Automated Journalism: A New Technological Context for the European Press Publishers’ Right?

Abstract Few copyright developments have undergone as much legal and political scrutiny as the Press Publishers’ Right. Introduced on a European level by the Digital Single Market Directive in 2019, this novel right was created to safeguard the business model of European press publishers in the digital age. In light of eroding revenue streams caused by a decline of print media consumption, it was designed to end the alleged free-riding of information society service providers, such as search engines and news aggregators. Yet, due to significant structural deficits, its practical effectiveness has remained limited. Fast forward, and a new trend emerges. Press publishers are increasingly implementing Artificial Intelligence into their newsrooms – not just to increase efficiency and lower costs, but to improve the overall quality of journalistic output. This paper examines to what extent the Press Publishers’ Right is capable of absorbing this development. By closely analysing the Directive’s provisions, it establishes that Art. 2(4) DSMD draws its decisive line not at human authorship as such, but at the composition of the press publication: publications composed mainly of AI-generated elements fall outside the scope of the right, whereas AI-generated elements forming a minor part participate in protection even where they enjoy no copyright or related rights protection of their own. To that limited but practically significant extent, the Press Publishers’ Right proves less anthropocentrically constrained than traditional copyright.