Rights

Top Hollywood Law Firm Launches Service to Combat Soaring Deepfake Phenomenon

One of Hollywood’s go-to law firms is tackling the scourge. Venable LLP, whose clients include Swift, Peyton Manning and “La La Land” producer Automatik, is launching Takedown, a sophisticated program that proactively identifies and removes illicit and unauthorized deepfake videos and images and pirated content online. The program was created by Venable Blue, the firm’s consulting arm that deals with cybersecurity and privacy issues.

Source: Top Hollywood Law Firm Launches Service to Combat Soaring Celebrity Deepfake Phenomenon

Daniel Ek talks Spotify ‘deluxe’ tier, relationship with the music business on Q2 earnings call

On the earnings call Tuesday, Spotify’s Ek argued that, despite there being “things that we’re arguing about,” the company has largely had a healthy relationship with the music business – and it’s in Spotify’s interest to see the industry grow stronger. “We are spending a lot of time and effort in making sure that it keeps growing,” Ek said. “That is our primary thing that we’re doing as a company.”

Source: Daniel Ek talks new Spotify ‘deluxe’ tier, the company’s relationship with the music business and more on Q2 earnings call

Spotify Urges MLC Lawsuit Dismissal Amid Bundling Controversy

Spotify has outlined arguments in support of the dismissal of the unpaid royalties lawsuit filed against it by the MLC. “Books are not music, and audiobook streaming is not music streaming. Books are mainstream products offered both by Spotify and competitors via downloads and subscription streaming and, importantly, they are created and licensed by different rights holders (i.e., book authors and publishers) who charge separate license fees.”

Source: Spotify Urges MLC Lawsuit Dismissal Amid Bundling Controversy

Academic authors ‘shocked’ after publisher  sells access to their research to Microsoft AI

Authors have expressed their shock after the news that academic publisher Taylor & Francis, which owns Routledge, had sold access to its authors’ research as part of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) partnership with Microsoft—a deal worth almost £8m ($10m) in its first year. The authors claim they have not been told about the AI deal, were not given the opportunity to opt out and are receiving no extra payment.

Source: Academic authors ‘shocked’ after Taylor & Francis sells access to their research to Microsoft AI

Calvin Harris’ $100M Catalog Changes Hands

DJ Calvin Harris sold his catalog that includes more than 150 songs and collaborations with some of the world’s biggest stars, including Rihanna, Dua Lipa, Sam Smith, Frank Ocean, Ariana Grande, Big Sean, Khalid, Pharrell Williams, and Travis Scott. Sony/ATV continued administration services for the catalog. Now more than four years later, Shamrock Capital Advisors has engineered a large deal including film, television show, and song rights from Vine Alternative Investments in New York

Source: Calvin Harris’ $100M Catalog Changes Hands

Japanese media say AI search infringes copyright, urge legal reform

Artificial intelligence-powered search engines provided by U.S. tech giants like Google LLC and Microsoft Corp. likely infringe on copyright, an association run by Japanese mass media says. The Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association, in a statement, called for companies operating such services to obtain consent from news organizations as search responses often resemble articles that are sourced without permission.

Source: Japanese media say AI search infringes copyright, urge legal reform

‘COPIED Act’ could make it unlawful to train AI using copyrighted material 

Under the proposed law, this “content provenance information” would be embedded in digital forms of copyrighted material, and it would be unlawful to remove it or tamper with it, except in very limited cases where platforms are carrying out research to improve security. It would also be unlawful for anyone to use any material with “content provenance information” to train AI, or to create AI-generated content, “unless such person obtains the express, informed consent of the person who owns the covered content.”

Source: How the ‘COPIED Act’ could make it unlawful to train AI using copyrighted material without permission…

Apple, Nvidia, Anthropic Used Thousands of Swiped YouTube Videos to Train AI

AI companies are generally secretive about their sources of training data, but an investigation by Proof News found some of the wealthiest AI companies in the world have used material from thousands of YouTube videos to train AI. Companies did so despite YouTube’s rules against harvesting materials from the platform without permission.

Source: Apple, Nvidia, Anthropic Used Thousands of Swiped YouTube Videos to Train AI

CCC Launches Collective Licensing for AI

Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) has launched a collective licensing solution for the internal use of copyrighted materials in AI systems. The new service, which became available July 1, is an addition to CCC’s existing Annual Copyright Licenses (ACL) service and aims to provide a streamlined method for companies to access a consistent set of rights across multiple rightsholders, while ensuring compensation for content creators.

Source: CCC Launches Collective Licensing for AI

Licensing Your Movie & TV Content for AI Training: Can You? Should You?

As the most obvious advantage for library owners, granting training data licenses creates an additional revenue stream for existing programming. However, without suitable implementation, the potential cons for the licensing library owner include harming relationships with creative collaborators and partners whose persona, work or assets are ingested into the AI model along with the licensed library programming.

Source: Licensing Your Movie & TV Content for AI Training: Can You? Should You?

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