Copyright Law and Machine Learning for AI: Where Are We and Where Are We Going?

Aude Oliva, Ph.D. is Director of Strategic Industry Engagement at the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, and MIT director of the MIT–IBM Watson AI Lab, leading collaborations with industry to translate natural and artificial intelligence research into tools for the wider world. She is also a senior research scientist at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory where she heads the Computational Perception and Cognition group.

Cullen O'Keefe is Counsel for Policy & Governance at OpenAI. Cullen's work leverages tools from law and corporate governance to advance OpenAI's mission of ensuring that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity. Cullen graduated from Harvard Law School with a JD cum laude in 2019.

Obvious is an art collective based in Paris. Obvious works on creating art using artificial intelligence algorithms. Their work explores machine creativity by finding derivative uses for discoveries made in AI research. They are behind the first artwork of this kind to be sold in a major auction house, and are also the first French artists to have minted NFTs. Their work talks about the development of artificial intelligence in our society, and more specifically how this technology is used and perceived.

Daniel Gervais is the Milton R. Underwood Chair in Law, Professor of French, Director of Intellectual Property Program, and Faculty Co-director, LL.M. Program at Vanderbilt University. Gervais focuses on international intellectual property law and the law of Artificial Intelligence. He spent 10 years researching and addressing policy issues as a legal officer at the World Trade Organization, as head of the Copyright Projects section of the World Intellectual Property Organization, and deputy secretary general of International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC), and Vice-Chair of the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organizations. He is the author of The TRIPS Agreement: Drafting History and Analysis, a leading guide to the text that governs international intellectual property rights. Before joining Vanderbilt Law School in 2008, Professor Gervais served as acting dean and vice-dean for research of the Common Law Section at the University of Ottawa. Before entering the academy, he practiced law as a partner with the technology law firm BCF in Montreal. He was also a consultant with the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). He has been a visiting professor at numerous international universities and a visiting scholar at Stanford Law School. In 2012, he was the Gide Loyrette Nouel Visiting Chair at Sciences Po Law School in Paris. He is editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed Journal of World Intellectual Property. In 2012, he was the first North American law professor admitted to the Academy of Europe. In 2017 he became chairman of the International Association for the Advancement of Teaching And Research in Intellectual Property (ATRIP). He is a member of the American Law Institute, where he serves as Associate Reporter on the Restatement of the Law, Copyright Project.

Ms. Rowland is Vice President and General Counsel at Copyright Clearance Center, where she provides counsel on a wide range of activities, including copyright licensing matters, software, and professional services. Previously, she held positions in the private sector and federal government, including in private practice focusing on intellectual property litigation, transactions, and counseling, and as Associate Register of Copyrights at the U.S. Copyright Office.

Tim Hwang is a research fellow at the Center for Security and Emerging Technology, where his work focuses on geopolitical impacts of recent developments in artificial intelligence and machine learning. He formerly served as the global head for public policy on machine learning at Google, and was director of the Harvard-MIT Ethics and Governance of AI Initiative, a $26M philanthropic effort to shape the development of the technology in the public interest. He is also the author of Subprime Attention Crisis, a book about the fragile marketplaces of online programmatic advertising.

Ben Sobel is a scholar of information law. His work considers how the exercise of private rights shapes the public distribution of information, wealth, and cultural expression. In particular, he studies how law and technology influence how information can be expressed and exploited. His recent research examines the relationship between web scraping and common-law privacy and property causes of action, as well as the application of copyright’s fair use doctrine to machine learning technology.

Ben is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, and he currently serves as a law clerk on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. His publications are available on his homepage, bensobel.org.

Peter S. Menell is the Koret Professor of Law at UC Berkeley School of Law, co-founder and Director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, and co-founder and Faculty Director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute. Professor Menell earned his S.B. from MIT, his Ph.D. (economics) from Stanford University, and J.D. from Harvard Law School. Following a clerkship with the Hon. Jon O. Newman in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Professor Menell joined the law faculty at the University of California at Berkeley in 1990, where his research and teaching have focused on intellectual property law. Professor Menell has authored more than 100 articles and 15 books, including leading casebooks and intellectual property treatises. Professor Menell has organized more than 60 intellectual property education programs for the Federal Judicial Center since 1998.

