House of Lords urges UK government to protect IP against AI misuse | Computer Weekly

"The report's authors questioned tech industry claims that introducing a new commercial text and data mining (TDM) exception for AI training would significantly expand the AI sector. They warned that weakening the UK's copyright law in this way would exacerbate existing harms to rightsholders and stall the emerging licensing market."

"John Collomosse, director of DECaDE, told the committee that, at each stage of the AI lifecycle, the challenge facing rightsholders is how to meaningfully control whether their work is used and under what terms, and how they can gain an opportunity to share in the value created by the model outputs."

"One of the proposed ways to protect copyrighted content is the idea of open provenance standards, such as the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) specification, which, when combined with watermarking and fingerprinting, would mean durable, machine-readable signals are attached to individual assets."

The House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee cautioned the government against allowing copyright changes that would benefit AI development at the expense of creative industries. The committee rejected tech industry arguments that a new commercial text and data mining exception for AI training would significantly expand the sector. Instead, weakening copyright protections would increase harm to rightsholders and damage emerging licensing markets. Witnesses emphasized that technical measures including attribution, transparency, licensing, and remuneration mechanisms are essential. Open provenance standards like C2PA, combined with watermarking and fingerprinting, could provide machine-readable signals attached to creative assets, enabling creators to control usage and share in value generated by AI models.

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