–Where is the media coverage of the theft of British copyright and privacy by artificial intelligence? Unlike Goldilocks, the British creatives don’t have a friend or relation or even a government with an axe to save them being eaten by the wolf.
Opinion by Mathew Carr
Sept. 17-18, 2025 — The global billionaires are completely outclassing Britain’s supposed world-class media and its famous democratic protections for the people.
The day started well, sort of.
The Financial Times had a great scoop on how global drug companies are apparently/allegedly/possibly colluding to place nefarious pressure on the British government to give them more money for drugs. The largely US companies are under pressure to cut prices in the USA, where they have been ripping people off for decades. Those rents that the companies didn’t really deserve need to be recovered somewhere else, it seems.
“Ally” Britain is an easy target, it seems.
This story should have been on the FT’s front page, because it shows how alleged bad competition regulation works against the interests of the British people.
The drug companies have been allowed to get too big, and this alleged bullying is the price.
So what WAS on the FT’s front page?
Another kind of takeover — but one where the newspaper’s editors didn’t seem to apply the same lines of rigorous questioning and narrative as they did on p2 (above).
These billions of investment are pitched by the media as a win for Britain, but what is the UK giving in return?
A promise of no proper regulation of AI? Seems likely.
The 120,000 chips at $30,000 each are going to be trained on what, exactly? Surely not stealing from Britain’s creative industry, its creative humans? That thievery also seems likely.
Nvidia sort of answers it:
Goldilocks
Yet unlike Goldilocks, the British creatives don’t have a friend or relation or even a government with an axe to save them being eaten by the wolf.
In this case, Goldilocks is being gorged upon by the giant rapacious, loosely regulated AI corporations …and she will be for decades.
The Starmer administration is again selling creatives (selling the British people) out. Those chips will also be focussed on mining everyone’s data.
That’s why AI mogul Elon Musk was bullying Starmer last weekend….to ensure the sellout.
That’s why Trump is suing the NYT for $15 billion…to bully the press (as he’s done many times before and that was a tactic he successfully used to win a second term in office).
Reporting the story properly by the UK press would open up the possibility of taxing internet services properly to raise money for British people. Then… the other nonsense on the FT’s front page, the “fiscal gap” nonsense, would go away:
The longer the government delays tax changes, the harder they will be.
Worker productivity is not to blame for the fiscal hole, just like worker wage rises are not to blame for inflation.
The FT knows a lack of taxes on “unproductive” transactions and middle-man companies (such as internet services, banks, banker bonuses, Uber, Netflix etc) are the real reason for the fiscal hole. (Increased money supply has stoked inflation, btw, not wages).
Yet … the newspaper feels the need to cover those up, against the interests of its very own readers. WTF?
A case in point? Wednesday’s paper sells a story from its p1 about HOW to tax the rich…yet…when you read it …you find it’s really about how the rich can’t be taxed.
Every tax can be made more progressive.
AI companies are seeking rents, not adding value. Tax the rent! The initial tax will be fought, but once it is in place, it will bring in revenue for the taxpaying people …forever. Those who can afford to have multiple Netflix-style TV subscriptions going simultaneously at once, for instance, will pay much more than the people who can’t afford that. Those paying for multiple AI agents will pay more tax. It’s progressive.
Yet, other media are also to blame.
The BBC seems to have fallen for the AI propaganda, as of later Wednesday, complete with a video about the nation’s “fantastic AI ecosystem” that is mysteriously “no longer available” …so not so fantastic.
ITV (Thursday)
Back at the FT, it’s not like the newspaper does not know what the key issues are re AI, algorithms and copyright protection.
That newspaper is adept at reporting about the need to protect US interests (at least the interests of US billionaires, if not more-mortal Americans)…just look at these stories near the middle of Wednesday’s edition:
It’s important to protect the billionaires’ ability to propagandize US people and politicians, you see. Again …WTF?
Bad competition regulation has made America a very difficult place for many of its people. Is this the future of Britain? That’s why US interests supported a hard Brexit, right?
And take this snip:
Where are the FT stories about US companies wilfully and brazenly stealing copyright from UK creatives …and what about the thieving of privacy from the people, more generally? (See my Assange yarn, below)
Sigh. Perhaps, tomorrow’s newspapers will have them. (see notes below for update on Sept. 18)
The pomp of Trump’s visit to London is not really designed to placate The President. It’s to cover up the crime that’s taking place in real time and in plain sight as internet giants steal, thieve and ripoff.
(Updates with extra notes on Thursday and adds ITV snip)
NOTES
FT coverage Thursday WAS better, because it covered what the UK was or wasn’t “giving in return” and offered a story about how to regulate AI.
See https://ft.pressreader.com/v99c/20250918/281552297013308
and https://ft.pressreader.com/v99c/20250918/281908779298876