Stephen Cox on how a group of North London writers who meet at a Turnpike Lane bookshop are opposing a proposed law change relating to AI’s use of copyrighted work

Local authors at All Good Bookshop in Turnpike Lane

Over 40 creatives associated with the All Good Bookshop in Turnpike Lane are lobbying local MPs against the proposed wrecking of UK copyright.

They include novelists, playwrights, musicians, film-makers, poets and visual artists.

The government plans to tear up copyright protection to safeguard billion-dollar US AI companies.

Two MPs have responded so far. I met Southgate and Wood Green MP Bambos Charalambous last month and was very pleased with his pro-copyright view. He posted after the meeting: “Great to meet author and constituent [Stephen Cox] today to discuss the importance of copyright as AI technology is on the rise.

“We must protect the rights of our creatives and value the contributions they make both to the economy and society.”

Hornsey and Friern Barnet MP Catherine West swiftly agreed to meet us at the bookshop at a later date.

So what’s the issue?

Copyright protects every creative from Hollywood movies to the local writers, artists or musicians in our borough. The basic principle is over a century old. “If you want to use my stuff, particularly to make you money, ask my permission and pay me.”

With its proposed new changes, the government wants to reward theft, allow all past copying without penalty, and hamstring attempts to protect our work in future.

Haringey has a thriving small arts scene. The largely volunteer All Good Bookshop is just one hub – supporting authors, hosting exhibitions, theatre and comedy, as well as writing, reading, and film groups.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is ‘trained’ (actually, ‘fed’) existing copyrighted material to work. In training AI, most companies ignore the law in the US, UK and EU. For example, Mark Zuckerberg personally authorised using 197,000 books taken from illegal pirate book sites to train the Meta AI. One of America’s richest men decided that if a shady website has stolen a book, Meta can steal it too.

The AI boxes of tricks need our human creative work to be functional.

The government proposes a multi-billion dollar ‘get out of jail free card’ for AI. The sop to creatives is that in future, we could ‘opt out’ of our work being used. This reverses the way copyright works, many industry figures believe it is unworkable, and it could mean individuals chasing hundreds of companies to enforce it.

Nationally, the UK creative industries not only bring pleasure, meaning and knowledge to millions, they employ over two million people and are a significant force in the economy.

I’m not worried that an AI can write more interesting and original books than I can. But if the British market is flooded with a hundred million AI books, mine will be harder to find. And my work was stolen to write them.

There is every reason to mistrust many of the business claims made for AI. Removing human creativity cannot be a good thing. Some specific uses may prove beneficial.

But the law on copyright is a line in the sand. That’s why our little group joins all the significant creative organisations in the UK in asking MPs to think again.

Stephen Cox is the author of Our Child of the Stars and Our Child of Two Worlds (Arcadia), and a member of the All Good Bookshop Writing Group.

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