Matt Richards

Today, the UK government announced a proposal to change copyright law - for the benefit of AI companies - that would cause huge, irreversible harm to creators. More info below, but most importantly here's what you can do (wherever you live): 1. Email your MP. If you're in the UK, here's a template letter you can copy - docs.google.com/document/d/1Xt… - and you can find your local MP's details here - members.parliament.uk/members/Commons. 2. If you're a creator, email your representatives. Your publisher, record label, union - whoever represents you. Here's a second template letter you can copy - docs.google.com/document/d/1VT…. You need to know your representatives are representing your views. 3. Respond to the consultation. You can do so by emailing copyrightconsultation@ipo.gov.uk. If possible, write your own response, and go into all the detail you can. Feel free to use info / data I've prepared here - docs.google.com/document/d/12w…. 4. Share these template letters with anyone you know. The more people get involved, the more the government will get the message that a broad copyright exception is the wrong path to be pursuing. -- And here's a summary of the government's proposal, and why I think it's so problematic: - Broad new copyright exception for commercial generative AI training. AI companies will be able to train on British copyrighted work without a licence, even if the AI model is designed to compete with the creators whose work is trained on. This would make the UK one of the most punitive jurisdictions for creators in the world. - Rights holders can 'reserve their rights', i.e. opt out. But opt-outs don't work (you can't successfully opt out downstream copies of your work), most creators miss the chance to opt-out, doing so is a huge admin burden, etc. AI companies should be getting opt-in consent - it's unfair to shift the burden to creators. - AI companies must offer some level of transparency over their training data. This would be good if presented on its own, but it's much less helpful if you're packaging it up with a broad copyright exception that lets AI companies train on most of the UK's creative output with impunity. The consultation on these proposals lasts for 10 weeks. Anyone who cares about this issue should do whatever they can to make their views known to government now - there will only be one chance.

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