Government backs away from opt-out copyright law for AI training

The government has officially backed away from an “opt-out” system of using copyrighted material to train AI models. 

It had already been reported that the government was considering other options, but it has now officially confirmed this. The “opt-out” system would have meant that copyright holders would have to actively say that they don’t want their content to be used to train AI models. 

On Wednesday, 18 March, secretary of state for science, innovation and technology Liz Kendall said in a statement following a report that revealed the change: “At the end of 2024, the Government published a consultation on copyright and AI. At that stage, the Government’s preferred way forward was to enable AI developers to train on copyright works, but to give rightsholders the ability to opt-out of this regime. This was overwhelmingly rejected by the vast majority of the creative industries.

“We have listened. We have engaged extensively with creatives, AI firms, industry bodies, unions, academics and AI adopters, and that engagement has shaped our approach. This is why we can confirm today that the Government no longer has a preferred option.”

She went onto add that the next focus areas will be, “1. Digital Replicas. ‘Digital replicas’ can be a powerful tool, including for the creative industries. However, when someone’s likeness is replicated without their permission it can be harmful. We will launch a consultation in the summer to seek views on how we address these harms, while protecting legitimate innovation.

“2. Labelling AI-generated content. It can be helpful to consumers to understand whether content has been made using AI. It may also help protect against disinformation and harmful deepfakes. We will establish a taskforce to put forward proposals for government on best practice for labelling AI-generated content, with an interim report to be published in autumn.

“3. Creator control and transparency. We will publish a review of the mechanisms available for creators to control their works online. This will include standards, technical solutions and best practice on input transparency. This review will inform where there are gaps and whether there is an appropriate role for government in addressing them.

“4. Independent creatives. We will launch a working group on independent and smaller creative organisations to explore whether there is a role for government to support their ability to license their content.”

A government consultation has found overwhelming support for copyright licencing for training AI models, and the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee has also backed this call. 

UK actors’ union Equity welcomed the government’s anonuncement. Equity’s general secretary, Paul W Fleming, said: “The pause announced today is recognition that selling out the UK’s creative industries to benefit US tech companies would’ve been an act of national self-sabotage. The UK should be the best place on the planet to create, supporting the government’s growth agenda through a strong copyright regime and respect for creative workers.”

Writers’ Guild of Great Britain general secretary Ellie Peers agreed, saying: “Copyright and AI is an issue of huge importance to our members who have seen the industrial-scale theft of their work to train Large Language Models. We therefore welcome the fact that the Government has rowed back on its original preferred ‘opt-out’ copyright exception model, and listened to the voices of thousands of creators, including many of our members. This is a win for collective action.

“The UK has a robust copyright system in place and yet we know that it is being flouted by Big Tech. Transparency measures are vital to enforce existing legal protections, and we welcome the Government’s recognition of this.”

She added: “Yesterday’s announcement is a step in the right direction on the road to a fair system that will protect and reward writers and other creators in an age of Artificial Intelligence, but there is much work that still needs to be done to strengthen not weaken UK copyright law and writers need certainty around protection of their work as a matter of urgency.

“We are pleased to see a commitment from the Government to further research, monitoring and engagement to get this right, and we will continue to play an active role in this.”

Meanwhile, Gregor Pryor, managing partner EME at Reed Smith, analysed the report and noted another important change in addition to the end of the “opt-out” proposal: “An interesting and highly significant recommendation is the proposed removal of the provisions in UK copyright law which afford copyright protection to computer-generated works. In many respects, the UK has been something of an outlier in affording (albeit limited) copyright protection to works generated by computers. This may give rise to the type of questions that are prevalent in the US concerning the extent to which human intervention or efforts are critical when considering whether a work is protected. From a legal perspective, the other major point is the Government’s recognition that digital replicas and deepfakes can be highly problematic. It proposes a range of options, including (somewhat radically, for UK law at least) a new personality right. 

“Finally, the report overall represents more of a free market approach than perhaps expected, where the UK will be inclined to try and let the market develop its own standards, with less intervention and perhaps some time to wait and see how law, regulation and practice develop in other countries.”