On January 29, 2026, during Thought leadership series, a session on Media Matters: Connecting People, Policy and Progress session at Jamia Hamdard University, our Managing Partner, Vikrant Rana, delivered a lecture tostudents of Jamia Hamdard University about the growing importance of copyright in the Age of AI, digital copying and the future of journalism. In the era where artificial intelligence can generate, remix and replicate content in seconds, the bug question students asked was – Who owns creativity now?
Mr. Rana emphasized that while artificial intelligence makes copying easy, creativity remains hard work, and copyright serves as a crucial legal shield for creators in an era where content can be scraped, remixed and reproduced at lightning speed. Thecopyright protection automatically applies from the moment a work is created, lasts for the creator’s lifetime plus 60 years, and encompasses moral rights such as attribution and integrity. Through landmark court cases, he unpacked key concepts where the journalists often face challenges including fair use vs. infringement, licensing and performers’ rights and the difference between authorship and ownership making copyright protection even more essential than ever in the digital age.
He also highlighted the challenges digital and AI systems pose to traditional copyright frameworks, noting that laws globally are struggling to keep pace with large-scale content aggregation and AI-driven reuse. Beyond legal technicalities, the session focused on the ethical dimensions of media work, with speakers warning unchecked copying, piracy and unauthorized reuse harm not only individual creators but also the foundations of quality journalism and cultural production. The event concluded with a reminder that protecting creators’ right supports not just individual livelihoods but also the journalistic integrity, cultural richness, and democratic values in a digital ecosystem increasingly driven by automated technologies, which can be put in simple words as “When we respect creators, we protect culture. When we protect ideas, we strengthen democracy.”
