Good work here from Getty Images who, this morning, sent an email (sent on to us by a PAN reader) to all contributors regarding safeguarding of images against proposed UK government exception to the law which ‘would enable AI companies to train on your content for free unless your rights are proactively “reserved”.’
• This is something all UK creatives should act on NOW! – not just those contributing to Getty Images.
Getty Images say: Act now to protect your creative rights
The UK government has launched a consultation on ‘Copyright and Artificial Intelligence’ (AI) which ends on Feb 25th. They are proposing a new exception to copyright law, which would enable AI companies to train on your content for free unless your rights are proactively “reserved”.
‘Although we do proactively reserve your rights, such a system is unworkable in practice as it doesn’t work for images/video already scraped or for downstream copies licensed by and distributed to other platforms (where reservations can unavoidably become detached). It also unevenly weights the cost and administrative burden towards creators and their distributors, not on the companies scraping the copyright works.
The UK government suggests there is lack of legal clarity around the use of copyrighted works for AI training data. This is incorrect. UK copyright law is clear that the use of copyrighted content by AI companies for commercial purposes without a licence is illegal. Whilst we agree with the aims of the proposed reforms to stimulate licensing of copyright content where used to train AI, we believe current copyright law must be preserved, not weakened, in order to achieve these aims.’
What can you do?
Take just two minutes NOW to protect your creative rights before the consultation ends on Feb 25th: Click below to join the letter writing campaign organized by the Creative Rights in AI Coalition, of which we’re a member:
The link above enables you to send your MP a powerful pre‑written letter in just two clicks. If you can spare more time, you may wish to also personalize the letter, by adding in your own words how your livelihood will be affected if copyright protections are weakened. You can find additional background and resources to help you below.
We hope you can lend your voice to ours on this vital issue. Thank you for your support. Don’t hesitate to share this with your peers as well!
The Getty Images | iStock team
• This is something all UK creatives should act on NOW! – not just those contributing to Getty Images.
Related on PAN: UK Gov roles out The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Opportunities Action Plan