Headlines

MPA Europe Chief Talks Hollywood’s Concerns as New EU Parliament Takes Charge

Following recent European Union elections held in June that saw far-right parties made significant gains, Hollywood is making moves to ensure that the new EU regime doesn’t draft new legislation that would be detrimental for studios and streamers. “We are at a moment when [EU] policies are not set in stone yet,” said Stan McCoy, who is the Motion Picture Assn.’s chief for Europe, speaking at the Venice Film Festival.

Source: MPA Europe Chief Stan McCoy Talks Hollywood’s Concerns as New EU Parliament Takes Charge

How AI Image Tools Are Generating New Content-Moderation Problems

The artificial-intelligence image generators are testing the boundaries of the platforms’ policies and the ability of companies to put effective guardrails around public use of this powerful new visual technology. The ability to create images of real, known people has emerged as one of the biggest tension points in this new content-moderation debate.

Source: How AI Image Tools Are Generating New Content-Moderation Problems

AllTrack Becomes Fourth U.S. PRO Accepted By CISAC

The International Confederation of Societies of Authors & Composers (CISAC) has integrated AllTrack with its exclusive data exchange tools. AllTrack has joined ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC as fellow U.S.-based PROs affiliated with CISAC. Common Information System tools has made it seamless for collection societies around the world to connect directly with AllTrack.

Source: AllTrack Becomes Fourth U.S. PRO Accepted By CISAC

Newton-Rex: It’s time for streaming services to act on AI music

Up until now, Spotify has had no policy explicitly banning AI-generated music. In 2023, Daniel Ek said that tools that mimic artists were not acceptable; these may be forbidden under the company’s Deceptive Content policy (the wording isn’t entirely clear). But, in the same interview, Ek specifically called out AI music that didn’t directly impersonate artists as something they would not ban at this stage.

Source: It’s time for streaming services to act on AI music

Sony is excited about its new blockchain platform, Soneium – and music could play a big part in its future

Sony has announced plans to launch a new blockchain platform, Soneium, with plans to integrate the company’s various businesses and intellectual property, potentially including its music catalog. Developed by Sony’s Singapore-headquartered joint venture with Startale Labs, Sony Block Solution Labs, Soneium is described as the “infrastructure network that forms the basis of Web3“.

Source: Sony is excited about its new blockchain platform, Soneium – and music could play a big part in its future

TIDAL launches tool for US songwriters to claim and manage their work

Within TIDAL Artist Home, songwriters will be able to organize their IPI, PRO and publisher information in one place. They’ll also be prompted to sign up for mechanical royalties through The Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC). Artists signing up with a PRO for the first time will be able to register with AllTrack. Songwriters will be able to view and manage their writing credits and metadata to ensure all their works are correctly matched and registered, helping them to earn money, TIDAL said.

Source: TIDAL launches tool for US songwriters to claim and manage their work

Apple Rethinks Its Movie Strategy After a String of Misses

When Apple won a bidding war in 2021 for the rights to make the action comedy “Wolfs” with George Clooney and Brad Pitt, it did so in part because it promised the stars it would put the movie into a large number of movie theaters. But this month, just six weeks before the film was set to show up in thousands of theaters around the United States, Apple announced a significant change in plans.

Source: Apple Rethinks Its Movie Strategy After a String of Misses

What’s next for artists suing StabilityAI and Midjourney

The class action lawsuit filed by several visual artists against AI image and video generation platforms StabilityAI, Midjourney, Runway and DeviantArt moved forward to the discovery stage last week. The lawsuit is one of the first legal challenges to AI platforms to reach this stage and could set the tone for other cases filed against AI companies.

Source: What’s next for artists suing Stability AI and Midjourney

Meta and Spotify CEOs criticize AI regulation in the EU

In joint statements published to both companies’ respective websites on Friday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek complain that EU privacy regulations around AI are holding back innovation. Meta, for instance, points out that it has been prevented from being able to train its AI models on public data across Facebook and Instagram because regulators haven’t crafted legislation to address how this should be handled as of yet.

Source: Meta and Spotify CEOs criticize AI regulation in the EU

California announces new deal with tech to fund journalism, AI research

California will be the first U.S. state to direct millions of dollars from taxpayer money and tech companies to help pay for journalism and AI research under a new deal announced Wednesday. Under the first-in-the-nation agreement, the state and tech companies would collectively pay roughly $250 million over five years to support California-based news organization and create an AI research program.

Source: California announces new deal with tech to fund journalism, AI research

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