EU Extends Copyright and Generative AI Consultation to 10 November
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Rights holders and AI developers who planned to answer the European Commission's copyright consultation by 3 November now have one more week. The Commission's page for the targeted consultation now states that it "remains open until 10 November 2026, following an extension of the original deadline of 3 November 2026".
What the consultation covers
The Commission launched the consultation on 29 September 2026 as part of its review of the 2019 Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. It covers four topics:
- the use of copyright-protected content in artificial intelligence;
- online piracy of content such as live events;
- the single equitable remuneration right of music performers and producers;
- copyright and scientific research.
It builds on a call for evidence held earlier in 2026 and on a European Parliament resolution on copyright and generative AI.
The AI questions
The Directive contains a general text and data mining exception. Commercial developers can mine lawfully accessible works unless the rights holder has opted out in an appropriate, machine-readable way. The consultation accepts that rights holders who opt out find it hard to enforce that choice, license their works and get paid, while AI providers say they need legal certainty and access to quality training data.
According to a summary by Slaughter and May, the options put to respondents include:
- On enforcement: standard opt-out protocols and a central opt-out registry, clarification of how copyright applies to AI training, disclosure duties for web crawlers, record-keeping and audit duties for generative AI providers, disclosure in court, and a rebuttable presumption that content was used where transparency duties are not met.
- On licensing: support for a licensing marketplace, model clauses, structured mediation or collective licensing, and possibly a fair compensation or remuneration right for rights holders.
The consultation also asks whether performers can control AI-generated imitations of their voice and likeness, and whether copyright is the right tool for that.
The Commission says these options are not exhaustive and do not show a preferred approach.
Links to the AI Act
The questions sit alongside the AI Act duties already applying to general-purpose AI model providers: a policy to comply with EU copyright law and a public summary of training content. The law firm notes that one option would let providers disclose information to rights holders confidentially on request as an alternative to some public disclosure under the AI Office template. That suggests the Commission is looking at early AI Act compliance as it shapes copyright policy.
What to do now
Organisations that license content in Europe, or that train or deploy AI models used there, have until 10 November to respond. The answers will feed into a possible targeted legislative initiative. The UK government has taken a slower, wait-and-see approach on AI training. The EU process therefore looks more likely to produce concrete proposals first.
Sources
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