Government by Gaslight
“The Government’s proposals to gift the property rights of copyright holders to US Big Tech are misinformed, misguided and risk infringing the human rights of creators. While the creative industries are rightly up in arms about the proposals, they are not the only industry affected and professional services and other knowledge industries should be equally concerned.
We encourage the Government to instead take action to encourage and facilitate the willing and proactive licensing of copyright works and, if necessary, subsidising such licensing. ”
In what can only be described as an act of gaslighting by government, in the course of the final Grand Committee debate in the House of Lords during the passage of the Data (Use and Access) Bill Lord Vallance asserted in respect of the UK’s copyright regime that “we have a system where it is unclear what the rights are”. To be fair to Lord Vallance, he was merely repeating the Government’s oft-stated position which essentially boils down to the fact that because US Big Tech AI developers would prefer it to be the case, UK copyright law is unclear and therefore must cede to the interests of AI developers by having the Government intervene to deprive copyright holders of their property rights unless they take proactive steps to prevent it through prescribed means. That is the proposal detailed in the Government’s Copyright and Artificial Intelligence consultation, which was published in the week before Christmas and closes at midnight on Tuesday 25 February 2025.
Copyright is a property right of copyright holders and is not the Government’s to gift.
We have prepared a response to the Government’s consultation in which we:
oppose the Government’s proposals to remove existing copyright protection from rights holders;
highlight that the Government’s proposals impact not only the creative industries but the professional services and other knowledge industries which similarly drive the UK economy and its growth;
instead call on the Government to protect UK individuals and entities to boost their growth and that of the UK AI industry by taking steps to facilitate the willing and proactive licensing of copyright works for the purpose of AI training and development and the enforcement of unlawful copyright infringement.
Download a copy of our consultation response.
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