In December 2020, US PROs ASCAP and BMI launched a public performance copyright database called Songview as a “groundbreaking collaboration” aimed to serve as a “comprehensive data resource for music users.” A “landmark expansion” of the platform was announced on Monday (September 29), with data from all four major performing rights organizations in the United States – ASCAP, BMI, GMR and SESAC – to be integrated into the Songview platform.
Data
Reddit launches tools for publisher to track and share stories
Reddit on Wednesday launched a set of free tools for publishers to track their article performance and receive suggestions on where to share their stories within the site’s communities. The new features are launching as a part of Reddit Pro, a suite of business tools it debuted last year to help organizations grow their presence on the platform. T
Source: Reddit launches tools for publisher to track and share stories | TechCrunch
RSS co-creator launches new protocol for AI data licensing
A new system called Real Simple Licensing would allow AI companies to license training data at a massive scale — if they’re willing to pay for it. According to RSL co-founder Eckart Walther, who also co-created the RSS standard, the goal was to create a training-data licensing system that could scale across the internet. “We need to have machine-readable licensing agreements for the internet,” Walther told TechCrunch. “That’s really what RSL solves.”
Source: RSS co-creator launches new protocol for AI data licensing | TechCrunch
Google admits the open web is in ‘rapid decline’
For months, Google has maintained that the web is “thriving,” AI isn’t tanking traffic, and its search engine is sending people to a wider variety of websites than ever. But in a court filing from last week, Google admitted that “the open web is already in rapid decline.” Google submitted the filing ahead of another trial that will determine how it will address its monopoly in the advertising technology business.
Anthropic users face a new choice – opt out or share your chats for AI training
Anthropic is making some big changes to how it handles user data, requiring all Claude users to decide by September 28 whether they want their conversations used to train AI models. That is a massive update. Previously, users of Anthropic’s consumer products were told that their prompts and conversation outputs would be automatically deleted from Anthropic’s back end within 30 days “unless legally or policy‑required to keep them longer.”
Source: Anthropic users face a new choice – opt out or share your chats for AI training | TechCrunch
Duplicate Works, Diverted Royalties, and What the MLC Isn’t Catching
The Mechanical Licensing Collective was established to streamline digital mechanical royalty payouts. But even well-intentioned systems can be designed in ways that introduce new risks. That includes the lack of recourse for rights holders and the roll-up of unmatched royalties based on market share. But the biggest issue is the ease with which the system can be manipulated.
Source: Duplicate Works, Diverted Royalties, and What the MLC Isn’t Catching – Digital Music News
Building a Universal Digital Library of All Books Faces Obstacles from Copyright Laws.
The quest to create a universal digital library of all books in the world is a testament to the power of technology and the desire for accessible knowledge. However, this ambitious goal is impeded by stringent copyright laws, which have led to significant legal challenges. Tech companies like Google and AI firms such as Anthropic have developed extensive digital text collections, some of which were sourced from shadow libraries like LibGen and Sci-Hub.
Source: Building a Universal Digital Library of All Books in the World Faces Obstacles from Copyright Laws.
French press take on digital databases to defend journalist copyright against AI
Two professional organisations representing 800 newspapers and magazines employing over half of journalists in France announced Monday that they are taking “coordinated action” against public datasets used to train generative artificial intelligence services, such as ChatGPT. The Apig, the general news medial alliance, and the Sepm, the magazine publisher’s union, aim to remove their members’ content from Common Crawl, C4 and Oscar.
Source: French press take on digital databases to defend journalist copyright against AI
AI giants race to scoop up elusive real-world data
Over the past two months, OpenAI has tied up with e-commerce majors Shopee and Shopify, while Google and Perplexity have doled out free access to their advanced AI tools to some users in India. Experts believe these moves will help the companies access structured consumer queries, product behaviors, and transactional data — training signals that are often unavailable via public data alone.
Fastly warns AI bots can hit sites 39K times per minute
Cloud services giant Fastly has released a report claiming AI crawlers are putting a heavy load on the open web, slurping up sites at a rate that accounts for 80 percent of all AI bot traffic, with the remaining 20 percent used by AI fetchers. Bots and fetchers can hit websites hard, demanding data from a single site in thousands of requests per minute.
Source: Fastly warns AI bots can hit sites 39K times per minute