FBI busts musician’s elaborate AI-powered $10M streaming-royalty heist

Comments

• Michal@programming.dev ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  The crime isn’t in publishing AI music. The crime was that he setup fake listeners streaming his songs so he could get royalties and inflate popularity. Initially he published his own songs, but to scale up and avoid detection he started creating music at scale - That’s where AI Comes in.

  Smith’s scheme, which prosecutors say ran for seven years, involved creating thousands of fake streaming accounts using purchased email addresses. He developed software to play his AI-generated music on repeat from various computers, mimicking individual listeners from different locations. In an industry where success is measured by digital listens, Smith’s fabricated catalog reportedly managed to rack up billions of streams.

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  • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    This is basically the same way you get on the NYT bestseller list - buy your own books.

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    • Michal@programming.dev ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      The times doesn’t pay you royalties for your book sales, and it doesn’t cost you anything. They also detect if someone is messing with the system and display a dagger symbol if you are found to inflate your numbers.

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  • ininewcrow@lemmy.ca ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Isn’t this basically how Taylor Swift got her start … her millionaire father just buying thousands of her debut album at the beginning.

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• ravhall@discuss.online ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I don’t see the crime. Man games system. Man makes money. No crime.

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  • sanpo@sopuli.xyz ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    That’s a very… capitalist way of thinking.

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    • ravhall@discuss.online ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Is it? Taking money from big corporations, using their own machine? Sounds like you don’t know much about capitalism.

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    • desktop_user@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      the only good form of capitalism is the type that confuses idiots

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  • hades@lemm.ee ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    yes, calling it a heist specifically is extremely colourful in the wrong way

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  • otter@lemmy.ca ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    It does help set a good precedent. When companies try to do the same thing, further hurting smaller artists, we can point to this case

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    • ravhall@discuss.online ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      But corporations rarely get punished. So, I see a small fry taking advantage of a loophole to make money.

      Granted, this person really should have quit before they got noticed. You get caught when you get greedy.

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