🚨 It looks like the UK government is gearing up to upend copyright law in favour of AI companies, legalising the theft of their work.

This is despite creatives' huge protests, and despite previous proposals being roundly rejected by the public.

Please spread the word.

🧵 1/4

March 02, 2026 - 15:43 UTC

97
478
3090
It's fine as long as they also impose the condition that if you train your LLM on this data, you have to open source the resulting models so that anyone can use them to build new applications. Big tech would regard such a condition as wildly unfair
0
0
5
AI is a plagiarising machine.
0
0
2
I need a draft or help making one, I'm so terrible at writing emails about my concerns to MPs
2
0
1
www.writetothem.com/ is the website email them.

My suggestion:
1) I am writing to express my deep concern about this proposed exemption

2) Reason why it is not cool - this is legalised theft of creative people’s work

3) The creative sector is hugely important to our economy

4) Polite sign off
1
0
3
The help is right there in Ed's thread: the property of creatives is not for the government to give away for free. They would legalise theft.
Everyone gets paid for their labour yet somehow they want AI companies to have it all for free
0
0
3
worldwide scam...."leaders" are only mob bosses
0
0
2
They don’t care what the public wants or needs

They only care about what spiteful Epstein-class cranks want
0
0
0
"let them eat cake" type shit right here
0
0
3
OH deeply deeply FUCK THIS.
1
0
61
yes
0
0
13
Decades of the copyright system being cranked to it's absolute extremes to protect the mouse and put you in jail for downloading a midi but soon as tech companies do it they find room for a workaround. Purely disgusting.
2
0
6
To be fair the mouse company is more than happy to let AI companies to steal their copyright. 🤷
0
0
0
Wait, did someone go to jail for a midi?
0
0
0
Gods i am so, so sick of gen ai stealing EVERYTHING and contributing NOTHING of any value to anyone, anywhere.
0
0
232
Like we needed another reason to hate Red Tories nearly as much as Blue ones.
0
0
4
wow. it's almost like the whole point of copyright law (since it's conception by the british) has always been to protect the profits of the biggest companies and the richest of people and not in fact to "protect" the market share of little independent producers.
0
0
7
What a f----- surprise. That consultation was insulting and it was obvious what they'd already decided
0
0
16
Noooooo come on 🤬🤬🤬
0
0
0
If creating no longer confers ownership, piracy is no longer theft.
5
2
293
'commercially researching' how to put films on my NAS at volume
0
0
7
Exactly this.
0
0
1
It's legal, as long as you can afford the piracy license.
0
0
1
Time to do some R&D on some films I haven't watched yet.
1
0
52
But they will make sure that those exceptions only benefit large corporations and no one else.
0
0
4
FOR THE UMPTEENTH TIME: THIS WONT MAKE THE UK MORE COMPETITIVE
0
0
9
This would be good. 'Creatives' are being shortsighted. Demand higher taxes and UBI, not luddism.
4
0
0
Higher taxes and UBI are good! But that's a different subject. Fact is, genAI does no net good and cannot exist without theft and harm. So why should it get to exist?

Also, the luddites - tech workers of their era - would absolutely disagree with you, but not for the reason you think.
1
0
18
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/10/ireland-basic-income-for-the-arts-scheme-becomes-permanent
0
0
4
Downloading everything off anna's archive. To train my AI model. I can't show you the model, but I am open to investment from trillionaires
0
0
2
I can't have a little background music on my Twitch streams when taking a break from a game, but it's completely fine when a company uses AI to make new content... make it make sense
0
0
6
Have been wondering how long it would be before this arose.
0
0
1
It was going to be steamrolled through the minute Chris Bryant made the handshake deal (pre consultation, mind)
2
0
10
yes, he has clearly been a major player in this
0
0
6
Giving up helps nothing
1
0
0
Seriously, even after recent victories and failures against AI? They really do prove to be one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
0
0
2
“Commercial research exception” is a clean legal label for something ugly: stripping rights from the people who made the fuel. If you widen the exception far enough, you’re not doing research anymore—you’re just moving value up the ladder.
0
0
0
0
0
43
0
0
3
jk rowling is awful quiet about something that actually affects her.
0
0
0
So they want our art, give them the worst images based on all politicians, have their faces plastered in every conceivable position imaginable, no limits on religion, morals or decency, just have them in every pose with every instrument used. Make their faces the paint to show what llms can do.
0
0
5
@barns.bsky.social 🤬
0
0
1
@zackpolanski.bsky.social what is the Green’s policy on copyright and AI, please?
0
0
7
AI slop for everyone, humans are just cattle after all
0
0
5
bsky.app/profile/hushpuppyart.bsky.social/post/3mfxuyw4a222v
0
0
4
HoL is apparently awaiting a report before making decisions, as per female speaker. It won't pass until Lords have finished debating and adding amendments or deleting sections, that's what they do. However, given Tory majority, anything could happen that's perceived to be anti-Labour proposals.
0
0
1
THIS SHIT HAD LESS OF A POSITIVE RATING THAN THE FUCKING TERFS WHAT THE FUCK
2
0
157
At least TERFs have the decency to be living creatures when they lie, AI can't even do that much
1
0
50
To AI peeps, only sex bots (both living and AI) owned by hairy men are "women".
1
0
3
How this SHOULD go: you train AI without respecting copyright and licensing laws? Cool, make your AI free to use and open-source, and then it's allowed. You want to monetize AI and keep it closed-source? Then respect copyright. Zero in-betweens
1
0
8
Still theft.
1
0
8
I guess all those DVD copywrite adverts were wrong then.
1
0
22
To be fair the piracy ads they put on before the movies used a stolen font.
1
0
16
And despite Britain punching above its weight globally in creative fields
0
0
3
If I designate myself an AI company and say I'm using BBC content as a learning tool, does that mean I don't have to get a TV licence in order to use their work?
I don't have a TV licence, don't watch BBC output and don't watch live TV, but I may need to learn what their output is all about.
1
0
4
that's one way to get out of buying groceries, fill a trolley at Tesco & tell them it's for AI training
1
0
2
Ah fer fucks sakes.
0
0
2
This will age well lol
0
0
5
It’s like they want people to hate them.
0
0
7
@the-ciep.bsky.social
0
0
0
Hey @shaundaviesmp.bsky.social , my local member of parliament, what say you?
0
0
1
Labour was literally elected with a mandate to reverse the damage done to the UK by the Tories, and instead governs just like the Tories would.
0
0
3
This on top of them rolling around the automatic failure idea of banning VPNs, as if this age verification SHIT wasn't enough.
Spy camera TERF ISLAND failure toilet "country" desperately wants to be seen as real and credible.
It's neither.

