UK peers warn weakening AI copyright law could hammer creative industries

Summary

The House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee warns that loosening UK copyright to allow wider commercial text and data mining (TDM) for AI training risks serious harm to the nation’s creative industries. The report argues that the creative sector — which generated £124 billion in 2023 and employs 2.4 million people — must not be sacrificed to favour a relatively smaller AI sector (about £12 billion and 86,000 jobs in 2024).

Committee chair Baroness Barbara Keeley says uncredited, unremunerated use of copyrighted works to train models produces imitations that undercut creators’ livelihoods. The committee urges the government not to introduce a TDM exception with an opt-out for commercial AI training and instead to strengthen protections against unauthorised digital replicas and “in the style of” uses.

Key Points

The Lords committee says weakening copyright for AI training risks damaging a £124bn creative sector that supports 2.4m jobs.
The report warns a commercial TDM exception would hurt rightsholders and could stall a fair licensing market for training data.
Baroness Barbara Keeley highlights uncredited, unremunerated ingestion of photographers’, musicians’ and authors’ work by AI models, which can then produce imitations that harm creators’ earnings.
The committee calls on ministers not to introduce a TDM exception with an opt-out for commercial models and to strengthen protections against unauthorised digital replicas and “in the style of” outputs.
There are signs of government leaning towards TDM proposals (a late-2024 consultation), but media reports say ministers may delay changes after industry backlash; over 400 creatives previously wrote to the prime minister seeking transparency and protections.
High-profile creatives including Paul McCartney, Elton John and Coldplay have backed efforts to defend creators’ rights.

Context and Relevance

This report arrives amid a broader global debate on how copyright should adapt to AI. The Lords committee frames the choice as immediate economic and cultural risk versus speculative future tech gains — noting the creative sector’s current economic heft far exceeds the AI sector’s present contribution. The committee’s stance is likely to influence UK policy discussions on TDM exceptions, licensing frameworks and measures to prevent unauthorised imitation and identity misuse by generative models.

For creators, rights holders and policymakers, the report signals potential regulatory resistance to proposals that enable large-scale, opt-out training on copyrighted content without payment or attribution. It also underscores the political weight creators can bring to the debate: high-profile signatories and intense industry lobbying have already affected ministerial timing and messaging.

Why should I read this?

If you care about British music, film, books or art (or run a business that depends on them), this is a quick and loud heads-up. The Lords are basically saying: don’t give away the shops to a few big US AI firms in exchange for vague promises. Read it to know where policy might head next and what it could mean for jobs, licensing and who gets paid when AI eats your work.

Source

Source: https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2026/03/06/lords_ai_copyright/