LONDON — Paul McCartney urged the British government not to make a change to copyright laws that he says could let artificial intelligence companies rip off artists.

The government is consulting on whether to let tech firms use copyrighted material to help train artificial intelligence models unless the creators explicitly opt out.

McCartney told the BBC that would make it harder for artists to retain control of their work and undermine Britain’s creative industries.

“You get young guys, girls, coming up, and they write a beautiful song, and they don’t own it, and they don’t have anything to do with it. And anyone who wants can just rip it off,” the 82-year-old former Beatle said in an interview to be broadcast Sunday. An extract was released Saturday by the BBC.

“The truth is, the money’s going somewhere. When it gets on the streaming platforms, somebody is getting it, and it should be the person who created it. It shouldn’t be some tech giant somewhere.”

Britain’s center-left Labour Party government says it wants to make the U.K. a world leader in AI. In December, it announced a consultation into how copyright law can “enable creators and right holders to exercise control over, and seek remuneration for, the use of their works for AI training” while also ensuring “AI developers have easy access to a broad range of high-quality creative content.”

Publishers, artists’ organizations and media companies, including The Associated Press, have banded together as the Creative Rights in AI Coalition to oppose weakening copyright protections.

“We’re the people, you’re the government. You’re supposed to protect us. That’s your job,” McCartney said. “So you know, if you’re putting through a bill, make sure you protect the creative thinkers, the creative artists, or you’re not going to have them.”

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Rocker Marilyn Manson won't be charged after long investigation of sexual assault allegations

LOS ANGELES — Prosecutors said Friday that they will not file charges against Marilyn Manson after a years-long investigation of allegations of sexual assault and domestic violence.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said the allegations are too old under the law and the evidence is not sufficient to charge the 56-year-old shock rocker whose legal name is Brian Warner.

“We have determined that allegations of domestic violence fall outside of the statute of limitations, and we cannot prove charges of sexual assault beyond a reasonable doubt,” Hochman said. “We recognize and applaud the courage and resilience of the women who came forward to make reports and share their experiences, and we thank them for their cooperation and patience with the investigation.”

Nearly four years after the investigation began, then-District Attorney George Gascón said on Oct. 9 that his office was pursuing new leads that added to the “already extensive” file that authorities had amassed.

LA County sheriff’s detectives said early in 2021 that they were investigating Manson for incidents between 2009 and 2011 in West Hollywood, where Manson lived at the time. The probe included a search warrant that was served on his West Hollywood home. The case was initially turned over to prosecutors in September 2021, but the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office requested more evidence-gathering and the investigation resumed.

“We are very pleased that, after a thorough and incredibly lengthy review of all of the actual evidence, the District Attorney has concluded what we knew and expressed from the start — Brian Warner is innocent,” his attorney, Howard King, said in a statement.

The identities of the women police and prosecutors spoke to were not revealed, but “Game of Thrones” actor Esmé Bianco — who sued Manson in a case that has been settled — said she was part of the criminal investigation. Before the decision not to prosecute, she criticized how long the process was taking at a rally for Hochman, who was elected soon after.

“Almost four years ago, I did what victims of rape are supposed to do: I went to the police,” she said on Oct. 10. “I described to them in agonizing detail how the rock musician Brian Warner — better known by his stage name Marilyn Manson — had raped and abused me over the course of our relationship.”

Bianco said she gave investigators “hundreds of pieces of evidence, including photos of my body covered in bites, bruises and knife wounds, emails and text messages, threats to my immigration status.”

In her lawsuit, Bianco alleged sexual, physical and emotional abuse, and said that Manson violated human trafficking law by bringing her to California from England for non-existent roles in music videos and movies.

“Whilst I am deeply disappointed by the decision of the District Attorney to not bring charges in the case against Brian Warner, I am sadly not surprised,” Bianco said in a statement released by her lawyer. “Once again, our justice system has failed survivors. Not the individual prosecutors and detectives who worked for years on this case, but the system that made them do so with one hand tied behind their collective backs.”

In 2021 Manson's former fiancée, “Westworld” actor Evan Rachel Wood, named him as her abuser for the first time in an Instagram post.

Wood and Manson’s relationship became public in 2007 when he was 38 and she was 19, and they were briefly engaged in 2010 before breaking up.

“He started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years,” Wood said.

Manson replied on Instagram that these were “horrible distortions of reality.” He sued Wood, saying she and another woman fabricated accusations against him and convinced others to do the same. A judge threw out significant sections of the suit, then in November, Manson agreed to drop it and pay Wood's attorney fees.

The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they’ve been sexually abused, unless they come forward publicly as Bianco and Wood have done.

Other women sued Manson in the months after Wood came forward. Wood's representative did not immedately return a message Friday.

Manson emerged as a musical star in the mid-1990s, known as much for courting public controversy as for hit songs like “The Beautiful People” and hit album’s like 1996’s “Antichrist Superstar” and 1998’s “Mechanical Animals.”

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Justin Baldoni will not ‘be bullied’ into silence by Blake Lively’s push for gag order

NEW YORK — Amid the seemingly never-ending drama surrounding “It Ends With Us,” Justin Baldoni’s attorney is saying his client will not be silenced by Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds’ calls for a gag order.

The A-list couple requested a judge put a stop to what they called a “retaliatory media campaign” on Tuesday — the same day Baldoni’s team leaked behind-the-scenes footage intended to dispel Lively’s claims of sexual harassment on the set of the film.

“We will never be bullied by those suggesting we cannot defend our clients with pure, unedited facts,” attorney Bryan Freedman told TMZ on Saturday.

Freedman maintains the “Gossip Girl” alum and “Deadpool” star are attempting to wield their power to induce “pure fear,” which he claims they have a history of doing in Hollywood.

But according to attorney, Lively and Reynolds’ scare tactics are merely an indication of how scared they are themselves. He says their request for a gag order is nothing more than their attempt to “gag the truth.”

“It seems that in a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act,” he told TMZ.

Freedman’s latest statements come roughly a month after speculation of an on-set feud was confirmed by Lively filing a lawsuit accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment on the set of “It Ends With Us,” followed by a coordinated smear campaign meant to destroy her reputation.

On Dec. 31, Baldoni sued The New York Times for $250 million over their article detailing Lively’s allegations, including what he claimed were “cherry-picked and altered communications stripped of necessary context.” Freedman dubbed the Times story a “well-calculated hit piece.”

Weeks later, Baldoni filed a $400 million lawsuit against Lively and Reynolds themselves, along with publicist Leslie Sloane, accusing them of defamation, civil extortion and interference with contractual relations.

Freedman then released the nearly 10 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage on Tuesday, which shows Lively and Baldoni filming three takes of a scene she referred to in her allegations. Lively’s camp maintains the footage is “damning” and proves Baldoni crossed a line, while Freedman says it shows the opposite.

Later that day, lawyers for Lively and Reynolds requested a court impose a gag order on Freedman and his “improper conduct,” saying statements he’s made to the press have been false, irrelevant and harassing, and risk prejudicing the public.

From combined wire services