The Data (Use and Access) Bill’s progress to become law continues to suffer setbacks as it has become the latest front in the battle to determine the UK’s approach to copyright and AI.

As we have discussed previously here, Baroness Kidron introduced a number of amendments to the Bill in the House of Lords which sought to provide greater protection to copyright holders and impose further transparency requirements on AI developers.

When these amendments came before the House of Commons, they were voted down, to the severe disappointment of many in the creative industries. A further attempt to introduce the amendments in the House of Commons also proved unsuccessful. However, there was a softening of the Government’s approach as it agreed to carry out economic impact assessments of the proposed changes to copyright law and to publish reports on transparency, licensing, and data access for AI developers.

Undeterred by the Government’s position that, in essence, the Bill should not be hijacked by debates about AI and copyright when a separate consultation process is underway (on which, see here), Baroness Kidron introduced a further amendment to the Bill requiring companies to disclose which copyright-protected works had been used to train their systems. At the same time, hundreds of members of the creative industries wrote to the Prime Minister calling for “a robust copyright framework which preserves our exclusive rights to control our works and thereby act as a safeguard against misuse”.

Baroness Kidron’s latest amendment passed in the House of Lords but was again rejected last week by the House of Commons. She has responded saying that “I will be returning with a new amendment. We will not take this lying down. The creative industries are too precious to the UK wealth and national security to be abandoned by a Government who clearly have no idea what they are giving away”.

Where this leaves matters is that the Bill, having received its third reading in both Houses, is in the midst of so-called parliamentary ‘ping-pong’ which sees it moving between Houses as they try to reach agreement on its final wording. The House of Lords will further consider the Bill likely this week.