The law on copyright and performers’ rights exists to give creatives (in which term we include performers) control over the use of their work, so that they can earn a living from it. Performers entertain and inspire us every day. Their contribution is key to the huge economic importance of the UK’s film and television industries and the soft power it brings. We know how precarious making a living as a performer can be, so we strongly oppose any threat to erode performers’ legal rights.
The recent government consultation on Copyright and AI proposed introducing an exception that would allow AI developers to train their models on copyright works for free, unless creatives opt out and reserve their rights. We support creatives’ rights to choose whether or not their work is used for AI training and to get fairly paid if it is. An opt out system would simply be unworkable for most creatives because there is currently no reliable technical mechanism for opting out and once copies of their work are out there on the internet, they lose control of it. Opting out is particularly unsuitable for performers because each film or TV programme contains the work of many performers and they do not control how or where that film or TV programme is exploited. Yet performers are perhaps the most vulnerable of all creatives when it comes to the threat of being replaced by AI, since not only could their jobs be replaced or their style imitated, their very face, voice and mannerisms can be replicated by the creation of AI deepfakes.
AI developers have already illegally scraped billions of creative works to train their models without permission. They disingenuously claim that copyright law is uncertain. That is not true. However, their lack of transparency about what works have been used makes it impossible for creatives to enforce their rights and negotiate fair payment for the use of their work. AI developers expect to pay for the electricity that powers their data centres, so why should they expect to use copyright works to train their models for free?
BECS has responded to the government’s consultation, along with many other organisations representing creatives, raising these issues, opposing the proposed exception to copyright law and calling for legislation to introduce transparency requirements and combat the creation of deepfakes without permission.
We are part of the Creative Rights in AI Coalition, which is a broad group of organisations campaigning to ensure that creatives’ rights are not eroded for the benefit of AI developers and we support the Make It Fair Campaign.
Creative Rights In AI Coalition
