Hi there,
As some of you may know, Mumsnet is part of the Creative Rights in AI Coalition, which is a group of organisations concerned about the threat that unlicensed use of copyrighted content by AI firms poses to creatives and publishers. Last year, Mumsnet was the first company to begin legal proceedings against tech giant OpenAI in the UK. We became aware they were scraping our site in order to train their large language model - in a breach of both our terms of use and copyright law. When we suggested they might like to license our content, after some prevarication, they told us that they were more interested in ‘less open’ sources of data. In fact, they had already stolen it all.
The government is currently consulting on this issue, and has put forward proposals to give AI companies a widespread exemption to creative copyright. In effect, this means that artists and publishers like Mumsnet will be required to opt out of the scraping of their work or have it taken without consent or payment to build AI models - akin to saying it's ok for someone to burgle your house unless you’ve put a sign up with their name on telling them not to.
We strongly disagree with the government’s approach, and think that politicians should instead prioritise ensuring that current copyright laws are respected and enforceable. Next week, MPs will have the chance to vote on amendments to the Data (Use and Access) Bill that would do just that, protecting creators by giving us meaningful transparency over what works AI firms have used. This will allow creators and publishers to identify copyright infringement and negotiate a fair deal with AI firms for the use of our content.
You can show your support by using this tool to contact your MP and asking them to vote for these amendments in the House of Commons on May 7th.
Thanks,
MNHQ