Hello, colleagues. We are pleased to share the UC Berkeley Library's
response
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nNvynoekNREUhLA_h5AqE5HzVuTxymQm/view?usp=drive_link>
(also
endorsed by Merced!) to the Copyright Office's inquiry
<https://www.copyright.gov/policy/artificial-intelligence/> regarding fair
use and training artificial intelligence. It was important for the Library
to address essential fair use rights relied upon by UC Berkeley scholars in
undertaking groundbreaking research that is reliant on AI, and the need to
preserve unrestricted access to copyright-protected content so that
scholars training AI systems can conduct research inquiries.

Because these issues are complex, and because the Library's response can be
fairly technical regarding the law, we have drafted a blog post
<https://update.lib.berkeley.edu/2023/10/24/uc-berkeley-library-to-copyright-office-protect-fair-uses-in-ai-training-for-research-and-education/>
that
explains at a higher level what the Copyright Office is studying, and what
the Library wants the Office to consider in any rulemaking that might
affect research.

You'll find that the Library's comment does not address the use of
generative AI to write term papers (!!!) but instead the narrow issue of
preserving the fair use right of scholars to use copyright-protected
materials when training artificial intelligence, such as for text and data
mining. If that fair use right is restricted, research will suffer and
become biased, and from the Library's perspective: it will become
increasingly difficult and far more expensive to license content for our
scholars to use in text and data mining.

The Copyright Office has already received nearly 9,000 comments from all
sorts of stakeholders on these issues. We are honored to make scholars' and
the Library's voice heard, and hope that our thoughtful approach will have
impact as the Copyright Office begins to sift through all of the
submissions.

We will keep you posted on anything that unfolds. As we note in the blog
post, if you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail us at
[log in to unmask]

Thank you,
Tim & Rachael
-- 
Rachael G. Samberg, J.D., MLIS
Scholarly Communication Officer & Program Director
Office of Scholarly Communication Services
University of California, Berkeley
Doe Library, 189 Annex
Berkeley, CA  94720-6000
Pronouns: she/her

*Copyright & Information Policy Guidance
<https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/research/scholarly-communication>*
*Updates <https://twitter.com/UCB_ScholComm>*


-- 
Rachael G. Samberg, J.D., MLIS
Scholarly Communication Officer & Program Director
Office of Scholarly Communication Services
University of California, Berkeley
Doe Library, 189 Annex
Berkeley, CA  94720-6000
Pronouns: she/her

*Copyright & Information Policy Guidance
<https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/research/scholarly-communication>*
*Updates <https://twitter.com/UCB_ScholComm>*