Durst and Limp Bizkit sued UMG last month, claiming that the major music company “designed and implemented royalty software and systems that were deliberately designed to conceal artists’ (including Plaintiffs’) royalties and keep those profits for itself.” In a motion to dismiss filed in California on Friday (November 22), UMG writes that Durst et al.’s “complaint is based on a fallacy” and “should be dismissed with prejudice”.
Rights
The Art of Attribution and Three Unlikely Theories of AI Authorship
The oral arguments in Thaler explored the contours of “traditional authorship” through two illuminating hypotheticals posed by Judge Millett: the Kodak camera and the printer malfunction. These examples help map a spectrum of human involvement in creative works and highlight the challenges in placing AI-generated works within existing doctrine.
Source: The Art of Attribution and Three Unlikely Theories of AI Authorship
Hollywood unions are facing an uphill battle against Trump, AI and the slowdown
SAG-AFTRA and the video game companies are resuming contract negotiations for the first time since video game actors went on strike. SAG-AFTRA is seeking a contract that will require game developers to obtain informed consent and compensate video game performers when using the technology to digitally replicate their voices, movements or likenesses.
Source: Hollywood unions are facing an uphill battle against Trump, AI and the slowdown
Soundverse AI attracts 200k creators with ‘ethical practices’
AI music startup Soundverse AI has attracted more than 200,000 creators to its service, who have made more than 500k tracks so far. The startup revealed the figures in an announcement that also stressed its “ethically trained AI model”, with the company saying it has only trained its technology “by securing explicit artist consent and compensating contributors”.
Source: Soundverse AI attracts 200k creators with ‘ethical practices’
DMG Media invests in publisher-friendly generative AI start-up Prorata
Daily Mail publisher DMG Media has made a “significant investment” in Prorata.ai, a generative artificial intelligence platform that plans to share revenue with publishers each time their content is used to answer a user query. The deal gives Prorata access to DMG Media’s content, which includes the archives of the Mail, Mail Online, Metro, the i and New Scientist.
Source: DMG Media invests in publisher-friendly generative AI start-up Prorata
SoundCloud Expands AI Integrations With Tuney, Pex, Audible Magic Partnerships
SoundCloud users will have access to six new assistive AI tools, including Tuney, Tuttii, AIBeatz, TwoShot, Starmony and ACE Studio. The company is also using Audible Magic and Pex to ensure that these new AI integrations are backed up by strong content identification tools that provide rights holders with proper credit and compensation.
Source: SoundCloud Expands AI Integrations With Tuney, Pex, Audible Magic Partnerships
Agents, Authors Question HarperCollins AI Deal
HarperCollins has become the first Big Five publisher to strike a licensing deal to provide access to select nonfiction books for AI training purposes. And so far, authors and agents appear to be approaching the deal with caution and skepticism—if also with a measure of hope. In a statement, Harper representatives confirmed only that the agreement with an undisclosed company will “allow limited use of select nonfiction backlist titles” for use in training AI models “to improve model quality and performance.”
There’s No Longer Any Doubt That Hollywood Writing Is Powering AI
Dialogue from these movies and TV shows has been used by companies such as Apple and Anthropic to train AI systems. The files within this data set are not scripts, exactly. Rather, they are subtitles taken from a website called OpenSubtitles.org. Users of the site typically extract subtitles from DVDs, Blu-ray discs, and internet streams using optical-character-recognition (OCR) software.
Source: There’s No Longer Any Doubt That Hollywood Writing Is Powering AI
AllTrack — America’s 5th PRO — Opens Mechanical Rights Option
AllTrack, billed as a digital-era performing rights organization (PRO) with a focus on the independent music sector, has announced the launch of a mechanical rights division. According to the company, the move makes AllTrack the first PRO in the United States to offer integrated performance and mechanical rights collection services that music creators and publishers can manage through a single platform.
Source: AllTrack — America’s 5th PRO — Opens Mechanical Rights Option
David Attenborough Reacts to AI Replica of His Voice: ‘I Am Profoundly Disturbed’
Sir David Attenborough does not approve of AI being used to replicate his voice, telling BBC News he is ‘profoundly disturbed’ by the technology. “Having spent a lifetime trying to speak what I believe to be the truth, I am profoundly disturbed to find that these days, my identity is being stolen by others and greatly object to them using it to say whatever they wish.”