Rights

Performing arts leaders issue copyright warning over UK government’s AI plans

More than 30 performing arts leaders in the UK, including the bosses of the National Theatre, Opera North and the Royal Albert Hall, have joined the chorus of creative industry concern about the government’s plans to let artificial intelligence companies use artists’ work without permission. They also urged the government to support the “moral and economic rights” of the creative community in music, dance, drama and opera.

Source: Performing arts leaders issue copyright warning over UK government’s AI plans

Word Collections Launches ‘Songwriter Collections’ Service

Five-year-old Word Collections just recently announced Songwriter Collections, which it says has direct pacts in place with Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and a variety of different DSPs. Overall, the arrangement enables member songwriters and publishers to receive “100% of their earned royalties from global digital streaming,” per Word Collections.

Source: Word Collections Launches ‘Songwriter Collections’ Service

OpenAI urges U.S. to allow AI models to train on copyrighted material

OpenAI is asking the U.S. government to make it easier for AI companies to learn from copyrighted material, citing a need to “strengthen America’s lead” globally in advancing the technology. The proposal is part of a wider plan that the tech company behind ChatGPT submitted to the U.S. government on Thursday as part of President Donald Trump’s coming “AI Action Plan.”

Source: OpenAI urges U.S. to allow AI models to train on copyrighted material

People are using Google’s new AI model to remove watermarks from images

People appear to be using Google’s new Gemini model to remove watermarks from images, according to reports on social media. Last week, Google expanded access to its Gemini 2.0 Flash model’s image generation feature, which lets the model natively generate and edit image content. It’s a powerful capability, by all accounts. But it also appears to have few guardrails.

Source: People are using Google’s new AI model to remove watermarks from images | TechCrunch

Movie, Music and Sports Industries Urge EU to Keep Geo-Blocking in Place 

Threatened by potential EU regulatory changes, the movie, music, and sports industries are vehemently defending the practice of geo-blocking, as an essential part of their business models. Rightsholders argue that eliminating geo-blockades would devalue content, force price hikes for consumers in some countries, and ultimately reduce investment in content and localized services.

Source: Movie, Music and Sports Industries Urge EU to Keep Geo-Blocking in Place * TorrentFreak

Moonvalley’s Marey AI-video model was trained on licensed content

Amid all the arguments about AI and copyright, it’s encouraging to see some companies making ethical training part of their launch pitches. An example outside music this week is Moonvalley, a US startup that has just unveiled its Marey AI video model. It’s billed as “the first fully clean AI model” with the company claiming it has only been trained on “owned or fully licensed source data”.

Source: Moonvalley’s Marey AI-video model was trained on licensed content

Audoo Partners with GEMA on Music Impact Study

Music tech company Audoo has partnered with the German performing rights society GEMA for a music impact study utilizing Audoo’s meters. Audoo meters installed in hundreds of venues recognized over 130,000 tracks, contributing to the insights demonstrating that the use of background music increased sales in retail by an average of 8% and in gastronomy by an average of 5.4%.

Source: Audoo Partners with GEMA on Music Impact Study

Half of Spotify’s Royalties Are Going to Indie Artists

Spotify updated its annual Loud and Clear report on Wednesday, confirming that for a second consecutive year, the streaming giant paid out half of its royalties to independent artists. Of the $10 billion Spotify doled out to music rights holders last year, it gave about $5 billion to indie labels and artists, the company said, a $500 million increase from 2023. The report comes weeks after Spotify announced its first-ever full year of profit, 18 years after the company was founded in 2006.

Source: Half of Spotify’s Royalties Are Going to Indie Artists

French publishers and authors file lawsuit against Meta in AI case

France’s leading publishing and authors’ associations have filed a lawsuit against U.S. tech giant Meta , opens new tab for allegedly using copyright-protected content on a massive scale without authorisation to train its artificial intelligence (AI) systems. This is the first such action against an AI giant in France but there is a wave of lawsuits notably in the United States against Meta and other tech companies.

Source: French publishers and authors file lawsuit against Meta in AI case

With launch of AI Mode Google threatens to bleed news media dry (Opinion)

Google’s launch last week of a new ‘AI Mode’ on search in the US appears to abandon its previous position as a friend to publishers. The tech giant, which made $265bn (£205bn) in media revenue last year, is introducing an AI information delivery system built entirely on information taken from content creators without their permission, showing disregard for the health of the media ecosystem on which it relies.

Source: With launch of AI Mode Google threatens to bleed news media dry

Get the latest RightsTech news and analysis delivered directly in your inbox every week
We respect your privacy.