Malcolm Byrne (Wicklow-Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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245. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if his Department has considered the recently delivered judgment of the English High Court in the case of Getty Images v Stability AI; and to outline the implications for Irish copyright law; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62520/25]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I am aware of the recent judgment delivered by the High Court of England and Wales in the case of Getty Images v Stability AI, which considered complex issues relating to copyright infringement in the context of generative artificial intelligence (AI) model training and output.

My officials are reviewing and considering the implications of this ruling in the context of Irish copyright law. However, our legislative approach will closely align with developments at the European Union level.

To this end, my Department led Ireland’s negotiations on the EU AI Act. This Act includes provisions on general-purpose AI available in the EU which came into effect on 2 August 2025 that require providers to put in place a policy to comply with EU copyright law, to make publicly available a completed template summarising the data used to train their model, and to document technical information about the model for the purpose of providing that information upon request to the AI Office and national competent authorities.

The Text and Data Mining (TDM) exception under the 2019 Copyright in Digital Single Market (DSM) Directive permits commercial use of copyrighted material unless rights holders opt out, if they are lawfully accessed. However, rights holders face challenges in exercising this opt-out. A May report by the EUIPO highlighted emerging technical solutions to improve this process, though industry consensus is still needed. The European Commission is currently exploring the feasibility of a TDM opt-out registry.

The Act also introduced a Code of Practice for General-Purpose AI Models, clarifying copyright and transparency obligations. Signatories commit to respecting standards like the Robot Exclusion Protocol (robots.txt). The Code was developed with experts, the AI Office, and stakeholders, and approved by the European Commission and Member States.

Furthermore, an obligation will apply from August 2026 under Article 50 of the AI Act requiring generative AI systems to digitally watermark AI-generated content to ensure that it is clearly identifiable as such.

In addition, the European Commission has begun its review the Copyright in the DSM Directive. My Department is actively engaging with stakeholders to ensure that account is taken of their views and will continue to do so at all stages of the review. I am committed to safeguarding the rights of creators while supporting innovation and responsible AI development.