Professor Menell served as Vice-Chair of the National Academies of Sciences project on copyright and innovation. In 2013, he presented the Copyright Society of the United States’ 42nd Annual Donald C. Brace Memorial Lecture. During 2012-13, Professor Menell served as one of the inaugural Thomas Alva Edison Visiting Professionals at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. In 2018, the California Lawyers Association recognized Professor Menell’s contributions to the intellectual property field with its IP Vanguard Award. Professor Menell presented the Melville B. Nimmer Memorial Lecture in 2019.

Mary Rasenberger is the Chief Executive Officer of the Authors Guild. Prior to joining the Guild in November 2014, Mary practiced law for over 25 years in the areas of intellectual property, media and technology, with special expertise in copyright law. Most recently, Mary was a partner at Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard where she counseled publishing, media, entertainment, internet, and other technology companies, as well as authors and artists in all areas of copyright and related rights, including licensing, litigation, infringement analysis, policy, enforcement and digital rights. From 2002 to 2008 Mary worked for the U.S. Copyright Office and Library of Congress as senior policy advisor and program director for the National Digital Preservation Program. Mary has worked at other major New York law firms and for a major record company.

David Green is Assistant General Counsel to Microsoft, leading its Open Innovation counseling team that enables Microsoft to define and execute its global copyright, trade secret, data, and related IP strategies. Dave’s team counsels Microsoft, LinkedIn, and GitHub on a range of complex global IP matters impacting Microsoft's software, hardware devices, cloud, gaming, and online services, and artificial intelligence (AI) and data sharing platforms. He also shapes and executes Microsoft’s external IP policy through various collaborations, legislative initiatives, and amicus participation (including the recent Oracle v. Google and Georgia. v. PublicResource.Org Supreme Court cases). Most recently, Dave helped Microsoft launch the Open Data Policy Lab with NYU’s GovLab to promote the power of data collaboration using Open Data.

Previously, Dave served as AGC/VP for Bill Gates's Corbis Corp, a role in which Dave developed deep experience in copyright, tech licensing, trade secrets, data, joint ventures, content protection and licensing of digital media, and talent rights, film production, and acquisitions of media, rights, and technology companies. A past Trustee of the US Copyright Society, he is a Board Member for the UW Program in IP Management and Business Development, and an active member of industry trade groups including BSA, the Entertainment Software Association , and the Internet Association. Dave began his legal career advising the University of Washington in complex IP matters, tech transfer, and general legal and business issues in his role as Assistant Attorney General.

Outside of his legal role, Dave is a serial entrepreneur, founding several successful ventures that combine IP with entertainment and licensing. In his most recent venture, Max Einstein LLC, Dave teamed with the Albert Einstein Archives and the world’s best-selling author James Patterson to create "Max Einstein", a multiple New York Times bestselling adventure book series. Max Einstein is currently being adapted as an animation series by Imagine Entertainment for a major streaming platform. Dave also co-founded McQueen Racing LLC with the iconic Steve McQueen family, creating motorcycle and sports car partnerships with Triumph, Porsche, and Ford, and Dave exec-produced several films including "I am Steve McQueen" (Spike TV) and The Man & Le Mans (a Cannes Classic selection). Dave lives in the rural Pacific Northwest with his wife and two sons and is an avid motorcycle, vintage sports car, and wine enthusiast.

Chris Mohr is the Senior Vice President for Intellectual Property and General Counsel for the Software and Information Industry Association, where he acts as the organization’s chief legal officer, and its point person on intellectual property issues, strategic filings, and antipiracy. His responsibilities have placed him in the midst of cutting-edge issues affecting both the technology and content industries. Chris has testified several times in front of both Congress and state legislatures on issues involving technology and intellectual property, constitutional, and privacy law. Before his employment at SIIA, he was a partner in a boutique law firm that focused on a variety of constitutional and intellectual property issues raised by new technologies.