Bruce Lawson ✅ ♫ ♿ ✌️♂️✊20h ago
A man used LLMs to generate hundreds of thousands of "songs", then used bots to stream them billions of times, to collect $8m in royalties. https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/north-carolina-man-pleads-guilty-music-streaming-fraud-aided-artificial-intelligence-0 Is there a better metaphor for late-stage capitalism than burning resources to make songs that are never listened to, then steaming them to robots that will never hear them, ad infinitum?
Show threadGary 19h ago

@brucelawson it's more than a little bit Devil's Advocate, but I'm struggling to see how this is fraud other than that it cost Spotify $8m

The money certainly didn't get diverted away from other more deserving artists. (*edit* apparently it does, as Spotify no longer pays artists per stream, but as a percentage of overall streams). It's only Spotify that's out of pocket because someone gamed their broken business model.

Fuck 'em 😒

(But of course we all know who the US courts will side with)

Show threadAlessandro Corazza 🇨🇦19h ago

@WiteWulf

Yeah, same - at worst this seems a violation of Spotify ToS for siccing fake listeners on their servers. Nothing was taken from other artists, and Spotify allowed him to upload the deluge of AI slop tracks in the first place.

@brucelawson

Show threadTor Iver Wilhelmsen18h ago
@alessandro @WiteWulf @brucelawson The court, obviously, disagreed with your whitewashing of the fraud.
Show threadAmoshias18h ago

@toriver @alessandro @WiteWulf @brucelawson I like how you start by assuming that it's fraud, and then attack the person who you are responding to for going against your assumption!

care to support your assertion that it is fraud? it certainly MIGHT be! but you're definitely wrong about what "the court" said - he pled guilty, there was no court ruling in this case.

Show threadGary 17h ago
@Amoshias @toriver @alessandro @brucelawson the justice.gov website literally calls it “music streaming fraud”. There was no assumption made.
Show threadAmoshias17h ago

@WiteWulf @toriver @alessandro @brucelawson so the people accusing him said it was fraud

and your response to that is "case closed, it's fraud."

I hope you are never accused of a crime.

Show threadTor Iver Wilhelmsen14h ago
@Amoshias @WiteWulf @alessandro @brucelawson THE COURT SAID IT WAS. Why do you assume the corporation runs the court? What is your alternative to courts? Spotify is a shitty company but why defend this asshole just because the target was this company? What if the target was a small company instead?
Show threadAmoshias14h ago

@toriver @WiteWulf @alessandro @brucelawson saying it in all caps doesn't make it true.

the court did not say this. if you believe I am incorrect, please provide a citation.

Show threadTor Iver Wilhelmsen12h ago
@Amoshias @WiteWulf @alessandro @brucelawson The crime he was convicted for was "wire fraud". Which is usually used when someone commits fraud online. Seriously, are you angry the «business model» of siphoning what little Spotify gives artists into the fraudster’s pocket failed?
Show threadAmoshias12h ago

@toriver

okay, I think I understand what you're getting wrong. you aren't American, are you? you are fundamentally misunderstanding some things about our legal system. if you are interested, I will explain to you what you're getting wrong. if not, feel free to continue thinking you are right when you aren't :-)

@WiteWulf @alessandro @brucelawson

Show threadTor Iver Wilhelmsen12h ago
@Amoshias @WiteWulf @alessandro @brucelawson No, I think you are worthy of a mute instead. You are basically trying to refute what the statement linked in the first post says. Trying to argue semantics when what he did is detailed there.
Show threadAmoshias12h ago

@toriver

I asked you a very simple question, which was to actually support what you're saying with a citation. Because you're clearly not actually reading it. the linked page is a press release from the department of justice, not a court document. No court ruling was made in this case. the defendant pled guilty.

but instead of trying to understand where you are wrong or be less wrong, you're getting angry and blocking someone who is making you feel bad.

@WiteWulf @alessandro @brucelawson

Show threadWesDym
@Amoshias Go touch grass.
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