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The Publishers Association welcomes that ‘copyright is off the table’ in Tech Prosperity Deal
Dan Conway, CEO of the Publishers Association, has welcomed the news that “copyright is off the table” regarding the newly revealed ‘Tech Prosperity Deal’.
Major US tech firms have promised tens of billions of pounds worth of investment in the UK as part of a £31bn agreement, the ‘Tech Prosperity Deal’, between the UK government and several US tech giants as part of President Donald Trump’s second state visit to the UK, as reported by the BBC. The deal, announced on Tuesday (16th September) will see Google, Nvidia and others invest in British-based infrastructure including data centres as well as the creation of a new supercomputer in Essex.
On Wednesday (17th September), the new Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, the Rt Hon Liz Kendall MP, was asked by Nick Robinson on Radio 4’s Today Programme whether the government has given any guarantees on copyright to the artificial intelligence (AI) tech sector in the US-UK Tech Prosperity Deal announced.
The Secretary of State replied: “No, we have not. This is an issue that is really important. We’re working on it at the minute – we have to find a solution. These are two fantastic world-leading sectors – our creative industries, not just our musicians, our writers, our games developers, software developers – we need a deal that works for them and the growing AI tech sector. I actually had a meeting yesterday with Lisa Nandy, our Culture Secretary, to see where we can find common ground, because we have to have something that works for both those critical sectors in the future.”
Dan Conway, CEO of the Publishers Association, said: “Amid the whirlwind of investment commitments made around AI development in the UK this week, it’s great to have the new DSIT Secretary of State publicly confirm that copyright is off the table for the Tech Prosperity Deal and commit to our world-leading creative industries.
“The economic growth predictions around AI – made by Microsoft and reported widely – are predicated on productivity gains made across the economy, through AI adoption and partnership with sectors like ours. The UK remains a commercially attractive proposition without a capitulation on copyright and the tech firms are well aware of that.”
He added: “We believe the next urgent step in policy terms is for ministers to ensure that appropriate transparency measures are put in place to ensure a fair and functioning commercial market for content for AI use and we will be tabling how the publishing industry would like to see that work in the coming days.”
