A new collective licensing scheme for the “fair and lawful” use of content in AI products has launched in the UK. The project is being led by non-profit organisation Publishers’ Licensing Services (PLS) and is open to all types of small and large content publishers including magazines, digital news media, books and academic publications (whether they are currently PLS members or not).
Source: New AI licensing scheme to help smaller publishers strike deals with platforms
Corporate and financial strategic communications firm Fourth Pillar has announced the findings of its inaugural Music Investment Barometer, the first dedicated study designed to track sentiment across the global music investment community. The Barometer illustrates that music rights dealmaking is expanding in volume, appeal, and sophistication, driven by music’s positive growth outlook.
Source: First Study of Investor Sentiment Reveals Inner Workings of Music Investment
To help train AI models, Meta and other tech companies have downloaded and shared pirated books via BitTorrent from Anna’s Archive and other shadow libraries. In an ongoing lawsuit, Meta now argues that uploading pirated books to strangers via BitTorrent qualifies as fair use. The company also stresses that the data helped establish U.S. global leadership in AI.
Source: Uploading Pirated Books via BitTorrent Qualifies as Fair Use, Meta Argues
Warner Music CEO Robert Kyncl is lauding artificial intelligence’s perceived ability to unlock value. But the technology is eliciting a far different response in South Korea, where industry orgs are coordinating to address the “unprecedented disruption” ushered in by gen AI. Technically, the group behind the initiative, the K-Music Rights Organizations Mutual Growth Committee, formally set sail on February 26th.
Source: As Robert Kyncl Embraces AI, South Korea’s Music Industry ‘Declares War’
In a filing made March 6 in the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 13 book and journal publishers filed suit seeking a permanent injunction to stop Anna’s Archive from copying and distributing millions of infringing files. The suit highlights the magnitude of the material Anna’s Archive has stolen and the unorthodox methods it uses to monetize the material.
Source: Publishers Charge Anna’s Archive with Copyright Infringement
The UK’s creative industries must not be sacrificed in the pursuit of speculative gains in AI technology, a House of Lords committee has warned, as the government prepares to reveal the economic cost of proposals to change copyright rules. A report by peers has urged ministers to develop a licensing regime for the use of creative works in AI products and abandon proposals to let tech firms use them without permission.
Source: UK arts must not be sacrificed for speculative AI gains, peers say
In an open letter, BBC director-general Tim Davie, Financial Times CEO Jon Slade, The Guardian CEO Anna Bateson, Sky News executive chairman David Rhodes, and Telegraph Media Group CEO Anna Jones have invited “global leaders across publishing, broadcasting, media and news” — to join as founding members of SPUR (the Standards for Publisher Usage Rights coalition).
Source: U.K. News Organizations Form Media Coalition Over AI Publishing Rights
Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in San Francisco on Monday, Thomson said News Corp has a “woo and a sue strategy.” He explained: “We’ll woo you, we’d like you to be our partner, but if you’re stealing our stuff we are going to sue you. And if you look at a lot of the bots coming in and scraping our stuff and they’re using our material in new AI verticals, we’re coming for you.
Source: News Corp CEO Robert Thomson warns AI companies scraping without paying: ‘We’re coming for you’
Robert Kyncl has published a letter to Warner Music Group shareholders that pushes back against any under-appreciation of WMG’s value in the financial market, while talking up AI’s potential to drive that value higher. Both WMG and Universal Music Group shares are currently trading significantly below their 52-week peaks. Last Tuesday (February 24), a telling analyst note from Rothschild & Co Redburn argued that music rightsholders are particularly “exposed” to threats from AI-generated content.
Source: Robert Kyncl tells WMG shareholders: AI is music’s next growth engine, not its downfall
Perplexity wrote to a New York judge last week arguing the News Corp subsidiaries should be forced to hand over records showing the hundreds of queries they made to “fish” for a basis to sue within its AI search tool before launching the claim in October 2024. Perplexity told Judge Katherine Failla: “This discovery would reveal an inconvenient truth: Plaintiffs repeatedly and deceptively crossed the line from investigation to entrapment.”
Source: Perplexity claims News Corp tried to ‘entrap’ chatbot to make copyright case