🔗 Share this article Advocacy Collective Asserts to Have Scraped Millions of Audio Files from the Streaming Giant A digital rights organization has claimed to have scraped millions of songs from the popular streaming service and is getting ready to publish them publicly. Potential Impetus for Artificial Intelligence Training Observers said the apparent data breach could boost artificial intelligence firms looking for data to train their technology. An entity called Anna’s Archive reported it had obtained 86 million music files from the platform and 256 million rows of associated data such as performer and album names. Spotify, which hosts more than 100 million tracks, stated that the breach did not constitute its entire inventory. “We have identified and deactivated the malicious user accounts that were involved in illegal scraping,” stated a company representative. The Swedish service, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, added that an inquiry into unauthorised access found a third party scraped public metadata and used questionable methods to circumvent DRM protections. Group's Stated Goal and Worries The streaming service does not think the audio acquired by Anna’s Archive has been made public yet. Anna’s Archive, which is recognized for providing links to copyright-infringing books, said in a blog it wanted to create a ‘preservation archive’ for music. They asserted the music files represented 99.6% of all music streamed to by its listeners and would be distributed via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a means of exchanging large data files online. “Of course Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a fantastic beginning,” said Anna’s Archive, which frames its purpose as “safeguarding humanity’s information and culture”. Model Development and Copyright Battleground A composer and campaigner for defending artists’ rights, said the leaked music would likely be utilized for developing AI models. “Educating models on pirated data is sadly widespread in the tech sector, so this stolen music is highly likely to be used instructing AI models,” he stated. The group's website alludes to a large online archive, a vast online archive of copyrighted books that has allegedly been leveraged by the parent company of Facebook to develop its AI models. A founder of an AI startup wrote on LinkedIn that individuals of the public could in principle “build their own personal free equivalent of Spotify”. He added it could also allow tech companies to “train on modern music at a large volume”. Copyright has become a key issue between artists, writers and creatives on one side and AI companies on the other. Policy Proposals and Reactions In the UK, creative professionals have protested against a government suggestion to let AI companies utilize copyright-protected work without consent unless the rights holder signals. Virtually every participant to a government consultation on the idea has backed artists’ concerns. A government minister for science, research and technology informed parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the matter, adding that ministers would “take the time to get this correct”. The government has committed to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by next year.