The top-flight English football league has raised concerns to the UK government around proposals to reform copyright laws to accommodate AI companies and their usage of intellectual property (IP).
The Premier League is challenging the UK government’s new proposals around AI copyright laws.
In its submission to a government consultation, league officials were reportedly “surprised” that the rules did not cover the UK’s sporting sector, questioning whether the new copyright rules have “properly been taken into account”.
The Premier League argued “strong copyright protections have been fundamental to the Premier League’s success”. The league is one of the UK’s most-watched and successful sporting exports, watched in more than 190 countries and grossing upwards of £8bn to the UK economy.
The submission was obtained by The Times on 7 April.
Backlash against AI companies
One of the primary concerns from the league is the risk of enabling AI companies to access copyrighted intellectual property (IP) without permission unless rights holders opt out, one of the proposals laid out by the government under reforms as part of Section 137 Data (Use and Access) Act.
While this proposal has been scrapped, the Premier League stated it “risks undermining the UK’s creative economy by weakening the IP framework that has made its sports broadcasting a global leader”.
The government is considering other alternative proposals around the Data (Use and Access) Act to enable AI Companies to access UK-listed IPs in a bid to incentivise AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic to invest in the UK.
The Premier League argued that those proposals have been “presented by some as being ‘acceptable’ when undertaken by AI companies due to, broadly, the potential economic significance of AI companies basing themselves and/or operating in the UK.
“However, the wholesale infringement of multiple third parties’ works would not be tolerated in any other context”, added the league’s consultation response.
Offering its own proposals, the Premier League argued that AI companies should be “transparent about the third party IP they have used” and called for a licensing process.
What are the AI copyright proposals/reforms?
In December 2024, the UK government unveiled their proposal to reform copyright laws which were providing legal uncertainty and “undermining investment” and adoption of AI technology.
Within its proposals of reforming copyright law, the government stated: “We want to encourage AI developers operating in the UK to comply with UK law on AI model training, even if their models are trained in other countries. This will help to ensure that developers which train their models in the UK are not at a disadvantage, and right holders can more easily enforce their rights.”
The consultation period, which lasted from 17 December 2024 to 25 February 2025, posed several options to the measures it should undertake in order to reform copyrights laws to accommodate AI adoption:
- Option one: Strengthen copyright requiring licensing in all cases
- Option two: A broad data mining exception
- Option three: A data mining exception which allows right holders to reserve their rights, underpinned by supporting measures on transparency (government’s preferred option)
The government received over 11,500 responses, with 88% of respondents supporting option one. Of those categories of professionals and industries, the sporting industry was not highlighted.
Another piracy concern for the Premier League?
Piracy has become an increasingly problematic concern for the Premier League and its partners, with AI being used by fraudsters and illegal organisations to effectively steal IP and third-party rights for their own financial incentive.
The league may become wary of the reforms around UK copyright laws enabling illegal organisations to obtain and use Premier League IP.
Those same fears draw parallels in the broadcasting sector. In the UK particularly, the emergence of ‘dodgy’ Amazon firesticks has facilitated illegal streams of Premier League games.
In January, a Campaign for Fairer Gambling report found that 58 of sports fans and 66% of professionals surveyed believe illegal streaming of sports in the UK has become socially acceptable.
As illegal streaming of football continues to raise issues, the Premier League is trialling its direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming service, Premier League +, in Singapore next season as a cost-effective alternative to the traditional broadcasting model that has become increasingly more costly for fans to watch the league.
Insider Sport has reached out to the Premier League to obtain a full copy of their consultation response.
