E-Paper
Centre's AI and copyright committee falls silent, second paper overdue by months
A second working paper on the AI-copyright issue, which the government had earlier said would be out by February this year, is also yet to be prepared.
Prefer HTon Google
A government panel formed last year to examine how Artificial Intelligence (AI) fits within India's copyright framework has not met since June, three of its members told HT, adding that official interest in the issue appears to have waned.
A second working paper on the AI-copyright issue, which the government had earlier said would be out by February this year, is also yet to be prepared, the members added.
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) set up the committee on April 28, 2025, to examine the legal and policy questions around AI and copyright, and to assess whether the Copyright Act, 1957 is adequate to address them.
Also Read | Global debt, AI risks among 5 financial stability threats, says RBI Governor Malhotra
The members said that when the first working paper was completed in December 2025, the committee said the second would follow in two months. Nearly 10 months have passed but there is neither any paper nor a new timeline from the DPIIT, they said.
"The fizz has gone out from the government's side. They are not prioritising this issue," one of the members said, asking not to be named. This member added the panel's last consultation was held before the beginning of the Monsoon Session of Parliament.
The first paper examined the use of copyrighted material in training AI models. The second looks at the content AI generates. The panel members said discussions held on the second paper covered who owns AI-generated work, who is liable for it, what counts as originality, and whether AI-generated work should get copyright at all.
Opinion | India must urgently get its own AI Safety Institute
"Deliberations took place on the second part after the release of the first report, however, they were sporadic in nature," said another committee member, also asking not to be named. Members said the committee met every two weeks when they were charting out the first paper but the sessions reduced for the work on the second one.
The first paper proposed a mandatory blanket licence that would let AI developers train their models on all lawfully accessed copyrighted content in India without seeking permission from each creator. Copyright owners would instead be paid through a new central collecting body.
DPIIT invited public comments on the proposal and extended the deadline by a month to February 6. Since then, no revised or final version has been released.
The first member quoted above said the issue has lost its urgency. "At that time it was a major issue as people were complaining about AI training and its liability. I guess it's become the status quo now. There is also not a lot of pushback from the public," the member said.
While the policy work has stalled, the courts are dealing with the issue. In the case between news agency ANI and OpenAI – who was one of the first in India to question whether a news outlet's content can be used to train tools like ChatGPT – the Delhi High Court passed an interim order in July. It held that OpenAI's use of ANI content for training was protected as fair dealing, and refused to grant an injunction in the matter. ANI has since appealed against the single judge's decision.
The committee's members include DPIIT additional secretary Himani Pande, DPIIT director Simrat Kaur, IT ministry scientist Anurag Kumar, Nasscom's Chockalingam M and Sudipto Bannerjee, IP lawyers Ameet Datta and Adarsh Ramanujan, and Delhi University professor Raman Mittal.
HT sent emails to Himani Pande and Simrat Kaur but did not get a response at the time of filing this report.
