Communication, interrelation, collaboration, and exchange are all key components of creativity, culture, education, publishing, science, and innovation.
They are also what makes travelling so stimulating.
I recently spent seven enlightening days in China, participating in discussions about copyright, collective licensing, and artificial intelligence with authors, publishers, aggregators, copyright experts, and policymakers. I met with the Chinese collective licensing organization, the China Written Works Copyright Society (CWWCS), at the Beijing International Book Fair, as well as with several Chinese publishers and content aggregators.
I also gave a presentation about CCC’s voluntary collective solutions for AI uses of copyrighted works at an international seminar on copyright and AI held in Beijing, which was organized by the Copyright Society of China (CSC) together with the International Publishers Copyright Coalition in China (IPCC), the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organizations (IFRRO), and CWWCS.
I then presented at a second international seminar on copyright and AI, held in Wuhan and organized by CWWCS, IFRRO, and a local company.
During my stay in China, I learned that we may soon see new steps towards regulating the use of copyright-protected content by AI developers that could ensure creators’ rights to be remunerated.
My days in China were both productive and enjoyable. What a pleasure to travel with Sarah Tran, from IFRRO; to connect and talk with Sharon Wong, from the Hong Kong Reprographic Rights Licensing Society (HKRRLS); to see Hugo Zhang, and to meet Guoyi Zhao, from RELX and IPCC, who were great hosts; to benefit from the warm hospitality of Hongbo Zhang and Kaining Feng from CWWCS; to relish the support and the enthusiasm of Vivian Wang from The Charlesworth Group. My gratitude goes to all of them.
Conversation is indeed key to learning, understanding that some challenges are global, and to envisioning indispensable solutions to make sure that any use of copyrighted materials for AI purposes is made through licensing, whether direct or collective, that sufficient levels of transparency are guaranteed, and that rightsholders receive fair remuneration for these new uses of their works.