EU Advocate General: Copyright Protects Expression, Not Facts, in AI News Use

The distinction matters because it moves the copyright question away from whether AI "learned" from journalism and toward how it outputs it — verbatim reproduction, paywall circumvention and recognisable reuse become the pressure points. That framing suits publishers pursuing licensing or infringement claims, while AI developers get room to argue that facts and underlying information remain fair game. The open question is how closely the Court of Justice follows an Advocate General's opinion, which is persuasive but not binding, and whether paywall bypass emerges as the decisive factor in future disputes.