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Former Anti-Piracy Boss Becomes Sony Music's AI ChiefErnesto Van der Sar, 27 Jun 11:21 AM Artificial intelligence has the potential to make our live

Former Anti-Piracy Boss Becomes Sony Music's AI Chief Ernesto Van der Sar, 27 Jun 11:21 AM Artificial intelligence has the potential to make our lives more efficient, entertaining, and productive. There are potential downsides as well. Major recording label Sony Music is taking this advancing technology very seriously and has created a new executive position dedicated to AI and hired a familiar name. According to a recent article by Billboard, Geoff Taylor takes the top position as the new Executive Vice President of AI. The news was announced in an internal memo sent by Sony Music's COO Kevin Kelleher. From Anti-Piracy to AI These types of appointments rarely apply to our reporting niche, but in this case there is a relevant piracy tie-in. Taylor previously headed UK music industry group BPI, which has been at the forefront of the anti-piracy battle for several decades. In his 15-year tenure at BPI, Taylor was a strong advocate of new anti-piracy measures. This includes website blocking, where The Pirate Bay was one of the early targets. "The Pirate Bay is no more than a huge scam on the global creative sector. It defrauds musicians and other creators of their wages, and it destroys UK jobs," Taylor said in 2011, urging UK Internet providers to block the site voluntarily. This voluntary blockade never came to pass but lawsuits initiated by BPI members eventually got the notorious pirate site, and many others, blocked across all major ISPs. Taking on Google After this success the music industry applied pressure to search engines, asking them to demote or completely remove known pirate sites from their search results. Again, Taylor didn't shy away from making the matter personal. "[Google] know very well what sites are illegal, because we send them notices, a million a week, yet coming on to search, very often those sites appear at the top of search results," he said in 2013. Google initially refused to downrank pirate sites, arguing that this would only lead to a game of Whack-a-Mole. However, a few months later the search engine officially announced pirate site demotion as a new anti-piracy strategy. AI Challenges The examples above are just a small selection of achievements that were booked under Taylor's lead. While this says little about Sony Music's AI strategy, there are certainly plenty of challenges there too. Dennis Kooker, Sony Music's President of Global Digital Business, previously noted that AI is a potential tool to work smarter and gain new insights. However, he stressed that this shouldn't happen at the expense of copyrights. "In particular we have serious concerns about the potential for AI-synthesized voice technology to be used at scale to cover songs and attempt to replace artists. This is something that we need to watch very closely," Kooker noted. These AI voice models are a major concern for Taylor and his new AI team, which will work closely with Sony's Digital Business & Legal Affairs divisions. In a sense, artificial intelligence may prove to be a new 'Napster moment' for the music industry. A Napster Moment? While some music industry insiders would like to erase AI for good, a more balanced approach may be more fitting going forward. In this regard, it's worth revisiting Taylor's reflections on the Napster battle, which were originally published fourteen years ago. In an op-ed, Taylor admitted that embracing Napster might have been a better option than treating it as an adversary. "That's probably true, and I, for one, regret that we weren't faster in figuring out how to create a sustainable model for music on the internet," he wrote. "In 1999 Napster developed a great digital service, but did so at the expense of music, while the music business protected music at the expense of progressing online digital services. "The invention of Napster and all that has followed may soon deliver its greatest legacy – a renaissance in artistic creativity for the digital age," Taylor added. Indeed, Napster paved the way for unlimited music streaming services that are common today. When Taylor wrote these words years ago, streaming revenue was virtually nonexistent. Today, it represents more than two-thirds of total global recorded music revenue. If and how AI will drive change in the music industry is unknown at this point, but Taylor's own Napster reflections show that it might be wise not to dismiss a technology outright. