[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2455 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 2455
To create an administrative subpoena process to assist copyright owners
in determining which of their copyrighted works have been used in the
training of artificial intelligence models.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
July 24, 2025
Mr. Welch (for himself, Mrs. Blackburn, Mr. Hawley, and Mr. Schiff)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To create an administrative subpoena process to assist copyright owners
in determining which of their copyrighted works have been used in the
training of artificial intelligence models.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Transparency and Responsibility for
Artificial Intelligence Networks Act'' or the ``TRAIN Act''.
SEC. 2. SUBPOENA FOR COPIES OR RECORDS RELATING TO ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE MODELS.
(a) In General.--Chapter 5 of title 17, United States Code, is
amended by adding at the end the following:
``Sec. 514. Subpoena for copies or records relating to artificial
intelligence models
``(a) Definitions.--In this section:
``(1) Artificial intelligence.--The term `artificial
intelligence' has the meaning given the term in section 5002 of
the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020 (15
U.S.C. 9401).
``(2) Artificial intelligence model.--The term `artificial
intelligence model' means a component of an information system
that implements artificial intelligence technology and uses
computational, statistical, or machine-learning techniques to
produce outputs from a given set of inputs.
``(3) Developer.--The term `developer'--
``(A) means a person or State or local government
agency that--
``(i) designs, codes, produces, owns, or
substantially modifies a generative artificial
intelligence model for use by--
``(I) the person or State or local
government agency; or
``(II) a third party; and
``(ii) engages in or supervises, including
as a third party training dataset curator--
``(I) the curation of the training
dataset of the artificial intelligence
model; or
``(II) the use of the training
dataset to train the artificial
intelligence model; and
``(B) does not include a noncommercial end user of
a generative artificial intelligence model.
``(4) Generative artificial intelligence model.--The term
`generative artificial intelligence model'--
``(A) means an artificial intelligence model that
emulates the structure and characteristics of input
data in order to generate derived synthetic content,
which may include images, videos, audio, text, and
other digital content; and
``(B) includes any subsequent variation on an
artificial intelligence model described in subparagraph
(A), even if created by a third party.
``(5) Substantially modify.--The term `substantially
modify', with respect to a generative artificial intelligence
model, means to take 1 or more actions leading to a new version
of, new release of, or other update to the generative
artificial intelligence model that materially changes the
functionality or performance of the generative artificial
intelligence model, including by retraining or fine tuning the
generative artificial intelligence model.
``(6) Training material.--The term `training material'
means individual works or components thereof used for the
purpose of training a generative artificial intelligence model,
including a combination of text, images, audio, or other
categories of expressive materials, as well as annotations
describing the material.
``(b) Request.--
``(1) In general.--The legal or beneficial owner of an
exclusive right under a copyright, or a person authorized to
act on the owner's behalf, may request the clerk of any United
States district court to issue a subpoena to a developer for
disclosure of copies of, or records sufficient to identify with
certainty, the copyrighted works, or any portion thereof,
likely owned or controlled by the legal or beneficial owner
that were used by the developer to train the generative
artificial intelligence model, if the legal or beneficial owner
or authorized person has a subjective good faith belief that
the developer used some or all of 1 or more such copyrighted
works to train the generative artificial intelligence model.
``(2) Subpoena limited to requester's own copyrighted
work.--Nothing in paragraph (1) shall be construed to authorize
a legal or beneficial owner of an exclusive right under a
copyright, or a person authorized to act on the owner's behalf,
to request a subpoena for disclosure of copies of, or records
sufficient to identify with certainty, copyrighted works likely
owned or controlled by any person other than the legal or
beneficial owner.
``(c) Contents of Request.--A request under subsection (b) may be
made by filing with the clerk--
``(1) a proposed subpoena; and
``(2) a sworn declaration to the effect that--
``(A) the legal or beneficial owner or authorized
person has a subjective good faith belief that the
developer used some or all of 1 or more of the
copyrighted works owned or controlled by the legal or
beneficial owner to train the generative artificial
intelligence model;
``(B) the purpose for which the subpoena is sought
is to obtain copies of the training material, or
records sufficient to identify with certainty the
training material, used to train the generative
artificial intelligence model in order to determine
whether the developer has used copyrighted works owned
or controlled by the legal or beneficial owner in
connection with the generative artificial intelligence
model; and
``(C) the copies or records will only be used for
the purpose of protecting the rights of the legal or
beneficial owner.
``(d) Contents of Subpoena.--A subpoena issued pursuant to a
request under subsection (b) shall authorize and order the developer
receiving the subpoena to expeditiously disclose to the legal or
beneficial owner or authorized person all records described in that
subsection.
``(e) Basis for Granting Subpoena.--If a proposed subpoena
described in subsection (c)(1) is in proper form, and the accompanying
declaration described in subsection (c)(2) is properly executed, the
clerk shall expeditiously issue and sign the proposed subpoena and
return it to the requester for delivery to the developer.
``(f) Actions of Developer Receiving Subpoena.--Upon receipt of a
subpoena issued under subsection (e), a developer shall expeditiously
disclose to the legal or beneficial owner or authorized person the
copies or records requested by the subpoena.
``(g) Duty of Confidentiality.--A legal or beneficial owner or
authorized person who receives copies or records from a developer under
this section may not disclose the copies or records to any other person
without proper authorization or consent.
``(h) Rules Applicable to Subpoena.--Unless otherwise provided by
this section or by applicable rules of the court, the procedure for
issuance and delivery of a subpoena issued under subsection (e), and
the remedies for noncompliance with the subpoena, shall be governed to
the greatest extent practicable by the provisions of the Federal Rules
of Civil Procedure governing the issuance, service, and enforcement of
a subpoena duces tecum.
``(i) Rebuttable Presumption.--If a developer fails to comply with
a subpoena issued under subsection (e), that failure shall provide a
rebuttable presumption that the developer made copies of the
copyrighted work.
``(j) Sanctions for Bad Faith Subpoena Request.--
``(1) Motion.--If the legal or beneficial owner of an
exclusive right under a copyright, or a person authorized to
act on the owner's behalf, requests a subpoena under subsection
(b) in bad faith, the court that issued the subpoena, upon
motion of the recipient of the subpoena, may impose sanctions
on the legal or beneficial owner or authorized person.
``(2) Implementation.--Rule 11(c) of the Federal Rules of
Civil Procedure shall apply to sanctions imposed under this
subsection in the same manner as that rule applies to sanctions
imposed for a violation of rule 11(b) of those Rules.
``(k) Effective Date.--This section shall take effect on the date
of enactment of this section.''.
(b) Technical and Conforming Amendment.--The table of sections for
chapter 5 of title 17, United States Code, is amended by adding at the
end the following:
``514. Subpoena for copies or records relating to artificial
intelligence models.''.
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