UK House of Lords Publishes AI and Copyright Report Recommending Opt-Out Licensing, March 2026

On 6 March 2026, the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee published its fourth report of the 2024–25 session, "AI, copyright and the creative industries" (HL Paper 267). The report addresses whether UK copyright law adequately protects rights holders whose works are used to train generative AI systems. It concludes that the current legal position is uncertain, that the government's proposed text and data mining exception — if enacted without a rights-holder opt-out — would harm the creative sector, and that Parliament should legislate to require transparency and licensing for AI training data use.

The Committee's central legal analysis focuses on section 29A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA), which currently permits text and data mining only for non-commercial research. The report finds that extending this exception to commercial AI training — as the government has proposed in earlier consultations — without a mandatory opt-out mechanism would strip rights holders of the ability to license their works and receive payment. The Committee recommends that any reformed exception must include a right for rights holders to reserve their works from AI training use through a technically standardised opt-out signal, and that government should not proceed with a broad commercial TDM exception absent such a mechanism.

For AI developers and operators active in the UK market, HL Paper 267 signals that the current permissive approach to ingesting copyright-protected works for training may face legislative correction. The report calls on government to require AI developers to disclose which copyrighted works were used in training datasets and to establish a licensing infrastructure — modeled on existing collective licensing arrangements — through which rights holders can authorize and receive compensation for such use. The Committee further urges that the Intellectual Property Office accelerate its review of whether existing rights in AI-generated outputs require statutory clarification under the CDPA.

HL Paper 267 is a committee report, not enacted legislation, and the government is not bound to implement its recommendations. The report's legal conclusions are advisory and carry no direct regulatory obligation. The government has 60 days from publication to respond formally. No legislation has been introduced or tabled as of 19 March 2026. The report does not itself amend section 29A of the CDPA or any other provision; it records the Committee's view that the current law is deficient and that remedial action is required.

Source: House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee, "AI, copyright and the creative industries," 4th Report of Session 2024-25, HL Paper 267, 6 March 2026, https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/170/communications-and-digital-committee/publications/. Confirmed current as of 19 March 2026.

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