The role of licensing in shaping the 1976 Copyright Act's architecture, and what that history teaches about the current challenge of licensing AI-generated and AI-trained content.
A presentation of the human cause framework — the argument that IP law should require genuine human proximate causation behind protected works and inventions — and its implications for copyright and patent doctrine in the age of generative AI.
An AI-generated audio discussion of the central arguments of "The Human Cause" — exploring whether intellectual property law should require a genuine human cause behind the works and inventions it protects, and what is at stake if it does not.
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2025AI-Forum — Interview on AI and Copyright: Memorisation, Authorship, Licensing & MoreAI-Forum (Netherlands) · Interview by Thomas Jonker
A wide-ranging interview covering the most pressing questions at the intersection of AI and copyright law: whether AI training implicates the reproduction right, the legal treatment of RAG systems, the fair use debate in US courts, the protectability of human–AI co-created works, and what an optimal licensing framework would look like. Published in Dutch by AI-Forum, the Netherlands-based platform for AI and law. (Interview in Dutch.)
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January 2025NPR — The New York Times Takes OpenAI to CourtNational Public Radio
Quoted on the copyright stakes of the NYT v. OpenAI hearing: "If you're copying millions of works, you can see how that becomes a number that becomes potentially fatal for a company."
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January 2024Washington Post — AI Copyright Lawsuit Hinges on the Legal Concept of 'Fair Use'The Washington Post
Quoted on the NYT v. OpenAI lawsuit and the fair use question in AI training data cases. Discussed how the Supreme Court's Warhol decision complicates the picture for tech companies, and predicted that a licensing settlement was the most likely outcome for business plaintiffs: "Anyone who's predicting the outcome is taking a big risk here."
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November 2023NPR Planet Money — Authors Sue OpenAI for Using Copyrighted MaterialNPR Planet Money
Consulted as an expert source for an episode examining the copyright questions raised by OpenAI's use of authors' books to train ChatGPT, including the scope of fair use as a potential defense.
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August 2023NPR Morning Edition — OpenAI Is Facing Lawsuits Over Copyrighted MaterialsNational Public Radio
Interviewed on the legality of AI training on copyrighted content, the limits of fair use doctrine, and what the New York Times' potential lawsuit against OpenAI would mean for the industry. Noted that under current law, fair use for AI training was "more likely than not" but far from certain.
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December 2022Los Angeles Blade — Copyright Expert Discusses Fair Use of Original Artworks by AI AppsLos Angeles Blade
Quoted on the copyright questions raised by AI image-generation tools and whether their use of artists' works without permission constitutes fair use under US law.
See Vanderbilt coverage →
Additional press coverage, podcast appearances, and talks will be listed here as they become available. If you are a journalist covering AI and intellectual property, please use the contact information on the About page.