Speaker
Prof. Christof Schöch
Professor for Digital Humanities, Co-Director, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, University of Trier
Christof Schöch is Professor of Digital Humanities at the University of Trier, Germany, scientific Co-Director of the Trier Center for Digital Humanities (TCDH) and co-editor of the Journal of Computational Literary Studies (JCLS). In the past, he has been president of the Association for Digital Humanities in the German-speaking areas (DHd, 2018–2022) and president of the international Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO, 2023–2024).
Digital Humanities aims to combine advanced computational methods with Open Science principles. Yet this aspiration often collides with the realities of copyright law. This talk examines how generative Large Language Models (LLMs) reshape the copyright landscape for Digital Humanities research. While high-profile lawsuits capture public attention, researchers in the DH community researchers have developed pragmatic solutions, such as ‘extracted features’ or ‘derived formats’ to make copyrighted texts accessible for analysis and model training without infringing copyright. Such formats enable applications ranging from literary analysis to fine-tuning LLMs. Yet these strategies may be at risk: What if LLMs themselves make it easy to regenerate the original copyrighted material? This possibility invites a broader reflection on the future of copyright, data sharing, and methodological innovation in the Digital Humanities.
Enquires
rihs@cuhk.edu.hk
