Headlines

All the Ways Netflix Actually Won Even Though It Lost Warner

For Netflix, such a deal would have complicated the business model for a company that had already vaulted to a leading position in Hollywood on its strength as a streaming pure-play. Even its recently diminished market cap had Netflix nearly twice as valuable as Disney and far above any other media outlet. And at $72 billion, the price for Warner was steep for a company with just under $10 billion in annual free cash flow—and no history of doing megasize deals. 

Source: All the Ways Netflix Actually Won Even Though It Lost Warner

Reservoir receives unsolicited $1.2B bid from activist investor Irenic Capital

Activist investment fund Irenic Capital Management reportedly made an unsolicited takeover bid for Reservoir Media, the Nasdaq-listed independent music company. That’s according to a report from Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, which said the bid, submitted in February, values Reservoir at between $1.1 billion and $1.2 billion, including debt, at a per-share price of $10 to $11.

Source: Reservoir receives unsolicited $1.2B bid from activist investor Irenic Capital

High-res music service Qobuz joins France’s Deezer in flagging AI-generated tracks

Qobuz said in a recent blog post that it will start tagging these tracks “to protect artists and listeners from AI-generated content.” The French company follows Deezer, another France-based streaming platform, which has already made AI labels publicly visible to users. Last year, Deezer filed two patents for an AI detection tool, which it said can discover “fully AI-generated tracks.” Deezer has since published periodic updates on how many tracks the tool has flagged.

Source: High-res music service Qobuz joins France’s Deezer in flagging AI-generated tracks

Tilly Norwood Creator Plans ‘Rapid Expansion’ With the ‘Tillyverse,’

As part of the expansion Van der Velden has tapped Prime Video’s Mark Whelan as head of strategy and operations at her new AI talent studio Xicoia. Whelan will be tasked with helping Van der Velden create the “Tillyverse,” described in a press release as a “dynamic, constantly evolving digital universe where Tilly and a new generation of AI characters will live, collaborate and build careers.”

Source: Tilly Norwood Creator Plans ‘Rapid Expansion’ With the ‘Tillyverse,’

News Corp, Meta in AI Content Licensing Deal Worth Up to $50 Million a Year

The deal will run for at least three years and allow Meta to use the media company’s content from the U.S. and the U.K., according to people familiar with the matter. They said the deal allows Meta to retrieve new information for users of its artificial-intelligence products and to train on other content, such as story archives. The size of the Meta deal reflects the increasing value technology companies are placing on the news content.

Source: News Corp, Meta in AI Content Licensing Deal Worth Up to $50 Million a Year

Supreme Court declines to hear dispute over copyrights for AI-generated material

The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to take up the ​issue of whether art generated by artificial intelligence can be copyrighted under U.S. law, turning ‌away a case involving a computer scientist from Missouri who was denied a copyright for a piece of visual art made by his AI system. Plaintiff Stephen Thaler had appealed to the justices after lower courts upheld a U.S. Copyright Office ​decision that the AI-crafted visual art at issue in the case was ineligible for copyright protection ​because it did not have a human creator.

Supreme Court declines to hear dispute over copyrights for AI-generated material

Microsoft deletes blog telling users to train AI on pirated Harry Potter books

Following backlash in a Hacker News thread, Microsoft deleted a blog post that critics said encouraged developers to pirate Harry Potter books to train AI models that could then be used to create AI slop. The blog was written in November 2024 by a senior product manager, Pooja Kamath. According to her LinkedIn, Kamath has been at Microsoft for more than a decade and remains with the company. In 2024, Microsoft tapped her to promote a new feature that the blog said made it easier to “add generative AI features to your own applications.

Source: Microsoft deletes blog telling users to train AI on pirated Harry Potter books

These Tools Say They Can Spot A.I. Fakes. Do They Really Work?

More than a dozen online tools claim they can tell the difference between what’s real and what’s A.I. by looking for hidden watermarks, composition errors and other digital clues. The reality is more mixed, according to a battery of tests conducted by The New York Times. While many tools did a good job detecting some A.I. content, they were not accurate enough to offer users complete confidence.

Source: These Tools Say They Can Spot A.I. Fakes. Do They Really Work?

Music startup Mogul raises $5M; says it has tracked $1.5B+ in royalties for artists to date

Mogul, a music startup that lets artists and managers track and identify missing royalties, has raised $5 million in a funding round led by the Yamaha Music Innovations Fund. Other investors include the Urban Innovation Fund, as well as Mindset Ventures and EU-based Fairway Capital Partners. Amplify LA and Wonder Ventures have also renewed their commitment. According to Mogul, the new funding will be used to expand its ability to serve “artists, managers, and business managers of all kinds”.

Source: Mogul claims to have tracked more than $1.5 billion in royalties for artists since launching in early 2024.

YouTuber sues Runway AI in latest copyright class action over AI training

Artificial intelligence video startup Runway AI has been hit with a proposed class action lawsuit in California federal court for allegedly misusing YouTube content to train its video generation platform. YouTube creator David Gardner said in the complaint, opens new tab, filed in Los Angeles on Monday, that Runway bypassed YouTube’s copyright protections to illegally download user videos for its AI training.

Source: YouTuber sues Runway AI in latest copyright class action over AI training

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