Late in 2024 the UK Government launched a consultation on potential changes to copyright law that would, it claimed, support the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) companies in the UK. The consultation outlined a series of options – ranging from no change at all to a complete exception for AI companies looking to train their models on copyrighted material. The Government’s ‘preferred option’ was to allow AI developers to use copyrighted works as training data unless rightsholders explicitly opted out.
The creative industries universally rejected the proposal. Comic Book UK added our industry’s voice to this, with a consultation response that highlighted how the preferred option would be unfeasible to operate in practice; fail to provide rights holders with appropriate control over and means to seek remuneration for the use of their content and properties; and inhibit the growth of both the AI and comics industries. We also became an active member of the Creative Rights in AI Coalition supporting campaigning activity to convince the Government to think again.
The Government has now formally responded to the outcomes of the consultation, confirming that it will not pursue the option. It will instead look to gather further evidence in order to strike the right balance between protecting creative industries and enabling AI‑driven innovation and growth.
In the short term, this is good news for comics. The UK comics industry produces hundreds of thousands of pages of new material every year and holds some of the world’s most extensive archives of historic content. Ruling out measures that would, in effect, have seen these assets given away for nothing is the right thing to do both ethically and economically.
But there is more to be done in making sure that AI-driven growth has a positive impact on our industry.
The fast emergence of generative AI creates opportunities for businesses in every industry to innovate – and comics is no exception. But this innovation must work for rather than against the interests of the UK comic industry.
A robust licensing system that creates the conditions for rights holders and AI developers to negotiate deals could be a major driver of growth in UK comics. Whether it be independent creators with self-published material, or major publishers with extensive IP and content libraries, all in comics must be in control of how their material is – or is not – used for AI development. And those that choose to allow their material to be used must see the full value of doing so.
The Government must therefore ensure that the further research it is now doing leads to a system where:
- Rights holders are able to exercise full control over how their content and properties are used for AI training purposes;
- Rights holders can be appropriately remunerated for any use of their material in AI training;
- The UK assumes a position as a global leader in copyright protection and AI data licensing to attract inward investment from comics (and other rights holding) companies from high-value markets around the world;
- AI developers have certainty over the material that is and is not permitted for use to train models, and are made to exercise full transparency about the data their models have been trained on.
Comic Book UK will continue to work with partners in Government and across the wider creative industries to ensure these aims are met.
