DCC Sights Copyright Exceptions for AI Scraping as Unfair Trade Practices to US Government

The Digital Creators Coalition (DCC), representing a broad spectrum of the American creative industry—including musicians, filmmakers, authors, and visual artists—submitted comments to the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) regarding unfair trade practices that undermine intellectual property (IP) protections. Their primary concern is the growing trend of copyright exceptions for text and data mining (TDM) in foreign countries, which allows artificial intelligence (AI) models to be trained on copyrighted works without authorization or compensation. The DCC argues that these exceptions constitute state-sanctioned copyright theft, harming U.S. creators and undermining the country's strong trade surplus in the creative sector. They urge the U.S. government to take a strong stance in bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations to protect American creators, promote fair licensing practices, and enforce global transparency and accountability in AI development.