Botswana’s copyright laws were built to stop copying, not teach machines what a chorus sounds like. Now, as AI consumes music at industrial scale, artists and policymakers are discovering that protection and preparedness are not the same thing
GOSEGO MOTSUMI
Botswana’s music industry didn’t expect its next copyright battle to arrive wearing algorithms.
After an investigation by The Atlantic reportedly uncovered millions of songs — including Botswana musical works — inside datasets circulating in the AI development community, local creatives suddenly found themselves inside a global debate: what happens when your art becomes machine education?
Botswana’s Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act already protects creators against unauthorised reproduction and use. On paper, the law speaks the language of ownership.
But artificial intelligence speaks something else entirely.
According to CIPA Acting Copyright Administrator Vincent Rapoo, the challenge is not the absence of protection, it is that technology has moved into territory the law never specifically named.
“The Act provides authors with exclusive economic rights, including the right to reproduce, distribute, and communicate their works to the public.”
Then comes the twist.
“However, the Act does not explicitly address machine learning, data scraping, or AI model training.”
THE COPYRIGHT GREY ZONE
That distinction matters.
AI systems do not necessarily reproduce songs in the traditional sense. They analyse, ingest, identify patterns and learn from vast collections of creative work, creating a legal question that copyright legislation around the world is still trying to answer.
Rapoo says this may expose “a legal grey area, rather than a complete absence of protection.”
For artists hoping to fight back, the existing toolbox still exists: court action, royalty collection structures, contractual safeguards and evidence-based claims.
But proving that a machine learned from your song?
That’s where things get complicated.
BEFORE THE MUSIC CHANGES AGAIN
CIPA says Botswana is monitoring global developments around AI licensing, revenue-sharing and creator remuneration while engaging government to amend copyright laws to integrate the digital environment.
He said: “In conjunction with COTSBOTS, there is need to engage artists, industry stakeholders, and policymakers to understand emerging risks and needs. We continue to educate artists and creators on their rights in the digital environment, including emerging technologies.”
Because the future of music may no longer depend only on who creates. It may depend on who gets recognised when machines listen.