Ministers have used an arcane parliamentary procedure to block an amendment to the data bill that would require artificial intelligence companies to disclose their use of copyright-protected content.
The government stripped the transparency amendment, which was backed by peers in the bill’s reading in the House of Lords last week, out of the draft text by invoking financial privilege, meaning there is no budget available for new regulations, during a Commons debate on Wednesday afternoon.
The amendment, which would have required tech companies to reveal which copyrighted material is used in their models, was tabled by the crossbench peer Beeban Kidron and was passed by 272 votes to 125 in a Lords debate last week.
There were 297 MPs who voted in favour of removing the amendment, while 168 opposed.
The data protection minister, Chris Bryant, told MPs that although he recognised that for many in the creative industries this “feels like an apocalyptic moment”, he did not think the transparency amendment delivered the required solutions, and he argued that changes needed to be completed “in the round and not just piecemeal”.
The sooner the data bill was passed, the quicker he would be able to make progress on updating copyright law, Bryant said.
Lady Kidron said: “The government failed to answer its own backbenchers who repeatedly asked ‘if not now then when?’ and the minister replied with roundtable reviews and spurious problems about technical solutions. It is for government to set the laws and incentivise companies to obey it not run roundtables trying to work out technical solutions that they are not fit to provide.
“It is astonishing that a Labour government would abandon the labour force of an entire sector. My inbox is filled with individual artists and global companies who are bewildered that the government would allow theft at scale and cosy up to those who are thieving. There is another way, but this government have chosen to ignore it.
“Across the creative and business community, across parliament, people are gobsmacked that the government is playing parliamentary chess with their livelihoods.”
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Kidron will table a rephrased amendment before the bill’s return to the Lords next week, setting the scene for another confrontation. This could include removing the reference to regulation, or omitting a timeframe for it to be implemented.
Owen Meredith, the chief executive of the News Media Association, said: “It is extremely disappointing that the government has failed to listen to the deep concerns of the creative industries, including news publishers who are so fundamental to uploading our democratic values, by rejecting the House of Lords amendments that would have given a workable and proportionate level of transparency to creators over the use of their works by AI.
“Instead, the government has used parliamentary procedure to dismiss industry concerns, rather than taking this timely opportunity to introduce the transparency that will drive a dynamic licensing market for the UK’s immensely valuable creative content. There is still time for parliament to back our great British creative industries, while supporting AI firms’ access to high-quality data, as the bill heads back to the Lords. The government must recognise the urgent need to take the necessary powers now.”
Last week, hundreds of artists and organisations including Paul McCartney, Jeanette Winterson, Dua Lipa and the Royal Shakespeare Company urged the prime minister not to “give our work away at the behest of a handful of powerful overseas tech companies”.
The government’s copyright proposals are the subject of a consultation due to report back this year, but opponents of the plans have used the data bill as a vehicle for registering their disapproval.
The main government proposal is to let AI firms use copyright-protected work to build their models without permission unless the copyright holders opt out – a solution that critics say is unworkable.
The government insists that the creative and tech sectors are being held back and this needs to be resolved through new legislation. It has already tabled one concession in the data bill by committing to an economic impact assessment of its proposals.
A Department for Science, Innovation and Technology spokesperson said: “We want our creative industries and AI companies to flourish, which is why we have been separately consulting on a package of measures that we hope will work for both sectors. We have always been clear that we will not rush into any decisions or bring forward any legislation until we are confident that we have a practical plan which delivers on each of our objectives.”
