RIAA Flags ‘Artificial Intelligence’ Music Mixer as Emerging Copyright Threat

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a buzzword that’s frequently used by startups and established businesses in the tech industry.

 

In some cases, it refers to little more than advanced algorithms, but complex self-learning computer systems with human-like traits are actively being developed as well.

 

From a copyright perspective, AI can bring up some interesting questions. For example, can content created by an AI be copyrighted like any other work? Or perhaps AI can infringe copyrights held by others?

AI Piracy

While legal experts scratch their heads over similar questions, the RIAA has already made up its mind about a selection of services claiming to offer AI music extractors and mixers.

 

Responding to a request from the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), the music group highlighted several of these sites in its annual overview of ‘notorious’ piracy markets.

 

“There are online services that, purportedly using artificial intelligence (AI), extract, or rather, copy, the vocals, instrumentals, or some portion of the instrumentals from a sound recording, and/or generate, master or remix a recording to be very similar to or almost as good as reference tracks by selected, well known sound recording artists,” RIAA writes.

Songmastr

Songmastr is one of the platforms that’s mentioned. The service promises to “master” any song based on the style of well-known music artists such as Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Coltrane, Bob Dylan, James Brown and many others.

 

The site’s underlying technology is powered by the open-source Matchering 2.0 code, which is freely available on GitHub. And indeed, its purported AI capabilities are prominently in the site’s tagline.

 

“This service uses artificial intelligence and is based on the open source library Matchering. The algorithm masters your track with the same RMS, FR, peak amplitude and stereo width as the reference song you choose,” Songmastr explains.

 

Where Artificial Intelligence comes into play isn’t quite clear to us. The same can be said for the Acapella-Extractor and Remove-Vocals websites, which the RIAA lists in the same category. The names of these services are pretty much self-explanatory; they can separate the vocals from the rest of a track.

 

The RIAA logically doesn’t want third parties to strip music or vocals from copyrighted tracks, particularly when these derivative works are further shared with others.

Unauthorized Copies and Derivatives

While Songmastr’s service is a bit more advanced, the RIAA sees it as clearly infringing. After all, the original copyrighted tracks are used by the site to create derivative works, without the necessary permission.

 

“To the extent these services, or their partners, are training their AI models using our members’ music, that use is unauthorized and infringes our members’ rights by making unauthorized copies of our members works.

 

“In any event, the files these services disseminate are either unauthorized copies or unauthorized derivative works of our members’ music,” the RIAA’s submission adds.

 

Thus far, Songmastr doesn’t appear to be a major threat in terms of traffic. With less than 200 visits per day over the past 12 months, it hasn’t really caught on. Acapella-Extractor and Remove-Vocals are more popular, with a few hundred thousand monthly visits.

 

The RIAA is clearly worried about these services. Interestingly, however, the operator of Songmastr and Acapella-Extractor informs us that the music group hasn’t reached out with any complaints. But perhaps they’re still in the pipeline.

 

Aside from the emerging AI threats, the RIAA lists various torrent sites, download sites, streamrippers, and bulletproof ISPs in its overview. The popular video app likee.video is also included, as it reportedly failed to obtain proper licenses for the tracks it uses.

 

The RIAA’s full list of “notorious” pirate sites can be found below, and the full report is available here (pdf).

 

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Stream-Ripping Sites

 

– ytmp3.cc
– mp3juices.cc
– flvto.biz and 2conv.com
– y2mate.com (and related sites yt1s.com, yt5s.com, y2meta.com, , and 9convert.com)
– savefrom.net (and related site savef.net)
– ssyoutube.com

 

Music Download Sites

 

– newalbumreleases.net
– intmusic.net
– ak47full.com
– songswave.com

 

BitTorrent Indexing Sites

 

– thepiratebay.org
– 1337x.to and mirrored at 1337x.is, 1337x.se, 1337x.st, x1337x.ws, x1337x.eu, and x1337x.se)
– rarbg.to

 

Cyberlockers

 

– zippyshare.com
– dbree.org
– rapidgator.net
– turbobit.net
– onlyfiles.io

 

Unauthorized Short Form Video Services

 

– likee.video

 

AI Based Extractors/Mixers

 

– acapella-extractor.com
– remove-vocals.com
– songmastr.com

 

Additional Issues

 

– Bulletproof ISPS: PRQ, FlokiNET, Frantech Solutions/BuyVM, DDoS Guard.
– Nigerian-Operated Infringing Sites: thenetnaija.net, trendybeatz.com, justnaija.com, 24naijamuzic.com and bazenation.com.