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Sony Music Warns Companies to Stop Training AI on Its Artists' Content
Source: Bloomberg
Sony Music Group, one of the world’s biggest record labels, warned artificial intelligence companies and music streaming platforms not to use the company’s content without explicit permission.
Sony, whose artists include Lil Nas X and Celine Dion, sent letters to more than 700 companies in an effort to protect its intellectual property, which includes album cover art, metadata, musical compositions and lyrics, from being used for training AI models.
“Unauthorized use” of Sony’s content in the “training, development or commercialization of AI systems” deprives the company and its artists of control and compensation for those works, according to the letter, which was obtained by Bloomberg News.
Copyright infringement has become a major battleground issue for generative AI, which is being used to produce all kinds of content from text to images and video. While Hollywood actors and writers went on strike last year to protect their craft from AI, a new crop of startups is churning out entire albums of AI-generated music, heightening worries over artists’ livelihoods and rekindling tensions with streaming platforms.
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Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-16/sony-music-warns-companies-to-stop-training-ai-on-its-artists-content
More, from different sources:
https://www.billboard.com/business/tech/sony-music-artificial-intelligence-training-opt-out-1235684192/
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The pointed letter notes that “unauthorized use of SMG Content in the training, development or commercialization of AI systems deprives SMG Companies and SMG Talent of control over and appropriate compensation for the uses of SMG Content, conflicts with the normal exploitation of those works, unreasonably prejudices our legitimate interests, and infringes our intellectual property and other rights.”
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Whether a company needs permission before undertaking the training process on copyrighted works is already the subject of a fierce debate, leading to lawsuits in several industries. In October, Universal Music Group (UMG) was among the music companies that sued AI startup Anthropic, alleging that “in the process of building and operating AI models, [the company] unlawfully copies and disseminates vast amounts of copyrighted works.”
Although these cases will likely set precedent for AI training practices in the U.S., the courts typically move at a glacial pace. In the meantime, some technology companies seem set on training their genAI tools on large troves of recordings without permission.
“Based on recent Copyright Office filings it is clear that the technology industry and speculative financial investors would like governments to believe in a very distorted view of copyright,” Dennis Kooker, Sony Music’s president of global digital business, said during the Artificial Intelligence Insight Forum in Washington, D.C. in November. “One in which music is considered fair use for training purposes and in which certain companies are permitted to appropriate the entire value produced by the creative sector without permission, and to build huge businesses based on it without paying anything to the creators concerned.”
The pointed letter notes that “unauthorized use of SMG Content in the training, development or commercialization of AI systems deprives SMG Companies and SMG Talent of control over and appropriate compensation for the uses of SMG Content, conflicts with the normal exploitation of those works, unreasonably prejudices our legitimate interests, and infringes our intellectual property and other rights.”
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Whether a company needs permission before undertaking the training process on copyrighted works is already the subject of a fierce debate, leading to lawsuits in several industries. In October, Universal Music Group (UMG) was among the music companies that sued AI startup Anthropic, alleging that “in the process of building and operating AI models, [the company] unlawfully copies and disseminates vast amounts of copyrighted works.”
Although these cases will likely set precedent for AI training practices in the U.S., the courts typically move at a glacial pace. In the meantime, some technology companies seem set on training their genAI tools on large troves of recordings without permission.
“Based on recent Copyright Office filings it is clear that the technology industry and speculative financial investors would like governments to believe in a very distorted view of copyright,” Dennis Kooker, Sony Music’s president of global digital business, said during the Artificial Intelligence Insight Forum in Washington, D.C. in November. “One in which music is considered fair use for training purposes and in which certain companies are permitted to appropriate the entire value produced by the creative sector without permission, and to build huge businesses based on it without paying anything to the creators concerned.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0434yx8vgxo.amp
In a letter spanning several pages of demands, Sony Music asks each of the hundreds of addressees to send it:
Details of songs it owns that were used to train AI systems
How the songs were accessed - e.g. through online streaming services
The number of copies made of the songs, whether the copies still exist, and how long they existed for
Why it was necessary for such copies to exist for the amount of time they did - assuming they existed in the first place
It said in the letter that a copy could consist of just a portion of a song - and it was willing to come to terms on licensing agreements for future use.
Details of songs it owns that were used to train AI systems
How the songs were accessed - e.g. through online streaming services
The number of copies made of the songs, whether the copies still exist, and how long they existed for
Why it was necessary for such copies to exist for the amount of time they did - assuming they existed in the first place
It said in the letter that a copy could consist of just a portion of a song - and it was willing to come to terms on licensing agreements for future use.
Sony Music's public Declaration of AI Training Opt Out:
https://www.sonymusic.com/sonymusic/declaration-of-ai-training-opt-out/
New York, NY – May 16, 2024 – Sony Music Group (SMG) and its affiliates have invested in the development and promotion of songwriters and recording artists all over the world for more than a century. SMG is a passionate believer in the inherent and paramount value of human artistry. Additionally, SMG has been embracing the potential for responsibly produced AI to be used as a creative tool, revolutionizing the ways songwriters and recording artists create music. We support artists and songwriters taking the lead in embracing new technologies in support of their art. Evolutions in technology have frequently shifted the course of creative industries. AI will likely continue that long-standing trend.
However, that innovation must ensure that songwriters’ and recording artists’ rights, including copyrights, are respected. For that reason, SMG’s affiliates, Sony Music Publishing (SMP) and Sony Music Entertainment (SME), on behalf of themselves and their wholly owned or controlled affiliates, are making this affirmative, public declaration confirming that, except as specifically and explicitly authorized by either SME or SMP, as the case may be, each of them expressly prohibits and opts out of any text or data mining, web scraping or similar reproductions, extractions or uses (“TDM”) of any SME and/or SMP content (including, without limitation, musical compositions, lyrics, audio recordings, audiovisual recordings, artwork, images, data, etc.) for any purposes, including in relation to training, developing or commercializing any AI system, and by any means, including by bots, scrapers or other automated processes, in each case to the full extent permitted by applicable law in all relevant jurisdictions. This declaration reaffirms and is without prejudice to all of SMP’s and/or SME’s prior rights reservations and their respective legal rights, all of which are expressly reserved. SME’s and SMP’s rights reservations apply to all existing and future SME and SMP content, including those creative works that may be identified through publicly available means or listed from time to time in databases such as those maintained by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and the [International Confederation of Music Publishers (ICMP).]
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However, that innovation must ensure that songwriters’ and recording artists’ rights, including copyrights, are respected. For that reason, SMG’s affiliates, Sony Music Publishing (SMP) and Sony Music Entertainment (SME), on behalf of themselves and their wholly owned or controlled affiliates, are making this affirmative, public declaration confirming that, except as specifically and explicitly authorized by either SME or SMP, as the case may be, each of them expressly prohibits and opts out of any text or data mining, web scraping or similar reproductions, extractions or uses (“TDM”) of any SME and/or SMP content (including, without limitation, musical compositions, lyrics, audio recordings, audiovisual recordings, artwork, images, data, etc.) for any purposes, including in relation to training, developing or commercializing any AI system, and by any means, including by bots, scrapers or other automated processes, in each case to the full extent permitted by applicable law in all relevant jurisdictions. This declaration reaffirms and is without prejudice to all of SMP’s and/or SME’s prior rights reservations and their respective legal rights, all of which are expressly reserved. SME’s and SMP’s rights reservations apply to all existing and future SME and SMP content, including those creative works that may be identified through publicly available means or listed from time to time in databases such as those maintained by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and the [International Confederation of Music Publishers (ICMP).]
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