Artist Protest Album, ICLE Comment Highlight Debate Over UK Copyright Consultation on AI

ICLE’s comments to the UK Copyright Consultation on AI and copyright laws were covered in this story in IP Watchdog. Click here to read the full article.

ICLE’s comment to the UK government’s official consultation on copyright and AI acknowledges that there are tradeoffs policymakers must make to protect the rights of copyright owners. However, ICLE argues that the consultation is too focused on reserving the rights of copyright owners before their works become inputs, missing the nascent yet broader market served by AI outputs that could go far in supporting the long-term interests of the protesting creators.

There is a fundamental tension underpinning copyright law between the commercial interests of creators and the societal interests in enabling widespread distribution and creative reuse, ICLE notes. This tension gives copyright law a hydraulic nature by which stronger creators’ rights often limit the market-creating impacts of new technologies like AI.