Wrongthink gets you arrested by cops too.
Dystopia is here!
0
0
1
@pauldaviesmp.bsky.social please tell me you will fight this.
0
0
1
0
0
0
if this happens in the US im making so many t-shirts with AI company logos as buttholes
0
0
12
“In the aftermath of society’s collapse the ultra-wealthy emerged from their bunkers and set about establishing scriptoria, populated by the erstwhile writers and artists they had ruined. Hand-crafted codexes with certificates of authenticity were especially prized."
0
0
4
Not good. If so more AI may move to UK to take advantage of this stealing!
0
0
1
Good grief. And they wonder why they lose by-elections.
0
0
5
This is just gift at the work of individuals to billionaires. AI is a blight on society.
0
0
7
Then piracy becomes legal, because who's to say you're not training an AI
2
0
55
Why not actually do that? Take one of the smallest free open source AIs and set it up, feed everything you pirate to it. Doesn't matter if you never use it to generate anything, you have the legal defense.
1
0
24
This reminds me of:"This isn't prostitution. See? We're filming it. We're shooting a porno"
0
0
2
I mean, it's not. But you do you...
0
0
0
Creative industries are the few we have left. We're going to sacrifice them for another country's AI industry?
1
1
54
apparently, yes
0
0
26
The great brain robbery ...

Beleaguered by #Brexit, the government feels it must sell our creative souls, having sold the physical assets previously.

Selling England by the pound ...

@labourlist.bsky.social @naushabahkhanmp.bsky.social
0
0
12
Is this really the best of our species? A bunch of grifting politicians that are full of bile and corruption. 😌
0
0
1
Copyright was always in the service of the wealthy elites. Helping small creators was a happy accident, while it lasted.
0
0
0
If she doesn’t understand the obvious damage that proposed exception would cause she should not be in her job 😱
1
0
6
That applies to the entire Labour party, but sadly it won't stop them. 🤷
1
0
1
Do you have a public instagram account? These clips need sharing there too.
1
0
0
good point
0
0
1
I would like to see their bank accounts, their spouses accounts and their closest family's accounts .....
0
0
3
Who's in charge in UK?? Who started a full evil ng+ run with all possible worst laws
1
0
13
Labour, the party of big tech
1
0
22
Can't artist sue the government for giving away their property without permission?
1
0
27
Yes - there will certainly be judicial review if the govt pushes this through
1
0
43
glaze.cs.uchicago.edu/aboutus.html
0
0
0
Again the question: who or what exactly is this government for
1
0
6
Itself.

And since their potential replacements are a self-serving corporate entity run by loathsome racist crybabies and incompetent fascists, things can only get worse.
0
0
1
Written to my MP (again)
0
0
2
Time for artists to learn how to poison pill what they create to mess up the LLMs
1
0
1
Filters already exist specifically for this and the AI is learning to get aorund it.
We shouldn't have to run in circles trying to do this to protect our works copyright when it should remain enshrined in law. The law should be expanded to protect us not rolled back for the benefit of tech bros.
1
0
4
The UK Government is actually just committed to being as fucking lame and evil as humanly possible, aren't they?
0
0
51
Whats the green position on AI and copyright, @zackpolanski.bsky.social ?
0
0
3
Anyone else feeling it’s hard to feel any respect for or trust in this government?
1
0
9
If by "hard" you mean *impossible*
0
0
3
i think its time we give them the only thing they are listening to.. voilence
0
0
0
AI companies can absolutely, 100%, fuck right off
0
0
9
absolutely asinine of them to do something so garish as to condone the use of ai scraper tools
0
0
1
Could this be the end of British copyright law?!
0
0
1
Utter bastards.
0
0
7
Gonna need a copy of every film and song ever created for my 'AI' called "🍋LLMWire".
2
0
17
I'm prepared to donate, uh... storage.
0
0
2
0
0
4
And after all that, they still can't artifically generate souls or empathy.

