Headlines

Researchers suggest OpenAI trained AI models on paywalled O’Reilly books

April 2, 2025By rightstech0 Comments

OpenAI has been accused by many parties of training its AI on copyrighted content sans permission. Now a new paper by an AI watchdog organization makes the serious accusation that the company increasingly relied on non-public books it didn’t license to train more sophisticated AI models. The new paper, out of the AI Disclosures Project, draws the conclusion that OpenAI likely trained its GPT-4o model on paywalled books from O’Reilly Media.

Source: Researchers suggest OpenAI trained AI models on paywalled O’Reilly books | TechCrunch

Longtime Writing Community NaNoWriMo Shuts Down After AI Drama

April 2, 2025By rightstech0 Comments

NaNoWriMo, the non-profit organization that grew out of the annual tradition National Novel Writing Month, had a solid 25-year run encouraging writers to speedrun the novel writing process, but it has come to an end. On Monday, the organization announced that it would cease operations due to ongoing financial issues, as well as some very public drama that has played out in recent years.

Source: Longtime Writing Community NaNoWriMo Shuts Down After AI Drama

EU’s latest draft AI Code of Practice renders copyright ‘meaningless,’ rightsholders warn

March 31, 2025By rightstech0 Comments

A group of European authors, performers and other rightsholders have issued a joint statement slamming the third draft of the European Union’s GPAI (General-Purpose Artificial Intelligence) Code of Practice. A coalition of creatives said the third draft is “completely unacceptable” as it “undermines the objectives of the AI Act, contravenes EU law and ignores the intention of the EU legislator,” according to their statement published on Friday (March 28).

Source: European Union’s latest draft AI Code of Practice renders copyright ‘meaningless,’ rightsholders warn

BMG Reports Over $1B in 2024 Revenue Amid Distribution Pivot

March 31, 2025By rightstech0 Comments

Berlin-based BMG reported $497 million/€459 million (up 11.1% YoY) in revenue for 2024’s opening half. Like with the majors’ financials, acquisitions are factoring into the numbers. Among different things, BMG dropped approximately $540 million/€500 million on some 24 catalogs as well as signings during 2024, with 10 of the catalog deals having wrapped in H1, higher-ups disclosed.

Source: BMG Reports Over $1B in 2024 Revenue Amid Distribution Pivot

Pophouse Entertainment closes $1.3bn music rights buying fund

March 31, 2025By rightstech0 Comments

Pophouse Entertainment, the Sweden-based music investment firm co-founded by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus, has raised over EUR €1.2 billion (USD $1.3 billion) for its debut fund. The Stockholm-based company announced Monday (March 31) that Pophouse Fund I raised over €1 billion ($1.1 billion), reaching its hard cap and making it, “one of the largest first-time private equity funds to be raised in Europe in the last decade”.

Source: Pophouse Entertainment, the firm behind ABBA Voyage, closes $1.3bn music rights buying fund

China’s $6B-valued Kunlun Tech debuts ‘world’s first’ music reasoning model

March 31, 2025By rightstech0 Comments

Kunlun claims that Mureka O1 outperforms competing models like Suno V4 across multiple metrics, with strong results in mixing quality, vocal textures, and background instrumentation. The company says its AI models’ ability to carry out subjective assessments places them “among the top-tier” in the category.

Source: China’s $6B-valued Kunlun Tech debuts ‘world’s first’ music reasoning model, claims it can outperform Suno

Movie studios are being financially rewarded for AI slop on YouTube

March 31, 2025By rightstech0 Comments

Some Hollywood studios are reportedly earning money from fake AI-generated movie trailers on YouTube, against the wishes of the union representing actors. According to a report from Deadline, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, and Sony Pictures redirected ad revenue to themselves instead of enforcing copyright protections and shutting down the popular Screen Culture and KH Studio trailer accounts.

Source: Movie studios are being financially rewarded for AI slop on YouTube

The AI tipping point is happening – and here’s how it will affect the music industry

March 31, 2025By rightstech0 Comments

Agentic AI and quantum computing are crashing into the music industry faster than anyone is ready for. The pace of change is breathtaking: what used to take years is now happening in weeks. These technologies also bring massive potential – but also present some pretty alarming challenges.

Source: The AI tipping point is happening – and here’s how it will affect the music industry

GetReal Security raises $17.5m to combat AI deepfakes

March 31, 2025By rightstech0 Comments

A cybersecurity company that combats AI deepfakes called GetReal Security has closed a $17.5 million Series A funding round. GetReal says it “specializes in the detection and mitigation of malicious generative AI threats” including deepfakes and impersonation attacks. Its technology is used by “multinational corporations, financial institutions, media organizations, government agencies, and social media companies”.

Source: GetReal Security raises $17.5m to combat AI deepfakes

New draft of EU AI Code of Practice Waters Down Copyright Compliance Rules

March 31, 2025By rightstech0 Comments

The penultimate draft of the European Union’s AI Code of Practice has a blind spot: it only limits copyright compliance requirements to web crawling. This narrow focus ignores other data collection methods—such as torrenting—potentially creating loopholes in AI training data regulations.

Source: Is Web Scraping the Only Copyright Concern for AI? – Open Future