UK creative bodies demand ‘transparency’ around AI in letter to tech majors

Creators’ Rights Alliance letter

Dear Chief Executive,

Protected Works

Wednesday 7th August 2024

We are writing to you on behalf of our 500,000-plus creator members in relation to the use of their work to develop generative AI models. This letter reaffirms that members of the Creators’ Rights Alliance and the creators they represent do not authorise or otherwise grant permission for the use of any of their works protected by copyright and/or related rights (including performers rights) in relation to, without limitation, the training, development, or operation of AI models, including large language models, diffusion models, generative or other any other AI products, unless the creators have specifically agreed licensing arrangements.

The Creators’ Rights Alliance (CRA) is a coalition that exists to promote, protect and further the interests of creators through policy, advocacy, and campaigning work. We speak on behalf of major creator-led groups, trade associations, and unions, between them representing over 500,000 individual members working as professional creators in the UK’s creative industries – from authors, artists, photographers and illustrators to translators, performers, musicians, and journalists.

We know that artificial intelligence, including generative AI programs can be useful tools. However, to safeguard human creativity, truthful content and the rights of authors, creators, and performers, it is vital that AI models are developed and used in a legal, sustainable, and ethical manner.

The CRA notes with concern the use of vast amounts of work protected by copyright and related rights without the authorisation of the rightsholder(s) and creator(s) in the development (including so-called training), and operation of AI models. This has caused and continues to cause great harm to the significant creative, human, and financial investment made by authors, performers, and visual creators.

UK law does not allow copying for such purposes without the explicit consent of the creator or their licensee/appointed representatives. Accordingly, the large-scale copying (including, but not limited to, extraction and transformation) that has been carried out to date amounts to copyright infringement for which rightsholders and creators should be compensated, along with the option of having their works, and derivations of those works, removed and, where permission is granted for them not to be removed, full credit for all uses past and present to be given.

We would draw your attention to the report from the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee Inquiry into Large Language Models (LLMs), to which Society of Authors provided evidence, which supported the fact that tech firms should not use copyright-protected works without permission or compensation, that there should be support for licensing, and that there should be transparency for rightsholders.

The House of Commons Innovation, Science and Technology Committee also published a Legacy Report on 29th May 2024, the report outlines twelve clear challenges for AI Governance.

For the avoidance of doubt, our members do not accept that any AI platform had or has the right to use their work without an express license, or their personal data without express consent.

We call on developers of all, but especially generative, AI systems:

1. To provide full transparency about the works which have been used to develop their model;
2. To make detailed requests for any works they seek to use in future;
3. To obtain authorisation (in advance) from the relevant creator and rightsholder, and where a rightsholder is licensing a catalogue of works to seek assurances that the creators of those works have specifically consented to the licensing arrangement
4. To offer appropriate remuneration for all uses - past and future;
5. To give appropriate attribution to all creators concerned with the work, in all cases;
6. To engage in good faith licensing negotiations to redress past bad practice, to remove from their systems any copyright protected works (including but not limited to literature, images, music, and performances) which has been used without authorisation (datasets and programs) and to show evidence of such removal;
7. To respect the fact that there may be occasions where creators and/or their representatives may, on ethical and/or economic grounds, choose to withhold their consent for the use of their work.

We urge developers to agree terms on a commercial basis with respective rightsholders and where those rightsholders are not the creators themselves, to satisfy themselves that creators have given specific consent. Licensing opportunities already exist, and additional models are being developed to facilitate yet more good work. The CRA and its members would welcome your engagement in progressing these models to ensure that all our creative work makes for a prosperous and vibrant future for everyone.

Signed,

Association of Authors’ Agents
Association of British Science Writers
Association of Illustrators
Association of Photographers
Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society
British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies
British Equity Collection Society
Design and Artists Copyright Society
Directors UK
Equity
Featured Artists Coalition
Independent Society of Musicians
Ivors Academy
Music Managers Forum
Musicians’ Union
National Union of Journalists
Picture Industry Collecting Society for Effective Licensing
The Royal Photographic Society
The Society of Authors
Society of Artists Agents
Writers’ Guild of Great Britain