Rights

News Corp Inks OpenAI Licensing Deal Potentially Worth More Than $250 Million

Content from News Corp publications — which include the Wall Street Journal — is coming to OpenAI under a new multiyear licensing deal. Under the partnership, OpenAI has permission to display content from News Corp’s publications in response to user questions and to enhance its products, with the “ultimate objective of providing people the ability to make informed choices based on reliable information and news sources,” according to News Corp.

Source: News Corp Inks OpenAI Licensing Deal Potentially Worth More Than $250 Million

AI Image Generator Avoids Copyright Issues by Training on Corrupted Photos

A research team led by the University of Texas has come up with a model called Ambient Diffusion which they claim “gets around” the issue of copyright and AI image generators by feeding the model images that have pixels missing — in some cases as much as 93%. “Early efforts suggest the framework is able to continue to generate high-quality samples without ever seeing anything that’s recognizable as the original source images,” reads a press release.

Source: AI Image Generator Avoids Copyright Issues by Training on Corrupted Photos

Audius partners with Music Reports to power rights clearances for music publishers

San Francisco-based blockchain-powered music platform Audius has partnered with rights administration platform Music Reports to power the licensing of rights and payments to music publishers through its Songdex Marketplace opt-in licensing platform. The new partnership follows Audius’ launch of its music marketplace last year, which provides a platform for its 6 million users to support artists with direct payments.

Source: Audius partners with Music Reports to power rights clearances for music publishers

The Big Opt-Out: Sony Music Puts AI World on Notice

Sony Music Group last week began sending legal letters to roughly 700 AI developers and music streaming services demanding detailed information on whether, how and by what means the recipients or their affiliates have used SMG-owned content “to train, develop or commercialize any of your AI systems,” and a “description of the manner in which such SMG Content was accessed and/or reproduced and/or extracted by you or your affiliates or any third party contracted to do so on your behalf.”

The text of the letters has not yet been released publicly. Sony separately posted a “Declaration of AI Training Opt-Out” on its website.

Pan-European licensing hub ICE Services has paid out $4.88bn to rightsholders to date

Company reports to have distributed more than €1bn to rightsholders in a consecutive 12-month period for the first time. With this distribution milestone passed, ICE says that it has now delivered a total of€4.5 billion (approx $4.88bn at current exchange rates) since its first royalty distributions in 2016. ICE was formed by three collection societies — PRS for Music (UK), STIM (Sweden) and GEMA (Germany).

Source: Pan-European licensing hub ICE Services has paid out $4.88bn to rightsholders to date

Worldwide Independent Network calls for AI ‘licensing marketplace’ in new manifesto

WIN’s AI manifesto comes as music companies around the world navigate the complex new world of AI, working to maximize the technology’s potential for artists and businesses while addressing challenges such as deepfakes of artists and the unauthorized use of copyrighted music in training AI models. “The global independent music community welcomes new technological developments which respect the value of music and creators’ rights,” WIN CEO Noemi Planas said.

Source: Worldwide Independent Network calls for creation of AI ‘licensing marketplace’ in new manifesto

NMPA Calls on Congress for Copyright Act Overhaul Amid Spotify Battle Over Bundling

The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) has sent a letter to Judiciary Committee leadership in both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, asking for the overhaul of the statutory license in section 115 of the Copyright Act, which “prevents private negotiations in a free market” for mechanical royalty rates for songwriters and music publishers in the U.S.

Source: NMPA Calls on Congress for Copyright Act Overhaul Amid Spotify Battle Over Bundling

Hollywood agency CAA aims to help stars manage their own AI likenesses

With many stars having their digital likeness used without permission, CAA has built a virtual media storage system for A-list talent to store their digital assets, such as their names, images, digital scans, voice recordings, and so on. The new development is a part of “theCAAvault,” the company’s studio where actors record their bodies, faces, movements, and voices using scanning technology to create AI clones.

Source: Hollywood agency CAA aims to help stars manage their own AI likenesses

SCOTUS: No Statute of Limitations on Copyright Damages

The Copyright Act of 1976 stipulates that a plaintiff must file an infringement suit “within three years after the claim accrued.” For many years, courts have disagreed over when that three-year clock actually starts ticking.

Some courts, including some Circuit Courts of Appeal, have held it starts running when the alleged infringement occurred and that suits filed three or more years after that time are not valid. Other courts have held that the statute of limitations only start running when the plaintiff discovers, or reasonably could have discovered, the infringement, even if it occurred more than three years prior — an interpretation known as the “discovery rule.”

Reddit’s deal with OpenAI will plug its posts into “ChatGPT and new products”

OpenAI has signed a deal for access to real-time content from Reddit’s data API, which means it can surface discussions from the site within ChatGPT and other new products. It’s an agreement similar to the one Reddit signed with Google earlier this year that was reportedly worth $60 million. The deal will also “enable Reddit to bring new AI-powered features to Redditors and mods” and use OpenAI’s large language models to build applications

Source: Reddit’s deal with OpenAI will plug its posts into “ChatGPT and new products”

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