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The scattershot, sometimes gleefully unpredictable publishing schedule of Blue Highway Advisory’s signature newsletter continues apace, as the world at large, and most especially the many of us in the strategic advisory sector, ponder what the spheres of news, law, politics, culture and human interaction will look and feel like through the course of the next four or more years.
We’ll have more to say about all of these enormously important subjects in due course. (And, just as a bit of teaser – please keep particular watch on Blue Highway’s expansion and outlook into the first months of 2025. We expect you may be just as excited about new directions and new offerings as we are).
In the meantime, Amanda Harcourt, Blue Highway’s most senior advisor and operative on all matters related to international copyright, contracts and rights administration, has been very busy indeed these many weeks on the conference and speaking circuit in North America, most particularly and passionately on the subject of music and Artificial Intelligence.
I was fortunate enough, and more than just honored, to be added as part of this mix, and to see her in action for myself at the global congress of CIAM - the International Council of Music Creators - in Montreal.
What I saw, what I heard, and what I learned in Montreal has been invaluable to me and to Blue Highway, and we owe much to Amanda, and to CIAM’s outgoing president Eddie Schwartz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Schwartz, for stirring us into the flow of this impressive and inspirational international community.
We enthusiastically look forward to expanding our relationships with this community into the next year, and well beyond.
-Ian Christopher McCaleb, Founder and Principal, Blue Highway Advisory, Nov. 14, 2024
Blue Highway’s Amanda Harcourt with legendary composer and session man Wally Badarou, at this year’s CIAM international conference in Montreal.
Photo Credit: Charles Sanders |
Amanda reports:
In October two of us from the Blue Highway team, myself and Founder Ian McCaleb, headed north of the 49th parallel to support the interests of the world’s music creators.
First, at the invitation of the International Institute of Communications, I was honoured to attend the institute’s annual conference held in Ottawa for regulators, policymakers and lawyers, all working in the communications sector. I shared the platform with representatives from the Canadian Senate, the US Federal Trade Commission, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), Innovation, the Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections, the University of Ottawa, the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project, the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, the Space Bureau at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
Topics addressed included quantum computing, AI and emergency alerting, AI and regulatory responses, online harms, facial recognition technology and human rights, Competition Act changes, Canadian privacy law, disinformation and elections.
I was there to speak about AI and music; in particular by explaining the need for effective protection and monetary rewards for the music creator community. I stressed the existing laws that should be used when creators’ works are raided without consent or remuneration to train AI data sets, and when the resulting data is used by generative AI to “create” new music. Along with the President of the Screen Composers Guild of Canada, John Rowley https://www.jrowleymusic.com/, we two examined the technological processes within such unauthorised copying, and stressed the importance of the existing legal copyright protections that focus upon the presence of a human author to secure copyright in original music and the generation of licensing income for music creators.
A few days later, along with Ian McCaleb, I attended the global congress of CIAM- the International Council of Music Creators in Montreal. https://www.ciamcreators.org/our-work - to which I am retained as legal adviser.
CIAM is one of the creator councils within CISAC – the Paris-based body that represents the collective management organisations (CMOs) for the world’s authors’ societies – for music creators, directors and scriptwriters and those working in the plastic and visual arts. https://www.cisac.org/
CIAM acts as the unified voice of music creators worldwide and, via partner alliances, represents North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa and Latin America. The Council advocates for the cultural and professional aspirations of music creators, on their economic and legal interests, and serves as a forum for the exchange of information, ideas and best practices, providing practical advice to help music creators achieve their goals.
Hosted by SOCAN, Canada’s music CMO https://www.socan.com/, the 2024 CIAM Congress was attended by music creators from all corners of the globe with partner alliance reps reporting on their regional advocacy and membership support activities. As well as the creator board members of the regional CMOs, there were speakers from the independent music publishing sector, software companies that work to improve the data quality within the music industry and those advocating to introduce Fair Trade principles into the music ecosystem.
The Congress also held its election for the CIAM Executive Committee, and saluted the tremendous contribution from outgoing President, respected Canadian songwriter and producer, Eddie Schwartz. By an overwhelming vote, the Congress welcomed Eddie’s successor, songwriter Arrien Molema from the Netherlands https://www.arrienmolema.nl/.
The Congress explored the difficulties of getting public and policymakers’ attention in an industry where the powerful interests of record labels are perceived as the “voice” of the industry, and thereby they are the ones who dominate the advocacy agenda. This is a real problem in an industry where 70 percent of the market is made up of just three large companies with well-remunerated executives.
Attempts to cut through the noise to shine a light on the interests of the music creator can be ignored, and most often, they are.
Internationally respected IP, robotics and AI lawyer, Prof. Daniel Gervais from the Vanderbilt school of law, presented his CIAM-commissioned White Paper on AI and music creators at the congress. There was a united call for a remuneration right that will ensure continued income for those creators whose works have, without authority from them or from the right owners and without payment, been harvested for the benefit of large digital corporations.
Inevitably, as they did with digital delivery, these companies continue to work on the unprincipled principle of forgiveness rather than permission. Remuneration should, it was argued, be managed by the CMOs. The powerful music companies will doubtless argue for lump sum payments distributed on the basis of market share. Inevitably this will ensure that little, if any, will reach authors or performers owing to the contractually baked-in incentive for bad data as a result of the three little words (“directly and identifiably”), a problem that Blue Highway has highlighted before.
At the Congress I was delighted to be able to chair the panel that explored the many challenges ahead for this community. With me on the panel were songwriter and tireless advocate for US music creators, ASCAP President Paul Williams http://www.paulwilliamsofficial.com/. He was joined by independent publisher Mike McCarty and legendary session man, composer and producer Wally Badarou, founder of the African Music Academy and a dear friend https://www.wallybadarou.com/ (pictured here with me).
We discussed the threat of AI and its effects coming on top of decimated incomes brought about by digital delivery. We acknowledged that, when it comes to the industry’s shared problems, it is most effective for policymakers to hear a clear, unified voice in the advocacy for change. Sadly, but realistically, this may mean joining hands with contractual partners, such as the powerful majors who so frequently place their interests before those of the creators on whom they depend.
This is a significant hurdle for creators. That they have the CMOs whom, with a very few exceptions, work in their interest is a comfort. But resources are stretched and are but a drop in the ocean when compared with the expenditure by the large music corporations, not to mention the truly enormous sums expended by the AI and digital corporate interests.
The end message? There is much work ahead, indeed.
© Amanda Harcourt 2024
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