Statement on AI Training (creators' statement on unlicensed training data)
Ed Newton-Rex / Fairly Trained (individual creators and creative organisations) · 22 October 2024
A one-sentence statement signed by tens of thousands of artists, authors and actors saying that training AI on their work without a licence is unjust. It helped block a UK copyright carve-out, but licensing remains voluntary and courts are split.
What it calls for
- Creator compensation
- Data rights
Scope
50,000+ signatories incl. Thom Yorke, Björn Ulvaeus, Kazuo Ishiguro, Julianne Moore, and UK parliamentarians
What actually happened
The UK government's proposed text-and-data-mining opt-out was fought by the creative sector ('Make It Fair', Feb 2025) and the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 passed without the copyright exception after repeated Lords amendments. Courts moved in different directions: Getty largely lost against Stability AI in the UK (Nov 2025, https://www.lw.com/en/insights/getty-images-v-stability-ai-english-high-court-rejects-secondary-copyright-claim) while GEMA won against OpenAI in Munich (Nov 2025, https://www.reedsmith.com/our-insights/blogs/viewpoints/102lrzg/copyright-ai-german-court-issues-landmark-decision-in-favor-of-rights-holders/) and Anthropic paid $1.5B to authors (2026). No legislature has mandated licensing for training.