As part of this initiative, a central authority will be established to gather royalty payments from AI companies and allocate them to creators whose works have been utilized. The working paper is open for public comment for a duration of 30 days.
The document states that a committee will set a royalty rate based on a percentage of an AI company’s overall revenue. This royalty requirement will only take effect once an AI model is commercialized. The framework also suggests making the AI fee retroactive, mandating companies to compensate for data previously used to train their models.
This proposal arises amidst ongoing litigation, with news agencies, publishers, and digital creators having filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI in the Delhi High Court. A ruling is still pending.
According to sources, the government might consider modifying the Copyright Act based on public input to facilitate the AI royalty payment system. By paying the government-mandated royalty, AI companies would gain the ability to use any publicly available copyrighted content without needing prior consent, addressing a key demand from the industry while ensuring fair compensation for a broad range of creators.
It was noted that copyright holders would not have the option to opt out once the royalty has been paid, guaranteeing AI companies continual access to training data. The royalty rates established by the proposed committee would be open to judicial review. Additionally, every creator would need to register their work with the central authority to receive payments.
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First Published: Dec 11, 2025 3:15 PM IST
