In a significant shift, policymakers in Brussels are moving to scale back and simplify landmark rules for artificial intelligence and data privacy. Driven by growing concern that overregulation is stifling economic growth, officials and business leaders across the 27-nation bloc are questioning whether Europe’s digital rulebook has gone too far and left companies lagging the United States and China.
Europe Begins Rethinking Its Crackdown on Big Tech
Paul McCartney adds track to ‘silent’ album protesting UK AI copyright law proposal
In February, more than 1,000 artists – including Kate Bush, Annie Lennox of Eurythmics, and Damon Albarn of Blur and The Gorillaz – released a “silent album” in protest against the UK government’s proposed changes to copyright law. Now the album is being released on vinyl, with a bonus track – a recording of an empty studio – from Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney. protesting UK AI copyright law proposal
Anthropic Judge Slams Efforts to Have Authors Opt Out of Settlement
An attempt by a law firm to convince authors to opt out of the $1.5 billion class action settlement reached with Anthropic met with fierce resistance by presiding judge William Alsup in a November 13 hearing. ClaimsHero, launched a publicity campaign to persuade authors not to agree to the terms reached in the Bartz et al. v. Anthropic claiming that if authors opt out, they may be able win a bigger payout in the case.
Source: Anthropic Judge Slams Efforts to Have Authors Opt Out of Settlement
Meta could face millions in fines for not signing content deals in Australia
Meta and other tech companies refusing to sign content deals with Australian news outlets face millions in new fines, with Labor’s proposed media bargaining incentive set to impose penalties based on the local revenue of major platforms. Large social media and search platforms with Australian-derived revenue of at least $250m will be subject to the new rules, irrespective of whether they carry news content, according to new detail released by the assistant treasurer, Daniel Mulino.
Source: Meta could face millions in fines for not signing content deals in Australia
Matthew McConaughey, Michael Caine Ink Deals for AI-Generated Versions of Their Voices With ElevenLabs
Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine have teamed with AI audio company ElevenLabs to produce virtual replications of their famous voices. McConaughey also is investing an undisclosed sum in New York-based ElevenLabs. He’s collaborated with the company since it was founded in 2022. Now McConaughey is using ElevenLabs’ technology to bring a Spanish-language audio version of his newsletter “Lyrics of Livin’” in his own voice.
Tilly Norwood Creator on Hollywood Backlash, Creating Jobs and Full AI Movies
Eline Van der Velden, the creator of AI actress Tilly Norwood, says the character is a work of art that sparked a conversation. “I didn’t think it was controversial,” she says. The performers’ union, SAG-AFTRA, disagreed, denouncing her for “devaluing human artistry” and threatening actors’ jobs. Van der Velden countered that no one’s job was impacted and that Tilly Norwood required a lot of human artistry, just of a different kind.
Epidemic Sound unveils AI ‘Studio’ tool to generate video soundtracks
The Stockholm-based music licensing platform on Tuesday (November 11) said Studio analyzes uploaded videos and generates a synchronized soundtrack using music from its catalog along with ambient sounds and foley effects. The tool draws on data from more than 3 billion daily plays across online platforms to match audio to video content, Epidemic Sound said, while ensuring that Studio delivers “a cohesive, legally safe soundtrack seamlessly synced to the visuals.”
Source: Epidemic Sound unveils AI ‘Studio’ tool to generate video soundtracks
50,000 AI-music tracks are now uploaded to Deezer every day
Deezer says that roughly 50,000 fully AI-generated tracks are now uploaded every day, accounting for 34% of all music delivered to it. The new figures were published alongside the findings from a survey Deezer commissioned from Ipsos, covering 9,000 people in eight countries: the US, Japan, UK, Germany, France, Brazil, the Netherlands and Canada. The most eye-catching finding is that the survey involved respondents listening to two fully AI-generated tracks and one human song, then guessing which ones were AI. 97% failed the test.
Source: 50,000 AI-music tracks are now uploaded to Deezer every day
Publishing’s Survival Depends on Data, Says Elsevier Chairman
At last week’s Sharjah Publishers Conference, Y.S. Chi warned that publishers need to build richer data infrastructures or face extinction. “No publisher will survive five years from today if they don’t have data,” he said last week at the 15th Sharjah Publishers Conference. “I don’t care how well you edit and publish books. If you don’t have data, you will make wrong decisions.” At the top of his agenda was addressing perhaps the most urgent threat to publishing: artificial intelligence. “You can’t do AI unless you have data,” Chi explained.
Source: Publishing’s Survival Depends on Data, Says Elsevier Chairman
Redditor Convicted for Sharing Nude Scenes in Landmark ‘Moral Rights’ Copyright Case
A Danish court has handed down a historic verdict, convicting a Reddit moderator in the country’s first-ever criminal case for violating copyright’s “right of respect”. The now 40-year-old man was given a 7-month suspended prison term for sharing 347 nude scenes featuring actresses from Danish films and TV shows on the “SeDetForPlottet” subreddit. The man also shared over 25 terabytes of pirated content on private torrent tracker Superbits.org.
Source: Redditor Convicted for Sharing Nude Scenes in Landmark ‘Moral Rights’ Copyright Case * TorrentFreak