Headlines

Brazilian judge imposes global streaming ban on Adele’s ‘Million Years Ago’ 

The injunction, issued by Judge Victor Torres in Rio de Janeiro’s sixth commercial court, requires Adele’s record labels, Sony Music and Universal Music Group, to stop “immediately and globally, from using, reproducing, editing, distributing or commercializing the song Million Years Ago, by any modality, means, physical or digital support, streaming or sharing platform.”

Source: Brazilian judge imposes streaming ban on Adele’s ‘Million Years Ago’ in plagiarism dispute

YouTube partners with Creative Artists Agency on AI deepfake recognition tools

YouTube will bring in talent from Creative Artists Agency (CAA) to help it build a tool to identify AI-generated content, including AI deepfakes of famous faces. As part of the collaboration, “several of the world’s most influential figures” will gain access to the tech YouTube is developing to “identify and manage” AI-generated content, YouTube said.

Source: YouTube partners with Creative Artists Agency on AI deepfake recognition tools

Universal’s Virgin Music Group to buy Downtown Music for $775 million

Virgin Music Group, the global independent music division of Universal Music Group, announced today it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Downtown Music Holdings LLC (Downtown) for cash consideration of $775 million (approximately €737 million). The acquisition, which is subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to close in the second half of 2025.

Source: Universal’s Virgin Music Group to buy Downtown Music for $775 million

U.K. Could Grant Artists ‘Right to Personality’ in A.I. Regulation Review

The U.K. government is considering drafting new protections to safeguard artists from generative A.I. models that mimic their unique styles or likenesses, a measure being considered as a “right to personality.” Expected within two years, these regulations aim to address the growing clash between creative industries and A.I. developers over the use of copyrighted material in training algorithms.

Source: U.K. Could Grant Artists ‘Right to Personality’ in A.I. Regulation Review

YouTube is letting creators opt in to allowing third-party AI training

YouTube is rolling out a way for creators to let third-party companies use their videos to train AI models. To be clear, the default setting for this is off, meaning that if you don’t want to let third-party companies scrape your videos for AI training, you don’t have to do anything. But if, for some reason, you do want to allow that — Google says that “some creators and rights holders” may want to — it’s going to be an option.

Source: YouTube is letting creators opt in to allowing third-party AI training

UK proposes letting tech firms use copyrighted work to train AI

Campaigners for the protection of the rights of creatives have criticised a UK government proposal to let artificial intelligence companies train their algorithms on their works under a new copyright exemption. Under the proposals, tech companies will be allowed to freely use copyrighted material to train artificial intelligence models unless creative professionals and companies opt out of the process.

Source: UK proposes letting tech firms use copyrighted work to train AI

Shutterstock launches a ‘research licence’ for GenAI companies

The stock-image house has unveiled a “research licence” for the training of open-source AI models, which it hopes will be a springboard into commercial licences as partners develop their businesses. “By first integrating a research licence, startups and AI companies can build and refine AI tools on premium, licensed data before making a larger commitment in a full commercial licence,” is how Shutterstock described it.

Source: Shutterstock launches a ‘research licence’ for GenAI companies

‘Clean’ AI Video Model to Launch in Early 2025 Targeting Hollywood Clients 

A “clean” image and video generation model, trained exclusively on “ethically sourced” data, is being positioned for enterprise-grade productions in Hollywood next year as an alternative to offerings from tech giants accused of data scraping. The new model, dubbed “Marey,” after early cinema pioneer Étienne-Jules Marey, will be available in January or February 2025.

Source: ‘Clean’ AI Video Model to Launch in Early 2025 Targeting Hollywood Clients (EXCLUSIVE)

Merlin to AI Companies: Don’t Harvest Our Data

Like many organizations in the music industry, Merlin supports “AI products that aid human creativity, or provide new opportunities for artists to create and collaborate in developing new original works,” wrote the organization in a mission statement shared with Billboard. But it strongly opposes “any product, regardless of its purpose, that has been trained on Merlin members’ music without permission.”

Source: Merlin to AI Companies: Don’t Harvest Our Data

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