Music Industry Voices Concern Over UK’s Proposed AI Copyright Law
The proposed UK copyright law has sparked outrage among the legendary music names including Paul Macartney and Elton John. This proposed law would allow AI developers to source content from the internet unless the right holders choose to opt out.
The biggest issue with opting out is the massive burden is places on the creator’s shoulder to advocate to protect their work. This would require the artist to personally contact each AI company to ensure their content is not being use for AI model training. Keeping track on the whereabouts and how the artist’s content is being utilized is an enormous challenge because the web is vast and complex.
While speaking on Sunday with Laura Kussenberg, Mccartney conveys that this new law can potentially disincentivize music artists from creating new music. “When we were kids in Liverpool, we found a job that we loved, but it also paid the bills,” he said, expressing the need to protect musicians’ livelihoods.
The main concern then becomes who truly owns the music. McCartney continues to say You get young guys, girls, coming up, and they write a beautiful song, and they don’t own it. They don’t have anything to do with it, and anyone who wants can just rip it off. The truth is, the money’s going somewhere. Somebody’s getting paid, so why shouldn’t it be the guy who sat down and wrote Yesterday?’
He powerfully states to lawmakers: “We’re the people, you’re the government! You’re supposed to protect us… 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.”
In addition, Elton John expresses a warning regarding the long-term consequences for the music industry in the UK. To The Sunday Times, he explains, “The wheels are in motion to allow AI companies to ride roughshod over the traditional copyright laws that protect artists’ livelihoods.”
John further argues that this new law would “dilute and threaten young artists’ earnings even further.” The UK is known as a global leader in the arts, and this law will put their rank inn a serious risk. Elton advocates for better copyright protects to make sure that music artists benefit from their own work.
McCartney has considered that AI has benefits to its uses. He shares how AI rechnology was used to fine tune and clean John Lennon’s voice for the recent released “final” Beatles song, Now and Then.
The AI and copyright is about the foundational rights for artists in all creative industries. If this proposed law is passed it may serve as an influence for copyright laws globally. The UK music industry including McCartney and John have made their stance: AI should not be an excuse to undermine creators’ rights. If the government does not protect music artists, the music industry could be at a serious risk.
