AI music scam impersonating composers

[Holko 9,529]

So I was listening to my usual Tidal playlist of weekly new release recommendations and I came across some weird albums by known but not huge film composers (Broughton, Debney, McNeely, Badelt), all with nondescript titles, 3 tracks not recorded with a real orchestra, with obviously AI generated covers. I couldn't find anything about any of them except for the streaming/youtube uploads, nothing on the composers' sites, no news about them. The Youtube uploads are not on the composers' own Topic channels, but on "Release - Topic", and all attributed to the Vietnamese "OnlyStar Music" production company.

 

What can be done about this if it's some larger scale scam?

 

 

[pete 907]

The "Broughton" piece sounds like it was written by an AI from 1970

[Trope 527]

This is crazy! I couldn’t even listen to more than 10 seconds of these horrible scam tracks without cringing in agony.

Thank you for bringing this up, it must surely be brought to the composers’ attention and addressed. The fact that these are streamable albums is so disappointing - Clearly, anyone can simply upload any old garbage under an artist’s name and it will appear in their discography.

[Edmilson 7,466]

Are these guys on social media? I think Debney is (or used to be) fairly active on Facebook? Someone should tag them on social media with links for these videos and say that people are putting their name on this crap.

[Holko 9,529]

Now apparently there's a new batch from a different company for Goldsmith, Jarre, Poledouris... something needs to be done or this'll get out of hand.

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

A.I ""artists"" should be put in prison unless it's for funny meme photo prompts like "Santa getting arrested" 

[Trope 527]

It's amazing how versatile a composer Goldsmith is. This may have already become one of my favourite works from his late period.

 

 

 

[ThePenitentMan1 744]

2 hours ago, Holko said:

Now apparently there's a new batch from a different company for Goldsmith, Jarre, Poledouris... something needs to be done or this'll get out of hand.

 

If there are two of them now, it's already getting out of hand.

[JWScores 27]

So it begins... the great battle of our time.

[Holko 9,529]

Joel McNeely has a direct email address on his site so he was an easy pick for a contact attempt, now he responded with "Wow, that’s unbelievable. How do they get away with this? I’m forwarding on to some people."

[Thor 7,513]

McNeely is a bit of an AI music entity himself, having effortlessly channeled Williams, Goldsmith and others for decades. Still, I love the man and his music. 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,544]

1 hour ago, Thor said:

McNeely is a bit of an AI music entity himself, having effortlessly channeled Williams, Goldsmith and others for decades. Still, I love the man and his music. 

 

A teeny weeny bit harsh, my friend, but no less true.

My favourite McNeely is still THE AVENGERS.

[Holko 9,529]

ok

[mstrox 6,651]

On 14/3/2024 at 3:30 AM, Trope said:

It's amazing how versatile a composer Goldsmith is. This may have already become one of my favourite works from his late period.

 

This is the best thing he’s written in twenty years!

[Marian Schedenig 8,200]

8 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

My favourite McNeely is still THE AVENGERS.

 

Terminal Velocity. But Avengers is fun, too.

[Nick1Ø66 4,718]

On 7/3/2024 at 12:21 PM, Holko said:

What can be done about this if it's some larger scale scam?

 

Theoretically? There will be years of battles in courts and legislatures worldwide to come to terms with all this, which will be one of many, many battles trying to sort out how AI is going to change our world.  

 

Realistically? I don't think there will be much of anything that can be done about it, and this is a future composers and other artists are going to have to deal with. IP and copyright will be the least of our worries when it comes to AI.

 

 

 

[Groovygoth666 670]

7 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

 

Theoretically? There will be years of battles in courts and legislatures worldwide to come to terms with all this, which will be one of many, many battles trying to sort out how AI is going to change our world.  

 

Realistically? I don't think there will be much of anything that can be done about it, and this is a future composers and other artists are going to have to deal with. IP and copyright will be the least of our worries when it comes to AI.

 

 

 

Without knowing the in and outs of the US legal system, would identity fraud not be the best way to try to stop this kind of thing? 

 

While the music is created artificially someone has to prompt it. And that same person (or persons) is trying to pass it off and gain financially by uploading it online using a composers name without their permission. But guessing it's not that simple? 

[Nick1Ø66 4,718]

10 minutes ago, Groovygoth666 said:

Without knowing the in and outs of the US legal system, would identity fraud not be the best way to try to stop this kind of thing? 

 

Well, perhaps. Theoretically, there are many legal remedies. But legislatures and courts move slowly, and in the past it's proven almost impossible for the legal system to keep up with emerging technologies. Most countries, in terms of legislation, still haven't fully figured out how to grapple with relatively simple things like how copyright, free speech and censorship works in the age of the internet, and it's been decades. I mean, it hasn't even advanced much since I was in law school.  And that's nothing...advances in DNA, genetics and AI are going to be the real challenge. Part of the problem is that most judges and legislators just don’t understand the technology that they’re trying to regulate.  
 

And remember, it's not just the US, every country is going to deal with this differently, absent international agreement, and good luck with that. The genie is just out of the bottle on this stuff, and we're all just struggling to keep up.

[Marian Schedenig 8,200]

27 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

Part of the problem is that most judges and legislators just don’t understand the technology that they’re trying to regulate.  

 

I think in many cases the problem isn't so much that they don't understand, but that they either believe they understand, or believe they neither have to nor have to consult experts who do.

[Groovygoth666 670]

 

1 hour ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

 

Well, perhaps. Theoretically, there are many legal remedies. But legislatures and courts move slowly, and in the past it's proven almost impossible for the legal system to keep up with emerging technologies. Most countries, in terms of legislation, still haven't fully figured out how to grapple with relatively simple things like how copyright works in the age of the internet, and it's been decades. I mean, it hasn't even advanced much since I was in law school.

 

And that's nothing...advances in DNA, genetics and AI are going to be the real challenge. And remember, it's not just the US, every country is going to deal with this differently, absent international agreement, and good luck with that. The genie is just out of the bottle on this stuff, and we're all just struggling to keep up.

Legislation is needed, and like you say legal systems are slow worldwide in keeping up with technology.

 

Would it potentially be in this instance Joel McNeely couldn't sue OnlyStar Music if they are based in Vietnam, but YouTube and the others that are hosting the music if they had offices or something like that in the US? 

 

This sort of reminds me of the Monkey selfie copyright dispute, where the US court concluded "Because copyright law is limited to 'original intellectual conceptions of the author', the [copyright] office will refuse to register a claim if it determines that a human being did not create the work. The Office will not register works produced by nature, animals, or plants.". Which could be a similar argument used here, but guess it'll have to come down to a big case where Artificial Intelligence is added to that list. 

 

And absolutely, different countries with different laws is always going to be a problem, and while there is some international laws on cyberspace. It's still very much the wild west and again like you said the genie is very much out the bottle now. 

[Holko 9,529]

10 hours ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

Realistically? I don't think there will be much of anything that can be done about it, and this is a future composers and other artists are going to have to deal with.

I guess my best thought so far was making these services enforce a process where a release, when added to the service, can only be assigned to an artist with explicit approval from that artist or the legal entity that represents them?

[mstrox 6,651]

Artists get AI songs taken down all the time.  It’s a TOS issue, which is a short term fix but it’s a fix.  The law at its speed will never catch up to advances in this technology.