AI Opportunities Action Plan: Creative Rights In AI Coalition Warns Against Mirroring EU Approach And Rejects Suggestion Of ‘Uncertainty’ In UK Law

Published: 15 Jan 2025

Reacting to the publication of the AI Opportunities Action Plan, the Creative Rights in AI Coalition has said:

“Following the Prime Minister’s broad commitment to take forward the Plan’s recommendations, we call on the government to provide assurances that all options in the Copyright and AI Consultation – including enforcing the existing copyright regime with transparency provisions – remain on the table.

“It is deeply concerning to see the EU approach looked to as a regime that the UK should mirror. The EU is still working out how to implement its EU AI Act and there are persistent questions over the workability of their opt-out regime. This serves as a real-time warning for the government about imitating regimes that have shown no signs of being effective. The UK should learn from the EU regime’s shortcomings, not blindly imitate it.

“Furthermore, there is no ‘uncertainty’ in the UK text and data mining regime: it is clear that UK copyright law does not allow text and data mining for commercial purposes without a licence. The only uncertainty is around who has been using the UK’s creative crown jewels as training material without permission and how they got hold of it, making transparency provisions vital.”

View Statement

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Notes

• Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, AI Opportunities Action Plan, Recommendation 24: “Reform the UK text and data mining regime so that it is at least as competitive as the EU. The current uncertainty around intellectual property (IP) is hindering innovation and undermining our broader ambitions for AI, as well as the growth of our creative industries. This has gone on too long and needs to be urgently resolved. The EU has moved forward with an approach that is designed to support AI innovation while also enabling rights holders to have control over the use of content they produce. The UK is falling behind.”
  
• Organisations in membership of the Creative Rights in AI Coalition are:

• 560 Media Rights
• Artists’ Collecting Society
• Association of Illustrators
• Association of Authors' Agents
• Association of Independent Music
• Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers
• Association of Online Publishers
• Association of Photographers
• Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society
• British Copyright Council
• British Phonographic Industry
• British Press Photographers’ Association
• CILIP - the library and information association
• Copyright Clearance Center
• Copyright Licensing Agency
• Creators’ Rights Alliance
• Design and Artists Copyright Society
• DMG Media
• Equity
• European Publishers Council
• Featured Artists Coalition
• Financial Times
• FIPP (International Federation of Periodical Publishers)
• Getty Images
• Guardian News & Media
• Independent Publishers Alliance
• Independent Publishers Guild
• Independent Society of Musicians
• International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers
• The Ivors Academy
• Motion Picture Association
• Mumsnet
• Music Publishers Association
• News Media Association
• News Media Europe
• Newsquest Media Group
• NLA Media Access Limited
• Pact (Producers Alliance for Television and Cinema)
• Pan Macmillan
• PICSEL (Picture Industry Collecting Society for Effective Licensing)
• PPL (Phonographic Performance Ltd)
• PPA (Professional Publishers Association)
• PRS for Music
• Publishers Association
• Publishers' Licensing Services
• Science Photo Library
• Society of Authors
• Society of Editors
• Telegraph Media Group
• The Associated Press
• The Society of Artists Agents
• UK Music
• Voice-Swap
• Writers’ Guild of Great Britain

• www.creativerightsinai.co.uk #CreativeRightsInAI