Unlawful use of creators’ content by Big Tech must end, says CRA
The Creators’ Rights Alliance, of which the NUJ is a member, has written to developers of AI systems opposing the unlawful use of protected works in the training, development or operation of AI models.
Members of the Creators’ Rights Alliance (CRA) represent 500,000 creators with data “regularly being taken without permission and used to train AI” wrote the organisation to developers in a letter circulated this month.
The letter states:
"We know that artificial intelligence, including generative AI programs can be useful tools. However, to safeguard human creativity, truthful content and the rights of authors, creators, and performers, it is vital that AI models are developed and used in a legal, sustainable, and ethical manner.
The CRA notes with concern the use of vast amounts of work protected by copyright and related rights without the authorisation of the rightsholder(s) and creator(s) in the development (including so-called training), and operation of AI models. This has caused and continues to cause great harm to the significant creative, human, and financial investment made by authors, performers, and visual creators.
UK law does not allow copying for such purposes without the explicit consent of the creator or their licensee/appointed representatives. Accordingly, the large-scale copying (including, but not limited to, extraction and transformation) that has been carried out to date amounts to copyright infringement for which rightsholders and creators should be compensated, along with the option of having their works, and derivations of those works, removed and, where permission is granted for them not to be removed, full credit for all uses past and present to be given."
The CRA has urged developers of all, but especially generative AI systems to:
- provide full transparency about the works which have been used to develop their model
- make detailed requests for any works they seek to use in future; To obtain authorisation (in advance) from the relevant creator and rightsholder, and where a rightsholder is licensing a catalogue of works to seek assurances that the creators of those works have specifically consented to the licensing arrangement
- offer appropriate remuneration for all uses - past and future
- give appropriate attribution to all creators concerned with the work, in all cases
- engage in good faith licensing negotiations to redress past bad practice, to remove from their systems any copyright protected works (including but not limited to literature, images, music, and performances) which has been used without authorisation (datasets and programs) and to show evidence of such removal
- respect the fact that there may be occasions where creators and/or their representatives may, on ethical and/or economic grounds, choose to withhold their consent for the use of their work.