Sony Music has issued letters to over 700 firms, including Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI, seeking information on whether they have used its songs to develop artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Representing artists like Beyoncé and Adele, Sony Music forbids the use of its songs for AI training, development, or commercialization without permission.
As the BBC media reported, the company’s letter stated that it had a “reason to believe” that some recipients “may already have made unauthorized uses” of its music. Sony Music has set a deadline for responses and plans to enforce its copyright to the fullest extent allowed by law, including under the EU’s upcoming AI Act.
This action is part of a broader debate about the data used to train AI models and whether permission was obtained. For instance, AI tools that generate music could have been trained on vast amounts of existing music. Sony Music’s rival, Universal Music, has already taken legal action against Anthropic AI for similar issues.
Sony Music’s letter demands details about the songs used to train AI systems, how they were accessed, the number of copies made, and the duration these copies existed.
Nana Nwachukwu, a lawyer at AI ethics firm Saidot, clarified that training AI with copyrighted music “may constitute a copyright infringement” under EU rules unless the content is lawfully accessible or licensed for AI training.
Questions about whether training AI tools on copyrighted content constitutes infringement or falls under fair use remain unsettled in both the EU and the US.
Also Read: Major U.S. Newspapers Sue OpenAI & Microsoft Over Copyright
