CIPIL Evening Seminar: 'Beyond Sync: Copyright, Collective Management and the Licensing of Music in Interactive Games'

Speaker: Professor Sabine Jacques, University of Liverpool

Abstract: Music licensing for video games remains modelled on film and television synchronisation, a framework premised on a fixed recording matched to a fixed sequence of images. Contemporary games increasingly depart from that premise: scores adapt to player state, generative systems produce a different rendition on each playthrough, spatial audio makes the player's movement part of the performance, and persistent shared worlds turn listening into a collective, networked activity. This lecture examines the doctrinal and structural consequences of that shift. It considers:how far adaptive and generative uses engage the rights of reproduction and adaptation, and the author's moral right to object to derogatory treatment; whether, and by whom, music in online and personalised play is communicated to the public; how the exclusive assignment of performing rights to UK and European collecting societies interacts with US-style work-for-hire and buyout practices; the emerging question of platform liability, illustrated by PRS for Music v Valve.

The analysis draws on HARMONY, a UK Intellectual Property Office-funded, industry-supported project comprising a sector survey and 50 semi-structured interviews with right-holders, publishers, developers, composers and collecting societies. It distinguishes problems that better drafting can remedy from those rooted in fragmented chain of title and territorial collective management, which contract alone cannot resolve. The talk argues that faster clearance will not, by itself, move music in games beyond isolated activations. Durable solutions require greater mutual understanding between the two sectors, innovation in licensing frameworks, and sustained education on both sides.

Biography: Professor Sabine Jacques joined the University of Liverpool's School of Law and Social Justice in 2023. Her research looks at how intellectual property interacts with freedom of expression, with cultural diversity in the creative industries, and with artificial intelligence. She is the author of The Parody Exception in Copyright Law (OUP, 2019). She is co-lead of MusicFutures, a £7.2m UKRI Creative Cluster initiative to transform the Liverpool's music ecosystem.  Her work has been cited in opinions of EU Advocate Generals and quoted by the UK's Intellectual Property Enterprise Court. She is a Columbia Global Freedom of Expression expert, an analyst for EU Law Live, and a member of the Forum for Humor and the Law (ForHum).

A small drinks reception will take place in G24 after the event. 

Please note that this event is in-person only and will not be recorded. 

Enquiries to: cipil@law.cam.ac.uk