Open letter to Andy Burnham: Ditch Labour’s disastrous stance on AI. This is important - if you’re in the UK and you care about creatives, I encourage you to sign it. openletter.earth/open-letter…

The UK government released its progress report on AI & copyright today. The good news for creatives is that the government formally dropped its preferred option of a broad copyright exception with an opt-out. This was unworkable and hugely unpopular. It's good that they've recognised this. The bad news is that weakening copyright law is very much still on the table. They haven't actually ruled out that hugely unpopular opt-out proposal, and they are explicit that they are still considering other forms of copyright exception too. We are obviously in a better position than we were eighteen months ago, when the government was clearly in the pocket of big tech and was actively proposing an extremely harmful policy. Credit should go to the many, many creatives who fought that proposal, and to the new leadership at DSIT for listening. But it's important not to see this as more of a win than it really is. The government is still considering weakening copyright law to favour AI companies, and those AI companies will continue to lobby very hard for them to do so. Until the government rules out weakening copyright law, people need to keep making their voices heard. Our work is not the government's to give away. Speaking up works. Read the report here: assets.publishing.service.go…

🚨 It looks like the UK government is gearing up to upend copyright law in favour of AI companies, legalising the theft of their work. This is despite creatives' huge protests, and despite previous proposals being roundly rejected by the public. There are rumours it is considering introducing a 'commercial research exception' for AI training. This would be disastrous. It would mean handing the life's work of British creatives to AI companies for free, to train their models on. In the House of Lords today, a government minister refused to rule this out. To be clear, this would amount to legalising theft. It would fly in the face of public opinion on what is fair, and would mean a surrender of British creatives' work by this Labour government. It would mean the lobbying by big US tech firms had succeeded, and the protests of the UK's creatives had been ignored. People's work is not the government's to give away. If you're in the UK and you care about creatives and the creative industries, please write to your MP!

Baroness Kidron in the House of Lords today on the extraordinary position of the UK government on AI training: "It is extraordinary that the Government’s decided, immovable and strongly held position is that enforcing the law to prevent the theft of UK citizens’ property is unfair to the sector doing the stealing."

If you're in the UK, please sign this open letter asking the government to correct the misleading claims they made in the AI & copyright consultation. They said copyright law is currently unclear on this point, which is false. This misled the public. openletter.earth/uk-governme…

Must-read article on the travesty being inflicted on the UK’s creative industries by a government in bed with big tech. To quote one MP: “One of our greatest industrial sectors is on fire and ministers are having a picnic on the lawn with the arsonists.” theguardian.com/commentisfre…

Sir Elton John not holding back today in his anger at the UK government over their plans to hand British creators’ work to AI companies for free. “If you’re going to […] rob young people of their legacy and their income, it’s a criminal offence, I think.” “I think the government are just being absolute losers - and I’m very angry about it, as you can tell.” “Big tech has so much money - and if you’re a young person and you’re fighting big tech, good luck.” “I want the government to see sense; I want it to come back on our side. Because if they don’t, I’m going to feel like a suffragette.” “It’s really disrespectful, it’s really disheartening. I supported this government, I did a thing for them at St Paul’s Cathedral, when Keir Starmer said, ‘I want to help young people in the music business, I want to support them’ - well, he’s not doing it.”

Please watch Baroness Kidron's speech in the House of Lords yesterday. A perfect summary of the theft at the heart of AI training, and the importance of commonsense legislation that holds AI companies to account. To pull out two passages in particular: "The language of AI - scraping, training data, modules, LLMs - does not evoke the full picture of what is being done. AI corporations - many of which are seeking to entrench their existing information monopolies - are not stealing nameless data. They are stealing some of the UK's most valuable cultural and economic assets." "My Lords, whatever your party allegiance is, I ask you to make clear to the 2.4 million people who make up the creative industries, to their dependents, to the would-be creatives of the future, and to the citizens of the UK that enjoy and benefit from their creativity, that their property, their labour, is worthy of your protection - because apart from anything else, it is not ours to give away." The Lords defeated the government by 272 to 125 votes 🙌