The article also explores how AI poses a challenge to copyright law in the music industry, particularly when it comes to establishing ownership of a song that sounds like an artist's work but doesn't directly copy any particular piece. Some believe that likeness laws, which protect a person's right to control their reputation and profit from their identity, could be a more promising avenue for legal protections. However, the state of US likeness law is currently inconsistent, with no federal right to publicity and varying state-level statutes.
Key takeaways:
- The use of AI in music creation has sparked debates around copyright and likeness laws, with some artists and industry insiders suggesting that rules protecting against unauthorized use of someone's likeness could be a promising legal field for AI-generated work.
- AI poses a challenge to copyright law as it can create a song that sounds like an artist's overall output but does not directly copy any particular work, raising questions about ownership and infringement.
- There is no federal right to publicity in the US and only 14 states have specific statutes covering it, leading to a chaotic state of likeness law. This could potentially be addressed by new AI-related intellectual property regulation, but a new legal framework could be months or years away.
- Some AI-enabled music platforms are trying to mitigate risks by restricting who can use a recorded sound or giving artists a say on how others can use their likeness. However, the law currently does not account for cases where AI platforms create entirely new voices using a library of other people's voices.