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Universal Music Group Sues DistroKid for Building an ‘AI-Slop Pipeline’

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Universal Music Group sued the distribution service DistroKid on Tuesday, claiming in a federal lawsuit that the service infringed on the label’s copyright by pumping out “AI-generated ‘slop’ that siphons revenue and listeners from the legitimate artists and rightsholders.” UMG and its Capitol Records imprint claimed DistroKid improperly presented itself as a music distributor dedicated solely to serving artist-created work to distribution platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and more.

Source: Universal Music Group Sues DistroKid for Building an ‘AI-Slop Pipeline’

Hollywood strikes first AI copyright truce with ByteDance

The Motion Picture Assn. has struck its first agreement with an artificial intelligence company, saying Monday that ByteDance has strengthened copyright guardrails into its AI video and image tools that drew legal threats from every major Hollywood studio in February. ByteDance, a Chinese company, is the former majority owner of TikTok’s U.S. operations.

Source: Hollywood strikes first AI copyright truce with ByteDance

Four music datasets holding millions of tracks are being shared among AI developers: Report

Four datasets of music are circulating among artificial intelligence developers, and together they hold more than 21 million recordings, according to a report by The Atlantic. They are filled with copyrighted music, spanning household names and tens of thousands of lesser-known independent artists, according to the report. Two of the datasets each contain more than 100,000 recordings, according to The Atlantic, while the other two are far larger, at roughly 9 million and 12 million tracks.

Source: Four music datasets holding millions of tracks are being shared among AI developers: Report

KBRA expects music-royalty backed bonds issuance to fall 25% in 2026

KBRA says in a new report that it has rated more than $12.9 billion in music royalty bonds since 2020 alone. But it expects music ABS issuance to fall by approximately 25% in 2026, dropping from over $3.3 billion in each of the past two years to slightly more than $2.5 billion – “primarily because of continued issuer consolidation.” KBRA noted that consolidation “may have mixed implications for music ABS, potentially improving collateral diversification and servicing scale while reducing issuance activity.”

Source: KBRA expects music-royalty backed bonds issuance to fall 25% in 2026

EU Commission preparing law on licensing content for AI

The European Commission is working on a law focused on the process for licensing creative content – like writing or art – to AI developers, according to a consultation published on Wednesday.  the EU’s executive laid out plans for a “targeted legislative initiative” to complement existing copyright rules. This will weigh different possible levels of intervention, according to the consultation.

Source: EU Commission preparing law on licensing content for AI

OpenAI Will Shut Down Sora Video App; Disney Drops Plans for $1 Billion Investment

OpenAI said it will discontinue Sora, the generative-AI video creation app it launched last year, without providing a reason for the decision. “We’re saying goodbye to Sora. To everyone who created with Sora, shared it, and built community around it: thank you,” OpenAI’s Sora team said in a statement Tuesday. The announcement comes just three months after Disney inked a groundbreaking deal with OpenAI.

Source: OpenAI Will Shut Down Sora Video App; Disney Drops Plans for $1 Billion Investment

UK Government backtracks on AI and copyright after outcry from major artists

The UK government has backtracked on its position on copyright and AI, stating it must take time to “get this right”. Its original position – allowing AI companies to use copyrighted works to train their models with an opt-out option – received major backlash from the likes of Sir Elton John and Dua Lipa. “We have listened,” Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said on Wednesday, saying the government no longer favours that approach.

Source: UK Government backtracks on AI and copyright after outcry from major artists

AIs can generate near-verbatim copies of novels from training data

The world’s top AI models can be prompted to generate near-verbatim copies of bestselling novels, raising fresh questions about the industry’s claim that its systems do not store copyrighted works. A series of recent studies has shown that large language models from OpenAI, Google, Meta, Anthropic, and xAI memorize far more of their training data than previously thought.

Source: AIs can generate near-verbatim copies of novels from training data

Spotify and Universal Unveil New Deal That Improves ‘Bundling’ Payment Structure  

Spotify and Universal announced a new deal that sources say improves the payment structure for the streamer’s controversial music-audiobooks ‘bundle.’ A Spotify rep said in a separate statement, “Spotify maintains its bundle, but with this direct deal [with UMPG], it has evolved to account for broader rights, including a different economic treatment for music and non-music content.”

Source: Spotify and Universal Unveil Far-Reaching Deal That Improves ‘Bundling’ Payment Structure  

The Shutterstock-Getty Images Merger: A Bold Move in a Shifting Landscape 

The stock photo industry has been gasping for air, struggling to adapt to a market that continues to be extremely challenging. Over the past two decades, licensing prices for rights-managed (RM) images have plummeted by 20–50%, while royalty-free (RF) prices have dropped even more sharply, by 50–80%. The rise of microstock and subscription models has driven licensing fees as low as $0.27 per image.

Source: The Shutterstock-Getty Images Merger: A Bold Move in a Shifting Landscape – Kaptur

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