Data Protection Act
AAA PDP
Someone who really likes the old PDPs
I don't expect this to pass. This would essentially make LLMs impossible to make in the US, which would make China the most viable country to make LLMs in. China is already competing neck-and-neck with the US (all of the best local models are Chinese already), the US can't afford a single misstep and the government knows this. The genie is out of the bottle.
Although it's extremely depressing to think about, I saw someone say that AI is the new space race, and I think that's very apt. Definitely not as exciting, but it's the same sentiment from the government.