UK lawmakers back licensingfirst approach, adding pressure to global AI copyright standards

"Watering down the protections in our existing copyright regime to lure the biggest US tech companies is a race to the bottom that does not serve UK interests. We should not sacrifice our creative industries for AI jam tomorrow."

"A licensing-first regime cannot function without transparency. The report called for a statutory obligation requiring AI developers to disclose what data their models were trained on, backed by open technical standards for rights reservation, data provenance, and labelling of AI-generated content."

"Without those foundations, rights holders have no reliable way to establish whether their work has been used."

The UK House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee has issued recommendations requiring a 'licensing-first' approach to AI development, mandating that developers obtain licenses for copyrighted material before using it to train models. The committee demands the government enshrine this principle in policy, make disclosure of AI training data a statutory obligation, and reject proposed copyright exceptions allowing unlicensed training. The committee emphasizes that licensing-first requires transparency through statutory disclosure requirements, open technical standards for rights reservation, data provenance tracking, and labeling of AI-generated content. Without these foundations, rights holders cannot reliably verify whether their work has been used. The government must respond with mandatory policy by March 18 under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025.

Read at Computerworld