An activist organization has stated to have scraped millions of tracks from Spotify and is getting ready to publish them publicly.
Potential Boost for Artificial Intelligence Development
Observers noted the seeming leak could boost artificial intelligence firms searching for data to train their models.
An entity known as Anna’s Archive reported it had scraped 86 million music files from Spotify and 256 million rows of metadata such as performer and record names. The company, which carries more than 100 million tracks, confirmed that the leak did not constitute its entire inventory.
“We have identified and disabled the nefarious user accounts that were involved in illegal scraping,” stated a Spotify representative.
The Stockholm-based service, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, added that an inquiry into unauthorised access found a third party scraped public metadata and used illicit methods to circumvent DRM protections.
Archive's Declared Goal and Concerns
Spotify does not believe the audio acquired by Anna’s Archive has been released yet. Anna’s Archive, which is known for offering links to copyright-infringing books, wrote in a blog it wanted to create a ‘preservation archive’ for music.
The group claimed the audio files represented 99.6% of all music streamed to by Spotify users and would be shared via ‘torrents’, a method of sharing large digital files online.
“Naturally the service doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great start,” said Anna’s Archive, which describes its purpose as “preserving humanity’s information and culture”.
AI Training and Intellectual Property Debate
Ed Newton-Rex for defending artists’ rights, remarked the breached music would probably be utilized for developing AI models.
“Training on pirated data is sadly widespread in the AI industry, so this accessed music is highly likely to end up instructing AI models,” he said.
The group's website alludes to a large online archive, a vast online archive of pirated books that has reportedly been leveraged by the parent company of Facebook to develop its systems.
A founder of an AI startup wrote on LinkedIn that members of the public could in theory “create their own private free version of Spotify”. The executive said it could also enable tech companies to “train on contemporary music at scale”.
Copyright has emerged as a battleground between creatives, authors and creatives on one side and tech giants on the other.
Government Proposals and Reactions
Across Britain, creative professionals have raised concerns against a government suggestion to allow AI companies utilize copyright-protected work without permission unless the rights holder signals. Virtually every respondent to a government call for evidence on the idea has backed artists’ apprehensions.
A government minister for science, innovation and technology informed parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the issue, noting that ministers would “use the time to get this right”. The administration has pledged to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by next year.
