French Rights Body Sacem Announces Automatic AI Opt-Out For Members’ Work

Melanie Goodfellow
·3 min read

France’s Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music has announced it is exercising its right to opt-out from making its members’ work freely available for use in the development of artificial intelligence tools.

The Paris-based body, which was created in 1851, represents 210,800 members – divided between 203,090 creators and 7,710 publishers – across all artistic sectors and manages a global repertoire of 166 million works, according to its own figures.

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The announcement on Thursday comes amid growing debate in Europe over the implications of AI technology for professionals in the creative industries, as well as around how generative AI tools are trained using original works.

“From now on, data mining of works in Sacem’s repertoire by entities developing artificial intelligence tools will require prior authorisation from Sacem, in order to ensure fair remuneration for the authors, composers and music publishers it represents,” the body said in a statement posted on its website on Thursday.

“AI tools can take many different forms, but most of them are based on training sets made up of various types of data, including protected works. The use of these tools raises a number of questions in terms of respect for copyright, particularly when training sets that include protected works are created from data mining,” it continued.

Sacem said its aim was not to oppose the development of artificial intelligence.

“AI is already present in the daily lives of creators and our authors’ society, not only as a tool to create art, but also in the service of our processes at Sacem,” said the body’s CEO Cécile Rap-Veber.

“Our aim is not to ban AI, or to slow down its development, but to make it more virtuous and transparent. Our members’ creative works must not be used without their consent to enrich and train AI tools,” she continued.

“AI is still evolving, and we will maintain our commitment and vigilance — as we have done in the past with technological developments that affect the world of music —with regard to the impact it may have on the creators and publishers we represent, and the risks and opportunities it may generate.”

There has been a ratcheting up in lobbying around AI in Europe as the European Union pushes through final negotiations on its new Artificial Intelligence Act, which is scheduled to complete its passage by the end of the year.

Earlier this month, 200 renowned writers joined forces with translation guilds to express their fears over the implications of AI for human creativity, while 70 cultural and creative sector bodies published an editorial in Le Monde newspaper calling for greater transparency around the use of original content used to train AI tools.

The bodies called on the French government to back stronger rules around transparency and copyright within the E.U.’s new AI law, to ensure fair remuneration for value generated when original works are fed into an AI tool.

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