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Act quickly, but do not assume the legal answer. Identify exactly what happened, preserve the evidence, verify who owns the rights, check the relevant country’s rules, and ask the company for an explanation, removal where available, or a licence. If the evidence suggests infringement or the company will not resolve the issue, consult an intellectual-property lawyer before making a formal claim. Using a work to collect data, training a model on it, and generating an output that reproduces it are separate acts with different legal questions.
First establish what “used my work” means
An allegation that an AI system used your work can describe several different events:
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- Dataset collection: a copy may have been downloaded, scraped, or stored while assembling training material.
- Model training: the work may have been processed during pre-training, fine-tuning, evaluation, or another development stage.
- Service use: you or another user may have uploaded the work to an AI product under terms that govern how it is retained or reused.
- Output reproduction: a generated result may reproduce all or a substantial part of a protected work.
These stages can involve different defendants, evidence, exceptions, and remedies. The UK government’s March 2026 report on copyright and artificial intelligence treats training-stage copying and output-stage reproduction as distinct issues. Evidence that a work appeared in training data does not, by itself, prove that a later output infringes; conversely, an infringing output can raise a separate claim even when the training question is unresolved.
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Record the title or file name, creator, creation and publication dates, every relevant URL, the AI company and product, the account or service involved, and the country or countries connected with the conduct. Describe what indicates use: a dataset listing, a company statement, a prompt response, a distinctive passage, a visual match, or another source. Keep the allegation precise rather than writing only “the AI copied me.”
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Preserve evidence before contacting anyone
Online pages, product terms, and generated responses can change. Make a dated record while the information is available. This is practical documentation, not a universal government checklist and not proof that infringement occurred.
- Keep the original, highest-quality files and their metadata. Do not overwrite the source file with an edited version.
- Save publication records, invoices, contracts, registration information, and dated archive copies where you already have lawful access.
- Capture the complete URL, page title, screenshots, and the date and time of any page, dataset reference, notice, or company statement.
- For an output, preserve the exact prompt, settings, model or product name, account context, full response, and the steps needed to reproduce it. Keep both the response and any surrounding interface text.
- Save terms of service, privacy notices, upload agreements, opt-out instructions, and every email or support ticket.
- Build a short chronology: creation, assignment or licence, publication, suspected collection, discovery, contact, and response.
- Map the rights chain. List coauthors, employers, publishers, agencies, commissioners, assignees, and exclusive licensees who may control some or all rights.
Keep an untouched evidence copy and work from duplicates. If a dispute becomes formal, a lawyer can advise on preservation, authentication, and what must be disclosed.
Check ownership, contracts, and licences
Before demanding payment or removal, confirm that you have the right to act. A creator may own copyright, but an employment agreement, commission, publishing contract, assignment, exclusive licence, or joint authorship arrangement can change who may sue or negotiate. Check the law and contract terms that applied when the work was created and when it was made available.
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Questions to answer
- Who created each part of the work, and are there coauthors or third-party materials?
- Was the work made as an employee, contractor, student, or commissioned creator?
- Did you transfer copyright or grant an exclusive licence?
- Does a publisher, agency, collecting society, or employer control enforcement?
- Did the website, repository, or platform terms grant a licence to copy, analyse, or retain uploads?
- Which territories and rights are covered, and for what time period?
If you cannot establish the rights chain, contact the relevant rights holder or representative before asserting that you alone own the claim.
Understand the country-specific legal position
There is no single worldwide rule saying that every AI training use is lawful or that every unlicensed use is automatically infringement. The UK government’s 2026 report compares materially different approaches and emphasizes unresolved questions and developing litigation.
| Jurisdiction | Training-stage framework | Important conditions or limits | Practical enforcement context |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Fair use is a case-by-case defense rather than an automatic AI-training permission. | The four factors are purpose and character (including commercial or nonprofit purpose and transformation), nature of the work, amount and substantiality used, and effect on the market. AI-related fair-use questions remain unsettled. | A rightsholder may bring a civil action in federal district court, but claim strength, defendants, remedies, and procedure depend on the facts. The U.S. Copyright Office advises consulting an attorney. |
| European Union | Text-and-data-mining (TDM) exceptions can apply. | The exceptions require lawful access. For the general-purpose exception, rightsholders can reserve rights; for online works that reservation must be machine-readable. Whether an exception covers a particular activity remains fact-specific. | Assess lawful access, any valid rights reservation, the work, the use, and the responsible parties under the applicable member-state implementation and procedure. |
| United Kingdom | The UK does not have a broad TDM exception or a general U.S.-style fair-use principle. | Whether a specific copying act is permitted depends on existing exceptions, licences, and the facts. The report describes policy and litigation questions as continuing to develop. | Relevant copyright disputes are generally pursued through civil courts, subject to jurisdiction, evidence, limitation, and procedural rules. |
The U.S. Copyright Office’s Copyright and Artificial Intelligence page lists its report in parts. Part 3, on generative-AI training, is identified there as a pre-publication version released May 9, 2025, with a final version forthcoming. Check that page for later status changes before relying on it.
