Creativity & technology have always been natural fits, working interchangeably to mutual benefit. Today, this combination makes hundreds of millions of music tracks available online, at the touch of a button, to a global audience of billions.
Copyright laws are the crucial cornerstone of this modern, digital market. They help bring the world’s music to a global audience, protect the rights of creators and the rightsholders that support them, enable compensation to be paid for use of works and safeguard a sustainable future for human creativity and culture.
AI has long been a feature of the music sector. However, some AI company developments and uses have not been ethical, responsible, or compliant with copyright laws or other legal requirements.
In response, there are several initiatives from those who make, care about or defend music, calling for a fairer AI future. The Human Artistry Campaign champions the vital nature of human created music and is backed by organisations worldwide. Fairlytrained.org certifies Generative AI companies that observe copyright laws when training Large Language Models and developing AI.
Ethical, responsible and lawful AI development that respects copyright and other laws and principles such as data protection, privacy and personality rights is essential for this powerful technology to evolve in a way that benefits society. AI companies who seek to misuse copyright exceptions such as those available for ‘Text and Data Mining’ (TDM) or ‘Fair Use’ to access the world’s music for AI training, including for the creation of Generative AI products and services without a licence cause significant harm to everyone who has worked so hard to make that music available.
When it comes to copyright exceptions, conditions need to be satisfied. For example, companies and services seeking to rely on a TDM exception must first have “lawful access” to the copyright-protected material. It is clear that any indiscriminate or wholesale ‘scraping’ of online music or other protected content means, by definition, accessing that music or content from unlicensed sources and from services that are only licensed to provide music to individual fans for private and non-commercial use. Such scraping does not count as “lawful access” to the music.
AI companies can ensure ethical and responsible AI by securing appropriate licences in advance from relevant rightsholders, not cutting corners at the expense of the world’s songwriters, artists, rightsholders and consumers.
AI companies should never ignore rights aiming to accelerate their tech developments or commercial growth.
The Declaration below is open to rightsholders worldwide to support these principles and reaffirm and reserve their rights against unlicensed exploitation.
Some rightsholders including companies and certain collective rights management organisations have already taken steps to reserve their rights, including regarding exceptions such as TDM in the limited circumstances where they might apply. This online resource provides a centralised resource of individual reservations, making it easier for AI companies to be all the more aware of rights reservations.
Composers in the crosshairs of our attention