Wikimedia Foundation Proposes Legal Framework for AI Copyright and Fair Use

The Wikimedia Foundation has filed an amicus brief in ongoing copyright litigation between major publishers and AI developers. The organization advocates for a bifurcated legal standard that distinguishes between the training of large language models and the output generated by those systems.

Under this proposal, the use of copyrighted material for model training would be classified as fair use, provided the process remains transformative. Conversely, the organization argues that AI systems should be required to obtain licenses when their outputs reproduce content in a manner that substitutes for the original source material.

This position seeks to mitigate risks to the This position seeks to mitigate risks to the open web while preserving the utility of AI for collaborative data management. The foundation warns that an overly broad ruling in either direction could either stifle technological innovation or undermine the economic sustainability of content creators.

The filing highlights concerns that current AI practices may violate existing licensing terms, such as Creative Commons, by failing to provide proper attribution or maintain required usage conditions. The outcome of these proceedings is expected to influence the regulatory environment for data scraping and the future of open-source knowledge repositories.