Raptive’s statement on U.S. Copyright Office’s report on generative AI training

We applaud the U.S. Copyright Office for releasing the pre-publication version of its Generative AI Training report, the third installment in its broader AI study series. This report directly addresses whether the use of copyrighted material in both the training of AI systems and their ongoing use, such as in tools like AI Overviews, which generate responses based on that training, constitutes copyright infringement. We commend the Copyright Office’s thoughtful, balanced approach and its recognition that how AI models are built and deployed matters greatly when determining legal responsibility.

As advocates for thousands of independent publishers and creators—the entrepreneurs who form the backbone of the modern internet—we believe this report is a critical acknowledgment of their right to protect their original work, control its use, and thrive economically in the age of generative AI.

The report underscores a dual challenge: first, AI companies often use creator and publisher content without consent to train large language models, and second, those trained models then produce outputs—including summaries, answers, and articles—that repurpose or directly compete with the original work. This includes systems that use retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), where AI pulls live content from websites and feeds it into tools like AI Overviews, all too often without credit, permission, or compensation.

While the report rightly affirms that U.S. copyright law is well-equipped to address emerging technologies, it also makes clear that enforcement remains a major obstacle.

For copyright to mean anything in practice, AI developers must respect the legal rights of creators, not just in theory but in how their technologies are trained, deployed, and monetized.

We join our peers across the media and publishing industry in calling for responsible AI development that acknowledges and upholds the value of human creativity and ensures that the digital economy supports those who power it.