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A digital rights group has claimed to have harvested a vast number of tracks from Spotify and is getting ready to publish them publicly.

Possible Boost for Artificial Intelligence Training

Observers noted the seeming data breach could aid AI companies searching for data to develop their models.

An entity called Anna’s Archive reported it had obtained 86 million audio tracks from the platform and 256 million entries of metadata such as artist and record names. The company, which carries more than 100 million songs, stated that the breach did not represent its entire inventory.

“We have located and deactivated the malicious user accounts that were involved in unlawful scraping,” stated a company spokesperson.

The Swedish service, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, further explained that an investigation into unauthorised access found a third party scraped public metadata and used questionable methods to circumvent DRM [digital rights management].

Archive's Stated Goal and Worries

The streaming service does not believe the music taken by Anna’s Archive has been made public yet. Anna’s Archive, which is recognized for offering links to copyright-infringing books, wrote in a blog it wanted to create a ‘historical repository’ for music.

They claimed the music files represented 99.6% of all music listened to by its listeners and would be distributed via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a means of exchanging large digital files online.

“Naturally Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a fantastic start,” commented Anna’s Archive, which describes its purpose as “preserving humanity’s information and heritage”.

AI Training and Copyright Debate

Ed Newton-Rex for protecting artists’ rights, said the leaked music would probably be used for training AI models.

“Educating models on illegally sourced material is unfortunately common in the tech sector, so this accessed music is almost certain to be used training AI models,” he said.

The Anna’s Archive site makes references to LibGen, a vast online archive of copyrighted books that has allegedly been used by Meta to train its systems.

A founder of an artificial intelligence company posted on the professional network that members of the public could in principle “build their own private free equivalent of the service”. He said it could also allow technology firms to “educate models on modern music at scale”.

Intellectual property law has emerged as a key issue between artists, writers and content creators on one side and tech giants on the other.

Government Proposals and Reactions

In the UK, creative professionals have raised concerns against a government suggestion to let AI companies utilize copyright-protected work without consent unless the owner signals. Virtually every respondent to a government call for evidence on the proposal has supported artists’ concerns.

A government minister for science, research and technology told parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the matter, noting that ministers would “take the time to get this right”. The administration has committed to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by next year.