How does copyright affect NotebookLM use in my class?
Can you help me understand copyright laws around textbook use and AI tools? I would like to use Google NotebookLM to create study materials and a podcast, based on course content (documents, PowerPoints, websites, textbook chapters). When I add the textbook chapters into the Notebook, am I violating copyright laws? The notebook is only accessible to my students and me (once course is closed, they would lose access).
Answer
Good question! While I am not a lawyer, based on the information you shared and the current state of copyright and AI cases, you could have an argument for fair use. Always check publishers' terms of service and all rights reserved statements, especially related to text and data mining. Some publishers make exceptions for individual or academic/non-profit/research uses.
Points for a fair use argument:
- Only students currently enrolled can access these notebooks. (purpose of use: educational/transformative)
- You are using content that the students already purchased because of their flat fee for BSN textbook/course materials. (impact on market share)
- You are only using 2 chapters of the whole copyrighted textbook (amount and substantiality of use)
- You are using it in combination with other course materials that are based on a variety of knowledge and content, not just this textbook. In other words, the NotebookLM output shouldn’t be substantially similar to the textbook chapters alone. (purpose of use: educational/transformative)
Points against a fair use argument:
Where it gets sticky is sharing a Notebook that is based on copyrighted materials.
- This report from the Congressional Research Service Generative Artificial Intelligence and Copyright Law brought up these two concerns in copyright law: “Copyright owners may be able to establish that such outputs infringe their copyrights if the AI program both 1) had access to their works and 2) created substantially similar outputs.
- By uploading the content to Google NotebookLM, it has access to copyrighted materials.
- This blog post "Thoughts on Google Notebook LLM from an Instructional Designer and Learner" includes a caveat about privacy and copyright
- Google’s human reviewers may access notebooks they suspect infringe on copyright.
Other librarians' discussions of copyright and NotebookLM
This thread from the American Librarians Association is very similar to this question: Google NotebookLM - Copyright Questions | ACRL Artificial Intelligence (AI) Interest Group.
- According to other librarians’ reading of this issue, because 1) NotebookLM has a short memory and 2) it’s not using what you upload to train the model, it is fairly safe to generate study materials for individual use.
- Also, by creating podcasts, NotebookLM is transforming the materials -- not just re-creating something the author already made that has market value--which is one element of fair use.
This Association of College and Research Librarians discussion includes a post contrasting common academic publishers' terms of use and copyright statements: Google NotebookLM - Copyright Questions | ACRL Artificial Intelligence (AI) Interest Group
Bottom line
There is a Notebook sharing mode that only allows access to the chat or NotebookLM output, not the copyright materials themselves. This may be the safest option, even in an acaemic setting. You can then direct students to open the original online textbook through their unique access codes (or crack open the spine of the physical copy!)