DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Now stop Big Tech's great brain robbery By DAILY MAIL COMMENT Published: 01:00, 25 February 2025 | Updated: 01:00, 25 February 2025 e-mail View comments A quick browse of the newsstands is a good way to appreciate the vibrancy, independence and plurality of our Press. Very often, each newspaper carries a different story on its front page. Not this morning, though.
Hundreds of titles, from regionals to the biggest nationals, will run exactly the same ‘splash’ on their print and online editions. This bold, unprecedented campaign, called ‘Make It Fair’, warns of the profound risk to Britain’s creative industries of a pernicious proposal by the Labour Government. Sir Keir Starmer wants to weaken our copyright laws by exempting AI companies from them.
That would be an enormous victory for the goliaths of the tech world. It would allow them to Hoover up any material published online – be it books, music or journalism – and train their machines without having to compensate those who laboured so hard to create it. This would be nothing less than theft – with them pocketing vast profits.
The Government believes these changes will attract AI firms to Britain, helping kickstart badly needed growth. But the danger is it would inflict incalculable damage on the flourishing creative sector, undermine trusted journalism, and cost the country jobs and tax revenues. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer wants to weaken our copyright laws by exempting AI companies.
