Finally, the U.S. Copyright Office Is Addressing AI-Generated Music Concerns
After years of AI rearing its ugly head with the work and livelihood of musicians, the U.S. Copyright Office is ready to listen.
On Wednesday, May 31st, the government body will host a virtual session where artists, AI developers, researchers and more will share their hopes and concerns about generative AI with regards to music and sound recordings. Nonspeaking attendance will be open to the public.
AI currently has meager regulations when it comes to copyrighting. Today's copyright infrastructure has largely failed to delineate best practices and guidance for creatives to protect their work.
Author Kris Kashtanova recently had her copyright application rejected by the U.S. Copyright Office because she failed to disclose her use of images generated from the popular AI program Midjourney in her registration, according to The Verge. Kashtanova reportedly fed text prompts that the trained Midjourney software used to produce the images; however, the Copyright Office did not deem that sufficient enough for "human authorship," one of the pillars of registering a copyright.
AI is quickly evolving and musicians are using elaborate AI tools to augment their careers. Grimes recently released a program that allows producers to upload their own acapellas and transform them to sound like the famed art-pop star, who announced her intent to allow distribution of the deepfaked music to streaming platforms for a royalty split.
The U.S. Copyright session on Music and Sound Recordings is scheduled for 1-4pm ET on Wednesday, May 31st. You can register here.
