Summary

IMPF’s ongoing advocacy across EU policy and a range of wider issues impacting independent music publishers will continue during 2023. See the full details on IMPF Advocacy here.

Activity

IMPF was represented at the Private Sector stakeholders meeting of the European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights on 28 February 2023 and at the Working Groups of the Observatory on Enforcement and IP in the Digital World, held from March 21 to 24 2023. IMPF was also represented at the WIPO for Creators, 8th Advisory Board Meeting on 14 March 2023 and at the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) Forty-Third Session from March 13 to 17.

IMPF was represented by Jirina Petrova, MD of Schubert Music Czech Republic and Slovakia at a panel on “Fairness of the Streaming Model” during the the CISAC European Committee in Prague from 19 to 20 April 2023.

IMPF joined the Human Artistry Campaign as a member. The Human Artistry Campaign was launched to ensure AI technologies are developed and used in ways that support human culture and artistry – and not ways that replace or erode it.

IMPF supports its music publisher members in Italy and SIAE in the Meta negotiations. IMPF issued a statement condemning Meta’s exclusion of Italian songwriters and publishers.

At the Stockholm meeting back in April, the Board agreed to engage with other rightsholders and set up a working group on AI, and which will also discuss with AI developers the music publishing community’s concerns. The purpose of the AIWG is to keep track of developments in the area, aiming to get indie music publishers involved early, conduct monitoring, and build a repository for political and legal developments and see how to license. All of this to culminate in an AI discussion and applications in Palma at the Global Music Summit. The working group members are Elisa Amouyal, Talit Muzik Publishing (Chair); Simon Platz, Bucks Music Group; Jennifer Mitchell, Red Brick Songs, Emmanuel Delétang, Delphine Dickson, 22D; John Fishlock, Active Music Publishing; John Telfer, Rocking Gorillas Music; Francesca Trainini, Oyez; Niclass Björlund, Editions Björlund.

The Board of Directors approved a paper outlining our approach to regulating AI. The paper (see  here) was drafted by the IMPF AI Working Group. The guidelines advocate for labelling AI generated music, requiring transparency with regards to the datasets used for training AI models, protecting copyright by requiring consent from rights holders, and keeping platforms and developers accountable for possible copyright infringement of AI generated works.

As part of the advocacy of the AI Working Group, IMPF issued two statements on AI.  One addressed the EU Trialogue negotiations directly, and the second is a global open letter “Global Creators and Performers Demand Creative Rights in AI Proliferation” sent to governments around the world to be used as the basis for lobbying and policy work.  See the statements here and here.  As a member of the Human Artistry Campaign, IMPF also supported the statement addressing the Biden Administration’s recent meeting with AI developers and their agreement to voluntary commitments regarding safety, security, and trust in AI.   See that statement here. IMPF has also made submissions to the UK and Australia governments enquiries on AI and both of those can be found here and here.

During the IMPF Summit in Palma this year Independent music publishers released their  ethical guidelines to AI developers which was developed by the AI IMPF Working group.  See the guidlines here.

Formal submissions and comments have also been made to the US and Canada.

IMPF is supporting the effort of the European Commission to enhance the collaboration between cultural sectors through the use of technological innovation via two proposals:
We are participating to the application of Eurosonic Noorderslag(ESNS) and Soundcharts to develop, promote and administer the EIT Culture & Creativity Call, EP3 Breakthrough Lab to bring about a much-needed technological advancement that would strengthen both the European music and audio/visual sectors.   And IMPF is also endorsing the FAIRPLAY proposal, which aims at developing novel re-traceable learning methods and knowledge-based approaches for music generation and access, and to formulate a proposal for a fairer legal framework to regulate copyright and authorship attribution in a world where creative humans co-operate with artificial intelligence. FAIRPLAY has the potential to deliver unique assets to the creative industry and the community of artists, producers and independent music publishers working in the music domain and beyond.  And it can help with new insights for a better understanding of the complexities of the legal implications in the creative sector involving artificial intelligence technology.

Summary

IMPF’s ongoing advocacy across EU policy and a range of wider issues impacting independent music publishers has remained central to its work on behalf of its global membership.

Activity

Highlights in 2022 included working on the Credits Due campaign and collaborating with other Brussels based trade bodies on DSA and DMA advocacy. IMPF also attended the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights and is on the Advisory Board of WIPO for Creators. Top level regulatory advocacy included responses to national government on the Copyright Directive transposition, development of position and policy papers on, AI and NFTs and copyright.

Over the course of the year, IMPF lobbies on a wide range of issues affecting its members, including the Digital Single Market, Fair Use, buy outs, gender balances, Brexit, NFT licensing models, Equitable Remuneration.  There was also extensive work done with UACRR and the IMPF membership on the war in Ukraine.  Work started in October 2022 on the Global Independent Music Publishing Market Study 3^rd Edition.

Who we worked with

ECSA, The Ivors Academy, IMPEL, IMPALA, GESAC, WIPO, CISAC, ESMAA, EUIPO, UACRR Ukraine, MPC Canada, CIAM, IPA, The MLC and others representing RH industries in Brussels and Geneva.

Beneficiaries

IMPF members, the wider music and creative industries.

Outcomes/Next Steps

 IMPF will continue to advocate and lobby across these issues and others as they arise, collaborating closely with RH colleagues In Brussels and Geneva.

This report is available to download here below.