• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, October 20, 2024

A showdown is looming in the UK over whether publishers should be required to opt out of having their content scraped by AI companies.  

The UK government seems primed to go with that option, although publishers much prefer an opt-in scheme, according to Financial Times.  

Here’s one problem with the opt-out plan. Publishers, especially small ones, will be faced with the burden of identifying companies that are scraping their content. 

For that reason, publishers are deeply opposed to the opt-out proposal, which is in essence a kind of negative option, and argue that the government is giving too much credence to well-heeled tech companies. Those firms argue that they should be allowed to “mine the internet freely,” FT writes.  

But there is an imbalance here, and it’s all on the side of the tech giants.  

Presumably, the opt-in arrangement would be universal—why shouldn’t the opt-out plan be, too?

The publisher should be able take one action and prevent its content from being scraped to train tech giants’ algorithms.  

Don’t get your hopes up. The EU has instituted the opt-out model. And the UK probably will.  

Another problem is that the sides can’t seem to agree on anything. A group of publishing and tech executives were unable to come together on a voluntary code of practice last year, FT continues. 

Let’s hope this doesn’t spread to the US.