Algorithmic Inequity and Legal Silence: A Tripartite Analysis of AI, Streaming Royalties and Digital Music Rights in Pakistan’s Unregulated Entertainment Economy

Abstract

The Pakistan music economy has moved onto transnational streaming platforms faster than its legal and institutional architecture has adapted. This article examines this mismatch through a tripartite framework: (i) algorithmic allocation of attention, (ii) contractual and technical allocation of streaming revenue, and (iii) legal allocation and enforcement of digital music rights. It uses doctrinal analysis of Pakistan’s Copyright Ordinance 1962, the Intellectual Property Organization of Pakistan Act 2012, and the Competition Act 2010; policy analysis of Pakistan’s National Music Policy; and comparative analysis of WIPO materials, the European Parliament’s 2024 streaming resolution, platform royalty disclosures, and recent ​industry evidence. The central finding is that Pakistan has copyright law. Rather, the operative silence lies between general exclusive rights and the platform-specific rules needed to make those rights meaningful: disclosure of recommendation and demonetization logic, auditable usage data, interoperable metadata, transparent deductions, collective licensing capacity, accessible dispute resolution, and remedies for synthetic impersonation and fraudulent streams. In that gap, recommendation systems can convert cultural visibility into privately governed scarcity, while pro-rata royalty pools can translate unequal attention into unequal income. Independent, regional-language, female, and informally contracted creators bear heightened risks because missing metadata, weak bargaining power, and cross-border payment chains compound one another. The article proposes a Pakistan Digital Music Rights Framework built on rights registration without constitutive formalities, accredited collective management, standardized reporting, algorithmic-impact duties, creator due process, competition oversight, AI provenance, and consent rules, and a specialist low-cost tribunal. Such reform would preserve innovation while treating discoverability, data, and remuneration as connected dimensions of cultural justice.