The Data (Use & Access) Bill has been hit by a major revolt in the House of Lords after peers reinstated an amendment to protect creatives from having their copyrighted work used to train AI models without permission, a change that ministers have already thrown out – twice.
Representatives of the creative industries have long argued that safeguards should be included in the Bill, but the Government wants to wait until the results of its separate copyright and AI consultation – which closed in February – insisting it does not want to legislate in a “piecemeal” fashion.
The fight has been led by cross-bench peer and campaigner Baroness Beeban Kidron, who successfully tabled the original amendment in the Lords late last year. But these changes were removed by the Government during the committee stage of the legislation in the Commons in March.
Last week, Liberal Democrat MP Victoria Collins reintroduced it to the Commons, but it was voted against by 287 to 88 before the Bill was passed back to the Lords.
However, peers have now voted 272 votes to 125 in favour of reintroducing the amendment, following an impassioned address by Baroness Kidron, who said: “I rebut the idea that this is the wrong Bill and the wrong time. AI did not exist in the public realm until the early 2020s.
“The speed and scale at which copyright works are being stolen is eye-watering. Property that people have invested in, have created, have traded and that they rely on for their livelihood is being stolen at all parts of the value chain.
“It is an assault on the British economy, happening at scale to a sector worth £120bn to the UK, an industry that is central to the industrial strategy and of enormous cultural import. It is happening now, and we have not even begun to catch up with the devastating consequences.
“The Government have taken our amendments out of the Bill and replaced them with a couple of toothless reports. Whatever these reports bring forward and whatever the consultation offers, we need the amendment in front of us today now. If this Bill does not protect copyright then, by the time that the Government work out their policy, there will be little to save.”
The Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society said: “We are glad to see that the House of Lords has recognised the concerns of creators across the country.
“The Government must now listen to these concerns. When the Data Bill returns to the Commons, we hope that the Government will acknowledge the urgent need for transparency in the development of AI models. With this significant show of support for creators in the House of Lords, we hope the Government will take this opportunity to support authors and the wider creative industries.
“Generative AI depends on the works of UK creators, but so far, most developers have used these works without the consent, remuneration or even awareness of authors. We must as a minimum begin to establish transparency requirements so that authors are able to exercise the rights they are granted to their work by copyright.
“Effective transparency regulation is an essential first step for a dynamic licensing market that gives authors control over their work and the option of remuneration if they choose, while providing developers with legitimate paths to the quality content necessary to their models.”
The Bill now faces weeks, possibly months of delays as it moves backwards and forwards between the two Houses –a process known as “ping-pong” – before agreement is reached. Then, and only then, will it be ready for Royal Assent.
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