February 2025 D'Angelo Law Library Emerging Technologies Update
This month’s D’Angelo Law Library Emerging Technologies Update discusses the U.S. Copyright Office’s new report on copyrightability and artificial intelligence, a ruling on the application of the fair use defense to a copyright infringement claim based on using material to train artificial intelligence, and a large UK law firm’s decision to restrict the use of AI by its staff.
U.S. Copyright Office release part two of its Report on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence
The U.S. Copyright Office released the second part of its Report on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, which covers the copyrightability of outputs created using generative AI. The report finds existing principles of copyright law are flexible enough to apply to generative AI technology. It opines that AI output is likely copyrightable when AI is used as a tool and a human has determined the expressive elements the output will contain. Prompts alone, however, “are unlikely to satisfy those requirements.”
Federal judge rejects fair use defense for training AI tool on copyrighted material
The United States District Court for the District of Delaware issued one of the first rulings on the applicability of the fair use doctrine to the use of copyrighted material for AI training, although the case involved an extractive rather than generative AI tool. The court granted summary judgment for the copyright holder and against the AI tool creator on the issue of fair use, rejecting the creator’s fair use defense. The case is Thomson Reuters Enter. Centre GmbH et al. v. ROSS Intelligence Inc., No. 1:20-cv-00613-SB (D. Del. Feb. 11, 2025), and the full memorandum opinion can be found here.
Major UK law firm restricts AI use
BBC News has reported that Hill Dickinson, a Liverpool-headquartered international law firm, has issued firmwide guidance warning against the unauthorized use of AI tools. The guidance noted that, over one seven-day period, there were 32,000 hits from firm computers to ChatGPT and 3,000 to Chinese AI service DeepSeek. The firm is now granting access to AI tools only on specific request from an employee.
Further Assistance
If you are interested in learning more about emerging technologies, including their use in legal research, education, and practice, please see our research guide on generative AI, request a research consultation with a D'Angelo Law Librarian, or chat with us at Ask a Law Librarian.
