The UK's AI copyright report proposes, but does not yet decide

The shot

On 17 December 2024, the UK's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Intellectual Property Office opened a consultation titled 'Copyright and Artificial Intelligence', running ten weeks to 25 February 2025 and covering text-and-data-mining exceptions for AI training, computer-generated works, and 'digital replicas' of a person's voice or likeness. On 18 March 2026, the government published its Report and impact assessment on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, setting out its response.

What the documents show

The government's own report states that most respondents rejected its originally preferred proposal, a broad training exception with an opt-out for rights holders, and that the report itself now proposes further evidence-gathering rather than adopting that model. On computer-generated works, protected in UK law since 1988 despite having 'no human author,' the report states the government 'propose[s] that this specific type of protection should be removed, while copyright should continue to protect works created with AI assistance,' a proposal, not yet a change to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act. On digital replicas, relevant to performers whose voice or likeness might be recreated, the report says there was 'no single view' among respondents and proposes to 'explore a range of options,' including whether a new personality right is warranted.

The workflow

For a UK production weighing AI-generated or AI-assisted material today, the practical position the report documents is unchanged law: existing computer-generated-works protection and existing likeness and data protection rules remain exactly as the report found them, pending any legislation the government has not yet introduced. Anyone using this report to plan a production's rights clearances should treat every proposal in it as under consideration, not enacted, and check gov.uk for whether legislation has since followed.

What the tool does not change

Neither the 2024 consultation nor the 2026 report is itself a statute, and neither creates a new licence, exception or right a production can rely on today; the report explicitly frames its computer-generated-works and digital-replica sections as areas for continued exploration rather than settled outcomes. This is an important distinction for any audiovisual rights holder: a government report responding to a consultation documents a policy direction, not a change to the law a production's insurers or distributors will recognise until Parliament acts.

• Has any legislation implementing this report's proposals been introduced since 18 March 2026?
• Does your production rely on computer-generated-works protection that this report proposes to remove?
• If a digital replica of a performer is involved, what consent and contract terms apply under current law rather than a proposed future right?

Read together, the two documents show a government describing where consultation responses pushed it away from its original proposal, a narrower and more accurate claim than saying the UK has adopted new AI copyright rules for audiovisual work.