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Z-Library Releases Tor-Enabled Desktop Launcher to Improve 'Accessibility' Ernesto Van der Sar, 26 Jun 10:32 PM Over the years, Z-Library established itself as a premier source of pirated books, serving an audience of millions of users. Up until a few months ago, this all happened relatively quietly but everything changed when the United States launched a criminal case against two of its alleged operators. Z-Library lost access to over 200 domain names late last year and, a few weeks ago, the authorities carried out a new domain seizure round. Despite these enforcement actions and the pending criminal case, the remaining Z-Library team has no plans to throw in the towel. Bots and Scams Besides the long arm of U.S. law enforcement, Z-Library also faces pressure from other angles. The lost domain names drove a lot of traffic to scammy Z-Library knockoffs, for example, which still enjoy millions of visitors a month. The shadow library was also challenged by a massive attack by 'bots' earlier this month, which caused various technical issues. Among other things, registrations weren't working properly and email delivery was interrupted too. The site nonetheless managed to stay afloat and a few days ago its operators released new software that aims to make the site more resilient and easier to access. Z-Library Desktop Launcher Over the past few months, Z-Library users accessed the site through a dedicated URL, which redirected them to a 'personal' domain that provided access to the library. This worked well but the entire operation could easily be wiped out by yet another round of domain seizures. The new desktop launcher, which is available on the Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms, will automatically redirect users to the right place, without being tied to a single domain name. "This launcher will save you the trouble of searching for a working website link, as it will handle everything for you," the Z-Library team announced a few days ago. Z-Library Launcher In addition to simplifying access, the new Z-Library launcher software is able to connect over the Tor network. This can help to evade blocking efforts while adding an extra privacy layer. The software may trigger a warning noting that it's from an unverified developer. According to Z-Library, this is a standard notice but, aside from the copyright infringement angle, people should always treat third-party applications with caution. Supporting Copyright Law? It's not often that we see a service going full steam ahead in the face of an active criminal case against two of its alleged operators. In that respect the situation with Z-Library is reminiscent of how The Pirate Bay positioned itself years ago. The Z-Library team itself sees "free access to literature" as its main driver. "The goal of Z-Library is to provide free access to literature to as many people in need as possible. Books are the scientific and cultural heritage of all humankind, and we strive to preserve this legacy and use its power for the benefit of our society." Perhaps somewhat confusing, the shadow library also stresses that it's not advocating in favor of piracy. "We don't promote piracy. The work of authors and publishers should be paid for and valued," the Z-Library team explains, adding that it supports copyright legislation and doesn't aim to change any laws. Do's and Don'ts Interestingly, the U.S. Government used the same copyright law to seize Z-Library's domains and arrest two of its alleged operators. The authorities highlighted that the service isn't merely a non-profit outfit, suggesting that donations were also used to enrich the people involved. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Russia Could Unblock Pirate Sites If They Agree to Censor Their Catalogs Andy Maxwell, 26 Jun 02:04 PM The Ministry of Digital Development, Telecommunications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation is the government body responsible for the development and implementation of IT policy and regulation. In common with other government departments, 'MinTsifry' is working hard to convince business leaders across the country that everything is going according to plan. Russia is fully capable of weathering multiple current and developing crises as long everyone pulls together, invests their own cash, and doesn't expect any subsidies from the government, the sales pitch goes. Ongoing projects include the development of domestic software to replace Western products now unavailable in the market, training schoolchildren to program in the summer holidays, encouraging sales of domestic telecoms equipment and compensating local buyers for the difference in price, and promoting the growth and importance of the local IT industry. Late last week, MinTsifry tabled new plans to boost the entertainment sector but who is supposed to benefit and how isn't clear. Still No Answer to Western Companies' Pull Out Major Western entertainment companies began leaving the Russian market more than a year ago and since then the government has struggled to come up with any obviously viable solution. Plans to legalize software piracy, turn a blind eye to piracy of Western movies, put the state in charge of all online piracy to generate revenue, or legalize piracy like Belarus did in January, have done little to solve the country's problems. Speaking