Universal Music Group said on Wednesday it has settled a copyright infringement case with artificial intelligence company Udio and that the two firms will collaborate on a new suite of creative products. Under the agreement, the companies will launch a platform next year that leverages generative AI trained on authorized and licensed music.Source: Universal Music settles copyright dispute with AI firm Udio
Spotify faces a new class action lawsuit that alleges the company has “turned a blind eye” to “mass-scale fraudulent streaming” on its platform. The lawsuit suggests that the use of bots is widespread on Spotify, but the only example it cites pertains to Drake. Filed in California District Court last night with rapper RBX (who is a cousin of Snoop Dogg) named as the lead plaintiff, the lawsuit alleges that foul play has led to Drake’s exorbitant streaming numbers.
Source: Class Action Against Spotify Over ‘Mass Fraudulent’ Drake Streams
OpenAI has suffered a legal setback in its copyright battle, as a federal judge ruled that authors can pursue claims the company unlawfully downloaded their books. U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein denied OpenAI’s motion to strike what the company characterized as a new “download claim” in a ruling Monday, finding that prior complaints adequately notified OpenAI of infringement allegations based on downloading and reproducing copyrighted books.
Source: SDNY Judge Denies OpenAI Bid To Strike Authors’ Book-Download Claim – Decrypt
In a memorandum filed in a federal court in New York on Friday (October 24), lawyers for the record labels said Udio’s motion “mischaracterizes” the labels’ legal arguments “and the legal landscape.” The labels, representing all three of the major recording companies, amended their complaint against Udio in September, adding allegations that the AI company “illegally scraped” YouTube videos in order to collect content on which to train its AI models.
The debates about how AI technology should be regulated continue, with the latest views coming from a group of organizations and heirs representing musicians who are no longer alive – Bill Withers, Cass Elliott, David Rose and Alex North included. Gathered by veteran attorney Chris Castle and the Artist Rights Institute, they have made a joint filing to the White House’s consultation on AI regulation, which has been fielding the views of tech giants and music-industry bodies alike.
Source: Musicians’ heirs hit out at AI deepfakes as ‘digital grave robbing’
The “Creative Commons” model of copyright licensing is inextricably linked with the rise of the internet since the early 2000s. However, the advent of generative AI is proving a stress test to its philosophy of the open sharing of creative work. Large Language Models harvest public content at scale, often stripping out any reference to the original creator and ignoring their wish to share their work reciprocally.
Large online services such as Google and X should pay copyright fees when they display extracts from newspaper articles, says a Swiss parliamentary committee. However, the House of Representatives Committee for Transport and Telecommunications (KVF-N) wants to refer the corresponding bill back to the government and is calling for AI specific regulation. The new ancillary copyright for media and media professionals will therefore probably have to be dealt with once again by the national government.
Source: Swiss lawmakers back media copyright fees for digital giants
Th
e Cox v. Sony Music amicus briefs flurry isn’t letting up
ahead of the high-stakes Cox v. Sony Music Supreme Court arguments, and former members of Congress, SoundExchange, and many others are weighing in. And the way they see things, adopting Cox’s “unduly narrow standard for contributory infringement would violate a half century of case law and sound policy that is critical to maintaining the economic viability and artistic integrity of the artist and music community.”
Source: Ex-Lawmakers & Many Others Submit Cox v. Sony Amicus Briefs
The three major North American PROs say that they will now accept registrations of “partially” AI-generated musical works These works can now be registered directly with the individual societies. All three PROs’ registration policies define a partially AI-generated musical work as one that “combines elements of AI-generated musical content with elements of human authorship”.
Source: ASCAP, BMI and SOCAN will now accept registrations of ‘partially’ AI-generated musical works
YouTube revealed on Tuesday that its likeness-detection technology has officially rolled out to eligible creators in the YouTube Partner Program, following a pilot phase. The technology allows creators to request the removal of AI-generated content that uses their likeness. YouTube’s detection technology identifies and manages AI-generated content featuring the likeness of creators, such as their face and voice.
Source: YouTube’s likeness-detection technology has officially launched | TechCrunch