A digital rights organization has stated to have harvested a vast number of songs from Spotify and is getting ready to publish them publicly.
Possible Impetus for AI Training
Observers said the apparent data breach could aid AI companies looking for material to develop their technology.
A group called Anna’s Archive reported it had obtained 86 million music files from the platform and 256 million entries of associated data such as artist and record names. The company, which hosts more than 100 million songs, confirmed that the breach did not represent its full inventory.
“We have identified and deactivated the malicious user accounts that were involved in unlawful scraping,” stated a Spotify spokesperson.
The Stockholm-based service, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, added that an inquiry into unauthorised access identified a third party collected public metadata and employed illicit methods to circumvent DRM protections.
Group's Declared Goal and Worries
Spotify does not think the audio taken by Anna’s Archive has been released yet. Anna’s Archive, which is recognized for offering links to pirated books, said in a blog it wanted to create a ‘preservation archive’ for music.
The group claimed the music files accounted for 99.6% of all music streamed to by Spotify users and would be shared via ‘torrents’, a means of exchanging large digital files online.
“Of course the service doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a fantastic beginning,” commented Anna’s Archive, which describes its purpose as “preserving humanity’s information and heritage”.
AI Training and Intellectual Property Debate
Ed Newton-Rex for protecting artists’ copyright, remarked the breached music would probably be used for developing artificial intelligence systems.
“Educating models on pirated material is sadly common in the tech sector, so this accessed music is almost certain to end up training AI models,” he stated.
The group's website makes references to LibGen, a vast online archive of copyrighted books that has allegedly been used by Meta to develop its systems.
A founder of an AI startup wrote on LinkedIn that members of the public could in principle “build their own private free version of the service”. He said it could also enable technology firms to “train on modern music at a large volume”.
Copyright has emerged as a battleground between creatives, authors and creatives on one side and tech giants on the other.
Government Proposals and Reactions
In the UK, artists and writers have protested against a ministerial proposal to let AI companies utilize protected work without consent unless the owner opts out. Virtually every respondent to a government call for evidence on the proposal has backed artists’ apprehensions.
The secretary of state for technology, research and development told parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the matter, noting that ministers would “take the time to get this right”. The administration has pledged to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by next year.
