Rights

Queen Catalog to Be Acquired by Sony Music for £1 Billion

June 20, 2024By rightstech

Queen’s music catalog is among the most valuable of the rock era — with classics like “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Another One Bites the Dust,” “Radio Ga Ga,” “39,” “Somebody to Love” and “You’re My Best Friend” as well as the perennial stadium-shakers “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions,” the songs are globally popular and enormously lucrative. One other player was said to be very close in the bidding, but stopped short at $900 million.

Source: Queen Catalog to Be Acquired by Sony Music for £1 Billion

An AI video tool just launched, and it’s already copying Disney’s IP

June 20, 2024By rightstech

Last week, AI startup Luma posted a series of videos created using its new video-generating tool Dream Machine, which the company describes as a “highly scalable and efficient transformer model trained directly on videos.” The only problem? At about 57 seconds in, the Dream Machine-generated trailer for Monster Camp features a slightly AI-smudged but still recognizable Mike Wazowski from Pixar’s Monsters, Inc.

Source: An AI video tool just launched, and it’s already copying Disney’s IP

How Apple plans to label AI-generated images

June 20, 2024By rightstech

AppleInsider has learned that the company plans to label AI-generated imagery through image metadata, also known as EXIF data. This means that AI-generated images created through Image Playground would be clearly marked through that metadata. The image source, which typically displays the name and brand of the camera used to take a picture, will display “Apple Image Playground,” serving as a clear indication that the image was created by AI.

Source: How Apple plans to label AI-generated images made through its new Image Playground app

Amazon’s secret GitHub data grab

June 17, 2024By rightstech

To create powerful AI models, you need mountains of good data. Amazon is going to great lengths to collect this type of valuable information. The company recently told employees to sign up for Microsoft’s GitHub software-development platform and share their accounts so Amazon can scrape data from GitHub more quickly, Business Insider has learned. This is a key step in Amazon’s efforts to train its upcoming in-house AI model.

Source: Amazon’s secret GitHub data grab

Adobe’s Firefly AI is getting competition at the worst time

June 17, 2024By rightstech

For a hot second there, Adobe enjoyed a unique niche within the generative AI industry thanks to its Firefly AI and Stock image hosting platform, which was trained on the company’s proprietary and “commercially safe” dataset of licensed images. Now, Getty Images is getting in on the game and launching a rival model. PicsArt, the AI-powered online image and video-editing service, announced that it will be partnering with Getty to build and train a generative AI based on Getty’s exclusive library of photo and video content.

Source: Adobe’s Firefly AI is getting competition at the worst time | Digital Trends

Democrat and Republican lawmakers unite to question Spotify bundle move

June 17, 2024By rightstech

In a letter addressed to Shira Perlmutter, the US Register of Copyrights, Congressmen Ted Lieu (D) and Adam Schiff (D), plus Senator Marsha Blackburn (R), raised questions about whether Spotify’s new practice is in line with the spirit of the Music Modernization Act (MMA) of 2018. The bipartisan group of lawmakers highlighted the long-standing challenges faced by songwriters in receiving fair compensation under the compulsory licensing system.

Source: Democrat and Republican lawmakers unite to question Spotify bundle move that ‘sharply reduces royalty payments for songwriters’

Musical AI unveils new platform for ethical use of copyrighted material in generative AI

June 17, 2024By rightstech

Musical AI, formerly known as Somms.ai, has launched a new rights management platform designed to allow proper attribution and compensation for the use of copyrighted works in AI training and generation. The platform addresses a growing concern in the AI space: the lack of a system for attributing and licensing copyrighted material used to train AI models, said Musical AI on Wednesday (June 12).

Source: Musical AI, formerly Somms.ai, unveils new platform for ethical use of copyrighted material in generative AI

Meta halts plans to train AI on Facebook, Instagram posts in EU

June 17, 2024By rightstech

Meta has apparently paused plans to process mounds of user data to bring new AI experiences to Europe. The decision comes after data regulators rebuffed the tech giant’s claims that it had “legitimate interests” in processing European Union- and European Economic Area (EEA)-based Facebook and Instagram users’ data—including personal posts and pictures—to train future AI tools.

Source: Meta halts plans to train AI on Facebook, Instagram posts in EU

How Low Will Spotify’s Royalty Payments Go?

June 12, 2024By rightstech

Spotify’s ‘bundle-pocalyse’ is nigh, with nervous IP owners pouring through early royalty statements to assess the damage. One source noted that the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) has already distributed preliminary reports for March, the month that marks the beginning of Spotify’s massive royalty cuts to music publishers, songwriters, and other compositional IP owners. Apparently, the data isn’t fully baked yet, though rights owners are getting a preview of the carnage.

Source: How Low Will Spotify’s Royalty Payments Go?

Everyone Agrees on the Need to Do Something about Deepfakes, Just Not how to Do It

June 12, 2024By Paul Sweeting

The BSA Software Alliance, among the heavy hitting tech industry associations in Washington, counts a number of major AI companies among its members, including Adobe and Microsoft. But this week it plans to release a policy statement urging Congress to “take steps” to protect artists from the spread of unauthorized, AI-generated deepfakes. The statement, provided to RightsTech in advance of release, lists eight key principles, including creating a new right for artists to authorize or prevent the commercial dissemination of digital replicas of their name, image, likeness or voice, and prohibiting the commercial trafficking in any algorithm, software, technology or service that has the “primary purpose” of creating or disseminating such replica “knowing that this act was unauthorized.”