Big Ben in London near the Houses of Parliament. Image – Getty: Edoardo Oliva
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
‘Continue To Make a Strong Case’
On Tuesday afternoon (June 10), the creative sector in the United Kingdom suffered yet another setback on the progress of the “Data Bill” when the Baroness Kidron’s latest amendments were defeated, yet again, in the House of Commons, 304 to 189.
Kidron has said that she won’t table any more of the amendments she has repeatedly championed and therefore, barring anything unexpected, the Data (Use and Access) Bill will pass.
The amendments that Kidron has tried to make stick would have required generative AI companies to inform stakeholders of their work being used to train large language models, creating an unprecedented burden of transparency in the text-gathering work of these systems.
Repeated moves of the bill, however, between the House of Lords and the House of Commons had not succeeded in getting transparency measures attached, and an opt-out measure, requiring stakeholders to register that they’d opted their work out of availability, has been intensely in sufficient to many in book publishing and other creative industries.
“With the Data Bill nearing its completion, we want to reassure the industry that the Publishers Association will continue to make a strong case for the sector in this vitally important policy area.”Dan Conway, Publishers Association
Harry Taylor today has reported in The Independent that following this long saga, there have been many expressions of deep bitterness expressed in both houses.
“Baroness Kidron, who directed the second Bridget Jones film,” Taylor writes, “had put forward an amendment aiming to ensure copyright holders could see when their work had been used, which was overwhelmingly passed by the Lords for the second time last week. However this has not won government backing.
“In a concession to win around the Lords, the government has instead said it will give a parliamentary statement six months after the passage of the bill, where it will update MPs and peers on an economic impact assessment, and a report on the use of copyright works in the development of AI.”
The upshot doesn’t look good for what book industry players and colleagues in their nearby creative industries had hoped for.
Dan Conway: ‘Recently Announced Working Groups’
Dan Conway
Dan Conway, CEO of the Publishers Association, is one of the most prominent voices for the creative industries throughout the long saga of the Data Bill in the United Kingdom.
He has provided the news media with a comment today, saying, “With the Data Bill nearing its completion, we want to reassure the industry that the Publishers Association will continue to make a strong case for the sector in this vitally important policy area.
“We intend to participate in the government’s recently announced working groups and will encourage parliamentarians who have an interest in the creative industries to join the parliamentary working group. This is a marathon, not a sprint.”
More from Publishing Perspectives on artificial intelligence is here; more on copyright and international book publishing is here; more on the United Kingdom’s market is here; and more on the UK’s Publishers Association is here. Publishing Perspectives on artificial intelligence is here; more on copyright and international book publishing is here; more on the United Kingdom’s market is here, and more on the UK’s Publishers Association is here.