On Tuesday 25 February, hundreds of regional and national news brand titles ran a campaign to coincide with the end of the UK government’s Copyright and AI consultation and the launch of a bold creative industries campaign to highlight how creative content is at risk of being given away for free to AI firms as the government proposes weakening copyright law.
As a member of the Creative Rights in AI Coalition, the BCC supports the Make it Fair campaign, which was developed to raise awareness among the British public about the existential threat posed to the creative industries from generative AI models, many of which scrape creative content from the internet without permission, acknowledgement, and critically, without payment. The impact on creative businesses and individuals throughout the country – who collectively generate over £120 billion a year towards the UK economy – will be devastating if this continues unchecked, or worse still if the government legitimises this content theft.
Launching the campaign, Owen Meredith, CEO of News Media Association, said:
“We already have gold-standard copyright laws in the UK. They have underpinned growth and job creation in the creative economy across the UK – supporting some of the world’s greatest creators – artists, authors, journalists, scriptwriters, singers and songwriters to name but a few.
“And for a healthy democratic society, copyright is fundamental to publishers’ ability to invest in trusted quality journalism. The only thing which needs affirming is that these laws also apply to AI, and transparency requirements should be introduced to allow creators to understand when their content is being used. Instead, the government proposes to weaken the law and essentially make it legal to steal content.
“There will be no AI innovation without the high-quality content that is the essential fuel for AI models. We’re appealing to the great British public to get behind our ‘Make it Fair’ campaign and call on the government to guarantee creatives are able to secure proper financial reward from AI firms to ensure a sustainable future for both AI and the creative industries.”
BCC Director of Policy & Public Affairs, Stephanie Reeves, added:
“The British Copyright Council is pleased to support this hugely important campaign and is proud that so many of our members have added their support too. We hope that the government listens to the compelling arguments being put forward by the breadth of the creative industries whose future is at stake.”