Google and the Department of Justice are facing off again, this time in a trial about whether Google has a monopoly in advertising technology markets. The trial kicks off on September 9th in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. The DOJ argues that Google has unfairly locked up the market for ad tech tools that publishers and advertisers rely on to monetize their websites and market their goods.
Source: US v. Google redux: all the news from the ad tech trial
Perplexity, an AI “answer” engine startup, made headlines in July when it unveiled a revenue-sharing program, partnering initially with Fortune, Der Spiegel, Texas Tribune, and WordPress. The tech platform aims to expand its collaborations, particularly with international media outlets, by year’s end. The idea of working with publishers came before a recent wave of criticism and accusations of plagiarism from Forbes and Wired – which Shevelenko attributes to a misunderstanding of how the product works.
Source: How AI ‘answer’ engine Perplexity plans to collaborate with publishers
Gaming giant Roblox is doubling down on its music offerings as it seeks to become “a destination for organic and immersive music discovery.” On Friday (September 6), at the annual Roblox Developers Conference (RDC), the platform announced three new music-related features. First up, Roblox formally announced its DistroKid integration, which enables DK’s artists to make their music available to Roblox’s 80 million daily active users.
Source: Roblox launches music charts as part of push into music discovery
Given the labels’ dominance of the negotiating hierarchy, song rights revenue can never top 20% of the finite streaming revenue pot. Subscriber rate hikes mean the pot gets bigger (which Spotify and the labels love), but the song share of the pot doesn’t change. Against that reality, direct licensing of mechanicals won’t fix anything. It runs contrary to all principles of copyright law.
Video game performers have reached a turning point in their strike against developers with 80 individual video games signing agreements with the performers’ union and accepting artificial intelligence provisions they have been seeking. SAG-AFTRA announced the agreements with the 80 individual video games on Thursday. Performers impacted by the work stoppage can now work on those projects.
Source: Video game performers reach agreement with 80 video games on AI terms
In a blog post on Thursday (September 5), the video platform said it’s working on a “synthetic-singing identification technology” that will enable YouTube partners to automatically detect content that simulates singing voices. YouTube also said it’s working on a tool that will allow people from various industries, including musicians, actors, athletes and content creators, to “detect and manage” AI-generated content that shows their faces.
Source: YouTube is developing tools to detect AI-generated voices and faces in videos
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has dealt a blow to the Internet Archive’s digital book lending program. The court upheld a lower court’s decision, stating that IA’s practice of scanning and lending copyrighted books without permission is not fair use. IA’s lending program directly threatens the revenues of publishers and violates copyright law, the judges ruled.
Source: Internet Archive Loses Landmark E-Book Lending Copyright Appeal Against Publishers * TorrentFreak
Since its U.S. launch in May, Google’s AI Overviews feature has created controversy among news publishers. While offering users a new level of convenience, AI Overviews has been criticized for factual inaccuracies, lack of transparency in sourcing content, and disincentivizing clicks to original articles. Despite an initial scale-back, Google has doubled down – releasing Overviews in six more countries and additional languages in August.
The creative industries have not yet found a collective and practical response to the existential threats presented by AI tools such as AI image generators. Over the last two years, AI and big technology companies have challenged the existing conventions and thinking surrounding copyright and the ownership of art. The recently launched Creative Origin Alliance has been formed to give creators and artists a collective voice to protect their interests in the AI era.
Source: Why creatives need a new alliance toface the existential threat of AI
At a time when seemingly every company is exploring AI in one form or another, Procreate’s pledge was surprising. Other industry giants like Adobe have been developing and rolling out different AI-powered features and tools for the past few years, touting the tech’s ability to enhance workflows and creation. For some Procreate users, its anti-AI stance was a welcome dissent.
Source: Why Procreate’s Anti-AI Pledge Is Resonating With Its Creators