Rights

A new interactive contract representing about 2,500 performers is being negotiated, members of the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee said. The interactive media agreement covers “off-camera (voiceover) performers, on-camera (motion capture, stunt) performers, stunt coordinators, singers, dancers, puppeteers, and background performers,” according to SAG-AFTRA.

Source: Video game voice actors say ‘soul of the industry is on trial’ with unregulated AI

More than four months after a federal judge found the Internet Archive liable for copyright infringement, the parties have delivered a negotiated agreement for a judgment to be entered in the case. A final resolution could still be years away, however, as the Internet Archive has vowed to appeal.

Source: Publishers, Internet Archive Submit Proposed Judgment in Copyright Case

Record labels including UMG, Capitol and Sony have filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in the United States targeting Internet Archive and founder Brewster Kale, among others. Filed in Manhattan federal court late Friday, the complaint alleges infringement of 2,749 works, recorded by deceased artists, including Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong and Bing Crosby.

Source: Record Labels Hit Internet Archive With New $400m+ Copyright Lawsuit * TorrentFreak

Several news organizations, writers and photographers groups are pushing to be involved in creating standards for the use of artificial intelligence, particularly as it concerns intellectual property rights and the potential spread of misinformation. In an open letter sent on Wednesday, they outlined priorities for setting rules on the technology, which is developing faster than regulators can keep up with.

Source: Journalists seek regulations to govern fast-moving artificial intelligence technology

Google and Universal Music Group are in talks to secure licenses for artists’ vocals and musical melodies to create artificial intelligence-generated songs, The Financial Times reported Tuesday (August 8). The report added that Warner Music Group is also engaged in negotiations with Google regarding a similar initiative. Talks between Google and Universal Music are at an early stage and no immediate product launch is anticipated, the newspaper said.

Source: Google and Universal Music Group in talks over licensing AI ‘deepfakes’ (report)

The U.K.’s PRS for Music and PPL will be installing its ‘Audoo Audio Meters’ in cafes, pubs, restaurants, retailers and other businesses, and using them to track the music played in order to calculate public performance royalties. It’s a B2B application for Shazam-style music recognition technology. For now, Audoo’s meters will sit alongside existing methods of collecting this data rather than replace them.

Source: Audoo strikes music-monitoring deal with PRS for Music and PPL – Music Ally

In its submission to the Australian government’s review of the regulatory framework around AI, Google said that copyright law should be altered to allow for generative AI systems to scrape the internet. The company said  policymakers should promote “copyright systems that enable appropriate and fair use of copyrighted content to enable the training of AI models in Australia on a broad and diverse range of data, while supporting workable opt-outs for entities that prefer their data not to be trained in using AI systems”.

Source: Google says AI systems should be able to mine publishers’ work unless companies opt out

When professor Jane Friedman acknowledged that she could not prove that she owned the trademark on her own name, she said Amazon said it would leave the books she didn’t write but attributed to her up and for sale. But that stance changed late Monday night when the books began disappearing from Amazon’s website, and after the Authors Guild offered to step in on Friedman’s behalf.

Source: Amazon Reverses Course on ‘Garbage Books’ After Public Uproar – Decrypt

Differences between who owns what matter. It’s one thing to have the copyright holder of a popular music recording opt out of a database; it’s another if an important scientific paper is left out over licensing disputes. When AI is used in hospitals and in gene therapy, do you really want to exclude relevant information from the training database?

Source: We Need Smart Intellectual Property Laws for Artificial Intelligence

Zora, the popular non-fungible token (NFT) minting platform, is updating its revenue split model to put more money back into the pockets of creators, as the debate about artist royalties continues.  Beginning on Thursday, Zora will automatically split funds earned from its mint fees with creators, providing them with a larger slice of the pie in the hopes of incentivizing more creators to release projects on its site.

Source: More Money For Creators: NFT Minting Platform Zora Initiates New Revenue Split