Creatives' fury over latest sign the Government is 'siding with tech giants' over AI copyright
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Creatives are in uproar after a leading tech lobby group claimed it was granted an extension to the deadline for the Government’s controversial AI copyright consultation.
The Government has insisted it has not made any exceptions to the consultation, which officially shut last week, but techUK told the Daily Mail it has been given extra time to file its submission.
This has provoked outrage with artists saying it is another sign that Silicon Valley is receiving preferential treatment on the proposals.
Acclaimed English singer-songwriter Mike Batt said he fears tech firms are ‘strategically waiting’ to assess the thoughts of others before being allowed to submit their own responses late.
Bridget Jones director Baroness Kidron said it only adds to the ‘depth of mistrust’ over the Government’s proposal.
She added: 'My own view is that the consultation process is already dead. There are no good options for creative industries, it has a clear preference for Silicon Valley’.
The Government opened the AI consultation last December and said it favours a response that allows granting tech firms a copyright exception unless creators ‘opt out’.
It sparked a huge protest by Britain’s world-leading £126 billion creative industry, who joined a powerful campaign launched by the Daily Mail last month.
Tech firms have been using news articles, music, books, films and art to train their AI models for years without paying publishers and creators.
Current copyright laws stipulate that creators get automatic protection and should be compensated if it is found that their works have been stolen.
Yet ministers say AI firms should be granted a copyright exception that allows them to pillage British artists’ works for free to train their models – unless creators choose to ‘opt out’.
A Government spokesman said: ‘This is entirely inaccurate. Our consultation closed on February 25 and no individual organisations have been granted extensions – suggestions to the contrary are not correct.’
A techUK spokesman said: ‘Extensions are common working practice. TechUK has consistently maintained that a broader TDM [text and data mining] exception with an opt-out mechanism offers a constructive way forward, aligning the UK with the EU and other major economies around the world.’
