The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) has added its voice to the growing chorus in the music industry opposing proposals to weaken copyright protections for the development of AI.
Following President Donald Trump’s executive order to establish an “AI Action Plan” for the US, both Google and ChatGPT maker OpenAI filed submissions calling for a loosening of copyright protections that would ensure AI developers can use copyrighted content without authorization – at least in some circumstances – to create AI tech.
In a submission to the National Coordination Office of the Networking and Information Research and Technology (NIRTD) Program, ASCAP – a performance rights organization (PRO) with more than 1 million songwriter, composer and publisher members – warned that jobs could be lost and the US’s creative economy undermined if copyright protections are loosened.
“While AI can be a powerful tool for innovation and has the potential to enhance human creative efforts, the unchecked use of this technology threatens to undermine the very purpose of the US copyright laws by supplanting, rather than supporting, human creative work,” ASCAP stated in its submission, which can be read in full here.
“Many of ASCAP’s members rely on the public performance royalties paid to them as their main, if not sole, source of income. In the event that AI platforms usurp this revenue stream, untold numbers of US creators stand to lose their ability to earn a living and the foundation of the nation’s thriving creative economy will be undermined.”
The submission laid out a series of principles it urges the government to follow in establishing AI policy, including:
- Humans first: The principle that human creativity should be supported, and not supplanted, by AI.
- Consent: AI developers should gain authorization from rightsholders to use copyrighted works in training AI.
- Transparency: AI developers should keep track of all copyrighted materials used and notify rights owners when their material has been used.
- Compensation: Creators and rights holders should be paid “fairly” for the use of their work.
- Credit: Ai-generated music should be labeled as such, and creators whose works were used in creating that music should be credited.
- Global consistency: AI development policy should be coordinated globally, as enforcement of copyright is governed by international agreements and licensing networks.
“The US can win the AI race without abandoning the strong copyright laws that have fueled creativity and entrepreneurship across the country for decades,” ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews said.
“Allowing the unauthorized use of copyrighted works to train generative AI models for commercial purposes will threaten the livelihoods of millions of American music creators and undermine the foundation of the nation’s thriving creative economy.”
In their own submission to the US government, Google and OpenAI argued that the principle of “fair use” should be applied to AI development. Under US copyright law, fair use allows copyrighted materials to be used without permission in certain limited circumstances, such as for education or parody.
Applying fair use to AI is “not only a matter of American competitiveness — it’s a matter of national security,” OpenAI said in its submission.
“The rapid advances seen with the PRC [People’s Republic Of China]’s DeepSeek, among other recent developments, show that America’s lead on frontier AI is far from guaranteed.”
“The US can win the AI race without abandoning the strong copyright laws that have fueled creativity and entrepreneurship across the country for decades.”
Elizabeth Matthews, ASCAP
Google argued in its submission that “balanced copyright rules, such as fair use and text-and-data mining exceptions, have been critical to enabling AI systems to learn from prior knowledge and publicly available data, unlocking scientific and social advances.”
It said that copyright exceptions “allow for the use of copyrighted, publicly available material for AI training without significantly impacting rightsholders and avoid often highly unpredictable, imbalanced, and lengthy negotiations with data holders during model development or scientific experimentation.”
A Google spokesperson added: “We support America’s existing fair use framework, and we’re confident that current copyright law enables AI innovation.”
OpenAI has been putting its belief in the fir use doctrine into action, notably in a copyright lawsuit brought against the company by a number of authors including Sarah Silverman. The company has indicated it plans to defend itself by arguing that using copyrighted works to train AI should be considered fair use.
ASCAP doesn’t agree with this approach.
“Arguments have been posited that the fair use principles within US copyright law allow for full-scale infringement of privately-owned copyrighted property. These arguments have little basis under a sound analysis of recent case law,” the PRO said in its submission.Music Business Worldwide
