DANVERS, Mass., Sept. 22, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — CCC (Copyright Clearance Center) and Outsell, Inc. today released the 2026 Copyrighted Content Usage Trends Report, showing that the velocity of externally published content being shared within organizations keeps climbing, and that AI has changed the scale of the compliance risk to the enterprise.

Externally published content now moves through two channels at once, passed between colleagues and fed into AI tools, and while senior executives tend to be most aware of licensing policies, they are also the most likely to share this content with AI without regard to established guidelines.

Since 2007, CCC and Outsell have tracked how often professionals share externally published content, with how many people, and through which channels. The 2026 study builds on the AI questions first asked in 2025, mapping how externally published content enters AI workflows, how often the resulting outputs are shared, and with whom.

Key findings

  • The velocity of shared content is still rising. Traditional sharing has reached 73 potential unlicensed sharing instances per employee each week, four times the 2016 level and up from 66 in 2025.
  • AI has added a second layer on top of that. Employees feed externally published content into AI tools 11 times per employee per week, and the resulting outputs reach an average of 96 people each time, five times the reach of a traditional share (19 people on average). Among respondents who share those outputs, 91% share internally, 51% with external parties, and 26% with the public.
  • Content is now entering AI systems on its own. Fifty-one percent of AI users report externally published content arriving through automated feeds or APIs in addition to manual input. That share is expected to keep growing as agentic AI use spreads.
  • The risk peaks at the top. Executives are the most aware of copyright policy and the heaviest users of AI, and they generate 111 potential unlicensed sharing instances per employee each week, six times the rate of an individual contributor, use externally published content with AI 14 times per employee per week, and report AI outputs that reach 202 people on average.
  • Most organizations hold some license for the content they use; however, not all uses may be covered under the licenses, and not all terms are harmonized. Organizations can close those gaps through licensing, establish responsible AI governance, and include copyright within the scope of these programs.

“Most organizations are still licensing for a world where content moves between people,” said Lauren Tulloch, Vice President and Managing Director, CCC. “Now with AI usage becoming much more prevalent in the workplace, content moves into AI systems at a pace and a scale no compliance team can track by hand. Getting ahead of it starts with mapping where content enters AI, closing the gaps between the licenses organizations already hold, and establishing appropriate governance.”

“For twenty years, the ceiling on content use was how much a person could physically read in a day,” said Grant Hunter, SVP, Outsell Intelligence. “Today, half of knowledge workers we surveyed already have externally published content entering AI through automated feeds and APIs, bypassing case-by-case review by design. This is now a major enterprise concern.”

About the 2026 Copyrighted Content Usage Trends Report Methodology

Since 2007, CCC has partnered with Outsell to conduct independent research into how professionals use and share copyrighted content at work. The 2026 survey extends that research to include how externally published content enters AI workflows and how AI-derived outputs are shared. Outsell designed the questionnaire with CCC input and final approval. The survey took no more than 15 minutes to complete and covered demographics, information-seeking behavior, content access and consumption, sharing habits, traditional Velocity of Content, copyright awareness, and AI use. Outsell surveyed 570 full-time knowledge workers at companies with 1,000 or more employees. Respondents worked at companies headquartered in eight countries: the United States, Austria, Germany, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the Netherlands, India, and Japan. Responses were collected from April 10 to May 8, 2026. The sample included respondents across 14 industry verticals selected based on CCC’s rights and content inventory. The result is the number of potential unlicensed sharing instances per employee per week. The 2026 survey also measured AI-related content use: how often respondents use externally published content as an AI input, how often they share or automatically distribute AI outputs built on that content, how many people they typically share those outputs with, and which audiences they typically share them with.

About CCC (Copyright Clearance Center)

A pioneer in voluntary collective licensing, CCC has been dedicated to advancing copyright, accelerating knowledge, and powering innovation since its inception in 1978. Today, CCC supports a thriving knowledge economy as a trusted intermediary, providing licensing solutions that make copyright work, including collective licensing solutions for the use of copyrighted materials with AI systems. CCC also offers a portfolio of innovative and complementary software solutions, as well as high-quality content, data, and information services.

ABOUT OUTSELL, INC.

Outsell is the leading research and advisory firm serving executives in the data, information, and analytics economy. Its solutions leverage proprietary data, leading industry analysts, peer-to-peer communities, and a network of partner SMEs, all operating in a platform ecosystem. Through deep relationships, it helps clients make smart decisions about strategy, competition, markets, operating best practices, and M&A.

For more information, please contact:
Craig Sender
Senior Director, Public & Analyst Relations
csender@copyright.com
917-626-7152


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