CISAC President Björn Ulvaeus - perhaps better known for being part of ABBA - says that, for many creators, the ongoing discussions around copyright and AI, which impact significantly on those creators’ rights and future careers, often “feel distant”, prompting concern that the voices of actual human creators are simply “not being heard”.
Noting that generative AI is now “advancing at extraordinary speed”, he says that human creativity is “the lifeblood” of this technology that is “changing everything”. And yet “creators are being left out of the economic picture; they are not being remunerated for the use of their works, nor have they been acknowledged as being essential to the progression of the technology”.
That’s because many AI companies are using large quantities of existing creative works - including music - to train their generative AI models without getting permission from creators and copyright owners. They then argue that exceptions in copyright law or the US principle of ‘fair use’ mean they don’t need to get permission.
“Thankfully”, Ulvaeus continues in CISAC’s latest annual report, governments around the world are “beginning to respond and engage in discussions” that will hopefully clarify the copyright obligations of AI companies. “New laws are being considered”, he says, “consultations are underway and important decisions are taking shape”.
However, he goes on, while there is “distinct momentum”, for many creators, “these discussions feel distant”, because “they are not in the room, they are not part of the process and, too often, their voices are not being heard”.
Where governments are consulting with the creative industries about AI, they do often start by talking to the big labels, publishers and studios, or their representatives.
And while corporate rightsholders and individual creators are aligned when it comes to basic obligations of AI companies - they must get permission before using existing works to train AI models - the corporates and creators are often not aligned when it comes to how AI licensing should work and how AI income should be shared.
Which is why it’s important that creator and creator organisations are also part of the conversation. And, of course, Ulvaeus believes that includes CISAC, the global grouping of songwriter collecting societies like PRS, ASCAP and SACEM. After all, its member societies have lots of songwriters, composers and other creators among their respective memberships.
“CISAC exists to represent creators at a global level”, he says. “We bring creator voices into the conversations that shape laws, markets and systems”. And “over the past year, that has meant engaging in policy debates across multiple regions, supporting member societies, and advocating for principles that protect the value of creative work”.
As well as its advocacy work, CISAC also coordinates many of the metadata standards and systems that play a crucial role in the management of song copyrights. And the annual report includes some updates on that work too.
That includes CIS-Net, the network through which songwriter collecting societies can share copyright data. CISAC says that this year it has made “significant progress” in what it describes as a “major transformation” of that network.
The changes, it adds, will introduce a “centralised architecture for managing musical works ownership data and audiovisual cue sheets, improving data accuracy and enabling faster, more efficient exchanges between societies”. A “controlled rollout” is now underway with “full migration” to the revamped system expected by 2027.
