A powerful new coalition of creative organisations says that the UK is “in a unique position to set a global standard” for how the creative and tech sectors can “innovate together and continue to provide high quality services”. The group, representing the music, movie, media, literature, journalism, photography and visual arts sectors, has called on the government to maintain a “robust copyright framework” for controlling creative works in the AI era.
That big ask comes as the government prepares to announce another consultation on copyright and AI, which is expected to propose a new copyright exception for AI companies, while also considering the introduction of a new publicity right for creators and performers.
With “world-leading” creative and tech sectors, the new Creative Rights In AI Coalition says that the UK must ensure that it is “protecting copyright and building a dynamic licensing market for the use of creative content in building generative AI”, insisting that that approach is “the only way that both sectors will flourish and grow”.
“The UK creative industries generate well over £100 billion annually”, the coalition states. Therefore, “we have, quite literally, earned the right to have our voice heard”.
But just in case that voice isn’t quite loud enough, the coalition has also commissioned a survey of the Great British public, in which 72% of respondents said that AI companies should pay creators if they make use of their works when training their models.
The government’s consultation, which will reportedly be launched tomorrow, will cover very familiar territory.
We know that the copyright industries - including the music industry - will insist that tech companies using existing content to train generative AI models must get permission from the relevant copyright owners, while being fully transparent about what content has been used.
Indeed the new coalition’s website sets out these demands. However, tech companies will say that they need a more flexible copyright system if the UK is to become a dominant player in AI.
Back in 2022, the previous UK government proposed providing that flexibility by introducing a commercial text and data mining exception into UK copyright law, which would basically allow AI companies to make use of copyright protected content without getting permission from any copyright owners.
That proposal prompted such a big backlash from the creative industries, it was subsequently abandoned. Ministers then tried to negotiate a code of practice regarding copyright and AI that both rightsholders and AI companies would sign up to. But that came to nothing.
We’ve known for weeks now that the current government is hoping that a compromise can be reached by introducing a new copyright exception like the one proposed in 2022, but with the option for copyright owners to opt out of the exception by ‘reserving their rights’.
AI companies would then need to get permission to use content owned by any copyright owners that exercised the opt-out.
Copyright owners, including the music industry, will almost certainly oppose that compromise, and it seems likely that AI companies won’t be that impressed by it either, given most corporate copyright owners and professional creators will immediately opt out.
That said, while copyright owners will always oppose new exceptions, they could possibly live with an exception with opt-out, which is already the system in the European Union.
Indeed, when the 2019 copyright directive that introduced the EU exception with opt-out was being negotiated, it wasn’t that element of the directive that prompted headline-grabbing campaigning by the music business and other copyright industries.
Though that was before generative AI was such a big talking point. And, of course, the devil is always in the detail, and we don’t yet have any detail about the exception being proposed by the UK government.
According to reports over the weekend, ministers are also seemingly hoping to placate the angry copyright industries by putting a new personality right for creators and performers onto the agenda.
That would allow individuals to stop the unauthorised use of their voice or likeness in the context of AI. Many countries already have some sort of personality right, but the UK does not.
For many creators and performers, securing a new right to protect voice and likeness is important, though it may not be so big a priority for all of the corporate copyright owners represented by organisations in this new coalition. Meaning the promise of a new personality right won’t necessarily make rightsholders any more willing to compromise on the exception.
We shall see. But what is clear is that the copyright industries are hoping to speak as one as this consultation goes through the motions.
“We are eager to see the development of a vibrant licensing market and support the sectors which rely on us for their future prosperity”, the new coalition continues, “but we can only do so with a robust copyright framework which preserves our exclusive rights to control our works and thereby act as a safeguard against misuse”.
“Ours is a positive vision”, it concludes, “a vision of collaboration between the creative industries and generative AI developers, where we can all flourish in the online marketplace. We call on the government and the tech sector to join us in building a future that values, protects and promotes human creativity”.