February 2026 — Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week Edition! 

Katherine Klosek, Director, Information Policy and Federal Relations, ARL

Contributions from the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) by Katherine McColgan, Manager, Administration and Programs, CARL

The monthly Public Policy Briefing highlights developments in ARL’s public policy priorities, issues that are relevant to the research library community in the United States and Canada, and details on advocacy conducted by ARL and CARL. Please encourage your colleagues to sign up for the Public Policy Briefing.

If you have questions or suggestions, please email me at kklosek@arl.org.

For Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week, ARL teamed up with the Re:Create Coalition to host a congressional briefing on fair use and AI. Read more about the unique problems the Copyright Labeling and Ethical AI Reporting (CLEAR Act) Act would present for libraries and archives.

In Canada, Bill C-15 has been amended to reinstate the protections for free literature for the blind and reduced postage rates for library materials in the Canada Post Corporations Act, thanks to advocacy by CARL and partner organizations. For Fair Dealing Week, CARL hosted a virtual discussion on “User Rights in the Age of Generative AI.” (ARL’s Advocacy and Public Policy Committee (APPC) will also host a discussion on this topic at the ARL Spring Meeting in April.)

Read on for more details! 

In This Issue

Accessibility

Copyright and Fair Use/Fair Dealing 

Accessibility

CARL Welcomes Amendment Preserving Reduced Postage Rates for Library Materials and Free Postage for Materials for the Blind

On February 23, the House of Commons Finance Committee approved amendments to Bill C-15 (2025 Budget Implementation Act) that reinstates the protections for free literature for the blind and reduced postage rates for library materials in the Canada Post Corporations Act.

The bill has passed third reading in the House of Commons and has been sent to the Senate for Royal Assent.  Once passed, it will proceed to the Senate. We do not expect any major changes to this section and certainly none that should cause further harm to Canada Post rates for library materials or materials for the use of the blind, but we are keeping a watching brief.

CARL would like to thank the National Network for Equitable Library Service (NNELS), the Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA), the Canadian Urban Libraries Council (CULC), and the Public Library InterLINK for our collaboration on this file, we have collectively made a difference.

Copyright and Fair Use/Fair Dealing 

ARL Hosts Fair Use Week Congressional Briefing with Re:Create Coalition

For the 13th annual Fair Use Week, ARL teamed up with the Re:Create Coalition to host a congressional briefing to highlight perspectives on fair use and AI. The conversation highlighted the ability of fair use to flex and adapt to new technologies, including AI, and suggested that community norms—rather than copyright law—are best to address issues that arise in the context of generative AI, such as attribution, privacy, or misuse of personal data.

Panelists included:

• Brandon Butler, Executive Director, Re:Create Coalition (moderator)
• Dave Hansen, Executive Director, Authors Alliance
• Betsy Rosenblatt, Professor of Law and Associate Dean of Research and Faculty Development, Case Western Reserve University Law School
• Katharine Trendacosta, Director of Policy and Advocacy, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
• Stephen Wolfson, Assistant General Counsel/Copyright Advisor, University of Pennsylvania Libraries

Read more about the panel in the ARL Views blog post “Celebrating 50+ Year of Fair Use: ARL and Re:Create Host Congressional Briefing on AI and Fair Use.”

CARL Hosts Discussion of User Rights in the Age of Generative AI

As part of Fair Dealing Week, CARL hosted a webinar on “User Rights in the Age of Generative AI” on February 25. In this presentation, speaker Peter K. Yu examined the protection of user rights in the age of generative AI, and shared the challenges and uncertainties surrounding such protection. Yu concluded by interrogating whether the arrival of generative AI has raised new questions about the protection of user rights—and if so, what policy responses should be introduced to address these questions. 

View the webinar video on CARL’s YouTube channel.

What the CLEAR Act Gets Wrong

The bipartisan Copyright Labeling and Ethical AI Reporting (CLEAR Act) would require anyone using a training dataset in connection with the training or release of a generative AI model to submit a detailed summary of each copyrighted work in the training dataset to the register of copyrights. The notice must be submitted 30 days before a new model’s commercial use or lease, while existing AI platforms have 30 days from the date regulations are issued; those who do not comply can face lawsuits and civil penalties up to $2,500,000. The register of copyrights would be required to establish and maintain a public database with each notice.

The bill’s broad definitions of “generative AI model” and “copyrighted works” will almost certainly cover libraries training and releasing generative AI models for research and educational purposes. The requirement to report all copyrighted works is unworkable given the scale and scope of library collections, and of generative AI tools. And, the assignment of individual liability could have negative implications for the profession of librarianship.

Notably absent from the bill is any exception for research or educational uses—an omission that disrupts the balance copyright law has long maintained through fair use, and that could expose libraries and academic institutions to liability for activities that have historically served the public interest. But even with carve-outs that align with the fair use exception for libraries and archives, the bill would be unworkable for libraries and archives. For instance, questions around registration status of cultural heritage materials that might still be under copyright risk chilling use by libraries and archives.

While this seems dire, it is unlikely that the bill will become law this congressional session. Even if Congress turns its focus to standalone IP legislation, it is likely to be subsumed by negotiations on higher-priority must-pass legislation. Moreover, the administration is almost certain to oppose legislation that is burdensome to AI development.

The Re:Create Coalition, of which ARL is a member, has opposed the CLEAR Act in a statement explaining how the bill would erase the fair use right.

If you or others in your institution are having conversations with the offices of Senator Schiff (D-CA) or Senator Curtis (R-Utah), consider informing them that research libraries are developers and users of generative AI models, and this bill would impede AI research and development that serves the public interest.

Share this post with this link: “What the Clear Act Gets Wrong.”

About the Association of Research Libraries

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit membership organization of research libraries and archives in major public and private universities, federal government agencies, and large public institutions in Canada and the US. ARL champions research libraries and archives, develops visionary leaders, and shapes policy for the equitable advancement of knowledge.

Got this as a forward?

Manage your preferences | Opt Out using TrueRemove™
Got this as a forward? Sign up to receive our future emails.
View this email online.

1025 Connecticut Avenue NW #1200 | Washington, DC 20036 US

This email was sent to .
To continue receiving our emails, add us to your address book.