An activist organization has claimed to have harvested millions of tracks from Spotify and is preparing to publish them online.
Possible Impetus for AI Development
Industry experts said the apparent leak could boost artificial intelligence firms searching for material to develop their models.
An entity called Anna’s Archive reported it had scraped 86 million music files from the platform and 256 million entries of metadata such as performer and record names. Spotify, which hosts more than 100 million songs, confirmed that the leak did not constitute its full inventory.
“We have identified and deactivated the nefarious user accounts that were involved in illegal scraping,” stated a company spokesperson.
The Swedish service, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, added that an investigation into unauthorised access identified a third party scraped public metadata and employed illicit methods to circumvent DRM [digital rights management].
Archive's Stated Goal and Worries
Spotify does not believe the audio taken by Anna’s Archive has been made public yet. Anna’s Archive, which is recognized for offering links to copyright-infringing books, said in a blog it wanted to create a ‘preservation archive’ for music.
The group claimed the audio files accounted for 99.6% of all music listened to by its listeners and would be distributed via ‘torrents’, a method of exchanging large data files online.
“Of course the service doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great start,” commented Anna’s Archive, which frames its purpose as “safeguarding humanity’s knowledge and heritage”.
Model Development and Copyright Battleground
A composer and campaigner for defending artists’ copyright, remarked the breached music would likely be utilized for developing artificial intelligence systems.
“Educating models on pirated data is unfortunately widespread in the AI industry, so this stolen music is highly likely to be used instructing AI models,” he stated.
The Anna’s Archive site makes references to a large online archive, a vast online repository of copyrighted books that has allegedly been used by the parent company of Facebook to develop its AI models.
The co-founder of an artificial intelligence company posted on LinkedIn that individuals of the public could in principle “build their own personal free equivalent of Spotify”. The executive added it could also allow technology firms to “educate models on modern music at a large volume”.
Intellectual property law has emerged as a battleground between creatives, authors and content creators on one side and tech giants on the other.
Government Proposals and Responses
Across Britain, artists and writers have raised concerns against a government suggestion to allow AI companies utilize protected work without consent unless the owner signals. Virtually every participant to a government consultation on the idea has backed artists’ concerns.
The secretary of state for science, innovation and development told parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the matter, adding that ministers would “take the time to get this correct”. The government has pledged to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by next year.
