Imagine this morning’s show prep: a host finds a terrific newspaper feature, drops it into an AI tool, and types, “Make this 90-seconds, conversational, in my voice.” Seconds later, there is a polished script. The sentences are different, the pacing works, and it even sounds like something the host would say. The software has changed the words. But has it changed the use?
That question deserves a moment before the microphone opens. “Rewrite this” is an instruction to software, not a legal clearance process. Copyright reaches beyond identical sentences: an abridgment or adaptation can still use protected material from the original. Replacing the vocabulary does not necessarily remove the underlying copyright issue.
First, though, let’s protect something equally important: the freedom to report the news. A newspaper does not own the facts it uncovers, and broadcasters can report those facts in their own words. Copyright protects the author’s expression, not the event, information, or idea itself. An AI-assisted factual summary is therefore not automatically an infringement, either.
When a use does borrow protected expression, fair use requires more than checking whether the wording changed. Courts consider the purpose and character of the use, the nature of the original, how much protected material the user took, and the effect on the original’s potential market. News reporting and commentary can qualify, but neither label guarantees the result. A shorter version that serves as a substitute for the original raises a different question from an excerpt used to examine or criticize it.
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