AI – No License, No Go?

How to Protect Your Data and Copyrights in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

In the era of rapid artificial intelligence development, more and more data is being processed by algorithms that learn from what is available on the Internet. Although AI offers enormous potential, it simultaneously presents significant challenges, including privacy protection, personal data security, and copyright issues.

How to Protect Yourself from Uncontrolled Data Usage by Artificial Intelligence? Security Mechanisms.

Artificial intelligence can analyze and use vast amounts of information, including copyrighted content and personal data. This necessitates the development of effective methods for safeguarding privacy and intellectual property. In this context, it is crucial to understand what steps to take to control which data is accessed by algorithms and how to ensure its security.

Opt-Out Mechanism: How to Effectively Exclude Content from AI Training?

According to the EU Directive 790/2019 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market, implemented in Poland through an amendment to the Copyright and Related Rights Act, publicly available works and content can be used for text and data mining (TDM) for processing purposes. This rule applies to AI training. However, an exception to this rule is the use of the opt-out mechanism, which prevents data covered by this protection from being used for AI training.

The opt-out mechanism, in simple terms, involves the copyright owner signaling their objection to the use of their content. Recently, the Association of Authors and Composers (ZAiKS) used this option. ZAiKS introduced a notice on its website stating that works protected by them cannot be used to train artificial intelligence without obtaining permission:

“Any text and data mining activities performed on content containing works represented by the Association of Authors ZAiKS, without obtaining consent from the Association, will constitute a copyright infringement.”

In this way, ZAiKS aims to protect works from being used by algorithms for AI training without paying copyright fees.

Challenges in Enforcing the Opt-Out Mechanism

The main challenge in enforcing the opt-out mechanism is the lack of standardized rules for invoking this right. According to Article 263(2) of the Copyright and Related Rights Act, the reservation must be explicit and appropriate to how the work was made available.

For works publicly available in a way that allows access at a place and time chosen by the user, the reservation must be made in a machine-readable format (as defined by Article 2(7) of the Act on Open Data and Re-use of Public Sector Information of August 11, 2021).

Experts agree that creating a statement in a robots.txt file format and placing it on the website with the works should meet the conditions for an effective opt-out reservation. The robots.txt file enables web crawlers to read this reservation automatically. This prevents algorithms from using the data and other resources covered by this protection for AI training.

Summary

Using the opt-out mechanism allows authors and creators to control the use of their copyrights and data by algorithms for AI training.

In practice, this means that AI algorithms intending to use such content must obtain explicit permission from the copyright owner.

By utilizing mechanisms like opt-out, which allow opting out of participation in AI training processes, users and creators gain full control over their digital assets.