Sony Music Warns AI Firms Against Unauthorized Song Use

As a researcher with a background in intellectual property law and a strong interest in artificial intelligence, I find Sony Music’s recent actions to be both intriguing and significant. The company’s assertion that unauthorized use of its songs for AI development constitutes copyright infringement is a complex issue that raises important questions about the boundaries of fair use and the legal rights of content creators in the age of AI.


I, as an analyst, would like to share that Sony Music has recently sent out letters to approximately 700 entities such as Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI, inquiring about their utilization of Sony Music’s songs for creating artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Acting on behalf of artists like BeyoncĂ© and Adele, Sony Music explicitly prohibits the employment of its music for AI training, development, or monetization without obtaining prior approval.

According to a report from the BBC, Sony Music recently sent out a letter expressing concerns that some recipients may have utilized their music without authorization. I, as a crypto investor and music enthusiast, received such a letter and understand that Sony Music believes there has been unauthorized use of their copyrighted material. They’ve given us a deadline to respond and are prepared to take legal action, including enforcing their rights under the upcoming AI Act in the European Union.

The use of this action is a contentious issue in the larger discussion surrounding the data employed for AI model development. For example, music-generating AI tools might be based on extensive collections of pre-existing songs. Universal Music and Sony Music have initiated lawsuits against Anthropic AI over comparable concerns.

Sony Music’s correspondence requests information concerning the specific tunes employed for training artificial intelligence, methods of acquisition, quantity of replicas produced, and timeframes during which these duplicates were in circulation.

Nana Nwachukwu, a legal expert at the AI ethics firm Saidot, explained that using copyrighted music to train an AI system may be considered a copyright violation according to European regulations, unless the content has been legally obtained or granted a license for such use.

The query as to whether utilizing copyrighted material for training artificial intelligence (AI) tools entails infringement or is covered under fair use remains undecided in the European Union and the United States.

Also read: Major U.S. Newspapers Sue OpenAI & Microsoft Over Copyright

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2024-05-17 12:20