Defined in 17 U.S.C. § 1202(c), CMI covers information such as a work's title, its author, its copyright owner, and terms and conditions of use, when conveyed with the work. Section 1202(b) makes it unlawful to intentionally remove or alter CMI, or to distribute a work knowing CMI was removed, but only when done knowingly and with intent to induce, enable, facilitate, or conceal copyright infringement — removal alone, without that intent, is not itself a violation. Whether AI provenance marks like C2PA metadata or statistical text watermarks qualify as CMI is an open legal question that no US court had definitively resolved as of August 2026. Civil violations carry statutory damages of $2,500 to $25,000 per violation under 17 U.S.C. § 1203; willful violations for commercial gain can carry criminal penalties up to $500,000 and five years in prison under 17 U.S.C. § 1204.