Two London-based musical organisations joined those making a stand over proposed UK copyright law changes due to concerns over content theft by AI developers.
The London Choral Sinfonia and Royal Albert Hall were among 1,000-plus UK artists and groups to put their name to the silent album protesting proposed changes to copyright law.
The protest album, entitled Is This What We Want and uploaded to Spotify in late February, was launched after the UK government announced plans to allow AI developers wider access to the creative output of artists to train their systems, unless creators specifically opt out.
London Choral Sinfonia artistic director Michael Waldron said: “What’s being suggested is that [copyrighted content] is put out there to be sanitised and effectively stolen in order to fuel and create a machine.”
“Potentially, someone could just click a button and say, ‘I want a piece of music that’s happy in mood, or it’s sad in mood, and it’s written for an orchestra’.
“Then the composer’s livelihood and their industry is completely destroyed by that
“And then our livelihoods are removed because there is no music by these emerging and established composer talents for us to nurture, develop, profile and celebrate.”
Royal Albert Hall CEO James Ainscough signed the silent album on behalf of the iconic London music venue as well.
He said: “It is unjust and unproductive to enable a world where tech giants earn a fortune off the back of the unrewarded and uncredited creatives.
“The UK’s best hope of thriving in an AI world is to create a distinctive environment where human creativity is cherished and valued.”
The government’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) claimed the decision to revise UK copyright law is also in the interests of the creative industry.
A spokesperson said: “As it stands, the UK regime for copyright and AI is holding back the creative industries, media and AI sector from realising their full potential – and that cannot continue.”
“No decision will be taken until we are absolutely confident we have a practical plan that delivers each of our objectives, including increased control for right holders to help them easily license their content, enabling lawful access to material to train world-leading AI models in the UK and building greater transparency over material being used.”
Picture credit: Royal Albert Hall
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