Sir Keir Starmer has been left red-faced after a leading KC warned his Government’s proposed AI copyright exception goes against international law.
The Prime Minister prides himself on his credentials as a human rights lawyer who once argued a case in the International Court of Justice.
But a legal opinion from top copyright lawyer Nicholas Caddick KC says that Sir Keir’s plan may break the Berne Convention – which established that creators’ work is protected the moment it is written or recorded.
Leading figures from the music world, including Sir Elton John, Sir Brian May and Simon Cowell, have backed a Mail campaign on the issue, but Britain’s £126billion creative industries have so far been unable to persuade Labour to change tack.
It is hoped that this appeal to Sir Keir’s adoration of international treaties may succeed.
Composer and impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber said: ‘The dire situation the entire UK creative industry faces if copyright is not protected is shameful. We can’t just sit back and let this happen.
‘Today marks the beginning of more robust action. The Government has not listened to common sense – perhaps legal opinion will be more persuasive.’
Tech firms copy news articles, music, books, films and art to train their AI models without paying publishers and creators.
Sir Keir Starmer has been left red-faced after a leading KC warned his Government’s proposed AI copyright exception goes against international law
Top copyright lawyer Nicholas Caddick KC says that Sir Keir’s plan may break the Berne Convention – which established that creators’ work is protected the moment it is written or recorded
Leading figures from the music world, including Sir Elton John, Sir Brian May and Simon Cowell, have backed a Mail campaign on the issue
Current copyright laws stipulate that creators get automatic protection and should be compensated if it is found that their works have been stolen.
But the Government opened a consultation in December and said it favours a response that grants AI firms a copyright exception.
It would allow Big Tech to pillage British artists’ work for free to train their models – unless creators choose to ‘opt out’ of letting them do so.
The Berne Convention was used previously to successfully argue against a provision of French law which allowed a copyright collecting society to exploit out-of-print books unless the rights holders lodged an opposition.
Mr Caddick’s legal opinion, which formed part of the Publishers Association response to the Government consultation, argues that the proposed AI ‘opt out’ exception ‘would seem to be an even clearer example of a breach’ than this precedent.
Creators must be given the ‘exclusive right to authorise reproduction of their works’ under the Berne Convention.
The only exception is if they satisfy the conditions of the ‘three-step test’.
Put simply, the conditions are: the exception must apply only in specific, special cases; the use must not deprive the rights holders of income; it must not harm the copyright owner’s interest.
Mr Caddick believes Labour’s proposal contravenes at least two, if not all three of the conditions.
AI Artist Refik Anadol, whose works sell for £1.5million, has joined calls by the creative industries for Labour to rethink their plan
He said the proposal ‘is not limited to certain special cases’ and would potentially ‘deprive rights holders of tangible commercial gains’.
As the ‘opt out’ is likely to ‘place all of the risk and administrative burden on rights holders’, the plan will probably contravene the third step, too.
A Government spokesman said: ‘The Berne Convention does not make any specific provisions for the interaction of copyright law and artificial intelligence.
‘The Government will continue to consider all international legal commitments and obligations… and any eventual solution will take all of these into account.’
