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Deputy Ministry Responds To Audit Findings On Digital Citizen Project

Clear Commitment To Transparency

The Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy said it remains committed to transparency and legal compliance following an audit report examining the Digital Citizen project. In its response, the ministry rejected suggestions of opacity in the contracting process, stating that procedures were carried out in line with national and European legal frameworks.

Response To Audit Findings

Addressing the Auditor’s report, the ministry said the document raised procedural questions but did not identify evidence of misconduct or legal violations.

Officials also disputed claims regarding the timing of legal oversight. According to the ministry, the Legal Service was involved from April 2024 during the drafting of the cooperation memorandum and continued to participate throughout the final agreement process, alongside legal representatives from the Greek Ministry of Digital Governance.

Rigorous Implementation And Contractual Integrity

The Digital Citizen project was developed as part of an intergovernmental cooperation between Cyprus and Greece that began in November 2023. The ministry said the partnership was based on European legal provisions that allow cooperation between member states in delivering public digital services.

Officials noted that contractual safeguards were included to protect public interests and that standard provisions, such as 20 days for acceptance of deliverables, follow common practice in similar agreements. Both Cypriot and Greek legal teams were involved throughout the review process, the ministry added.

Financial Prudence And Future Strategic Options

According to the ministry, the project’s cost structure was shaped by the use of existing infrastructure and an already developed technological solution, reducing implementation time and resources compared with building a new system from scratch.

Looking ahead, officials said future development phases may be handled through an open tender process. Options under consideration include expanding the current application to align with European requirements or developing a separate solution as the European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDI) framework continues to evolve.

Conclusion: A Model Of Digital Transformation

The ministry said the Digital Citizen project forms part of Cyprus’ broader digital transformation strategy and highlighted cross-border cooperation with Greece as a factor that accelerated implementation.

As European digital identity initiatives continue to develop, the project is expected to remain under regulatory and policy review, with transparency and governance continuing to be key areas of focus.

Copyright Law Struggles To Keep Up With AI Training

Courts Are Still Applying Old Copyright Rules To AI

AI companies train models on enormous amounts of published material, including books, articles and academic research. Whether using that content without authors’ permission violates copyright law remains unresolved.

Much of the debate centres on fair use, which allows copyrighted material to be used without permission in certain circumstances. Courts consider factors such as the purpose of the use, how much material was involved and its impact on the original market.

Anthropic Case Sets An Important Precedent

A major case involving Anthropic and a group of authors provided one of the clearest rulings so far. Judge William Alsup found that using copyrighted books to train AI models was lawful, comparing the process to people reading and studying literature before creating something new.

Anthropic was nevertheless ordered to pay $1.5 billion in a settlement. The penalty concerned books the company had obtained from illegal online libraries rather than the AI training itself.

For AI companies, that distinction could prove significant because it separates studying copyrighted material from directly copying it.

Competition Could Be The Key Issue

A case involving Thomson Reuters and Ross Intelligence offers a different perspective. A court ruled that Ross could not claim fair use after using Reuters’ copyrighted material to develop a competing AI-powered legal research platform.

The decision suggests courts may be less willing to consider AI training fair use when copyrighted content is used to build a product that directly competes with the original.

For authors, an unresolved question is whether AI-generated content should be considered competition for the works used to train these models.

The Law Has Yet To Catch Up

US copyright law predates generative AI by decades, leaving courts to apply old principles to new technology. Questions also remain over copyright protection for AI-generated works. In Thaler v. Perlmutter, a court ruled that material created entirely by AI cannot receive copyright protection.

Major AI companies remain involved in copyright litigation, and different courts could reach different conclusions. For now, there is no universal rule: the legality of AI training will depend on the circumstances of each case and how courts ultimately interpret copyright and fair use.

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