copyright

Universal, Sony and Warner take equity in Stability AI’s $76M round

The world's three largest record companies have taken equity stakes in a generative AI company, marking a strategic pivot for an industry that has spent years fighting AI firms in court over copyright infringement.

Musicians rebel as labels license songs to AI without artist consent

The music industry is mounting a multi-front resistance against the unauthorized use of songs to train artificial intelligence, with major labels pushing to reshape chart eligibility rules and independent distributors arming artists with technical tools to shield their work.

Suno to limit mass distribution of AI songs amid copyright pressure

The flood of AI-generated music has crossed a threshold that the recording industry long feared. Deezer, the Paris-based streaming platform, confirmed that fully AI-generated tracks exceeded 50% of all new daily uploads for the first time in June 2026, with…

German court rules AI music firm Suno violated copyright

A Munich regional court ruled on Friday that AI music startup Suno violated copyright law by processing copyrighted music without authorization, ordering the company to disclose revenues tied to the infringing activity. The decision marks one of Europe's first binding…

Judge approves Anthropic’s $1.5B copyright settlement

A federal judge in San Francisco on Monday granted final approval to Anthropic's $1.5 billion settlement with authors who accused the AI company of using pirated books to train its chatbot Claude, bringing to a close the largest known copyright…

Spotify purged 75M tracks in crackdown on AI-generated music spam

Spotify has removed more than 75 million tracks flagged as spammy or abusive AI content from its platform over the past year, the company confirmed this week, as the streaming giant contends with an industrial-scale wave of artificial intelligence-generated music…

Spotify launches tool letting artists block unauthorized releases

Spotify on Tuesday launched Artist Profile Protection, an optional feature that lets artists review and approve music releases before they appear on their profiles, addressing the escalating problem of misattributed and AI-generated tracks flooding streaming platforms.

Netflix threatens to sue ByteDance over Seedance AI tool

Netflix has issued an ultimatum to ByteDance, threatening "immediate litigation" over the company's Seedance 2.0 AI video generator and becoming the first Hollywood studio to explicitly put legal action on the table in the escalating copyright battle.

Disney and Paramount send cease-and-desist letters to ByteDance

The Walt Disney Company has sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, accusing the Chinese tech giant of unlawfully using its intellectual property to develop the Seedance 2.0 AI video generation tool. The letter, first reported by Axios on Friday, represents…

Lyonne launches AI video platform prioritizing copyright protections

Actress and director Natasha Lyonne unveiled her production company's ethical approach to AI video generation at Fortune's Brainstorm AI conference in San Francisco last week, positioning Asteria Film Co. as a copyright-conscious alternative in an industry facing mounting legal challenges.

YouTube terminates AI fake trailer channels with 1B views

YouTube Alphabet Inc. has permanently shut down two major channels that created AI-generated fake movie trailers, ending a months-long enforcement saga that highlighted tensions over artificial intelligence and copyright in digital media.

Teddy Swims faces backlash after revealing AI use in songwriting

Grammy-nominated singer Teddy Swims is drawing criticism after revealing he incorporates artificial intelligence tools into his songwriting process, reigniting tensions over AI's role in an industry already grappling with the technology's rapid advancement.

Major labels license music catalogs to AI startup Klay

Universal Music Group, Sony Music, and Warner Music Group have struck licensing agreements with Klay Vision Inc., an AI-powered music streaming startup that will allow users to remix and recreate songs using artificial intelligence. Klay becomes the first AI music…

Spotify removes 75M tracks, unveils AI disclosure standards

Spotify announced sweeping changes to its artificial intelligence music policies on Thursday, implementing new safeguards against deepfakes and spam while revealing it has removed over 75 million problematic tracks from its platform in the past year. The streaming giant's three-pronged…

Visual designer becomes first AI music creator to sign record deal

Oliver McCann, a 37-year-old British visual designer with no traditional musical background, has become the first AI music creator to secure a record deal with a major label. McCann, who performs under the stage name imoliver, signed with independent record…

Johns Hopkins becomes latest academic press to license books for AI training

Johns Hopkins University Press has announced it will license its extensive book catalog to train artificial intelligence models, becoming the latest academic publisher to enter the contentious AI copyright debate amid financial pressures in higher education. Authors were given until…