The Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE) “abused its position” as the country’s dominant collective management organization (CMO) to prevent members from switching to a competing agency, a court in Barcelona has concluded. The ruling marks a victory for UNISON, a Barcelona-based private music rights management company set up in 2017 as a competitor to SGAE.
Rights
Midjourney bets it can beat the copyright police
Last week, Midjourney, the AI startup building image generators, made a small, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it change to its terms of service related to the company’s policy around IP disputes. It mainly served to replace jokey language with more lawyerly, doubtless case law–grounded clauses. But the change can also be taken as a sign of Midjourney’s conviction that AI vendors like itself will emerge victorious in the courtroom battles with creators whose works comprise vendors’ training data.
Source: This Week in AI: Midjourney bets it can beat the copyright police | TechCrunch
Deezer has deleted 26m ‘useless’ tracks since it launched artist-centric model with UMG
Deezer says that it had around 200 million pieces of content on the platform last year, which means that over 13% of this content has been deleted. “The intention is to declutter the platform, focus on tracks that are valuable to our users and increase the market share for all artists who create this music,” Folgueira told MBW. “The tracks that have been removed include noise, mono-track albums, fake artists and tracks that haven’t been listened to in the past 12 months.”
HarbourView Equity Partners Scores $500 Million Debt Financing
HarbourView Equity Partners has secured $500 million in debt financing to fuel further song-rights acquisitions. KKR led the financing, which likewise drew participation from Kuvare Asset Management, per HarbourView. “We are grateful to KKR for working with us to deliver a flexible and innovative financing structure that will support HarbourView in expanding its reach,” HarbourView founder and head Sherrese Clarke Soares said.
Source: HarbourView Equity Partners Scores $500 Million Debt Financing
As EU AI Act passes, rightsholders urge ‘meaningful and effective’ enforcement of copyright
The EU law requires developers of “general purpose AI” (GPAI) models to keep track of and disclose what content is used in training. It further states that “any use of copyright protected content requires the authorization of the [rights holder] concerned, unless relevant copyright exceptions and limitations apply.” “Crucially, this appears to apply even if the training was carried out in another more lenient jurisdiction,” said Jonathan Coote, a music and AI lawyer at UK law firm Bray & Krais.
‘No NFT-Specific Legislation’ Required, US PTO and Copyright Office Study Concludes
A comprehensive 112-page study conducted jointly by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the U.S. Copyright Office has determined that existing intellectual property laws are sufficient to address concerns regarding copyright and trademark infringement related to non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Why Are Songs by Some UMG Artists Available on TikTok, Despite Ban?
The standoff between Universal Music Group and TikTok over royalty payments and AI policies has resulted in a near-complete blackout of all music owned, distributed and published by the company on the platform — the videos are still there, but the music is muted. Yet new songs by UMG artists, including Ariana Grande, Camila Cabello and Niall Horan could be found on TikTok at the time of this article’s publication.
European Union Passes ‘World First’ AI Legislation
Sweeping new laws regulating the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in Europe, including controls around the use of copyrighted [works], have been approved by the European Parliament, following fierce lobbying from both the tech and music communities. Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voted in favor of the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act by a clear majority of 523 votes for, 46 against and 49 abstentions.
Source: European Union Passes ‘World First’ AI Legislation That Would Safeguard Copyrighted Music
Australian news media could seek payment from Meta for content used to train AI
When Meta announced last week that it would not sign new deals to pay for news in Australia for use on Facebook, it downplayed the value of news to its services, stating that just 3% of Facebook usage in Australia was related to news. There are now calls to designate Meta under the news media bargaining code, which would force the company to negotiate with news media publishers and pay for news content on its platforms.
Source: Australian news media could seek payment from Meta for content used to train AI
Rashida Tlaib Introduces New Bill to Fix Streaming Royalties
The United Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW) are celebrating the introduction of the Living Wage for Musicians Act, led by Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Jamaal Bowman, to Congress. The bill, shared with Digital Music News on Wednesday (March 6th), would create a new streaming royalty and help ensure that artists and musicians can build sustainable careers in the age of streaming.
Source: Rashida Tlaib Introduces New Bill to Fix Streaming Royalties