Call Your Senator to Oppose AB-412

Hello my name is [Full Name] and I am a [developer/ startup founder/ student/ etc.] from [City/District]. I am calling to express my strong opposition to AB-412 (Generative artificial intelligence: training data: copyrighted materials). This bill will impose impossible compliance burdens on small developers and startups. I am asking Senator [Last Name] to please vote NO on AB-412 if it reaches the Senate Floor.

Talking points:

• The bill now covers “registered, pre-registered, or indexed” works, plus pre-1972 sound recordings—none of which are machine-readable or consistently searchable.

• Developers would be forced to track obscure, hard-to-identify works and generate “digital fingerprints” for them—a technical task with no standard or realistic way to comply.

• This bill gives Big Tech more power by locking out smaller competitors who can’t afford lawyers and licensing deals.

• The penalties are steep—up to $1,000 per day per violation—even for accidental lapses. For small teams, this is existential.

• It oversteps state authority. Copyright law is federal, and AB-412 jumps ahead of active court casesstill working out what fair use means for AI.

• The bill’s supposed “noncommercial” carve-outs are meaningless for most developers—it protects universities and governments, but not solo builders or open-source projects.

• It risks turning AI development into a closed field, dominated by companies with the biggest content libraries.

• California should be supporting innovation, not regulating it out of reach for new builders.