Nordic copyright congress to examine AI’s legal challenges

Artificial intelligence has developed rapidly while legislation has struggled to keep pace, and the use of copyrighted material to train AI models will be a central topic at the Nordic Copyright Congress, mbl.is reports.

The congress will be held for the 20th time at Harpa from 2 to 4 September. It is open to anyone interested, with registration available at nordiccopyright.tripicalevents.com.

Logi Már Einarsson, minister of culture, innovation and higher education, will address the congress, alongside numerous guests from the Nordic countries.

Among them is Trine Jorst, who will speak about a proposed amendment in Denmark that would ban AI models from using people’s personal characteristics without their permission. Deepfakes are included in the proposal. Jorst will later give an interview to Morgunblaðið.

The congress is organised by the Icelandic Copyright Association, an organisation of Icelandic lawyers specialising in copyright. The association has sister organisations in the other Nordic countries, which take turns hosting the congress every two to three years.

Recent European court rulings in the field will receive considerable attention. American and Chinese companies are prominent in the development of the technology.

Longstanding Nordic cooperation

Hjördís Halldórsdóttir, a Supreme Court lawyer, one of the owners of LOGOS and chair of the Icelandic Copyright Association, told Morgunblaðið that Nordic cooperation on copyright law has a long history.

Copyright laws in the Nordic countries are fundamentally based on this cooperation, she said, although they are now significantly shaped by European Union directives and rulings from the Court of Justice of the European Union.

She said it was therefore natural for copyright specialists from the Nordic countries to meet and review the latest developments in the field, including legislation, Nordic court rulings and decisions from the European Union and its courts.

One defining feature of the congress was the speakers’ depth of knowledge, she said. The event brings together specialists who work extensively with copyright law in academia, public administration, legal practice, rights-holder organisations and other settings.

Technology moving faster than legislation

Technology companies developing AI models have faced criticism for using copyrighted material to train them.

“Legislation does not control development. It happens by itself. We humans invent something new, and then questions arise. How does this fit into the system we have? Then court rulings and legislation respond,” Hjördís said.

Asked whether lawmakers were responding too late, she said that could be the case.

“Legislation can nevertheless have consequences for companies, whether through liability for damages or something else. Legislation is always somewhat behind, but it shapes the future,” she said.

She added that technological development had not slowed down, but was instead accelerating.

Could AI create a novel in an author’s style?

The congress will examine not only copyrighted material that is fed into AI systems, but also the output produced by those systems, Hjördís said.

She offered the example of asking an AI system to create a novel resembling one Einar Kárason might write, in terms of style and subject matter, and asked whether that would violate copyright law.