“The MLC is not authorized to opine on whether particular transmissions offered by Pandora or other DMPs [digital music providers] are properly characterized as interactive or noninteractive as a legal matter,” Pandora wrote in its firmly worded answer, “much less whether Pandora qualifies for statutory licensing under a different section of the Copyright Act (Section 114) that falls outside the MLC’s purview.
Source: Pandora Fires Back Against ‘Misguided’ MLC Royalties Lawsuit
One of the biggest challenges facing copyright owners in grappling with the rapid development of generative AI technology, apart from a murky legal status, has been market failure, as discussed here in previous posts. The amount of existing material needed to train gen-AI models is so great, and so varied, that gauging the value of any one piece of it to establish a market price for it for licensing purposes is often effectively impossible.
One group of rights owners is finding willing buyers among AI companies, however. An active, albeit for various reasons mostly sotto voce market has begun to emerge for the use of images held in large photo archives and by photo agencies and social media platforms, complete with per-unit industry and at least a nod toward creator attribution.
Reddit’s latest transparency report reveals that user bans for repeat copyright infringement skyrocketed in the last half of 2023. The company attributes the 258% increase to improved detection methods and increased operational capacity. The number of items that were removed from the site following copyright complaints dropped to little over half a million.
Source: Reddit Reports Surge in Copyright-Related User Bans * TorrentFreak
With Government oversight and input, the industry has now collectively agreed (although not yet implemented) voluntary Transparency and Data codes. However, for the MMF and other members of the Council of Music Makers (the Ivors Academy, the Featured Artists Coalition, the Music Producers Guild, and the Musicians’ Union) the most pressing issues have always been financial. We want to address the mechanics and distribution of streaming revenue.
Source: Is the music industry gaslighting artists? – Music Ally
For those who enjoy high-stakes showdowns between major media companies and tech giants, Universal Music Group vs. TikTok has been action-packed. But you might need a fresh bowl of popcorn for what’s next. According to multiple sources leaking details to Digital Music News, UMG has been flooding TikTok with DMCA takedown notices following its stern content removals in late January. But that may be a prelude to more serious legal action in the coming weeks.
Source: Universal Music Group Considering Legal Action Against TikTok
At a recent meeting with record label executives ahead of the debut of “The Tortured Poets Department,” Swift’s camp shared plans to promote the new album on platforms including TikTok, according to people familiar with the matter. Label executives were surprised. Months earlier, the label had pulled from TikTok a trove of Swift’s songs like “Cruel Summer” and “Shake It Off,” as well as works by its other artists.
According to the announcement from UK-headquartered Cutting Edge today (April 15), the new funds will be used for a combination of “corporate purposes” and the acquisition of music rights across the film, TV, theatre, gaming, and wellness spaces. Cutting Edge said it has already identified a “circa USD $1.5 billion pipeline” of potential investments.
Source: Cutting Edge Group secures $500m to fund music rights acquisitions
The UK Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) committee issued a report on Wednesday (April 10) calling for a number of new policies, aimed at ensuring better compensation for people working in creative industries. One recommendation sure to get the attention of the music industry is a change to the split in streaming royalties between recorded music and music publishing.
Tech companies have scraped vast swathes of the web to gather the data they claim is needed to create generative AI—with little regard for content creators, copyright laws, or privacy. On top of this, increasingly, firms with reams of people’s posts are looking to get in on the AI gold rush by selling or licensing that information. Looking at you, Reddit.
We knew that OpenAI, Google and Meta relied on copyrighted material to train their generative AI models. The companies themselves have acknowledged as much by raising a fair use defense in the myriad lawsuits brought against them by copyright owners, including in the New York Times Co.’s copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft.
We also know that AI developers are increasingly desperate for new sources of high-quality data to train on as they rapidly exhaust the published contents of the World Wide Web, and are pushing the envelope in the pursuit of untapped resources.