Musicians Release Silent CD in Protest of UK Copyright Changes

Over 1,000 musicians protest UK copyright changes, supporting creators' rights amid AI exploitation concerns.

A silent CD was published on Tuesday by over 1,000 musicians, including Kate Bush, Annie Lennox, and Damon Albarn, in the protest of the UK government's proposed changes to copyright laws that they claim would make it simpler for AI businesses to train models using copyrighted content without a license. Unless the copyright holders choose to "opt out," the new ideas would allow AI developers to use online content from creators to help in the development of their models.

The album, Is This What We Want?, aims to educate consciousness of the possible effects on livelihoods and the UK music business, according to the musicians. The nonprofit organization Help Musicians will receive all proceeds.

Proposals that would permit AI businesses to exploit web content for text or data mining without following to copyright are presently being considered by the government. In order to create new material that appears to have been created by a person, generative AI programs mine, or learn, from enormous volumes of data, such as text, photographs, or music found online.

The UK music industry made a record £7.6 billion in economic contributions in 2023. However, the plan's critics struggle that a single author or artist cannot monitor the progress of their work over the entire internet or inform thousands of different AI service providers that they do not want their work utilized in that manner. Another performer on the CD, composer Max Richter, observed that the plans affect "impoverished creators" in general, including writers, visual artists, and others, in addition to musicians.