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Separate training from an output that reproduces your work
A model’s training process and a particular response should be investigated separately.
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Look for evidence that the company copied, stored, or processed the identifiable work. Ask what source or licence authorized the use, whether the work remains in a dataset or service, and what controls exist for future use. The legal analysis may turn on copying, purpose, access, exceptions, contractual terms, and market effects rather than on the mere fact that a model can produce a related idea.
If the concern is a generated result
Preserve the output and its context. The UK report explains that an output reproducing all or a substantial part of a protected work may infringe when no applicable exception or licence applies. Responsibility can depend on who generated, supplied, or dealt with the output, so identify the user, service provider, distributor, and any commercial publication involved. Do not convert this principle into a categorical rule about style imitation; the legal question is fact-specific and concerns protected expression.
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Contact the company with a focused request
After preserving evidence and checking your rights, send a factual written inquiry through the company’s documented legal, copyright, privacy, or support channel. Keep the message professional and specific.
- Identify yourself and the work, including URLs, dates, registration or catalogue details if relevant, and your relationship to the rights holder.
- Describe the suspected act separately: dataset collection, training, fine-tuning, upload retention, or output reproduction.
- Attach or link only the evidence needed to identify the issue, while keeping the original evidence archive.
- Ask the company to explain the legal or contractual basis for the use, the relevant product and dates, and the identity of the entity responsible.
- Request removal from a dataset or service if the provider offers that process, and ask how it handles future collection or model updates.
- If appropriate, ask whether the company offers a licence or compensation discussion and what rights such an arrangement would cover.
- Set a reasonable response date and preserve the sent message, attachments, delivery record, and reply.
There is no single AI-specific takedown procedure, universal right to removal from training, or guaranteed compensation process established for every country. Removal, opt-out, licensing, and payment may be voluntary or provider-specific. A policy discussion about licensing does not itself create an entitlement to payment.
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When to obtain legal or professional help
Seek advice before signing a release, accepting a settlement, issuing a public accusation, or filing a claim. An intellectual-property lawyer can assess ownership, jurisdiction, limitation periods, evidence, likely defendants, available remedies, and the cost-benefit of enforcement. A creators’ rights organization, union, or collective management organization may help with referrals or rights administration, depending on your country and field.
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The U.S. Copyright Office’s Fair Use FAQ states: “A party may seek to protect his or her copyrights against unauthorized use by filing a civil lawsuit in federal district court.” The same official FAQ says: “If you believe that your copyright has been infringed, consult an attorney.” Those statements describe a possible U.S. route, not a guarantee that a particular claim will succeed.
Formal enforcement and realistic expectations
Civil litigation is one possible route when informal contact fails and the evidence supports a claim. In the United States, a copyright owner may file in federal district court. In the UK, the report describes civil-court enforcement for relevant copyright infringement. Other countries have their own courts, notice procedures, limitation periods, remedies, and rules about standing. You cannot determine generically whether you can sue, whom to name, or what compensation is available without the jurisdiction and facts.
Potential issues include whether the claimant owns the asserted right, whether the defendant copied a protected work, whether an exception or licence applies, whether the claim is timely, and whether the alleged use caused legally relevant harm. An output dispute may involve a different party and different evidence from a training dispute. Preserve the record and obtain advice rather than treating a demand letter or public post as a substitute for legal analysis.
What the policy debate does—and does not—show
The UK government’s 2025 progress statement records more than 11,500 consultation responses: just over 10,100 online and more than 1,400 by email. It says 88% of online survey respondents supported requiring licences in all cases. That figure describes people who used the government’s online survey service; it is not a representative poll of all UK creators or the public, and it does not establish a present legal right to payment.
Rules and cases continue to develop. Recheck the U.S. Copyright Office status page, new appellate decisions, legislation, and the provider’s current complaint or licensing terms before escalating a dispute. A qualified local adviser can translate those changes into advice for your work and territory.
Quick Recap
A practical decision path
- Classify the event: collection, training, upload retention, or output reproduction.
- Identify the work and rights holder: document ownership, licences, territories, and affected parties.
- Preserve evidence: save originals, dates, URLs, screenshots, prompts, outputs, terms, and correspondence.
- Check the governing law: assess the relevant U.S., EU, UK, or other country rules instead of relying on a worldwide assumption.
- Ask targeted questions: request the company’s basis for use and any available removal, opt-out, licensing, or compensation process.
- Get tailored advice: consult an intellectual-property professional or rights organization before making legal assertions.
- Choose enforcement proportionately: negotiate, use an available provider process, or pursue formal proceedings only after weighing evidence, cost, timing, and likely remedies.
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