Abramus is addressing composers’ remuneration under audiovisual buy-out contracts and the use of protected works in artificial intelligence (AI) training. Both raise questions about creators’ share of revenue.
Diogo Rocha, Abramus’s director of Music in Audiovisual, says independent composers can face unequal bargaining conditions when negotiating with large platforms.
Rights transferred under buy-out contracts
Buy-out contracts can provide for broad transfers of rights in exchange for an agreed payment. Music created for an audiovisual production may continue circulating on streaming services and generating revenue long after the initial agreement.
“The independent composer often negotiates with a giant platform under very unequal conditions. They get paid for that work and pay the month’s bills, but how can we ensure they continue sharing in the value generated by a work that may circulate for many years?”
When global platforms bring contractual practices from other legal jurisdictions to Brazil, negotiations need to address both the fee and the scope of the rights transferred.
Brazil’s Copyright Law requires an assignment to specify its subject matter, duration, territory and price. Composers need to understand which rights they are transferring, for how long, where and for which uses.
Protected works in AI training
AI raises a separate question: the use of existing works to train systems capable of generating new content.
For rights holders, the issue begins before music is generated: which works were used in training, under what conditions, and how authorization, transparency and remuneration are ensured when protected works are included.
“If a technology uses third parties’ works to generate value, recognizing and remunerating those creators should not be seen as an obstacle to development,” Rocha said.
In 2025, Abramus participated in a public hearing of the Chamber of Deputies’ Special Committee on Artificial Intelligence and followed the committee’s work.
It also held three editions of the seminar “Copyright in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”:
- In São Paulo, in partnership with the University of São Paulo (USP) Faculty of Law.
- In Rio de Janeiro.
- In Brasília, in partnership with the Brazilian Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters (ABERT).
At the beginning of this year, Abramus and other organizations signed a notice to Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Apple and OpenAI, advocating authorization and payment for protected content used in data mining and AI training.
Legislative proposals in 2026
Introduced in the Chamber on 17 July, PL 3982/2026 proposes rules for the economic exploitation of intellectual works in AI training and provides for proportional remuneration for authors.
On 3 August, the National Congress’s Social Communication Council held a public hearing on the effects of PL 2338/2023, the AI Legal Framework, including its implications for copyright.
Abramus participates in committees and groups focused on AI, data analysis and distribution, and follows regulatory and legislative debates that could affect rights holders.
