The United Kingdom´s Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) has announced the development of a Generative Artificial Intelligence Training Licence, with an expected launch in the third quarter of 2025. The initiative aims to address the contentious issue of training large Artificial Intelligence models using copyrighted content, offering a scalable and collective licensing solution akin to existing copyright collection societies.
This proposed licence is the result of collaboration between the CLA, the Publishers’ Licensing Services (PLS), and the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS). PLS, which represents 4,500 UK publishers, and ALCS, serving 125,000 authors, are well-established non-profit organisations focused on ensuring creators receive fair remuneration for their works. By including major stakeholder groups in this process, the licence aspires to simplify access to large-scale data for developers while guaranteeing compensation for publishers and authors.
The initiative is described as a milestone for both the creative and technology sectors. It seeks to offer legal certainty for Artificial Intelligence developers, enabling lawful access to content needed for model training, and to protect creators’ interests by ensuring fair compensation and addressing the challenges posed by the use of copyrighted material in Artificial Intelligence. The scheme would particularly benefit smaller creators who otherwise lack bargaining power and could help mitigate the rising trend in global litigation over Artificial Intelligence copyright disputes. Moreover, its introduction is expected to shift the risk landscape for transactions involving Artificial Intelligence systems in the UK and beyond, establishing a legal mechanism to address third-party copyright risks that have previously gone unresolved.
