A new Law of Data Use and Access aims to facilitate the access to thousands of musical works for the training of artificial intelligence models, without the consent of the authors.
In protest of the bill, a thousand of British artists such as Kate Bush, Paul McCartney or Dua Lipa have participated in the launch of a silent disc to defend their intellectual property of technology companies that seek to exploit it.
The album is titled ‘IS This What We Want?’, Is available on platforms such as Spotify and consists of 12 silent themes that, in the way of 4’33 »by John Cage, invite to listen to the silence that emerges when the creators stop making music.
In addition, each of the 12 themes of ‘Is This what we want?’ It is titled with a single word that, together, spells the slogan the/ British/ Government/ Must/ Not/ Legalise/ Music/ Theft/ To/ Benefit/ AI/ Companies.
In addition to musicians such as Ed Sheeran, Tori Amos, Damon Albarn, Jamiroquai or Annie Lennox, have participated in the album figures linked to performing arts such as actress Julianne Moore, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber or playwright Tom Stoppard.
Other artists who do not participate in the album have signed a letter addressed to The Times to join the protest. In the letter, they point out that the project of “Law represents a delivery without conditions and absolute of the rights and income of the creative sectors of the United Kingdom to large technological companies.”
