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Canadian Music Organizations Raise Concerns About Artificial Intelligence at the House of Commons
After appearing before the Commons' Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage to discuss the effects of advances in AI on the creative industries, representatives from SOCAN and Music Publishers Canada tell Billboard Canada about their main concerns.
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Music industry stakeholders are speaking up about AI before the Canadian House of Commons.
On Wednesday, Oct. 8, representatives from some major music industry groups (SOCAN, Music Publishers Canada and Music Canada) appeared before the House of Commons' Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, which is studying the effects of technological advances in artificial intelligence on the creative industries.
The committee is talking to many groups in the cultural and creative industries, but it is an especially hot topic within music, where the use of AI has exploded at a rapid rate. Some stressed that the unauthorized use of music by generative AI systems should be considered theft.
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One of the people who spoke in Ottawa last week was Music Publishers Canada (MPC) CEO Margaret McGuffin.
"The committee was very interested in hearing our perspectives," she tells Billboard Canada. "Nearly every song ever written by a Canadian songwriter has already been scraped and stolen by these AI companies without consent, credit or compensation. Imagine that someone accessed your paycheque without permission and that this behaviour was normalized. This is an important issue for creators and businesses in the creative industries and it is wonderful that the Heritage Committee is listening."
SOCAN CEO Jennifer Brown also spoke at the hearings, and speaks positively about the experience. Along with MPC, the organization has major concern for fair compensation and royalties for rightsholders.
"The Standing Committee engaged in a good dialogue with the witnesses," says Andrea Kokonis, SOCAN chief legal officer and general counsel. "Jennifer Brown reinforced the importance of a healthy licensing market, as well as SOCAN’s long-standing expertise in licensing and royalty distribution — across every new technology that’s reshaped the music industry — positioning us to help ensure fair, practical solutions for both creators and AI companies."
To McGuffin and MPC, the current situation is alarming.
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"Unfortunately, the music industry has seen mass theft of copyright-protected songs by AI companies, both on the input side — for the purpose of training AI models — and output side — the development and publication of unlicensed generative AI models."
"This poses serious risks for Canada’s creators and the companies that invest in them. To derive fair value for the use of this copyrighted material, the music publishing industry routinely grants licences to technology companies. AI developers should be no different. The emerging market for licensing music to AI developers should be encouraged, including by requiring AI companies to disclose and maintain records of all their training data," she explains.
Kokonis says the issue is not AI itself, but fair and legal licensing.
"SOCAN licenses the use of the world’s repertoire of music in Canada," she says. "And we can license AI companies too, just as we license every other music use. Fair market licensing is the answer. The government should not implement any form of copyright exception that would reward the theft of our members’ works to develop AI models that create competing outputs."
Kokonis stresses the urgency of the issue.
"We need to make sure that, in this rapidly evolving AI environment, creators and their publishers are not left behind and their efforts are valued and respected. They must have consent over how their works are used, receive proper credit for their creations, and be fairly compensated for any use of their music. We also ask that the government ensure that AI companies are transparent about the works they use to develop their models and that AI-generated outputs are also identified."
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McGuffin worries that Canada will introduce a loophole that would allow for AI training on copyrighted materials.
"MPC believes that the Canadian government must reject any calls for watering down a copyright system with a Text and Data Mining copyright exception," she says. "Music rightsholders must be able to control, and realize value for, the use of their songs as AI training material, in accordance with current Canadian copyright law."
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Music industry organizations understand the importance of eliciting public support for their stance on AI issues. Kokonis cites a recent Leger study that found 85% of Canadians want the government to ensure that AI is used ethically, "which speaks to the broad public concerns."
It is not yet clear what steps the government will take to address these concerns and how rapidly they will act, but this is certainly one issue not about to go away.
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