The RIAA and several other organizations condemn AI startup Anthropic for allegedly flaunting copyright law. The criticism appears in an amicus brief in support of a court injunction requested by music publishers, who want the AI company to stop using lyrics without permission. According to the RIAA, Anthropic’s defense relies on the same rhetoric as Napster once did.
Source: RIAA Backs AI Copyright Lawsuit Against Anthropic, Sees Similarities with Napster * TorrentFreak
A new AI start-up has signed deals with several major global news publishers convinced by its plan to share revenue each time their content is used to generate an answer – before it has even launched. The Financial Times, Fortune, Axel Springer and The Atlantic have all agreed to license their content to Prorata.ai.
Source: FT, Atlantic, Axel Springer and Fortune get behind AI start-up’s per-use compensation plan
Associations worldwide representing authors’ collective management organizations in the music and visual arts sectors — including CISAC, EVA, IFRRO, GESAC, and the SAA — have responded to Finland’s recent cut to its private copying compensation plan, urging the country to reverse the decision. The organizations have joined forces to express “great concern on behalf of both the Finnish authors and all European/international authors.
Source: Finland Slashes Its Private Copying Compensation Plan
ProRata.ai has invented tech that it claims enables gen AI platforms to accurately attribute and share revenues on a per-use basis with content owners. ProRata has raised$25 million in a Series A round for its tech, for which it has several pending patents. The company’s early investors include Revolution Ventures, Prime Movers Lab, Mayfield and Technology incubator Idealab Studio.
The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) has announced a new collaboration with Beatdapp to “complement and enhance” The MLC’s existing streaming fraud detection capabilities. Beatdapp, a music streaming fraud detection company, announced a USD $17 million funding round in January. Beatdapp has previously said that its technology analyzes massive datasets to identify fraudulent streams, ensuring rightful payouts for artists and rights holders.
Source: The MLC partners with Beatdapp for streaming fraud detection services
In the latest example of a troubling pattern in the tech industry, Nvidia appears to have scraped troves of copyrighted content for AI training. The $2.4 trillion company reportedly asked workers to download videos from YouTube, Netflix and other datasets to develop commercial AI projects. The training was reportedly to develop models for products like its Omniverse 3D world generator, self-driving car systems and “digital human” efforts.
Source: NVIDIA’s AI team reportedly scraped YouTube, Netflix videos without permission
In June, controversial AI music startups Suno and Udio were sued by the major record companies for allegedly training their systems using the majors’ recordings without permission. Now, in responses filed in US federal courts on Thursday (August 1), the two AI companies have pretty much admitted that they used copyrighted recordings from the recording companies that sued them.
The new model does distribute royalties according to titles or hours listened, dividing the value of a member’s plan and any additional audiobook credits used “among the titles the member listened to over the course of the month.” Audible’s new royalty model is a response to Spotify’s encroachment into the audiobook space but it is also an early statement to the publishing world about how the company plans to account to publishers and authors.
Source: What Audible’s new royalty model means for its audiobook battle with Spotify
The bill was introduced in the US Senate on Wednesday (July 31) by two Democratic senators – Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota – and two Republicans, Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina. The bill has received backing from many prominent members of the music industry, including Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl, who appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee in April in support of the legislation.
Source: Artists and major music companies applaud introduction of ‘landmark’ NO FAKES Act in US Senate
As SAG-AFTRA been pushing for protections against AI, the studios have been reluctant to support any legislation that might crack down on its uses too broadly. But now, it appears that the parties are on the same page as they’ve both thrown their support behind a newly introduced bipartisan Senate bill. The NO FAKES Act finally received support from the studios via the Motion Picture Association on Wednesday, after the group had warned of potential First Amendment violations earlier this year.