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A digital rights organization has stated to have scraped a vast number of songs from Spotify and is getting ready to publish them online.

Possible Impetus for Artificial Intelligence Development

Industry experts noted the seeming leak could boost artificial intelligence firms looking for material to develop their technology.

A group called Anna’s Archive reported it had scraped 86 million music files from the platform and 256 million rows of metadata such as performer and record names. The company, which hosts more than 100 million tracks, confirmed that the breach did not constitute its full catalog.

“We have identified and deactivated the nefarious user accounts that engaged in illegal scraping,” said a company representative.

The Swedish company, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, added that an inquiry into unauthorised access identified a external actor collected public metadata and used illicit methods to circumvent DRM [digital rights management].

Group's Stated Goal and Concerns

The streaming service does not believe the audio taken 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.

They asserted the audio files represented 99.6% of all music streamed to by Spotify users and would be shared via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a means of sharing large digital files online.

“Naturally Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a fantastic beginning,” commented Anna’s Archive, which frames its mission as “safeguarding humanity’s knowledge and culture”.

Model Development and Copyright Battleground

A composer and campaigner for protecting artists’ rights, said the leaked music would likely be utilized for developing artificial intelligence systems.

“Training on illegally sourced data is unfortunately common in the AI industry, so this stolen music is highly likely to end up training AI models,” he stated.

The group's website makes references to LibGen, a huge 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 AI startup wrote on LinkedIn that members of the public could in principle “build their own personal free equivalent of Spotify”. The executive said it could also allow technology firms to “educate models on modern music at scale”.

Intellectual property law has become a key issue between artists, authors and creatives on one side and AI companies on the other.

Government Considerations and Responses

In the UK, artists and writers have raised concerns against a ministerial proposal to allow AI companies use copyright-protected work without permission unless the owner signals. Virtually every respondent to a government consultation on the idea has supported artists’ concerns.

A government minister for science, innovation and technology told parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the issue, adding that ministers would “take the time to get this right”. The government has committed to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by next year.