ICMP accuses AI companies of pressuring Australia on copyright

RIGHTS AND REGULATION

The International Confederation of Music Publishers has accused AI companies of trying to push the Australian government into softening copyright rules applied to model training, according to Guardian Australia.

ICMP Director General John Phelan said 62 countries have considered legislative changes, but that none of the others has accepted the AI industry’s demands. ICMP represents publishers including Sony Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group and Warner Chappell Music, as well as independent publishers and national associations.

The organization also claims that AI models have already been trained on songs by Australian artists without payment to rightsholders. The examples cited include Kylie Minogue, Nick Cave and G Flip, with ICMP pointing the Guardian to Google Gemini’s ability to produce lyrics from their songs.

Phelan also referred to the LAION-DISCO-12M dataset, which The Atlantic said links to more than 12 million songs on YouTube, including tracks by Minogue, Cave and Hilltop Hoods. The Atlantic has cautioned, however, that inclusion in a dataset is not definitive proof of use in training.

Source: Music Business Worldwide