On 1 July 2024, the Danish Copyright Act was amended to allow mediation in connection with negotiations under the general extended collective licence. In the explanatory notes, the Ministry of Culture notes that ‘in the field of artificial intelligence, including generative AI, and text and data mining, there are often major international actors, and experience has shown that in negotiations with major tech companies there may be a need to formalise the discussions, which mediation can contribute to… The proposed amendment means that in the context of the general extended collective licence – e.g. in relation to collective agreements on text and data mining and artificial intelligence (AI) – mediation can be used to facilitate the conclusion of agreements.’
Requests for mediation must be addressed to the Minister of Culture. Demands can be made when a party has broken off negotiations or rejected a request for negotiations or if the negotiations do not appear to lead to any result.
The mediation shall be conducted by a mediator appointed by the Minister of Culture. The conciliation negotiations must be based on the parties’ possible solution proposals. The mediator may also make proposals for the resolution of the dispute.
In the case it is undisputed that OpenAI has included DPCMO repertoire in its training until at least August 2024. It is undisputed that OpenAI does not respect TDM-reservations in terms & conditions of a website. It is undisputed that OpenAI until ‘summer 2023’ did not enable web publishers to express their preferences about the use of their content in AI.
At least the discussion has now prompted OpenAI to ‘as a courtesy’ exclude DPCMO members’ domains from OpenAI’s machine learning research and training. No deal, no content. It’s as simple as that.
We trust that the Minister and the Mediator will make OpenAI understand that the company can’t just take other people’s content without consequences. Denmark will speak up and act.
It should be incumbent on OpenAI to make sure publishers, also in smaller countries, get the same potential benefits as the giants.