AI Training – UK Government Proposes Copyright Exception
The UK Government has launched its much-anticipated consultation on the application of UK copyright law to the training of Artificial Intelligence (AI) models. This consultation, open until 25 February 2025, outlines key proposals aimed at achieving the following objectives:
- Supporting rights holders in maintaining control over their content and ensuring they are fairly remunerated for its use.
- Facilitating the development of world-class AI models in the UK by providing wide and lawful access to high-quality data.
- Enhancing trust and transparency between the creative and technology sectors.
The consultation also recognises that the application of UK copyright law to the training of AI models is currently contentious, which has prompted the UK Government to propose changing the law.
What is the TDM exception for AI training?
The TDM exception allows individuals or organisations to perform TDM activities without infringing on copyright or other intellectual property rights, even when working with protected material. This exception is particularly vital for AI training as developers rely on computational methods to analyse large datasets for machine learning.
UK law currently provides a TDM exception for non-commercial research only. The new TDM exception proposed by the UK Government would have the following features:
- It would apply to TDM for any purpose, including AI training for commercial purposes.
- It would apply only where the party carrying out TDM has “lawful access” to the relevant works, allowing rights holders to seek remuneration at the point of access by, for example, placing content behind a paywall.
- It would apply only where the rights holder has not “reserved their rights” (or “opted-out”) from having the work subject to TDM. If a rights holder has reserved their rights through an agreed mechanism (yet to be decided), TDM would not be permitted unless a licence was agreed with the rights holder.
- It would be underpinned by greater transparency requirements on AI companies around the sources of training material.
The proposal would align UK copyright law with EU copyright law under Article 4 of the Digital Single Market Copyright Directive. As with the EU exception, the UK Government’s proposal would allow AI training by developers on all available materials and for commercial purposes, unless the rights holder had expressly reserved their rights.
What is the rationale for proposing changing copyright law for AI training?
The UK Government believes that adopting this approach would balance AI developers’ need for access to works with rights holders’ need to retain control over their creations. The Government states:
This approach would appear to have the potential to meet our objectives of control, access, and transparency, and enable licensing agreements, ensuring rights holders are remunerated where appropriate.
Does the consultation address other aspects of AI training and copyright law?
The consultation also seeks to address other areas of legal uncertainty surrounding AI training and copyright law, including copyright ownership of computer-generated works, contracts and licensing, transparency rules for AI companies, labelling AI generated outputs, digital replicas and deepfakes as well as other emerging issues.
Tidman Legal Comment
The UK Government’s consultation marks a significant step towards a workable compromise between the interests of AI companies and the creative sector, the latter clearly concerned about protecting their rights as copyright owners and not seeking to present barriers to innovation. As always, the devil will be in the detail of any implementation of these proposals and the consultation presents a welcome opportunity for those on both sides of the debate to submit their views.
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Additional resources
- What is copyright?
- Does copyright protect original work from AI-generated content?
- Disney’s copyright in earliest Mickey and Minnie Mouse enter public domain
Please note the contents of this blog is given for information only and must not be relied upon. Legal advice should always be sought in relation to your specific circumstances.