AI music sparks new copyright battle in US courts

The emergence of AI systems that can create songs presents the music industry with a new challenge.

This phenomenon has sparked numerous discussions on concepts such as creativity, copyright, and the development of the music industry. Some artists, recording studios, and legal experts have taken an interest in this issue and raised important questions that highlight the necessity of finding the optimal balance between technology and human work.

A recent example: AI attempts to mimic a Grammy nominee

To illustrate the current state of AI in music, let us take the example of Tift Merritt, a country musician. Her track “Traveling Alone” is her most well-known piece due to its presence on Spotify. The song is a ballad that contemplates the open road and one’s capacity to travel alone. After requesting an AI music site, Udio, to create “Tift Merritt’s Americana song,” Udio promptly returned to the author with “Holy Grounds.” Specifically, the song contained lyrics about “driving old backroads” and “watching the fields and skies shift and sway.” Naturally, Tift Merritt’s work was unlikely to be entirely unique.

Merritt, a Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter, is not particularly satisfied with the result. She stated that the “imitation” that Udio came up with “doesn’t make the cut for any album of mine.” However, the singer has a much more serious charge against the generated content – she doesn’t consider it a manifestation of creativity; in her opinion, it’s more like theft. “This is a great demonstration of the extent to which this technology is not transformative at all,” Merritt asserted. “It’s stealing.”

Artists unite in concern

Merritt’s stance resonates with many in the music industry. In April, she joined a cohort of high-profile artists including Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj, and Stevie Wonder in signing an open letter. This document warned that AI-generated music, trained on their recordings, could potentially “sabotage creativity” and marginalise human artists.

The industry takes legal action

The issue is not confined to individual singers but affects giant record labels as well. Recently, Sony Music, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music have sued Udio and another music AI outfit, Suno. They are the first in the music industry to join the alarming copyright fight over AI-made songs, a battle only beginning to be waged in the courtrooms.

The significance of the situation was highlighted by Mitch Glazier, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). He referred to the lawsuits as a response to “shameless copying of troves of recordings in order to flood the market with cheap imitations and drain away listens and income from real human artists and songwriters.” However, he also mentioned the potential in AI: “AI has great promise – but only if it’s built on a sound, responsible, licensed footing.”

AI companies respond

In their initial court responses, Suno and Udio have defended their technology. Additionally, the companies have referred to the industry’s past fears and concerns about the development of synthesisers, drum machines, and other technological advances that were expected to ruin the field by replacing all musically skilled humans. Both companies have maintained their original position, pleading not guilty and explaining that the lawsuits are a means to attack lesser market players, as the apps they provide cannot be used to exactly replicate the top artists.

Legal complexities and novel questions

These cases raise new questions for the courts, such as whether AI can use copyrighted material to produce something original and whether the law should make an exception in such cases. The situation is further complicated by the fact that in music, text, melody, harmony, and rhythm of the created material might be mixed, making it much more challenging to determine a case of plagiarism.

As mentioned by musicologist Brian McBrearty, who specialises in copyright cases, “Music has more factors than just the stream of words. It has pitch, and it has rhythm, and it has harmonic context. It’s a richer mix of different elements that make it a little bit less straightforward.”

The fair use debate

One of the key elements of both these cases is likely to be the notion of “fair use” in copyright law. Fair use is a provision of the law that allows some unauthorised uses of copyrighted works based on a few different conditions, one of them usually being whether the new use transforms the original work from which it was created. The AI companies argue that their use of existing recordings of music is “quintessential ‘fair use.’” However, legal experts suggest that music-generating AIs may not find it as easy to prove fair use as text-generating AIs did.

The road ahead

If such cases come to a conclusion in the courts, they are likely to set relevant precedents for the future of AI in the creative industries. Depending on the outcomes, it is possible that the matters discussed above will have widespread effects on producers of art, technology companies, and consumers alike.

From the perspective of Tift Merritt, who is both a musician and a long-time activist for musicians on various points of law, the concerns feel valid: “Ingesting massive amounts of creative labour to imitate it is not creative. That’s stealing in order to be competition and replace us.”

The music industry is now at a critical point due to the ongoing debate and legal disputes. The main question is whether the current issues will be resolved and how. Additionally, a conclusion must be made about whether it is possible to allow the development of technology for AI music creation while maintaining the copyright of human artists.

(Photo by Lechon Kirb)

See also: Elon Musk revives OpenAI legal battle with fresh allegations

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