The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) has provided an update on its work to develop a licensing framework that recognises and remunerates authors and publishers when their works are used to train and develop generative AI systems.

Plans to develop such a framework were first announced by the ALCS and Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) earlier this year (on which we commented here). Shortly thereafter, the CLA introduced changes to its licences to allow organisations to use licensed works as prompts in generative AI systems. However, as the ALCS notes, these changes specifically excluded the use of works for the training and development of AI systems.

In its update, the ALCS states that work on developing a licence for these purposes continues, supported by many of its members and others in the creative industry who – as it puts it – favour a licensing solution “over the blunt and unfair approach of new exceptions to copyright law”.

However, this work is not without its challenges, and the ALCS explains the need to tread carefully so as to avoid the risk of developing an incomplete licensing solution which could “add weight to arguments made by the AI companies – or indeed the Government – that licensing is too difficult or inadequate”. In particular, it points to the difficulties involved in the ALCS communicating and working with non-members, given the “sensitivities around AI and copyright when it comes to non-members whose works may be implicated in collective licensing”.

To address this, the ALCS explains that it is exploring whether to apply to the Government for an Extended Collective Licence (ECL), allowing it to represent non-members. Part of that process involves conducting a poll of ALCS members prior to the application, a publicity campaign to advertise the non-members’ works which are potentially licensable, and developing a “clear and efficacious process by which such works can be excluded from the licence”.

No decision has yet been made about when to apply for an ECL, but the ALCS advises its members that they can expect a further update on this matter in the New Year.

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