Oxford IP researchers cited in UK government report on copyright and generative AI
Oxford researchers have contributed their expertise to a UK government consultation on copyright issues around creative works being used to train generative AI models.
In December 2024, the UK Intellectual Property Office launched a consultation seeking the views of creative professionals, AI developers, legal practitioners and researchers on various legal issues arising from the development of generative AI models trained on creative works. The Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre (OIPRC) produced a detailed and comprehensive response to the consultation, while Professor Emily Hudson submitted a separate, more focused response on selected issues.
The government's intention was to assess the desirability of introducing a commercial text and data mining (TDM) exception allowing generative AI model developers to train models on creative works. This would potentially allow AI companies to include copyright works in their training datasets without obtaining licences from their authors, while also upholding authors' right to object to the inclusion of their works in those datasets via an opt-out mechanism.
However, the vast majority of responses rejected a new TDM exception and favoured a licensing solution, reinforcing the need for authors to retain control over their works and receive fair remuneration for the use made of them.
Having analysed more than 11,500 submissions, this month the government published its response to the consultation, announcing it was no longer pursuing a TDM exception. The report and impact assessment arising from the consultation cite both the OIPRC submission and Professor Hudson's contribution.
The OIPRC submission was mainly the product of its graduate research community. The team consisted of Professor Dev Gangjee, Söğüt Atilla, Lauren Crais, Jinghe Fan, Jyothsna Gurumurthy, Callum Harvey, Siobhan Mackenzie Hall, Mohammad Ataul Karim, Georgina Lubke, Juliana da Cunha Mota, Elisabeth Müller, Farah Nanji, Sarath Ninan Mathew, Aisling Railton, Tassilo Schwarz, Max Wong, Phoebe Woo, Zoya Yasmine, Yujie Zhao, and Desiree Cho.