Pact among UK organisations calling for copyright protections in AI consultation
Pact has called on the government to protect copyright from the threat of AI
UK TV and film trade body Pact is among the organisations to have called on the government to protect copyright during its recently launched consultation on the country’s AI policy.
Pact is part of a coalition of over 40 publishers, authors, artists, music businesses, specialist interest publications, unions and photographers to have urged the UK government to protect copyright while encouraging growth in the creative and tech sectors.
Other organisations that are part of the coalition include Motion Picture Association, Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, Getty Images, Copyright Licensing Agency and Creators’ Rights Alliance.
The UK government recently began a consultation on the legal framework around the use of AI, which will run for 10 weeks, closing on February 25, 2025.
This has seen the government controversially suggest AI developers could have wider access to copyrighted material to train “world-leading models” in the UK.
Yesterday the coalition, which represents thousands of creatives, dismissed the proposal made by ministers and told the Guardian that “existing copyright laws must be respected and enforced rather than degraded.”
Earlier this week the Creative Rights In AI Coalition published its three key principles for copyright and generative AI policy and called on the government to adopt the principles as a framework for developing AI policy.
The coalition’s three principles for AI policy focus on “a dynamic licensing market with robust protections for copyright; control and transparency for content creators; and driving growth and innovation in the creative and tech sectors.”
The launch was accompanied by the publication of new nationally representative public polling from Reset Tech and YouGov, which found that the public “overwhelmingly” back transparency in the training of AI models and the payment of royalties to content creators by tech firms.
Seventy-two per cent of respondents said AI companies should be required to pay royalties to the creators of text, audio, or video that they use to train AI models, while 80 per cent said AI companies should be required to make public all the information that their models have been trained upon.
In the statement, the coalition said: “The UK’s world-leading creative and tech sectors put it in a unique position to set a global standard for how both sectors can innovate together and continue to provide high quality services.
“Protecting copyright and building a dynamic licensing market for the use of creative content in building generative AI (GAI) isn’t just a question of fairness: it’s the only way that both sectors will flourish and grow.
“The UK creative industries generate well over £100bn (US$125bn) annually. We have, quite literally, earned the right to have our voice heard. The key to that success, and future growth, is copyright law.
“We must ensure the onus will be on GAI firms to seek permission and engage with rights holders to agree licences: just as tech firms are content to pay for the huge quantity of electricity that powers their data centres, they must be content to pay for the high-quality copyright-protected works which are essential to train and ground accurate GAI models.”
The coalition added: “We support the government’s mission for long-term, secure growth in the creative and tech sectors. We are eager to see the development of a vibrant licensing market and support the sectors which rely on us for their future prosperity, 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, 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.”
