With the 10-week government consultation period now over, the complex drive for an AI-copyright accord begins.

By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson

‘It’s Not Over ’til It’s Over!’

In working to assess the aftermath of the final push by the book business and nearby creative industries, the Publishers Association in London today (February 26) is sharing its appreciation for international support received during the two-and-a-half-month British government’s copyright-and-AI consultation period, which closed Tuesday night.

As one of Conway’s colleagues has pointed out in a note seen by Publishing Perspectives, “It’s not over ’til it’s over!” And, indeed, the consultation period was a gathering of comment, policy debate, and opinion ahead of the hard work of hammering out how British copyright law will look going forward.

Today, the Publishers Association’s offices have shared with us for our world readership the organization’s appreciation for the support of many international colleagues and associations during a protracted and concerted effort to address the UK government’s proposals for adjusting its copyright regime.

In addition to making common cause with entertainment and other cultural sectors in-country, the association reports, “We have worked with international publishing organizations to rally support for the Publishers Association, including an International Publishers Association (IPA)  joint letter signed by:

• The Association of American Publishers (AAP)
• The Association of Canadian Publishers (ACP)
• Associazione Italiana Editori, AIE, the Italian Book Publishers Association
• The Australian Publishers Association
• The Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, Germany’s publishers and booksellers association
• the Federation of European Publishers,
• The Kenya Publishers Association
• The Publishers Association of New Zealand
• Brazil’s Sindicato Nacional dos Editores de Livros (SNEL)
• STM, the International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers
• The Syndicat national de l’édition (SNE), the French Book Publishers Association

Other national organizations submitting individual letters of support for the UK Publishers Association’s position have come from Germany, France, Italy, Singapore, and the United States.

And in an essay written for The House magazine, Publishers Association CEO Dan Conway writes to Members of Parliament, “The end of the Copyright and AI consultation, and the heated debates and media coverage it has already sparked, is really just the beginning of what we expect to be a long and complex journey.

“Over the course of the 10-week consultation, it has been encouraging to see the extraordinary amount of parliamentary support for stronger copyright and AI regulation. From this point, your support in calling for the government to make considered and evidence-based choices will make the difference between an outcome which turbocharges growth and one which risks jeopardizing our position as a world-leader in academia, the arts and creativity.”

“As curators of high-quality, valued content, we are absolutely critical to the development and training of AI models. For AI to produce trusted content, not the fake citations or made-up facts that we need to guard against in an age of mis- and disinformation, models must be trained on high-quality inputs. “Dan Conway, Publishers Association

One of the key points Conway includes in his essay is about the perception by some of the controversy around AI and publishing.

“We are clear that AI is not the enemy. In fact, we see huge potential in AI. Who doesn’t share the government’s vision for using AI in a safe, ethical, and responsible way to help improve ailing public services, provide better outcomes for our health and wellbeing, and make our country run more efficiently?

“UK publishers are already using AI in their businesses to boost productivity. They are innovators in their own right, using AI across a range of content and products: connecting researchers with the high-quality resources and knowledge at the heart of our research ecosystem; helping teachers and learners engage with content and ideas in new and exciting ways; and bringing stories to life for readers of all ages.”

And Conway points out the essential irony in the fact that the very excellence of book publishing’s quality is what makes its work such a magnet to Big Tech.

“As curators of high-quality, valued content, we are absolutely critical to the development and training of AI models. For AI to produce trusted content, not the fake citations or made-up facts that we need to guard against in an age of mis- and disinformation, models must be trained on high-quality inputs. And lots of them. To put it bluntly, garbage in means garbage out. Fortunately, quality content is what the UK publishing industry does better than anyone else.”

What the Publishers Are Proposing

In this same essay, released on Tuesday (February 25) ahead of the midnight closing of the consultation, Conway lays out the fundamental steps in his association’s and the creative sector’s vision 0f the path forward.

A key to his message is not just transparency, as it’s expressed, but unity of purpose and effort. He writes:

“Our vision starts with the government, tech, and creative sectors working together constructively. That means setting aside reductive views such as ‘copyright just isn’t clear’ and harnessing our best legal, technological and business brains to work on a practical and implementable solution.

“A first step the government could take is to put into place legislation to ensure transparency, so that AI developers must keep records of the content that they are using and disclose these to rightsholders. This would form the basis of a fair commercial marketplace.

“Next, we should carefully examine what is currently working and could be scaled—and that is licensing deals. These would give AI developers legal certainty to use specific content while ensuring rights holders are compensated. Licensing deals have been successful worldwide and align with existing copyright law, but we would need this to work for publishers of all sectors, sizes and specialisms.

“And we need all parties to commit to the principle that AI opportunities can be incentivized without allowing publishers’ content – as well as news articles, songs, photographs and art – to be simply taken.

“In that way, our vision spells growth and new opportunities for creatives, publishers, tech and the UK economy.”

‘We Wish To Opt Out of the Opt-Out’

In a mid-month leader piece at The Bookseller in London—The Time Has Come To Hold the Line on Copyright Before It’s Too Late—editor Philip Jones sounded an alarm for continued engagement, a proactive posture both welcoming to interlocutors but also resolute in what’s critical.

He was not talking about the period of the consultation. He was talking about this period, the aftermath—now.

Jones wrote, with his trademark insight,  “We speak with many voices across this business, but on this we can be aligned.

“At an AI-themed dinner I attended, one participant blurted out: ‘No-one cares about copyright.’

“We must prove them wrong, and put the government on notice that we wish to opt out of the opt-out.”

And with the consultation period now over, the Publishers Association has released its formal response to the government, a document that you can read here (PDF).

While we’ll leave it to you to read this detailed, comprehensive 46-page document, the sticking point about the government’s proposal, you’ll find, arrives quickly, on Page 2 among “key points.”  This serves as a simple and concise statement of what the creative sector is looking for and the logic behind its position. And it’s important for many of our world markets to realize that a formative negotiation now is underway in London, one that could very well impact what far-flung governments do about the AI-copyright debate.

From the Publishers Association’s response:

“The proposed new copyright exception (referred to as Option 3) shifts the default to one in which copyright works can be used without permission, unless the rights holder has successfully opted out. The case has not been objectively made for an exception, which is a legal intervention normally only deployed in circumstances of market failure. The market for generative AI is developing, not failing, and the appropriate mechanism for that development is a legal, ethical, sustainable, and secure manner is licensing.”

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A Programming Note

On London Book Fair‘s opening day, March 11 at a 3 p.m. GMT, a discussion on the Olympia London Main Stage will feature the Publishers Association ‘s Dan Conway and the Association of American Publishers‘ president and CEO, Maria A. Pallante on AI and Copyright: Policy Developments in the UK and US.

Clearly, the timing of the close of the government’s open consultation will make this a timely conversation, to be moderated by Publishing Perspectives.

A description of this presentation reads, “AI is here to stay and so are the policy debates that will shape its development and deployment for years to come. “In particular, many publishers around the world are watching developments in the UK and US, where regulators, legislators, and courts are weighing legal disputes and policy proposals that could have global ramifications for copyright laws.

“Join us for a British, American, and decidedly human discussion on the most important issue of the day.”

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See also: ‘The Great Copyright Heist Cannot Go Unchallenged’

More from Publishing Perspectives on artificial intelligence is here; more on copyright and international book publishing is here; and more on the United Kingdom’s book business is here.

Publishing Perspectives is the International Publishers Association’s world media partner.