Hollywood and Bollywood are lobbying Indian regulators for stricter AI copyright protections to prevent unauthorized use of their intellectual property, especially concerning scraping copyrighted videos, images, and pirated content.

Proposed legal reforms in India aim to establish clear rules requiring AI training data to be sourced through licensed agreements, protecting intellectual property rights and ensuring fair compensation.

AI's capability to generate realistic voices, images, and personalities raises ethical concerns around impersonation, privacy breaches, and reputation damage, leading to calls for watermarking, content filtering, and content control technologies.

A licensing system is advocated to allow content creators to retain control, receive fair compensation, and prevent unauthorized scraping of copyrighted material for AI training.

The legal landscape remains complex, with ongoing disputes and negotiations between content owners and AI companies over rights and protections.

Major tech companies like Microsoft, OpenAI, IBM, and Adobe support a balanced approach, proposing a 'Text and Data Mining' exception to copyright law to facilitate AI training without infringing rights.

India's current laws do not explicitly address AI use, prompting industry calls for clearer regulations, contrasting with Japan and the EU, which offer broader exemptions or opt-outs for content owners.

While content owners seek stronger safeguards, AI industry groups like the Business Software Alliance advocate for lawful exceptions, such as a 'Text and Data Mining' clause, to support AI development, though some warn these could burden studios and hinder local content growth.

The Business Software Alliance argues that AI training typically involves analyzing large datasets in a way that does not violate copyright, citing legal examples from Japan and Singapore that have adopted such exceptions.

Existing Indian copyright and personality rights laws are deemed insufficient to combat AI-related misappropriation, prompting creators to develop specific contracts and utilize takedown notices for enforcement.

The push for stronger copyright safeguards reflects a global regulatory race to curb unauthorized use of creative works by AI developers.

The BSA warns that restricted data access could hinder AI innovation, emphasizing the need for exceptions to current copyright restrictions to foster growth in India’s expanding AI sector.

High-profile cases, such as lawsuits by Bollywood stars Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan over deepfake and AI voice cloning scandals, underscore the vulnerability of celebrities' digital likenesses and the urgency for stronger protections.