🔗 Share this article Activist Collective Claims to Have Scraped Countless of Music Files from the Streaming Giant An activist organization has stated to have harvested millions of tracks from Spotify and is preparing to publish them online. Possible Impetus for Artificial Intelligence Development Observers said the apparent data breach could aid AI companies searching for material to train their models. An entity called Anna’s Archive said it had scraped 86 million music files from the platform and 256 million rows of associated data such as artist and record names. Spotify, which carries more than 100 million tracks, stated that the breach did not represent its full catalog. “We have located and disabled the nefarious user accounts that were involved in illegal scraping,” said a Spotify spokesperson. The Stockholm-based company, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, further explained that an inquiry into unauthorized access identified a third party scraped public metadata and employed questionable methods to circumvent DRM protections. Group's Declared Goal 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 copyright-infringing books, said in a blog it wanted to create a ‘preservation archive’ for music. They claimed the music files represented 99.6% of all music streamed to by its listeners and would be distributed via ‘torrents’, a method of sharing large data files online. “Of course the service doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a fantastic beginning,” commented Anna’s Archive, which frames its purpose as “preserving humanity’s information and culture”. Model Development and Copyright Battleground Ed Newton-Rex for protecting artists’ rights, remarked the leaked music would probably be utilized for developing AI models. “Training on pirated data is sadly widespread in the AI industry, so this accessed music is highly likely to end up training AI models,” he said. The group's website makes references to LibGen, a huge online archive of pirated books that has allegedly been used by the parent company of Facebook to train 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 equivalent of Spotify”. The executive said it could also allow technology firms to “educate models on modern music at a large volume”. Copyright has emerged as a key issue between creatives, authors and creatives on one side and AI companies on the other. Government Considerations and Responses Across Britain, creative professionals have protested against a government suggestion to allow AI companies utilize copyright-protected work without permission unless the rights holder opts out. Almost every respondent to a government call for evidence on the idea has backed artists’ apprehensions. The secretary of state for technology, innovation and development told parliament this month there was “no clear 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.