Arts organisations launch Creative Rights in AI Coalition

Florence Lockheart
Monday, December 16, 2024

The new coalition is calling on the government to protect copyright and support growth in the creative sector

The newly-formed Creative Rights in AI Coalition has brought together rights holders including publishers, authors, artists, music businesses, specialist interest publications, unions, and photographers to call on government to protect copyright.

The coalition has published three key principles for copyright and Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) policy, focusing on ‘a dynamic licensing market with robust protections for copyright’, ‘control and transparency for content creators’, and ‘driving growth and innovation in the creative and tech sectors’.  

The coalition has also released a statement, saying: ‘Protecting copyright and building a dynamic licensing market for the use of creative content in building generative AI (GAI) isn’t just a question of fairness: it’s the only way that both sectors will flourish and grow. The UK creative industries generate well over £100 billion annually. We have, quite literally, earned the right to have our voice heard. The key to that success, and future growth, is copyright law.

‘We support the government’s mission for long-term, secure growth in the creative and tech sectors. We are eager to see the development of a vibrant licensing market and support the sectors which rely on us for their future prosperity, but we can only do so with a robust copyright framework which preserves our exclusive rights to control our works and thereby act as a safeguard against misuse.

‘Ours is a positive vision, a vision of collaboration between the creative industries and generative AI developers, where we can all flourish in the online marketplace. We call on the government and the tech sector to join us in building a future that values, protects, and promotes human creativity.’

The coalition launch is supported by new polling from Reset Tech and YouGov which found that 72 per cent of respondents said AI companies should be required to pay royalties to the creators of text, audio, or video that they use to train AI models, and 80 per cent said AI companies should be required to make public all the information that their models have been trained upon. 

Members of the Creative Rights in AI Coalition are listed below:

  • Independent Society of Musicians
  • DMG Media
  • Association of Photographers
  • Association of Online Publishers
  • Professional Publishers Association
  • NLA Media Access Limited
  • Publishers' Licensing Services
  • Association of Illustrators
  • PRS for Music
  • News Media Association
  • Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers
  • International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers
  • Publishers Association
  • Copyright Licensing Agency
  • The Associated Press
  • The Society of Artists Agents
  • European Publishers Council
  • Society of Editors
  • Independent Publishers Alliance
  • British Copyright Council
  • Society of Authors
  • News Media Europe
  • Pan Macmillan
  • Association of Authors' Agents
  • Financial Times
  • Creators’ Rights Alliance
  • Guardian News & Media
  • Authors' Licencing and Collecting Society
  • Mumsnet
  • Artists’ Collecting Society
  • Music Publishers Association
  • Picture Industry Collecting Society for Effective Licensing
  • Getty Images
  • British Phonographic Industry
  • Association of Independent Music
  • CILIP - the library and information association
  • PPL (Phonographic Performance Ltd)
  • UK Music
  • Independent Publishers Guild
  • Motion Picture Association
  • Telegraph Media Group