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  14/01/2025

  United Kingdom

  Copyright and AI: how is the UK government proposing to strike a balance between the creative industries and AI sector?

  On 17 December 2024, the UK government published a new consultation on copyright and artificial intelligence (“AI”), seeking views on how to ensure the legal framework in the UK for copyright and AI can support both the creative industries and the AI sector.This is the third consultation on AI and intellectual property (“IP”) in the last five years. The 2020 call for views covered patents, copyright and related rights, designs, trade marks and trade secrets. Based on the response to that call for views, the UK government decided to consult further, in 2021, on how AI should...

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  07/11/2024

  United Kingdom

  AI and copyright: who holds the pen in the age of machines?

  Artificial intelligence (“AI”) has existed for decades. However, the pace at which AI has advanced in recent years means that, increasingly, questions are being asked by rightsholders, users and developers about the legal implications of the use of AI.This article will focus on the potential issues under UK copyright law arising from the use of AI, including in relation to the risk of third-party copyright infringement claims.Which law applies to the interaction between AI and copyright?The UK government decided not to implement the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market...

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  21/08/2024

  England and Wales

  Defamation update part two: High Court’s first consideration of s 6 Defamation Act 2013 (peer-re­viewed statements in scientific or academic journals)

  In the first article of this two-part series, we looked at the court’s treatment of the public interest defence (s.4 of the Defamation Act 2013), on which the publishers of the Mail on Sunday (and its health editor) had relied, in a significant judgment handed down by the High Court on 25 June 2024. In this article, we explore the court’s treatment of the defence of privilege for a report of a peer-reviewed scientific article (s.6 of the Act) in the same judgment. In contrast to the public interest defence, this defence was upheld. This is significant, as it represents the first time...

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  20/08/2024

  England and Wales

  Defamation update part one: High Court considers application of public interest defence to articles on statins

  In a recent significant judgment, the High Court considered the extent of the public interest and statutory qualified privilege defences in defamation cases. The presiding judge, Nicklin J, commented that this was “the most significant piece of defamation litigation that [he had] seen in a very long time”. Given its significance, this article is the first of a two-part series focusing on the key issues in the case and focuses on the court’s treatment of the public interest defence. In our next article, we will focus on the court’s treatment of the statutory qualified privilege...

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  27/06/2024

  United Kingdom

  How might AI be regulated following the UK general election?

  In advance of the UK general election on 4 July 2024, we consider the manifesto commitments made in relation to artificial intelligence (AI) by the five main political parties (the Conservatives, Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party and Reform UK).What is the current approach to regulating AI in the UK?The EU AI Act, which is due to enter into force this August, has been described as the world’s first comprehensive AI law. In contrast with the EU, the UK has not put in place AI-specific legislation and has not created a new AI regulator or authority to enforce AI-related laws. Instead,...

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  17/04/2024

  England and Wales

  AI-driven enforcement comes of age in UK with AI systems reshaping advertising and regulation and enforcement – ASA’s 2023 Annual Report

  The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has published its 2023 annual report, describing 2023 as a watershed year for its digital strategy.Together, the ASA and the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) secured the amendment or withdrawal of 27,378 ads in 2023, a remarkable 92% of which resulting from proactive work largely powered by the ASA’s Active Ad Monitoring System. In December 2022, the ASA ran 20,000 ads through the system, which rose to over 600,000 ads per month by the end of 2023. This system forms a key part of the ASA’s 2024 to 2028 strategy on AI-assisted...

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