Photo Credit: Kate Bush by Paul Carless / CC by 2.0
Over a thousand musicians are releasing a silent album to protest the UK government’s proposed AI-related changes to copyright law.
Artists including Damon Albarn, Kate Bush, and Annie Lennox are protesting the UK government’s planned changes to copyright law with a completely silent album. The planned changes would enable AI developers to use creators’ work without a license to train their models unless the rights holders “opt out.”
The musicians’ protest album, Is This What We Want?, releases on Tuesday (February 25). Their hope is the release will draw attention to the impact such changes to copyright law will have on the UK music industry. All profits from the album will be donated to the charity Help Musicians.
Is This What We Want? features a track listing that simply spells out the message: “The British Government Must Not Legalise Music Theft To Benefit AI Companies.” The project is backed by over a thousand musicians, including Billy Ocean, Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien, Bastille’s Dan Smith, Jamiroquai, The Clash, Mystery Jets, Tori Amos, Hans Zimmer, Imogen Heap, Yusuf Cat Stevens, Riz Ahmed, and dozens more.
“In the music of the future, will our voices go unheard?” said Kate Bush in a statement.
The UK government has said it intends to deliver legal certainty through a copyright regime that provides creators with “real control” and transparency. But currently, lawmakers are consulting on proposals that would allow AI companies to use material available online for data mining, regardless of copyright. These proposals would give artists a so-called “rights reservation” allowing them to opt out.
Regardless, many artists and critics of the proposal believe it is impossible for an individual creator to notify thousands of AI service providers not to use their work. It’s already difficult enough to monitor the use of their copyrighted work across the internet.
Ed Newton-Rex, organizer of the silent album project, noted that the government’s proposals were not only “disastrous for musicians” across the UK, but completely unnecessary. “However the government tries to justify it, musicians themselves are united in their thorough condemnation of this ill-thought-through plan.”