🔗 Share this article Advocacy Collective Claims to Have Scraped Countless of Audio Files from Spotify A digital rights organization has stated to have scraped a vast number of songs from Spotify and is preparing to publish them publicly. Potential Impetus for Artificial Intelligence Development Observers noted the apparent data breach could boost AI companies searching for material to develop their models. An entity called Anna’s Archive reported it had scraped 86 million audio tracks from Spotify and 256 million rows of associated data such as artist and record names. The company, which hosts more than 100 million tracks, confirmed that the breach did not constitute its full catalog. “We have located and deactivated the malicious user accounts that were involved in illegal scraping,” said a Spotify representative. The Stockholm-based service, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, further explained that an inquiry into unauthorised access found a third party collected public metadata and used illicit tactics to bypass DRM [digital rights management]. Group's Declared Mission and Worries The streaming service does not think the music acquired by Anna’s Archive has been released yet. Anna’s Archive, which is known for offering links to pirated books, wrote in a blog it wanted to create a ‘preservation archive’ for music. They asserted the music files accounted for 99.6% of all music streamed to by its listeners and would be distributed via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a method of sharing large digital files online. “Of course Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great beginning,” commented Anna’s Archive, which describes its purpose as “preserving humanity’s knowledge and culture”. Model Development and Copyright Debate Ed Newton-Rex for defending artists’ copyright, said the leaked music would likely be utilized for developing artificial intelligence systems. “Educating models on pirated data is sadly widespread in the AI industry, so this accessed music is almost certain to end up training AI models,” he stated. The group's website makes references to a large online archive, a huge online archive of pirated books that has reportedly been used by the parent company of Facebook to develop its AI models. The co-founder of an artificial intelligence company wrote on LinkedIn that individuals of the public could in theory “build their own personal free version of the service”. He said it could also enable tech companies to “train on contemporary music at scale”. Intellectual property law has emerged as a battleground between creatives, authors and creatives on one side and AI companies on the other. Government Considerations and Responses In the UK, creative professionals have raised concerns against a ministerial proposal to let AI companies utilize protected work without permission unless the rights holder opts out. Almost every participant to a government consultation on the proposal has backed artists’ apprehensions. The secretary of state for technology, innovation and development told parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the matter, noting that ministers would “take the time to get this correct”. The administration has pledged to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by next year.