UK Music Urges Culture Secretary To Ditch “Dangerous and Damaging” Artificial Intelligence Plan

UK Music, the collective voice of the UK Music industry, has urged Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries to dump “dangerous and damaging” plans to allow artificial intelligence companies to “launder” music to generate new content.

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UK Music, the collective voice of the UK Music industry, has urged Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries to dump “dangerous and damaging” plans to allow artificial intelligence companies to “launder” music to generate new content.

In a letter (link below) to the Culture Secretary, UK Music Chief Executive Jamie Njoku-Goodwin warns of the “drastic, unintended consequences” that the proposed changes could have on the UK’s world-leading music industry, that generated £5.8 billion for the UK economy pre-pandemic.

The move follows the publication of the Government’s response to its consultation Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property: copyright and patents, which has triggered a fierce backlash across the UK music industry.

Commenting on the letter, Jamie Njoku-Goodwin said:

“These proposals would give the green light to music laundering – if the government truly wants the UK creative industries to be world leading, they must urgently rethink these plans.”

In its letter, UK Music says the industry is “greatly concerned about plans to allow third parties to use creative works, including music, for data mining purposes, without the need for creators and rightsholders to provide permission”.

It calls on the Government to urgently reject the current plan ahead of any proposed legislation to ensure that the basic principles, which are the bedrock of the UK music industry, are not significantly undermined.

UK Music’s intervention comes on British IP Day (Wednesday June 6) and has the strong support of all UK Music’s members: – AIM, BPI, FAC, The Ivors Academy, MMF, MPA, MPG, MU, PPL, and PRS for Music.

In the letter, Jamie Njoku-Goodwin writes:

“We are greatly concerned about plans to allow third parties to use creative works, including music, for data mining purposes, without the need for creators and rightsholders to provide permission.

“This would significantly undermine the basic principles that the creative industries are based on and runs contrary to the welcome ambition you have set out to protect our world-leading creative industries and build on their success. We seek your urgent intervention to reject the current plan ahead of any decision to take forward legislation.

“Pre-pandemic the music industry was worth £5.8 billion to the economy, generated exports of £2.9 billion and employed almost 200,000 people. It forms a key part of the UK’s globally celebrated creative industries that are worth in excess of £100 billion to the UK – and a huge part of that success has been down to our robust copyright laws.

“However, the proposals on data mining risk undermining that framework and causing significant damage to a whole range of sectors.”

In the letter, UK Music Chief Executive Jamie Njoku-Goodwin concludes:

UK Music supports attempts to grow the UK’s AI sector, yet this cannot be achieved by taking away vital tools that enable the music industry, and other IP reliant sectors, to innovate.

“These proposals are dangerous to the future prospects of our globally successful sector. As someone who has always championed our world leading creative industries and knows from personal experience just how important robust copyright protections are, we ask for your support to help to guarantee this proceeds no further.”

You can read the Government’s response to its consultation below. The relevant sections about AI are paragraph 7 and paragraphs 31 to 53.

The full UK Music letter can be read below.

The Government’s response to its consultation Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property: copyright and patents can be read below.

You can read a comment piece that Jamie Njoku-Goodwin wrote for The Times’ Red Box below.

Source UK Music

July 6, 2022 7:00am ET by Pressparty  

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