LLM Copyright and Artificial Intelligence Coursework 1 (CW1) Video presentation Assessment Question (FIRST SIT)

Assessment Questions

The UK Government’s Copyright and Artificial Intelligence consultation (17 December 2024 – 25 February 2025)1 sought views on how to address concerns raised by the creative and tech sectors regarding the use of copyright work in training datasets for Generative AI models.

The consultation considered four options:

• Option 0 (Status quo): Retain existing copyright law, leaving current level of copyright protection unchanged.
• Option 1 (Licensing requirement): Require express licences for AI training on copyright works.
• Option 2 (Broad Text and Data Mining (TDM) exception): Permit text and data mining without permission, including for AI training.
• Option 3 (TDM with opt-out and transparency): Allow AI training unless rightsholders reserve rights, combined with transparency obligations on AI developers.

The Government signalled a preference for Option 3 (the last option).

Critically evaluate the UK Government’s preference, assessing the extent to which this hybrid “opt-out plus transparency” model reconciles the competing interests of creative rights-holders and the technology sector. In your answer, compare and contrast this approach with the legal frameworks in the European Union and the United States, with particular reference to:

• the scope and limits of traditional copyright doctrines (e.g. fair use, exceptions and limitations),
• the availability and adequacy of statutory remedies (e.g. TDM provisions) for unauthorised uses in each jurisdiction, and
• the broader implications for innovation, AI development and the protection of authors’ economic and moral rights.

Marking scheme

This assessment is worth 40% of your overall module grade (i.e. a whole grade boundary’s worth). You have 10 minutes to advance an argument for or against the debate set out above. Your argument will be assessed against four different criteria with each being given a score out of 10. However, each criterion has a specific weighting meaning that, for example, of the overall 40% of module marks available for this assessment, 30% are attributable to the quality of the presentation.

This means that a student can do very well, even if a particular aspect of the presentation needed development (and similarly, s/he could still do less well than s/he hoped overall, even if s/he had a strength in a particular area). The other point to bear in mind is that this means that there are multiple different ways of reaching any particular overall grade. Please also note that while a student may argue the same topic as a friend, and even from the same perspective, with the same underlying content, they cannot be presented in an identical way so there will always be an objective basis for any difference in marks between them.

0-39 The answer will be of poor quality, confusing and show an imbalanced structure. It will also have vague connections between the topic, content and goal. Nothing of merit as the analysis lacks legal acumen or showing no evidence of appropriate knowledge and understanding of the question.

40-49 The answer will identify the problem posed by the question, but there will be no real attempt to engage with the argument and only limited awareness of the key issues, relevant law and engagement.

50-59 This work will demonstrate a reasonable level of knowledge understanding but with incomplete integration into the topic set. A few major issues will not be fully explored, and minor issues will be omitted. The work will attempt a reasonable level of evaluation, analysis and synthesis. However, this will tend towards being descriptive and but tends towards the descriptive and superficial. There will be a limited mentioning and engagement with academic resources.

60-69 The answer will show a good level of knowledge and understanding of the focus of the question. It will cover most major issues explored with some minor aspects not considered. It will contain some good level of evaluation, analysis and synthesis but some issues could be further developed. There will be some omissions and the style may be a little more descriptive.

70-79 The response of the candidate will demonstrate a very good level of knowledge and understanding of the topic and core of the question. The answer will cover all the salient points. There should be a very good level of critical analysis and engagement with scholarly work in the field and show a very good depth of knowledge, presentation and structure but not consistently taken to full extent.

80-89 The candidates response will display an excellent level of knowledge and understanding of the topic and core of the question. It will identify and engage with relevant points and issues. The answer will develop upon the critical analysis and will demonstrate a sophisticated use of academic commentary to present an articulate and comprehensive account of the topic under consideration.

90+ Students in this range would, in addition, have demonstrated an outstanding breadth of research and understanding of the topic. They would offer extremely persuasive and sophisticated arguments presented within an exceptional structure with no significant errors.