Last week, the federal government unveiled the highly anticipated Canada's National Artificial Intelligence Strategy: AI for All. While the 50-page document has much to be enthusiastic about, Canada's news publishers are concerned that the word copyright did not appear even once in the strategy.
Copyright Protections Essential for Journalism
Without copyright protections, Big Tech can steal and repackage news content without consent or payment. Ann O'Leary, vice-president of global policy at OpenAI, which is being sued by several Canadian news publishers, had a positive reaction to the new AI strategy. She stated, 'We are proud to be a partner to Canada's AI ecosystem and are committed to helping ensure AI is useful and worthy of people's trust.'
However, leading Canadian news publishers and News Media Canada have joined the SPUR (Standards for Publisher Usage Rights) Coalition, an international alliance working to shape the environment where intellectual property owners can control and monetize their content used by generative AI.
Big Tech's 'Brazen Theft'
A.G. Sulzberger, chairman and publisher of The New York Times, recently delivered a speech titled 'AI, Journalism and the Uncertain Future of the Public Square' at the WAN-IFRA World News Media Congress in Marseille. He stated, 'Their hijacking of the public square is made possible by the original sin that animates their AI products — a brazen theft of intellectual property that has occurred at an unprecedented scale. Tech giants strip-mine news websites without permission or compensation.'
According to a survey by Totum Research for News Media Canada, 71 per cent of Canadians agree that the government should prevent AI companies from taking and repackaging news content without permission or compensation.
News is a foundational input for AI companies, allowing them to deliver credible information. But there should be no crawling without prior consent, attribution and fair remuneration — the user needs to pay the creator, protecting Canadian cultural sovereignty, voices and stories.
