Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords]

Debate between Jen Craft and Polly Billington

Wednesday 7th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jen Craft (Thurrock) (Lab)]

I rise to support the Government’s amendments and new clauses, particularly new clause 16, which addresses the relationship between artificial intelligence and copyright and which I strongly welcome. By slightly broadening the scope of the Bill, the amendments demonstrate Ministers’ attention to this pressing detail and reflect some of the comments by colleagues and the creative sector.

The existing legal framework with regard to copyright is not fit for purpose in the face of new and developing AI technologies. Colleagues who have much greater expertise and knowledge than me have contributed to this debate, but I want to offer a reflection and draw attention to the experience of an individual—one of my constituents—as I believe it highlights the real human impact that big tech companies can have in running rampant over copyright laws.

My constituent, Susan, is an author. She has had 32 of her books and, she calculates, more than 1 million published words used by Meta without her consent. The pirating of material has serious human impacts on those in the creative industries. Susan’s life work and source of income was downgraded and devalued almost instantaneously. Her intellectual property was accessed without her permission and used to inform an AI system designed to mimic her work. Susan described that to me and said that she felt violated, as if someone had come into her house and stolen her things, and she is not alone.

I have been contacted by other professionals in the creative industries in my constituency who have also had published material used without their consent by AI. A local author has had their works harnessed through an online library of pirated books, and a local illustrator said that her work was scraped to train an AI model with images and videos taken from websites and social media without her permission. That practice is widespread and plainly wrong, even to a lay observer who is not versed in technical expertise, yet rightsholders are often impotent against big tech companies and their sizeable financial and legal assets.

[Ms Billington]

I observe that there is an issue of territoriality here. We have actually managed to get carve-outs and protect this country from deepfakes, for example; if something is made abroad, it cannot be used in this country. Does my hon. Friend agree that we should be able to have similar carve-outs for creatives, such as her constituent and my constituents, so that if AI-generated material is made elsewhere, it cannot be deployed in this country, in order to preserve a proper legislative framework to protect the rights of our creatives?

[Jen Craft]

My hon. Friend highlights a very strong issue. I agree that our current copyright laws are basically being infringed on and people who are rightsholders are unable to seek the recourse that they fully deserve under the law. There should be a carve-out, so that if there is illegal content in this country, people should have recourse to the law and be able to protect their own copyrighted material. I am pleased to see the Government commit to action on this complex issue. I hope that time will be allowed in the House for us to scrutinise this issue and to investigate properly the impact of policy options, which will be considered as part of the consultation.

I understand the complexities of legislating in this area, but those in the creative industries want to see action now, which is understandable. We must create a system that can feasibly and effectively enforce existing copyright law, bring transparency in the use of materials by AI systems, and remunerate rights holders. I support the Government’s plans to do this through primary legislation with proper scrutiny of the measures, rather than through an addendum to a broader piece of legislation. However, I appreciate that there is a balance to be struck—where growth is supported in both the creative and tech industries—but creatives must never be expected to forfeit their rights to serve that purpose.

As my constituent is at pains to point out, real people and real livelihoods are already being impacted by unregulated AI. It is crucial that we get this right, and provide much needed legal certainty to protect intellectual property in the creative industries. This must happen soon, because, while infringements of copyright law go unaddressed, it is those in our vital creative industries who are losing out.