Axel Springer is conducting a sustained in-house lobbying effort to secure fair compensation for journalists as AI companies train large language models on news content, filing its second-quarter lobbying disclosure on July 28 and spending $110,000 to push copyright and artificial intelligence policy issues with federal lawmakers. The company has maintained consistent quarterly lobbying expenditures of $110,000 on AI copyright issues. While Axel Springer struck a deal with OpenAI for content licensing worth tens of millions of euros, its lobbying suggests it wants statutory protections in U.S. law to ensure broader compensation streams across the industry. The company listed itself as a supporter of the Stealth Bot Prohibition Act, introduced on July 23, which requires automated web crawlers to accurately identify themselves and disclose their purpose when accessing websites, while prohibiting deceptive bots that impersonate human users in connection with generative AI services. Policymakers in Europe, Brazil, and other jurisdictions are exploring statutory licensing models that would require AI companies to pay publishers for journalism used to train their systems.