AI Licenses for Businesses and Government Agencies

On June 1, 2024, the regular general meeting of VG WORT (VG WORT is a collecting society that administers royalties from secondary exploitation rights to literary works, including those from radio and television, in Germany; Wikipedia) took place in Berlin. The topic of the future was AI licenses for companies and government agencies. In a press release dated June 5, 2024, VG Wort announced that its members had approved a revised version of the collection agreement.  This agreement now grants so-called “AI licenses.” VG Wort can now grant licenses to companies and government agencies for the use of works employed in the development and application of AI systems. The scope of use is narrowly defined and applies only to use within the companies themselves.

In our view, this innovation is an important step and a potential model for the future that will enable the widespread use of copyrighted works for AI.

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