Experts question why studios aren’t siding more with actors and writers and against AI companies to oppose what could constitute the mass pilfering of their closely guarded intellectual property. “Studios should be protecting their copyrights,” a WGA member tells The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s shortsighted, because it demotes them to another source of content for these AI firms.”
Source: As AI Battle Lines Are Drawn, Studios Align With Big Tech in a Risky Bet
Spotify is planning to make significant changes to its royalty payout model in Q1 2024 – with the intent to move USD $1 billion in royalty payments over the next five years to ‘legitimate’ artists and rightsholders. Spotify has been discussing details of its blueprint for the new royalty model with various music rightsholders in recent weeks.
Source: Streaming’s problems will not be fixed by royalties alone
The leaders of the Senate judiciary’s subcommittee for privacy, technology and law said in interviews on Thursday that their framework will include requirements for the licensing and auditing of A.I., the creation of an independent federal office to oversee the technology, liability for companies for privacy and civil rights violations, and requirements for data transparency and safety standards.
Source: 2 Senators Propose Bipartisan Framework for A.I. Laws
Books3 started as a passion project by a Midwestern guy going through a weird time. “I poured my soul into the work,” he says. He saw it as aligned with the open source movement, a way to democratize access to the kind of data sets OpenAI was already using. Copyright activists are on a mission to wipe the popular generative AI training set from the internet. Success could alter the industry—and who controls it.
According to Microsoft, ‘Muzic’is a “project on AI music that empowers music understanding and generation with deep learning and artificial intelligence.” Of all the projects in the works at Muzic, this one might make a few music rightsholders spit out their coffee. In 2021, Muzic researchers developed an AI-powered ‘rap generator’ called DeepRapper.
The Google-owned company plans to let more video creators earn money from the platform, lowering the barriers to entry for its partner program, according to audio from a YouTube all-hands meeting on Thursday. YouTube is expected to make the announcement at an event on Tuesday. It “is the largest expansion we’ve done in several years creating new ways for creators to join the program,” Amjad Hanif, vice president of product management and creator products, said in the staff meeting.
Source: YouTube Opens More Pathways for Creators to Make Money on the Platform
Warner Music announced early Wednesday morning that its acquisition group has raised $535 million in a secured senior notes deal. What it intends to do with those funds, which now add up to nearly a billion dollars on hand, remains to be seen.
The NMPA asked the Copyright Royalty Board for a 32.4% increase in the headline rate to 20% of a digital service’s revenue for the term covering 2023 through 2027. That compares to the year-by-year escalating headline rate from Phonorecords III, which covered the term of 2018-2022, which culminated in 15.1% of a service’s revenue in the final year.
Source: Publishers Ask Royalty Board for 32% Rate Increase From Streaming Services
Newspapers, TV stations and other news outlets that have seen their revenue siphoned away by online platforms could get an assist from Congress under legislation that a House panel took up Friday. If passed, the legislation would grant news organizations a four-year exemption from antitrust laws to band together to negotiate compensation from online platforms that use their content, including Facebook and Google.
Source: House Panel Weighs Moves to Rein in Big Tech, Aid Media