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An activist group has stated to have harvested a vast number of tracks from the popular streaming service and is getting ready to publish them publicly.

Potential Impetus for Artificial Intelligence Training

Observers said the seeming data breach could aid artificial intelligence firms looking for material to develop their technology.

A group called Anna’s Archive reported it had obtained 86 million audio tracks from the platform and 256 million entries of associated data such as artist and record names. Spotify, which carries more than 100 million tracks, stated that the breach did not represent its entire catalog.

“We have located and disabled the malicious user accounts that were involved in illegal scraping,” stated a Spotify representative.

The Stockholm-based service, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, added that an investigation into unauthorized access identified a external actor collected public metadata and used illicit tactics to bypass DRM protections.

Group's Declared Mission and Worries

Spotify does not think the audio acquired by Anna’s Archive has been made public yet. Anna’s Archive, which is known for providing links to copyright-infringing books, wrote in a blog it wanted to create a ‘preservation archive’ for music.

The group claimed the music files accounted for 99.6% of all music streamed to by Spotify users and would be distributed via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a method of exchanging large data files online.

“Of course Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great start,” commented Anna’s Archive, which describes its purpose as “preserving humanity’s information and culture”.

Model Development and Copyright Debate

Ed Newton-Rex for defending artists’ copyright, said the breached music would likely be used for developing artificial intelligence systems.

“Training on illegally sourced data is unfortunately widespread in the AI industry, so this stolen music is almost certain to be used training AI models,” he said.

The Anna’s Archive site makes references to LibGen, a vast online repository of copyrighted books that has allegedly been used by the parent company of Facebook to train its AI models.

A founder of an AI startup wrote on the professional network that members of the public could in theory “create their own personal free equivalent of Spotify”. He added it could also allow technology firms to “train on modern music at a large volume”.

Copyright has emerged as a battleground between creatives, writers and creatives on one side and tech giants on the other.

Government Considerations and Reactions

In the UK, artists and writers have raised concerns against a government proposal to allow AI companies utilize copyright-protected work without permission unless the owner opts out. Virtually every respondent to a government consultation on the idea has backed artists’ apprehensions.

The secretary of state for technology, research and technology told parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the matter, noting that ministers would “use the time to get this correct”. The administration has pledged to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by next year.