While some of the major labels are touting YouTube as an important partner in the evolving world of music and AI, not everyone in the music industry has been as enthusiastic about these new efforts. That’s because Google trained its model on a large set of music — including copyrighted major-label recordings — and then went to show it to rights holders, rather than asking permission first.
Source: Google Trained Its AI on Copyrighted Music, Sources Say — Now It’s Trying to Make Deals
For decades, the Copyright Office has been a small and sleepy office within the Library of Congress. In recent months, however, the office has suddenly found itself in the spotlight. Thousands of artists, musicians and tech executives have written to the agency, and hundreds have asked to speak at listening sessions hosted by the office. The attention stems from a first-of-its-kind review of copyright law that the Copyright Office is conducting in the age of artificial intelligence.
Source: The Sleepy Copyright Office in the Middle of a High-Stakes Clash Over A.I.
A trial underway in California could determine whether a tattoo based on a copyrighted image is a copyright violation. The case has potentially large implications for IP-centered industries such as the music business, which in recent years has increasingly focused on “name and likeness” rights in contracts and acquisitions. The case could also have implications for bodily autonomy and free expression – given that the tattoo in question has been indelibly stamped onto the arm of Blake Farmer, a friend of tatoo artist Kat Von D.
Source: Should photographers and rightsholders get paid when tattoo artists ink pictures of music icons?
The CISAC President and ABBA founder called for sustained support for copyright and the protection of creators by the European Union as Belgium takes the six-month presidency of the EU. Belgium will be overseeing discussions to finalize the text of the EU AI act. Ulvaeus urged the establishment of proper transparency principles in the EU AI Act and to require AI operators to adhere to copyright regulations.
Source: CISAC President Björn Ulvaeus Seeks Greater AI Protections
Blockchains with royalties embedded within their code can guarantee that creator royalties will be respected, according to professionals working in Web3. While some platforms continue to hop on the optional royalty trend, others are going the other way, implementing built-in royalty enforcement tools within their blockchains. In June 2023, NFT-focused blockchain platform Enjin released a blockchain mainnet with royalty enforcement embedded in the blockchain’s foundational code.
Source: Royalty-embedded blockchains can help NFT artists get paid
Folgueira said that this was Deezer’s attempt to bring an element of ‘user-centric’ concepts – a model the company had been trying to launch without success in previous years – into the new artist-centric model. Folgueira described the double boosts as “a rebalancing of the pool… we’re probably shifting around 1% of the royalties between the two boosts… so we don’t generate too much of a disruption with the new system”.
Source: Deezer CEO talks artist-centric: ‘We want quality over quantity’ – Music Ally
A commission of the French National Assembly published an opinion on Thursday (18 January) recommending amending the EU’s Copyright Directive to elaborate an international AI treaty and regular reviews of the EU’s AI Act. The EU’s Copyright Directive became law in April 2019, three years before the public release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which quickly became the world’s most famous chatbot and a household name.
Source: French MPs want to amend EU’s copyright rules to cover generative AI
On Wednesday, January 17, the European Parliament voted by a resounding margin in favor of changes to the music streaming royalty industry “to ensure the music streaming sector is fair and sustainable, and to promote cultural diversity.” The resolution was adopted by 532 votes to 61 with 33 abstentions. Parliament calls for a new EU legal framework for the music streaming royalty sector, as streaming services continue to dominate as the primary method of accessing music.
Source: EU Parliament Votes in Favor of Music Streaming Royalty Changes
Amid a growing debate about copyright and ethics in generative artificial intelligence, a new non-profit, Fairly Trained, founded by former Stability AI executive Ed Newton-Rex, is introducing an initiative to evaluate and certify AI models based on their respect for creators’ rights. Similar to organic food certifications, Fairly Trained’s “Licensed Model” certification evaluates and certifies AI models based on their training data sources.
Source: Stability AI’s former VP of Audio launches certification for AI models that respect copyrights
In the job listing, posted last week, Netflix said the financial analyst for residuals will be “a key member in our Contingent Compensation & Reporting Department” whose main responsibilities will be “interpreting and analyzing residual impact in accordance with various guilds, unions and production service agreements and execute accordingly.”