Dan Lee

Along with 1,000 musicians, today we're releasing an (almost) silent album protesting the UK government's plan to upend copyright law to benefit AI companies. It's an album of recordings of empty studios & performance spaces, representing the effect the govt's plans would have on musicians' livelihoods. It's called 'Is This What We Want?', and the track list spells out a simple message: "The British Government Must Not Legalise Music Theft To Benefit AI Companies". Incredibly grateful to the many, many musicians involved 🙌 All profits are going to @HelpMusicians. Please listen & share! open.spotify.com/album/1yUbR… (More links in 🧵⬇️)

Baroness Kidron may have saved the UK's creative industries with her speech in the House of Lords today. She managed to get the House of Lords to approve her amendments to the Data (Use and Access) Bill, which among other things requires overseas gen AI companies to respect UK copyright law if they sell their products in the UK. (As a reminder, it is illegal to train commercial gen AI models on ©️ work without a licence in the UK.) What's astonishing is that her amendments passed despite @UKLabour reportedly being whipped to vote against them, and the Conservatives largely abstaining. Essentially, Labour voted against the amendments, and *everyone else who voted* voted to protect copyright holders. This should give you some sense of the strength of feeling over the government's plans to upend copyright law to favour AI companies. The bill still has to go through the Commons. But, as it stands, it would require generative AI companies selling their products in the UK to license any copyrighted training data they use. This is what standing up for the creative industries looks like. I strongly suggest you watch her entire speech. (If you want to read it instead, the link to the transcript is in the first reply ⬇️)