Today’s announcement is of several commitments that aim to improve the income for legacy artists, songwriters and session musicians. For the artists, all three majors have committed to ‘disregarding’ unrecouped balances – advances they haven’t paid off – for artists signed before the start of 2000, with this date rolling forward every year.
Source: UK government reveals streaming reforms – focusing on label commitments
The modern music streaming world, for all its accessibility, has faced challenges in this brave new world powered by AI. The appearance of an AI-generated song titled “Together” on the official Spotify page of the late country icon Blaze Foley is a glaring example of how Spotify has failed to adequately protect both artists’ legacies and listener trust.
Source: Spotify’s Lax Controls Exposed: The Blaze Foley AI Song Debacle
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) introduced legislation on Monday that would restrict AI companies from using copyrighted material in their training models without the consent of the individual owner. The AI Accountability and Personal Data Protection Act also would allow individuals to sue companies that uses their personal data or copyrighted works without their “express, prior consent.”
Private equity firm Blackstone has pulled out of the investor consortium looking to buy TikTok’s US operation, Reuters reported Friday (July 18), citing a source familiar with the matter. The withdrawal comes as TikTok’s presence in the US remains uncertain, with multiple deadline extensions on the divest-or-ban law. Blackstone had reportedly been slated to take a minority stake in the platform’s US business alongside other consortium members.
Source: Blackstone exits consortium for TikTok deal as divest-or-ban deadline looms (report)
White House officials are preparing an executive order targeting tech companies with what they see as “woke” artificial-intelligence models, their latest effort to go after diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, people familiar with the matter said. The order would dictate that AI companies getting federal contracts be politically neutral and unbiased in their AI models, an effort to combat what administration officials see as liberal bias in some models, the people said.
Source: White House Prepares Executive Order Targeting ‘Woke AI’
The European Parliament passed the Artificial Intelligence Act, the first law that would regulate AI. Critics are wondering how powerful that will be. Practically, like most legislation, the act represented a compromise, applying different levels of regulatory scrutiny to applications with different levels of risk. Broadly, it fell far short of perfect, but it was much better than the proposed 10-year moratorium on enforcing state laws affecting AI in the American “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
Source: The European Union Passed Its Artificial Intelligence Bill. Will It Enforce It?
Within two weeks, Mallal, who directed Spiders in the Sky on his own, was able to make a film about the Ukraine attack that would have cost millions – and would have taken at least two years including development – to make pre-AI. “Using AI, it should be possible to make things that we’ve never seen before,” he said. “We’ve never seen a cinematic news piece before turned around in two weeks. We’ve never seen a thriller based on the news made in two weeks.”
Source: ‘You can make really good stuff – fast’: new AI tools a gamechanger for film-makers
In a major victory for authors, U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled July 17 that three writers suing Anthropic for copyright infringement can represent all other authors whose books the AI company allegedly pirated to train its AI model as part of a class action lawsuit. Alsup’s most recent ruling follows an amended complaint from the authors looking to certify classes of copyright owners in a “Pirated Books Class” and in a “Scanned Books Class.
Source: Judge Rules Class Action Suit Against Anthropic Can Proceed
The issue is causing tension in the book community. Librarians complain that publishers charge so much to license e-books that it’s busting library budgets and frustrating efforts to provide equitable access to reading materials. Big publishers and many authors say that e-book library access undermines their already struggling business models. Smaller presses are split.
Source: Libraries Pay More for E-Books. Some States Want to Change That.
As AI creeps further into Hollywood, screenwriters like Billy Ray, Paul Schrader, Bong Joon Ho and Todd Haynes, along with a new class of tech disruptors, are navigating the uncertain future of storytelling. “My level of impostor syndrome, neuroticism and guilt is high enough while I’m working my ass off,” Ray says by phone, his voice equal parts weariness and outrage. “There’s no way I’d make myself feel worse by letting a machine do my writing for me. Zero interest.”
Source: Hollywood’s being reshaped by generative AI. What does that mean for screenwriters?