On Friday 1 November, MCNA board member, Charlie Sanders, participated in New York State Bar Association’s panel on foreign music publishing and neighboring rights. Representing MCNA, the Songwriters Guild of America and Fair Trade Music International, Charlie was joined by colleagues Neeta Ragoowansi of Women in Music, Ernst Bakker of Zanoise and Peer Music’s Neville Quinlan.
The event allowed the opportunity for Charlie to alert the New York music copyright community to the recent proposal by the German music rights society GEMA that would grant to creators new input and output rights in Generative Artificial Intelligence contexts. That important set of “sui generis” rights is also currently being championed by SGA, MCNA, FTMI and the International Council of Music Creators (CIAM) as the best way to ensure control and compensation to creators when musical works are used for GenAI purposes, and clarifying that the US “fair use” defense is inapplicable in such situations.
Learn more about the FTMI proposal here.
