In today’s CMU Daily: Organisations representing creators across Europe have written to new EU Commissioners Henna Virkkunen and Glenn Micallef calling for an ambitious AI strategy that deals with the impact generative AI is having on the creative industries, insisting that the existing EU AI Act is only a “temporary fix”

Also today: HYBE label Ador has begun legal proceedings against NewJeans after the group announced last week that they were terminating their contract with the company; audio file conversion site MP3.to was recently included on a copyright takedown notice submitted to Google which resulted in the site being de-listed from search results - that decision has now been reversed

Approved: jasmine.4.t

EU AI Act can only provide a “temporary fix” to the “darker aspect” of AI’s “profound disruption” to creative industries says open letter

An open letter co-signed by thirteen creator organisations representing the voices of more than 1.7 million creators and performers has been delivered to the European Union’s new Commissioners overseeing technology and culture, Henna Virkkunen and Glenn Micallef. 

The letterurges the EU to “directly address the profound disruption caused by the uptake of generative AI” on the creative industries, “as well as its impact on creation and cultural diversity”. Among the signatories of a letter to the commissioners are music creator groups ECSA, FIM and IAO, which represent composers and songwriters, musicians, and featured artists.

The current “unenforced and unbalanced” EU legislative framework governing generative AI “does not protect our creative community” and “ignores the specificities of the cultural and creative sectors”, says the letter. In particular, the signatories highlight concerns about how AI companies are exploiting the text and data mining copyright exception introduced in the EU’s 2019 copyright directive. Meanwhile, they add, the more recent EU AI Act - although broadly welcomed - will “only serve as a temporary fix”. 

Virkkunen has the role of Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security And Democracy within the new EU Commission, while Micallef is Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture And Sport. 

The letter notes that recent ‘mission letters’ setting out the priorities of the new Commissioners said there would be a focus on “developing an AI strategy for cultural and creative industries” and “the need to further improve the copyright framework to address new challenges raised by market and technology developments”. 

As the EU begins work on those topics, the creator groups want the commissioners to pay attention to how the “darker aspect” of generative AI is addressed. A primary concern here is, say the creators, that most of today’s generative AI models “have been trained in full opacity on enormous amounts of copyright-protected content and personal data, scraped and copied from the internet without any authorisation nor any remuneration for the creators we represent”.

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NewJeans drama escalates as bust-up with label Ador goes legal

The continuing drama between K-pop group NewJeans and their HYBE-owned label Ador is ramping up further, as Ador begins legal action in the South Korean courts.

Last week, NewJeans held an “emergency press conference” to let fans know that they were terminating their contract with Ador as part of the continuing fallout of the high profile and very public fight between former Ador CEO Min Hee-jin and HYBE. 

After that press conference, Ador said that - as far as it is concerned - NewJeans is still under contract with the company. It has now issued a lengthy statement saying that, “with heavy hearts”, the label has filed a lawsuit with the Seoul Central District Court to “legally confirm the validity of our exclusive contracts with our artist NewJeans”. 

NewJeans’ contractual bust-up with their label - or ‘agency’ to use the K-pop vernacular - came in part after a list of grievances they submitted last month were not dealt with to their satisfaction. 

Ador fired back saying that, no matter the grievances NewJeans may have, the group cannot simply unilaterally terminate their contract. The new lawsuit filed by Ador is asking for a legal order from a judge to confirm that position.

“We did not wish for the issue with our artist to be resolved through legal judgment”, its new statement continues, but that is the only way to “clarify to the artist and various stakeholders that the exclusive contracts between the agency and the artist cannot be lightly terminated based on one-sided claims”. 

That clarity is not only important for Ador in the context of NewJeans, it reckons, but also to assure the stability of the wider K-pop industry.

Yout owner forces u-turn on record industry’s attempt to delist mp3 conversion site from Google’s search results

The owner of sometimes controversial stream-ripping site Yout, Johnathan Nader, has successfully overturned a decision by Google to de-list another service he operates, MP3.to, which allows people to convert MP3 files into other formats.

Spanish record industry trade group Promusicae included MP3.to in a takedown notice that it submitted to Google, which resulted in the site being delisted by the search giant. The same notice complained about various stream-ripping sites - services that allow people to grab permanent downloads of temporary streams - and included MP3.to alongside them.

The music industry argues that stream-ripping sites infringe copyright, because they are frequently used by people to download copies of copyright protected works without the permission of the copyright owner. To that end, music companies routinely issue takedown notices to Google seeking to get such sites de-listed. 

When the US record industry tried to do that with Yout, Nader sued the labels, arguing that his stream-ripping site doesn’t host any files and has legitimate uses, so can’t be liable for copyright infringement. The labels argued that Yout circumvents technical protection measures put in place by YouTube to stop people ripping its streams, and that in itself violates the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act. That resulted in a lot of back and forth in the US courts. 

While the legalities of stream-ripping continue to be debated, MP3.to is clearly a different kind of service...

🎧 Approved: jasmine.4.t

Manchester-based singer-songwriter and trans woman jasmine.4.t (Jasmine Cruickshank) brings a fresh and intimate perspective to indie-folk. Already making history as the first UK artist signed to Phoebe Bridgers’ label Saddest Factory Records, it’s clear why Bridgers was drawn to jasmine.4.t’s sound - which glows with a quiet, captivating intensity.

Co-produced by Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus and Bridgers, the collaboration marks a rare moment for the boygenius members, whose shared investment in the project speaks volumes about jasmine.4.t’s artistry.

Her latest release and the title track to her upcoming debut album, ‘You Are The Morning’, is an understated and genuinely lovely folk song. Layering tender lyricism over soft strums and the occasional swell of strings.

The track underscores the strength found in community and the push for change, with jasmine.4.t. explaining, “This song is about the healing found in queer friendship. It is about queer people’s resilience in the face of violence. It is about our potential to bring about change within ourselves, those around us, and the world at large”. 

“I think trans people in particular have an incredible ability to change this world”, she continues. “Of course, we are challenging norms of gender/sex. Beyond that, this year we have seen trans people dismantling violent machines of all forms to help manifest a bright future. This is what ‘You Are The Morning’ has come to mean - it is an awakening to our powe nr and a call to action”.

With its quiet beauty and poignant message, ‘You Are The Morning’ is a compelling introduction to jasmine.4.t’s voice - a testament to the power of vulnerability and community.

🎧 Watch the video for ‘You Are The Morning’