A new policy brief from the Centre for Data Futures in collaboration with King's Information and Intellectual Property Hub and researchers from Sciences Po Law School considers how to build sustainable data ecosystems for generative AI.
2026 is a pivotal year for UK and EU policy discussions on copyright and generative AI. The UK Government is due to publish its economic impact assessment on copyright and AI in March, while the EU's DSM Directive faces its five-year review in June. Both processes centre on transparency requirements and copyright exceptions for text and data mining.
Following a workshop held in October 2025 at King's that brought together legal scholars, journalists, creative sector professionals, and policymakers, Professor Sylvie Delacroix, Director of the Centre for Data Futures, Professor Tanya Aplin from King's Information and Intellectual Property Hub, and Marta Arisi from Sciences Po Law School have published a policy brief, Building Sustainable Data Ecosystems for Generative AI: Policy Considerations Beyond Copyright-Only Frameworks.
The workshop explored whether focusing primarily on copyright provides an adequate framework for addressing the wider impacts of generative AI on creative sectors and the data ecosystem.
The brief sets out four key recommendations for the UK Government to:
Adopt ecosystem-wide impact assessment criteria that go beyond direct economic effects to consider impacts on cultural diversity, creative livelihoods, and the sustainability of digital commons.
Develop transparency standards along the AI development and deployment pipelines, and especially for AI outputs, working towards international coordination to prevent regulatory arbitrage and protect data ecosystem integrity.
Facilitate infrastructures for collective representation through pilot programmes, legal clarifications, and mechanisms for ensuring individual creators can participate meaningfully.
Position the UK as a leader in socially sustainable AI governance rather than engaging in regulatory competition focused primarily on the breadth of text and data mining exceptions. The sustainability of data ecosystems is a shared challenge requiring coordinated responses.
The brief concludes that although reforming copyright law is important, that alone will not address all the challenges generative AI poses to creative sectors. To ensure the long-term sustainability of the sector, it is crucial to assess the impact on the whole creative ecosystem rather than individual cases, to build strong transparency rules, and to ensure better collective structures that enable creators to organise, negotiate, and be represented effectively.
Professor Sylvie Delacroix, Co-Director of the Centre for Data Futures, said: "Copyright reform matters, but it cannot do the heavy lifting alone. What emerged most strongly from our workshop was the transformative potential of collective bargaining, giving artists, coders, and journalists genuine power to negotiate terms with AI companies. The UK has an opportunity to pioneer the kind of participatory governance that makes AI innovation genuinely sustainable."
Professor Tanya Aplin, King's Information and Intellectual Property Hub member said: "We were grateful to have input from an array of participants exploring both copyright and non-copyright policy options to ensure the sustainability of the creative commons".
Marta Arisi, researcher from the Sciences Po Law School, added: "In a saturated regulatory debate, our contribution pauses and tries to put in sharper focus what's at stake: thinking with and beyond copyright is a way to more comprehensively understand what is happening to culture and creativity on the web, and attune to the diverse needs across sectors"
The brief highlights that the UK has a real chance to lead the way by building governance frameworks for AI that support innovation and protect the creative ecosystem on which it depends. The authors are engaging with policymakers ahead of the Government's March report.
