Government urged to rethink 'catastrophic' data-mining exemption plans

Government plans that could allow third parties to use the content of publicly available video or audio recordings without the need for permission could have "potentially devastating consequences" for the creative industries and "catastrophic implications" for performers, Equity has warned.

The union’s audio committee has urged the government to rethink a so-called "data mining exemption", which Equity said would allow any video or sound recording that is publicly available to be mined for free by third parties to generate new artificial intelligence content, without the consent of the copyright owner.

It accused the government of prioritising the interests of technology companies to the "detriment of the interest of the creative workforce".

Equity’s Audio Committee has written an open letter to Dean Russell, the newly appointed minister for enterprise and markets, calling on the government to abandon its recent proposals on AI and intellectual property.

The letter reads: "As you will know, the use of AI is advancing significantly and can be found in nearly every sector of the economy, which includes the performing arts and entertainment industry. 

"This is transforming the labour market as well as the production and publication of audio and audio-visual content. However, as highlighted by Equity’s campaign Stop AI Stealing the Show, the existing intellectual property framework has not kept pace with technological development and does not provide audio artists and other UK-based performers with the legal protections they need to control the exploitation of their image, voice and likeness."

The letter goes on to share concerns over the government’s approach to regulating AI.

"Expanding the exception to any purpose and not allowing rights holders to opt out will have potentially devastating consequences for the creative industry and its workforce. We are particularly concerned that the data-mining exception will facilitate, if not encourage, infringing or inappropriate use of protected performances, at scale by fostering a ’free for all’ culture towards mining IP-protected content," the letter states. 

"Performers will be particularly vulnerable to exploitation as they have less control over how their work is distributed and often cannot remove their performance from the internet or have it protected in sites which require lawful access," it adds, urging the new minister to "abandon the proposed data-mining exemption or at the very least specify in the legislation that it does not include data of an individual’s image, voice or likeness".

You can read the letter in full here.

The government has been approached for comment.