The Internet Archive might sound like a thriving organization, but it only recently emerged from years of bruising copyright battles that threatened to bankrupt the beloved library project. In the end, the fight led to more than 500,000 books being removed from the Archive’s “Open Library.” “We survived,” Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle told Ars. “But it wiped out the Library.”
Source: Internet Archive’s legal fights are over, but its founder mourns what was lost
The company says the tool can translate entire books between English and Spanish and German to English. Amazon promises that more languages are coming down the pike. It’s available right now in a beta form to select authors enrolled in the Kindle Direct Publishing platform. There’s a broader rollout planned for a later date.
Source: Amazon is testing an AI tool that automatically translates books into other languages
In its latest Global Collections Report, CISAC, which represents 228 CMOs in 111 countries, reported total royalty collections of €13.97 billion (USD $15.12 billion) across music, audiovisual, visual arts, literature and drama in 2024. That’s a 6.6% increase over 2023. Royalties to songwriters and publishers accounted for fully 90% of that total, growing 7.2% YoY to €12.59 billion ($13.63 billion).
Source: Global songwriter royalty collections reached $13.6bn in 2024, up 7.2%, CISAC reports
One of the key issues that the story of man versus machine misses: Technology is not fate. Just as people make technology, people decide how it is used and what interests it serves. These decisions are made over and over again as AI is developed and deployed. AI is, furthermore, ultimately not that complicated. How AI works can be understood by anyone. The real conflict is not between a human and a machine but between the different members of society.
Source: Why Big Tech’s Abuse of Artificial Intelligence Doesn’t Need to Be Inevitable
In its third-quarter earnings report, the company shared that its video podcast catalog has expanded to nearly half a million shows, and more than 390 million users have now streamed a video podcast on the platform. That figure is up 54% year-over-year, and it also reflects Spotify’s increased investment in the format. In June 2024, the company said it had some 250,000 video podcasts as it rolled out tools that let non-hosted podcasters upload their videos to the platform.
Source: Spotify now has half a million video podcasts, which nearly 400M users have watched | TechCrunch
People Inc., one of the largest media publishers in the U.S., has signed an AI licensing deal with Microsoft. The media giant (formerly known as Dotdash Meredith) made the announcement Tuesday as a part of parent company IAC’s third-quarter earnings. People Inc. CEO Neil Vogel described the new marketplace as “essentially a pay-per-use market where AI players directly can compensate publishers for use of their content on, sort of like an ‘a la carte’ basis.”
Source: People Inc. forges AI licensing deal with Microsoft as Google traffic drops | TechCrunch
The rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence across creative industries has sparked a cascade of legislative and judicial activity worldwide, reshaping how intellectual property is defined, created, and protected. For media and entertainment companies, content creators, and IP rightsholders, these evolving—and often conflicting—international approaches to AI and copyright present new challenges and can raise more questions than answers.
When ChatGPT’s native image generator was released in March, it became a popular trend for users to prompt for re-creations of their selfies or pet pictures in the style of the studio’s films. Now, as more people get access to OpenAI’s Sora app and video generator, Japan’s Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) has requested that OpenAI refrain from using its members’ content for machine learning without permission.
Source: Studio Ghibli and other Japanese publishers want OpenAI to stop training on their work | TechCrunch
Getty withdrew a key part of its case against Stability AI during the trial as it admitted there was no evidence the training and development of AI text-to-image product Stable Diffusion took place in the UK. In addition a claim of secondary infringement of copyright was dismissed because, the judge said, “an AI model such as Stable Diffusion which does not store or reproduce any Copyright Works (and has never done so) is not an ‘infringing copy’” under UK law.
Source: Getty vs Stability AI ruling is ‘damp squib’ that fails to create precedent
Australia has finally pulled the trigger on long-mooted streaming quotas, confirming a landmark bill that will compel streaming platforms to invest a fixed share of their Australian revenue or expenditure into homegrown programming. The bill, to be introduced this week, will require major streamers to allocate roughly 10% of their Australian expenditure or 7.5% of local revenue to Australian drama, documentary, children’s and cultural programming.
Source: Australia Moves Ahead With Streamer Quotas to Boost Local Storytelling