Capacity Triangle Webinar at Soundtrack_Cologne: AI and authors rights: what awaits us?
On Wednesday 21 June 2023, from 12:00 - 13:00 CET, Soundtrack_Cologne and ECSA organise a Capacity Triangle webinar for music creators: "AI and authors rights: what awaits us?". This is a hybrid event, open to anyone who is present at Soundtrack_Cologne, as well as accessible online via the link to the livestream below.
As generative AI technologies are becoming more and more powerful and advanced in an increasingly rapid pace, key questions among the creative communities arise about its use and its legal nature.
Copyrighted works can be used to “feed” AI technologies to generate music. This “training”, based on large amounts of data, is known as “text and data mining” and can be allowed under certain conditions, as long as rightholders can opt out. What are those conditions and how to exercise this opt-out? What implications do the recent developments of AI have on these exceptions? Can creators and musicians be remunerated for the use of their works by AI?
Those questions are becoming even more relevant as the European institutions are currently discussing what should become the EU’s first regulation on AI, known as the “AI Act”. The legislation aims to follow a risk-based approach, with providers and users having specific obligations depending on the level of risk involved in using the AI.
What would these rules imply for music creators? How do music and AI interact with each other? Are the works of authors protected from misappropriation in a sufficient way? How should we define ethical use of AI in music? Should AI-generated music be copyrighted? How should legislation approach these developments? During the panel, we will discuss the ins and outs of the proposed AI Act, its link with text and data mining and the general interactions between AI, music and copyright.
The following speakers will participate:
• Stefan Ellenberg
Dr. Stefan Ellenberg is a certified lawyer for IP rights with over 15 years of experience in the entertainment industry. He currently serves as the Head of Business Affairs at the music and media law firm Gutsch & Schlegel in Hamburg. Prior to his career as a lawyer, he gained in-house experience at Edel and Universal Music, among others. He has extensive experience in copyright matters, including drafting and negotiating complex license agreements with a focus on the music industry. Throughout his career, he has worked with numerous major and independent labels, music publishers, and platinum and gold record awarded artists.
• Marc du Moulin
Marc du Moulin is Secretary General of ECSA. He has an in-depth understanding of the functioning of the creative industries and an extensive experience in European Affairs. He previously worked for the European Film Agency Directors, the Motion Picture Association, the European Commission (DG CNECT) and for Eurocinema. Marc holds a master's degree in UK-EU-US Copyright Law from King’s College London and a master's in European Studies from the Catholic Institute of Paris.
• Janne Spijkervet
Janne Spijkervet is a music producer and AI researcher who studies the notion of music creativity with AI. At age 19, she was commissioned to write a piece for the Grammy Award-winning Metropole Orchestra, and soon after joined Hans Zimmer's Remote Control Productions in Los Angeles. She graduated her studies by developing a system that could write music like Bach, and continued to work with artists to create songs using artificial intelligence, from crazy hip hop tracks to tearjerkers, and the first summer hit song on Dutch national Radio 538 in the following years. Now, she works at TikTok's Speech, Audio and Music Intelligence R&D team, where she develops cutting-edge music technology at scale.
• Katharina Uppenbrink
Katharina Uppenbrink has been the managing director of Initiative Urheberrecht (Authors’ Rights Initiative) since May 2014. Katharina worked for various publishers in Berlin, then heading several departments at a medium-sized publishing house in Frankfurt/Main. In 2002 she became managing director of the Verband Deutscher Drehbuchautoren (VDD), the special interest group for screenwriters in Germany, focusing on marketing and organization. From 2004 she was also responsible for the national and international political activities of the professional association. Her focus in this capacity was on copyright and film funding. She was appointed to various German Federal Film board (FFA) committees. She helped to set up the Federation of Screenwriters in Europe (FSE) in Brussels and played a leading role in the development and implementation of several World Conferences of Screenwriters.
• Moderated by: Anselm Kreuzer
Anselm Kreuzer is a German composer of music for television, film, and other audiovisual media. He has written numerous title tunes for TV shows, score music for several TV series, and a huge oeuvre of production music. He is a board member of Composers Club Germany since 2014, leader of the audio working group in the Cologne-based media association Eyes & Ears of Europe since 2003. He is also a deputy in the Works Committee of GEMA since 2015, a guest lecturer at several universities and branch events as well as the author of two monographs on film music.
SoundTrack_Cologne, taking place between 20 - 23 June, is Europe's leading congress for music and sound in film, games and media, and a source of inspiration for the growing landscape of festivals and congresses in Europe. In over 40 round tables, panels, workshops and networking events, SoundTrack_Cologne focuses on current developments in culture, law, marketing and technics of media music and offers business cases and networking events. In 2023 SoundTrack_Cologne will celebrate its 20th edition.