A federal judge has thrown out the copyright claims at the center of Wixen Music Publishing‘s lawsuit against Meta Platforms. Judge John F. Walter ruled that Wixen has not shown it holds the rights that would let it sue over the 681 works it says Meta used without a license across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The ruling knocks out both of Wixen‘s copyright claims: direct infringement by Meta and contributory infringement for what Meta‘s users did with the music.
Source: Judge throws out copyright claims in Wixen’s $102M lawsuit against Meta
In the filing, submitted to a New York federal court on Friday (September 4), the union says those deals let recordings made by its members be “fed into AI systems for commercial exploitation.” The musicians have not been paid for that use, the AFM says. Warner settled with Udio in November 2025, then days later became the first major to settle with Suno.
IFPI has launched the Streaming Integrity Initiative (SII), a new industry commitment to combat streaming fraud. “Streaming fraud involves the manipulation of digital music services to generate revenue from plays that are not genuine,” the organization said is a statement. “It is often happening at scale, undermining trust in streaming services and siphoning revenues away from the artists, songwriters, record labels, music publishers and others who power the music economy.”
The AI music generation company has revealed details about its suite of new models, all built on its licensing deals with Warner Music Group, BMG and Believe. Dubbed “V6,” the company said the collection of technology represented its most powerful models yet, with its use incorporating revenue sharing for artists and their labels. The approach kickstarts a new era that it believes will “make a bigger music industry,” according to chief product officer Jack Brody.
The agreement, announced on Tuesday (September 8), covers “participating repertoire” from Believe and TuneCore, its platform for self-releasing artists. “Under the agreement, music from participating Believe and TuneCore artists and labels will be included in the new music models that Suno is launching in partnership with the music industry,” the two companies said. According to the announcement, Believe and TuneCore artists and labels “can choose to opt in to new, licensed music products that the companies will create together.”
In a class action case filed by the Authors Guild and its co-plaintiff authors against OpenAI and Microsoft, all parties have filed motions for summary judgment. The plaintiffs argue that “OpenAI built the foundations of its business on mass piracy,” which included reproducing and then deleting book content found on the pirate site Library Genesis, aka LibGen. Plaintiffs note that courts have “consistently held that obtaining ‘for free’ something one would ‘ordinarily have to buy’ is not fair use.”
Publishers are already adapting to a distribution environment in which search and AI increasingly mediate how audiences find information. Reuters Institute’s 2026 report found that publishers expect search referrals to fall 43% over the next three years, while Google organic search traffic to more than 2,500 news sites fell 33% globally between November 2024 and November 2025. That pressure is making licensing more relevant.
According to the RIAA’s new report, CDs generated $171.1 million in revenue during the first half of 2026 — up 58.6% from roughly $107.9 million in the first half of 2025 — on 17.5 million units sold, up 45.7% from about 12 million units in the same period last year. The growth comes amid a surge of renewed interest in simpler tech, like so-called dumbphones, digital cameras, typewriters, landlines, and physical media like CDs and vinyl, among other categories.
Using Hollywood’s publicity-machine-ready math, this summer’s $4.76 billion estimated haul was 9 percent higher than the $4.35 billion collected in 2019, the summer before Covid upended moviegoing. Adjusted for inflation, the 2019 total rises to $5.7 billion, putting this summer 17 percent below it. Higher ticket prices disguise a deeper decline in attendance. From Jan. 1 through Aug. 16, domestic theaters sold an estimated 568.4 million tickets, down 30 percent from the same period in 2019, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
The screen itself is not our enemy. It has brought extraordinary things into our lives. Never before have so many people had access to so many films, ideas and cultures other than their own. It’s clear to all of us that a screen can educate, connect and inspire. The question is how to preserve that promise while confronting what has gone wrong. We should begin by acknowledging something uncomfortable: we shaped this world, and we must take responsibility for it.