with local news outlet RBC last week, the Ministry of Digital Development confirmed that it has been discussing the possibility of "waiving restrictions" on access to sites offering unlicensed video content from Western companies. More bluntly, pirate sites whose activities were considered so persistent and egregious that all ISPs were ordered to block them at some point, may soon find themselves unblocked. How the digital development of Russia will be furthered by such an unusual move isn't clear but the current plans do come with some strings attached. Pirate Sites Must Implement Content Restrictions A representative of MinTsifry told RIA that if it decides that pirate sites can be removed from Russia's blocking register, unblocking would only be available to sites that a) offer pirated content from Western countries and b) those who comply with additional restrictions laid down by the authorities. "The Ministry of Digital Development, together with industry representatives, is working on proposals to abandon restrictions on access to sites that provide unlicensed video content of Western majors, on certain conditions," the source said. "Such video content should not be legally presented in Russian online services, should not be rented in cinemas, and should not contain extremist materials and LGBT propaganda," the source said. Pirates and Compliance Tend Not to Mix It's doubtful that pirate sites will be queuing up to take advantage of this scheme, even in the unlikely event it does come into force. The proposition here is that pirate sites cannot offer any locally produced movies, which is the type of content Russian legal streaming platforms have relied on for more than a year. However, these platforms also carry some Western content, at least until current licenses expire, which means that content will be off-limits too, for as long as that lasts. Pirate sites can offer unlicensed movies from Western countries with no issues, as long as they censor them to remove LGBT references, to a standard acceptable by the state. Good luck with that. However, since some Hollywood movies have been making it through to Russian cinemas via unauthorized routes, the pirate sites may not be able to offer those movies on their sites either. Compliance with these rules could have a serious effect on pirate site libraries but that may not be the largest obstacle to getting sites on board. Russia Likes to Regulate and Maintain Control One of MinTsifry's current responsibilities is to ensure that IT companies in Russia register for official state accreditation following a decree issued in September 2023. "State accreditation of organizations is carried out by the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media," the documents read. "State accreditation of organizations is carried out in order to provide them with measures of state support." To qualify for accreditation, IT companies must provide information on their activities and any products under development, but the full list of requirements goes on and on. That raises the question of what standards pirate platforms would have to meet before being unblocked and what any regulation would look like moving forward, to ensure they meet the content requirements of the state, as agreed. In summary, this appears to be another scheme that will ultimately come to nothing. Compliance with a government program that offers to unblock sites in exchange for a decimation of content libraries could never prevail when sites currently offer whatever they like and have measures in place to constantly undermine blocking. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 06/26/2023 Ernesto Van der Sar, 26 Jun 01:09 AM The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. These torrent download statistics are only meant to provide further insight into the piracy trends. All data are gathered from public resources. This week we have one newcomer on the list. "Extraction 2", which came out as a high-quality pirate release, is the most downloaded title. The most torrented movies for the week ending on June 26 are: Movie Rank Rank last week Movie name IMDb Rating / Trailer Most downloaded movies via torrent sites 1 (1) Extraction 2 7.2 / trailer 2 (2) Fast X 6.1 / trailer 3 (4) John Wick: Chapter 4 8.0 / trailer 4 (3) Kandahar 6.0 / trailer 5 (6) Avatar: The Way of Water 7.8 / trailer 6 (5) The Super Mario Bros. Movie 7.3 / trailer 7 (…) The Machine 6.1 / trailer 8 (10) Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves 7.4 / trailer 9 (7) Transformers: Rise of the Beasts 6.6 / trailer 10 (8) Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse 9.0 / trailer Note: We also publish an updating archive of all the list of weekly most torrented movies lists. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. ©2023 TorrentFreak | Office 21338 PO Box 4336 Manchester, North West M61 0BW United Kingdom Web Version   Preferences   Forward   Unsubscribe     Powered by Mad Mimi®A GoDaddy® company