The “Make It Fair” campaign branding on several national UK news sites and the front covers of national newspapers. Picture/screenshots: Press Gazette
The UK Government has withdrawn its support for plans to make it easier for AI companies to steal copyright content.
The move follows a campaign led by the News Media Association, which saw every UK national newspaper and website give over their front pages to the slogan “Make It Fair” .
The Government previously favoured proposals to automatically allow AI businesses like OpenAI to ingest UK creators’ content until those creators explicitly opt out.
Secretary of State for Science and Technology Liz Kendall said: “We believe that people should be paid fairly for the work that they do. It should not be that only the big and powerful can assert their rights. We also believe that championing innovation is critical to new discoveries, creating growth, driving social mobility, and allowing new talent and ideas to break through.”
She set out a core commitment that the Government “will help creatives control how their work is used”.
“This sits at the heart of our ambition for creatives – including independent and smaller creative organisations – to be paid fairly,” she said.
She noted that the proposal to allow AI companies to train on copyright works, unless creators opt out, “was overwhelmingly rejected by the vast majority of the creative industries”.
Kendall added: “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 has now promised further consultation looking at: controlling digital replicas (which use someone’s image without permission), labelling for AI-generated content, ways for creators to control use of their work online and support for smaller creative organisations.
The UK Government also plans to establish a Creative Content Exchange marketplace for digitised cultural and creative assets. Its position is set out in detail in its Report on Copyright and AI , published today.
News Media Association chief executive Owen Meredith said: “We are pleased that the Government has listened to concerns and taken the unworkable opt-out copyright exception off the table, recognising that giving away our goldmine of creative content is not the way to drive UK growth.
“By the same logic, the Government must now swiftly dismiss other exceptions that could be even more harmful, particularly an exception for ‘science and research’ or ‘commercial research’.
“AI firms should now focus on meaningful engagement with news publishers to secure licenses to access their rich breadth of content, and the Government must make clear that this is what they expect. Scaling a dynamic licensing market will support the Government’s ambition for the UK to have the fastest AI adoption in the G7, with the presence of high-quality news content being crucial to building trust in AI models.”
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