Budget: NMA Welcomes Government Consultation With Rightsholders Over New Technologies

The opportunities presented by new and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence must not lead to the erosion of protections for rightsholders which are critical for their businesses, the News Media Association has said.

Delivering the budget, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said the government will accept all of the recommendations from Sir Patrick Vallance’s review into pro-innovation regulation of digital technologies.

The review noted that the relationship between intellectual property law and generative AI is “unclear” and there remained a “lack of regulatory clarity as to the direction of” text and data mining reforms.

Government should announce a clear policy position on the relationship between intellectual property law and generative AI to provide confidence to innovators and investors, it added.

In December, the NMA welcomed the government’s indication that it was calling a halt to plans to introduce a new far reaching copyright exception which content creators feared would have a “severe negative impact” on UK rights holders such as news media publishers.

NMA chief executive Owen Meredith said: “The government’s confirmation that it will abandon potentially hugely damaging reforms to the copyright regime and instead consult extensively with rightsholders is very welcome.

“The opportunities presented by new and emerging technologies must not lead to the erosion of protections for rightsholders which are critical for their businesses.

“We look forward to working with government on these important issues to ensure the right balance is found between properly protecting rightsholders who invest heavily in original content and making the most of new technologies to unleash economic potential that benefits the whole economy.”

Published alongside the budget yesterday, Sir Patrick Vallance’s review said promoting an innovative AI industry in the UK should utilise existing protections of copyright and IP law on the output of AI.

The review added: “To increase confidence and accessibility of protection to copyright holders of their content as permitted by law, we recommend that the government requires the IPO to provide clearer guidance to AI firms as to their legal responsibilities, to coordinate intelligence on systematic copyright infringement by AI, and to encourage development of AI tools to help enforce IP rights.”

In response, government said the Intellectual Property Office will bring forward a code of practice in the summer after convening a group of AI firms and rights holders to identify barriers for users of data mining techniques when accessing copyright materials.