UK Consultation: Providing clarity on Copyright Laws
From the 17th of December 2024, a 10-week consultation period is set to commence, coming to an end on the 25th of February 2025.
From this its purpose is to provide clarity to the creative industries (developers) and AI developers on how material can be used to train AI models. This consultation is set to support the Governments Plan for Change to drive growth and foster support amid an unclear sector of AI.
This consultation looks at the rights in respect of 2 sectors. Firstly, the rights holder who is publishing the considered material. As well as the AI developer who is using the information for training their AI models. The main question that strikes, and the sole purpose for the consultation, are AI developers allowed to access this material and use it within their Data sets without the express approval of the right-holder?
proposals from this consultation:
Firstly, an exception to copyright laws for AI developers training AI models for commercial purposes. Meanwhile providing right-holders with the right to reserve their rights giving them with an opportunity to ‘opt out’ and prevent their work from being used if they choose.
With certain transparency requirements in place, this can help to give certainty to developers over how their content is being used as well as to AI developers on which material they can and cannot use.
Secondly, new requirements for AI developers to be more transparent about AI model data-sets as well as how they are obtained. This provides more support for the developers as it can grant them with more information on how their content is being used for training AI models. To achieve this, a well defined set of transparency requirements would need to be introduced as part of the proposals to maintain a clear level of certainty for all.
Lisa Nandy, the Secretary of state for Culture, Media and Sport has commented with the following statement:
“This government firmly believes that our musicians, writers, artists and other creatives should have the ability to know and control how their content is used by AI firms and be able to seek licensing deals and fair payment. Achieving this, and ensuring legal certainty, will help our creative and AI sectors grow and innovate together in partnership”
Licensing is therefore an essential part of the proposal to ensure creators are secured payment for their work and not exploited by AI developers. This strikes a fair balance between AI developers in being able to access the material for their Data sets and developers in maintaining their rights over their work.
Consider the following situation: a photographer who uploads their work onto their internet blog could reserve their rights, with confidence that their wishes will be respected and generative AI developers will not use their images unless a license has been agreed. This approach referenced in the consultation means AI developers have certainty over which information can be used for their AI training data sets. Meanwhile, individuals are granted their rights involving their work.
Keep in mind, this is just a few proposals for the consultation approach. More information will be provided once the consultation period finalizes on the 25th of February 2025.