LACA has responded to the UK government’s Open Consultation on Copyright and AI, which closed on 25 February, 2025. Our response focused on the needs of the research sector, highlighting the transformative potential of AI for UK research and innovation.

The topic of this consultation is a contentious one, and our members are working hard to understand the implications of generative AI for our organisations and our users. We recognise how crucial regulation is to this emergent technology to create an environment in which creativity and innovation can thrive while also leveraging the transformative potential of AI for the good of society.

We are concerned on a number of levels by the implications of this consultation, which aims to find a balance between right holders’ control of their data, and the broad levels of access that are required in order for AI models to train effectively. In our view this aim is undermined by a lack of consideration of the research and educational sectors, including the many ways that AI technology can be used, which has no bearing on the creative sector. The largely single-minded focus of this consultation on the creative sector vs. “big tech” misses the vast majority of potential applications of AI, and risks setting up insurmountable barriers to maximizing the potential of AI for our members and users in the UK.

Our proposed solution focuses on the adoption of an open norm supplemented by a broad data mining exception. We specifically highlight the need to address gaps and limitations of the existing exceptions for temporary copies (s28A), and text and data mining (s29A) of the CDPA.

Read our full response below.