By Aminah Asif
On the 17th of December, 2024, the UK government published an open consultation paper on ‘Copyright and Artificial Intelligence (“AI”)’ which evaluated several proposals for how existing copyright law could be changed.[1] The government recognises the AI sector and creative industries as essential to the UK’s economic development and intends to develop a copyright and AI framework that “rewards human creativity, incentivises innovation and provides the legal certainty required for long-term growth.”[2] The consultation will remain open to the public for responses to the proposed changes until the 25th of February, 2025.[3]
The Proposed Policy Options
The consultation paper proposes four options: (0) to do nothing and leave copyright laws as they are; (1) to strengthen copyright, requiring licensing in all cases; (2) to introduce a broad data mining exception, allowing data mining on copyrighted works without the need for permission from rights holders; and (3) to introduce a data mining exception that allows rights holders to reserve rights, with supporting measures on transparency.[4] Currently in the UK, there is a data mining exception for research purposes, contained in Section 29A of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (“CDPA”), provided that users have “lawful access to the work” and present “sufficient acknowledgement.”[5] Consequently, works protected under CDPA typically cannot be used for commercial purposes without users obtaining formal authorisation from rights holders.[6] Although the consultation is open, the government has highlighted a preference for option (3).[7] This option is essentially a proposal for the adoption of an EU-style ‘opt-out’ mechanism, expanding the data mining exception to include commercial usage, but simultaneously giving rights holders the option to disallow users, in this case AI developers, from accessing their work.[8] If option (3) is chosen, the current copyright framework would be inverted as a data mining exception for commercial purposes would be automatically enforced. Correspondingly, users would not be required to undergo an authorisation procedure to access works, unless the rights holder has opted out.
Dear Visitor,
We share your curiosity for art law. Thank you for reading our complimentary articles for the month. To read more free articles, please register for a free account. For even more access and perks, consider becoming a premium member!Already a premium member? Sign in
Or, become a premium member for unlimited access