đ Share this article Activist Collective Asserts to Have Scraped Millions of Music Files from the Streaming Giant A digital rights group has stated to have scraped a vast number of tracks from Spotify and is preparing to release them online. Potential Boost for AI Training Industry experts noted the apparent data breach could boost AI companies looking for data to train their technology. An entity known as Annaâs Archive said it had scraped 86 million audio tracks from the platform and 256 million entries of associated data such as artist and record names. The company, which carries more than 100 million tracks, stated that the breach did not constitute its full catalog. âWe have located and deactivated the nefarious user accounts that were involved in unlawful scraping,â said a Spotify representative. The Stockholm-based service, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, further explained that an investigation into unauthorised access found a third party scraped public metadata and used questionable tactics to bypass DRM protections. Group's Declared Mission and Concerns The streaming service does not think the music taken by Annaâs Archive has been released yet. Annaâs Archive, which is known for offering links to pirated books, said in a blog it wanted to create a âpreservation archiveâ for music. The group asserted the music files accounted for 99.6% of all music streamed to by its listeners and would be distributed via âpeer-to-peer networksâ, a method of exchanging large data files online. âOf course Spotify doesnât have all the music in the world, but itâs a great start,â said Annaâs Archive, which frames its mission as âpreserving humanityâs knowledge and heritageâ. AI Training and Intellectual Property Debate Ed Newton-Rex for protecting artistsâ rights, said the leaked music would likely be utilized for training artificial intelligence systems. âEducating models on illegally sourced data is sadly widespread in the AI industry, so this accessed music is highly likely to end up instructing AI models,â he said. The group's website alludes to a large online archive, a huge online repository of pirated books that has reportedly been used by Meta to train its systems. A founder of an artificial intelligence company posted on the professional network that individuals of the public could in theory âbuild their own private free equivalent of Spotifyâ. The executive said it could also enable tech companies to âeducate models on modern music at scaleâ. Copyright has emerged as a key issue between creatives, writers and content creators on one side and tech giants on the other. Government Proposals and Responses In the UK, artists and writers have protested against a ministerial proposal to let AI companies use protected work without permission unless the owner opts out. Virtually every participant to a government call for evidence on the idea has supported artistsâ concerns. A government minister for technology, innovation and development informed parliament this month there was âlittle consensusâ on the matter, noting that ministers would âtake the time to get this correctâ. The government has pledged to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by next year.