Wednesday, May 21, 2025
Ping pong over Artificial Intelligence
The paper says that peers voted 287 to 118, a majority of 169, to amend the Data (Use and Access) Bill, echoing concerns raised by prominent artists like Sir Elton John and Sir Paul McCartney about AI companies using copyrighted material without consent:
The amendment mandates transparency requirements, ensuring copyright holders can identify when and by whom their work is utilised.
Peers backed independent crossbencher Baroness Beeban Kidron’s transparency amendments at report stage of the Bill, which were later voted down by MPs.
The unelected house supported her again during the first round of so-called ping-pong and now again in the second round of ping-pong, with the majority increasing each time.
The Government has said it will address copyright issues as a whole after the more than 11,500 responses to its consultation on the impact of AI have been reviewed, rather than in what it has branded “piecemeal” legislation.
Lady Kidron, who directed the second film in the Bridget Jones series, rounded on the Government, accusing them of being “turned by the sweet whisperings of Silicon Valley”.
She said: “The Government have got it wrong. They have been turned by the sweet whisperings of Silicon Valley, who have stolen – and continue to steal every day we take no action – the UK’s extraordinary, beautiful and valuable creative output.
“Silicon Valley have persuaded the Government that it is easier for them to redefine theft than make them pay for what they stole.
“If the Government continues on its current intransigent path, we will begin to see the corrosion of our powerful industry, fundamental to country and democracy. It will be a tragedy and it’s entirely avoidable.”
The online safety campaigner explained that her new amendment accepts that the Government’s consultation and report will be the mechanism by which transparency measures will be introduced, and gives the Government free rein on enforcement procedures.
However, it does require the Government to ensure clear, relevant and accessible information is provided to copyright holders so they can identify the use of their copyrighted work, and that legislation is to be brought forward within six months of the Government’s report being published, 18 months from the Bill’s passing.
Lady Kidron told peers: “If the Government is not willing to accept a time-limited outcome of its own report, we must ask again if the report is simply a political gesture to push tackling widespread theft of UK copyright into the long grass.
“Because failing to accept a timeline in the real world means starving UK industries of the transparency they need to survive.”
She insisted that UK copyright law as it stands is unenforceable, because “what you can’t see you can’t enforce”, and that without her amendment it will be years before the issue is legislated on, by which time the creative industry will be “in tatters”.
This is an important issue and clearly the House of Lords feel strongly enough to take things all the way. Surely it is time for the government to come up with some sort of compromise.