Fuck em.
0
0
11
I truly believe that intellectual property is one of humanity's worst idea, but it is so funny to see the country of ultra-liberalism dash back on one of its core concept when it is in the interest of big companies...
0
0
0
One of very few industries we can legitimately call ourselves world beating and the government wants to end it. £120 billion a year.
0
0
17
@chadbourn.bsky.social
0
0
3
Wtf?
0
0
3
Do you know the names of the two here?
1
0
1
(accidentally commented on a reply thread so reposting it here, but went ahead and emailed my MP without ref their names and included the video)
0
0
1
Not sure "refused to rule out" is much to go on, who in govt has supported such a proposal?
2
0
2
ra.co/news/84808
0
0
0
This government is obsessed with AI, it's a core part of the NHS 10 year plan among other strategic documents.
2
0
9
well they better not steal my stuff
1
0
3
They probably already have :-/
0
0
2
No fking way 🤬
0
0
0
I know the decision was made based on lobbying but I am curious what argument they are giving? (knowing would help the counter-argument)
1
0
1
When I answered the "consultation", the argument was that they wanted to attract AI companies here in the hopes of stimulating the tech sector.
0
0
1
Okay, that's fine. I'm going to start selling Disney films on Blu Ray for AI training purposes. Prove that's not what I'm selling them for. Go ahead.
0
0
5
FOUR F-ING WORDS:

FAILURE OF DUE DILIGENCE
0
0
15
Idk why, but I can smell an economic crash...
0
0
7
When we should be focusing our efforts on establishing digtal sovereignty for Europe, #Starmer is rolling out the red carpet to AI companies, fully committing to being a spinless vassal.

Somebody force a vote of no confidence and rid us of this goon.
1
0
4
Never vote cons(ervative). Theyre called cons for a reason.
0
0
0
Bewildering, given that even the unrepentantly corrupt US Supreme Court refuses to go that far, even now?!
0
0
0
And yet AI companies get bent out of shape when another AI company rips off their tech.

mashable.com/article/anthropic-details-chinese-ai-companies-distillation-attacks
0
0
1
I was trying to think how might it be possible to align incentives for ministers & the public on this, and one idea was that someone start a petition mostly aimed at creatives of which there are many, to pledge to boycott any tech company that hires a minister who helped implement this bill.
1
0
5
Make them unemployable by the technology sector which seems to be the reward many are aiming for.
Hopefully the Labour left can be mobilised to prevent it, the electoral consequences of destroying a creative industries sector that employs 2.4m people is insane, and no plan for a new economic model
1
0
4
Labour is not on your side. It is on the side of USA interests.
0
0
3
Nothing more than legalised theft. 40 plus years in the creative industry for big tech to come along and to help themselves. It’s sad and outrageous
0
0
67
UK Government entirely ignores the wants of its people and chooses to plug their ears and go LALALA real loud in the face of public backlash and do whatever they want despite it being massively unpopular.

In other news the sun will rise tomorrow and gravity makes things fall down.
0
0
19
It’s just so offensive: Your creativity has no value because these companies are so rich and wouldn’t be if they had to pay.
0
0
4
Make noises people, make fucking protests
1
0
27
And make things a computer can’t. (I know that doesn’t solve, but still.)
1
0
15
There are rumours it is considering introducing a 'commercial research exception' for AI training. This would be disastrous. It would mean handing the life's work of British creatives to AI companies for free, to train their models on.

2/4
6
18
1150
In the House of Lords today, a government minister refused to rule this out.

To be clear, this would amount to legalising theft. It would fly in the face of public opinion on what is fair, and would mean a surrender of British creatives' work by this Labour government.

3/4
1
0
1076
Oh cool, so the theft machine doesn't have to follow any rules at all, but people who actually make the things it steals are still beholden to it
0
0
1
So they're going to make an exception specifically for those looking to make a profit?

Are they also planning to make burglary legal if you can prove you intend to sell the stuff that you stole?
0
0
2
They are already doing it and getting away with it, it is super hard to prove any wrongdoing. This is especially true for computer code, AI accesses code that is licensed under different licenses, BSD licenses allow any use, GPLv3 licensed code has conditions, your code must be released as GPLv3.
0
0
1
How do they even define, or regulate, such a vague concept as "commercial research exception"?!?

And secondly, how do we malicious compliance the fuck out of it?
1
0
15
Of course they will. Labour supports big capital over entrepreneurs. The party that buys Palantir will screw creatives.
0
0
4