The UK government is likely to offer additional concessions to the creative and media industries as it proceeds with its plan to introduce a new copyright exception to benefit AI companies. It’s not currently clear what those concessions might be, although one source has indicated that additional protections might be proposed to benefit “certain sectors which are particularly important”.
Yesterday was the deadline for submissions to a government consultation on copyright and AI, and the proposal that a new text and data mining exception be added to UK copyright law, but with an opt-out for copyright owners. That would mean AI companies could use copyright protected works when training their models without getting permission, except where a rights holder has formally ‘reserved their rights’.
Pretty much all the creative and media industries are aligned in opposing that plan, arguing that, even with the opt-out, any new copyright exception to benefit AI companies is unacceptable. Lobbying activity against the new copyright exception has ramped up in recent weeks, with numerous British newspapers yesterday running the same front page ad declaring that “the government is siding with big tech over British creativity”, while 1000 artists together released a silent protest album.
The tech sector has also been lobbying hard in favour of the exception, but government sources have told The Guardian that campaigning by the creative and media industries – and especially pop stars and national newspapers – is having an impact.
“Sources have told The Guardian that ministers have accepted the need to protect British creative industries from the plans”, the newspaper reports, before quoting one source as saying, “Ministers would very much like to find something everyone can work with”.
“Abandoning the plans altogether is not seen as an option”, the source adds, “as it would put British AI companies at a disadvantage. However, “there are ways to protect certain sectors which are particularly important, and to make sure big US technology giants are not getting all the benefit”.
That could mean that the exception with opt-out would only apply to certain kinds of copyright protected works or certain kinds of AI training. A government spokesperson didn’t comment on any of that, except to say “no decisions will be taken until we are absolutely confident we have a practical plan that delivers each of our objectives”.
Those objectives were set out when the government launched its copyright and AI consultation. Basically, it wants rightsholders to have control over the use of their content by AI models, while also ensuring AI companies have easy and lawful access to the large volumes of content they say they need for AI training.
A third objective relates to transparency regarding what works AI companies have used. The government hoped that that – alongside the opt-out to the exception – would placate the creative industries, not least because transparency obligations and an exception with opt-out brings the UK in line with existing EU law.
However, all the lobbying and campaigning by the creative industries in recent weeks demonstrated that no one in the those industries feels all that placated by anything proposed by the government to date. We will see if there are any other concessions that can achieve that, while still giving the AI sector some more flexibility within the UK copyright regime.