Government launches consultation on copyright and artificial intelligence

We’re pleased to see that the Government has launched this much-needed consultation on generative AI and copyright, and we welcome the opportunity to feed into the consultation on behalf of our members.

The consultation, announced today, acknowledges that “widespread use of copyright material for training AI models has presented new challenges for the UK’s copyright framework, and many rightsholders have found it difficult to exercise their rights in this context.”

The Intellectual Property Office (IPO), who are leading the consultation, have put transparency at the forefront of their approach. This is welcome news, as our recent survey of our members found that transparency around the use of their works was both severely lacking and desperately needed. Greater transparency will enable writers to know when their work has been used and to exercise choice around use and potential remuneration through licensing.

We are, however, concerned that a data mining exception with an “opt-out” mechanism for rightsholders has been presented as a possible option. This not only puts an unrealistic burden on rightsholders to monitor and enforce, but is unworkable in the current landscape. The existing technical options for opting-out are not fit for purpose, either being specific to URLs or file metadata, from which a creator’s work may often be separated. Ed Newton-Rex, a former Executive at Stability AI, sets out the full reasons in this paper.

We are also concerned about the conflation of “data mining” with training generative AI systems. The use of copyrighted works to develop and train artificial intelligence is distinct from uses such as Text and Data Mining (TDM), which predate the widespread emergence of generative AI. The EU has similarly conflated TDM and generative AI in its policy approach, which has resulted in an uncertain and contested system.

We look forward to engaging with the consultation and stressing the importance of protecting rightsholders. We have set out our approach in our position paper on generative AI, which will form the basis of our response, along with our Principles for Authors and AI developed last year. We will publish our submission to the consultation on the ALCS website. The consultation is open until 25 February and open to individuals, we will provide guidance for our members to contribute directly if they wish to in the New Year.

Deputy CEO Richard Combes said:

“We are pleased to see the Government launch this consultation and put transparency at the heart of the issue. Transparency will provide the foundation for licences, setting the necessary balance between choice and control for authors, and access for AI developers. While we have concerns that the proposed new copyright exception is premature, given the nascent market for licensing, we look forward to working constructively with the Government to arrive at fair and workable solutions that support authors and our world-leading creative sector”.      

Author and ALCS member Kate Mosse said:

“An ‘opt-out’ solution, as proposed in the government consultation on AI, will not work. It will put the burden on creatives to stop their work being stolen without permission or renumeration, resulting in us having less time to work. Copyright laws are robust, fit for purpose and protect originality, excellence and innovation. There are already excellent structures in place for licensing and collecting. The focus should be on using them, rather than allowing them to be ignored.”

We recently launched the results of our AI survey of members, which received over 13,500 responses. This told us that that writers want greater transparency, choice and the option to be remunerated for the use of their work by AI. You can read more about our survey here.

You can learn more about our campaign work around AI here.