PLS Attends Government Copyright/AI Working Group

On Wednesday 16 September, PLS CEO Tom West attended a government-convened meeting in Westminster of a working group made up of rightsholder organisations and AI developers, co-chaired by Lisa Nandy MP, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, and Liz Kendall MP, the newly appointed Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology to discuss concerns surrounding copyright and its relationship with AI.

Wednesday’s meeting was the third and final in a series of working group meetings that have taken place since July after the government received over 11,500 responses to its copyright/AI consultation and were also defeated in the House of Lords over attempts to introduce transparency provisions that would support rightsholders in the Data (Use and Access) Bill. The Publishers Association and the Professional Publishers Association attended earlier working group sessions.

The government has indicated that the next step will be more specialised technical working groups discussing specific themes such as technical protection measures and transparency of the use of content in AI training. No details of who will be attending the technical working groups and when they will take place have so far been announced.

Last week, at an appearance in front of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, culture secretary Lisa Nandy told MPs that the copyright/AI debate had become “binary”, that having a preferred option of a copyright exception with a rights reservation within the recent copyright/AI consultation had been the incorrect approach, and that the government now had no preferred policy option. Referring to the working group meetings, Ms Nandy said she was “really heartened by the quality and constructive nature of that discussion and the willingness to engage”.

The government is due to publish an economic impact assessment along with a report on copyright and AI early next year.  

Tom West PLS CEO said:

I was encouraged by the positive and constructive approach taken by both secretaries of state, with the new technology secretary clearly willing to engage with the creative industries and rightsholders. I thank the government departments involved for the invitation to the meeting and providing PLS with a great opportunity to highlight the vital and complementary role that collective licensing can play alongside publishers’ direct agreements - facilitating market access for SME publishers and their authors and helping to support an effective and mutually beneficial framework for AI licensing.

PLS Head of Policy and Communications Will Crook said:

PLS’ involvement in the government working groups marks the culmination of a number of direct meetings we’ve had over the past few months with officials from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport as well as the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to discuss a range of matters including collective licensing and how it could be part of the solution to the issues being discussed surrounding copyright and AI. I welcome the government’s decision to reset its approach to copyright and encourage them to use the working group meetings to examine the developments taking place in the licensing market and the progress there has been in the licensing market.