Earlier this month, US publishing body the NMPA lobbed some brickbats at Spotify over its new music and audiobooks bundle, which (under the current US royalty rates agreement) would generate lower mechanical royalties for publishers. Now another body, the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP) has backed the NMPA’s stance.
Source: Indie publishing body AIMP criticises Spotify bundle strategy
No sooner had President Biden put his signature to an act that will force Chinese tech company ByteDance to sell TikTok in the US than a handful of American tech tycoons started champing at the bit to offer their bids. But TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said that should the company fail in winning its legal challenge to block the legislation, ByteDance would rather shut down its US operations than sell.
Source: Billionaires Lining Up to Buy TikTok — ByteDance Icy Response
On Monday, IATSE and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers will shift the focus of negotiations to wages, residuals, working conditions and the use of artificial intelligence in production. Those are the thornier issues to hammer out for the union that represents the vast majority of below-the-line workers in TV and film.
Source: IATSE Contract Talks Shift to Toughest Issues: Wages, AI and Residuals
The Financial Times has struck a deal with the ChatGPT developer OpenAI that allows its content to be used in training artificial intelligence systems. The FT will receive an undisclosed payment as part of the deal, which is the latest to be agreed between OpenAI and news publishers.
Source: OpenAI to use FT journalism to train artificial intelligence systems
In the world of AI, what might be called “small language models” have been growing in popularity recently because they can be run on a local device instead of requiring data center-grade computers in the cloud. On Wednesday, Apple introduced a set of tiny source-available AI language models called OpenELM that are small enough to run directly on a smartphone.
Source: Apple releases eight small AI language models aimed at on-device use
The allegation emerges from a complaint [PDF] accusing the tech and retail mega-corp of demoting, and then dismissing, a former high-flying AI scientist after it discovered she was pregnant. As well as alleging sexism and discrimination against her, Ghaderi also accuses the tech giant of singling her out because she complained when Amazon allegedly breached its own rules against copyright infringement when it came to AI research.
Source: Ex-Amazon AI exec claims she was asked to ignore IP law
The proliferation of large language models and generative AI has created fertile ground for vector database technologies to flourish. Vector databases, store and process data in the form of vector embeddings, which convert text, documents, images, and other data into numerical representations that capture the meaning and relationships between the different data points.
Source: Why vector databases are having a moment as the AI hype cycle peaks | TechCrunch
The Internet Archive is doubling down on its position that its digital lending library service operates under the bounds of fair use. Major publishers assert that digitizing books without appropriate licensing amounts to infringement but IA counters that the practice is in the public interest. It also fits copyright’s ultimate purpose; to promote the broad public availability of literature and other arts.
Source: There’s More to Copyright Than Financial Incentives, Internet Archive Argues in Court * TorrentFreak
As music IP owners continue to clash with AI behemoths over what constitutes fair use, Soundtrack Loops’ latest expansion — specifically with its OneStop Audio Library for AI training — aims to remove copyright conflict from the picture entirely. The company believes that in the face of rampant litigation and raging copyright wars, its latest release is simply the right path for both developers and rights holders.
Source: Soundtrack Loops Expands From General Use to AI Licensing
California politicians are advancing a bill that would force Google and Meta — which owns Facebook and Instagram — to pay news publishers each time they display pieces of their articles or show links to them in search results or on social media. The companies are lobbying furiously to block it, saying the law would enact a “link tax” and upend the free flow of information online.
Source: California wants Big Tech to pay for news. Google is fighting back.