Writers have banded together to take a stand against AI stealing their content and infringing copyright laws. 

At the London Book Fair this week, a book titled Don’t Steal This Book, is being distributed with no story, just a list of 10,000 creative names (including Kazuo Ishiguro, Richard Osman and Malorie Blackman), who have opted to take a stand against copyright infringements. 

The protest was arranged by composer and campaigner Ed Newton-Rex, who accuses AI companies of stealing creatives’ content without permission.

The campaign is intended to raise awareness of the challenges creatives such as authors, musicians, photographers and publishers are facing in the age of AI, and put increased pressure on the government to act in tightening copyright law.

Government Proposal & Industry Backlash

Last year, the government proposed a commercial research exception to copyright law which would loosen restrictions on AI companies’ use of copyrighted materials. This proposal would allow AI developers to use copyright material to train their datasets under a text and data mining exception, unless users explicitly opted out. 

The proposal sparked backlash with key figures in the sector such as Elton John, Paul McCartney, Robbie Williams, Kate Bush and Dua Lipa, all signing an open letter to Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, criticising the proposal.

However, the government is at a delicate point where they must balance enabling AI innovation without harming the creative industry. 

Tech giants including Google and OpenAI are amongst AI developers lobbying for further exemptions, suggesting they should be able to use copyrighted material without disclosing this, to maximise innovation. Furthermore, Google argues that opting out should not necessarily entitle creatives to compensation.

However, “This is not a victimless crime,” said Newton-Rex. “Generative AI competes with the people whose work it is trained on, robbing them of their livelihoods. 

He added that the government must protect the UK’s creatives, and refuse to legalise the theft of creative work by AI companies.”

Licensing-First Initiatives 

The government was due to announce changes to copyright legislation on 18th March, however this has been delayed following the backlash from creatives. 

Creatives have now come out in support of an initiative led by the Publishers’ Licensing Services (a non-profit trade body representing the interests of publishers in the UK). 

PLS have designed an initiative to ensure the fair and lawful use of published work in training AI. The initiative would create a framework giving creatives the opportunity to opt in to the scheme, giving choice and control over how their work is used by AI, as well as allowing creatives to be rightfully paid for their contribution.

Tom West, CEO of PLS said: “This first stage is about engagement and collaboration. By opting in, publishers will be part of a collective approach that aims to ensure content use in AI models is lawful and fairly remunerated.” 

In a report by the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee published on 6th March, the government said that the UK had to pick between two types of future for the creative industry. 

It claims that they could become a “world-leading home for responsible, licensing-based artificial intelligence development” or “drift’ towards acceptance of large-scale use of unlicensed creative content by opaque US-based AI models, allowing damage to our creative industries to go unchecked”.

The government acknowledged the significant contributions that the UK creative industry brings, calling the sector an “economic powerhouse” that contributed £124 billion and 2.4 million jobs to the UK economy in 2023. 

In comparison, the AI sector contributed £12 billion in 2024 and employed 86,000 people.

Allowing AI to be trained on creatives work with looser copyright laws, would risk imitations being created, employment opportunities being lost and earnings reduced for original creators. This would create a “race to the bottom that does not serve UK interests” suggested Chair Baroness Keeley.

Recommended reading

• Misinformation and Disinformation Top WEF Short Term Threat List, Again
• AI Chatbots Fail to Accurately Represent News, BBC Finds
• ChatGPT to the Left, Meta’s LLaMA to the Right: Stuck in the Middle of AI Bias

Whilst the AI sector claims that introducing a new commercial text and data mining (TDM) exception for AI training to copyright laws would significantly contribute to the growth of the UK tech sector, others are sceptical. 

However, what does not seem to be up for debate is that weakening the UK’s copyright law would certainly harm the rights of creatives.

Activists have encouraged the government to develop a licensing-first policy, to safeguard creatives’ livelihoods and the sector.  

Recommendations have included:

• Rule out a new commercial text and data (TDM) exception with an opt-out model for AI training
• Strengthen creators’ rights by introducing protections against unauthorised digital replicas and ‘in the style of’ AI outputs
• Make transparency about AI training data a statutory obligation
• Create the conditions for a fair and inclusive UK licensing market
• Prioritise the development and adoption of sovereign AI models

Chair Baroness Keeley, said: “The future for AI in the UK should be based on transparent and responsible use of training data. We are calling on the Government to embrace the opportunities this presents, and to demonstrate its commitment to the UK’s gold-standard copyright regime and our outstanding creative industries in its forthcoming economic assessment and update on AI and copyright.”