STATEMENT ON CREATIVE RIGHTS IN AI

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 £100 billion annually. We have, quite literally, earned the right to have our voice heard. The key to that success, and future growth, is copyright law. 

Retaining the UK’s gold standard copyright protections - and ensuring the law is enforceable and respected in the face of the challenges posed by GAI - will create incentives for GAI developers to enter into licence agreements with rights holders, ensuring a steady flow of quality, human-authored works for GAI training. Without proper control and remuneration for creators, investment in high-quality content will fall. GAI innovation will inevitably stall, and value will drain from both the tech and creative industries which contribute so much to the UK economy and quality of life.

Instead, the Government has a golden opportunity to drive growth in both the creative and tech sectors. 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.

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 GAI 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.

We will be making further announcements soon, so stay tuned.