Warner Music Group has settled its copyright infringement lawsuit against Udio and will collaborate on development of the startup’s licensed AI music creation service, set to launch in 2026. “Through this collaboration, Udio will develop a next-generation music creation, listening, and discovery platform powered by generative AI models trained on licensed and authorized music,” WMG announced, noting the deal — which includes recorded music and publishing — “creates new revenue streams for artists and songwriters, while ensuring their work remains protected.” The agreement caps a week in which the major labels also pacted with AI streaming startup Klay. Continue reading WMG Resolves Litigation with Udio in a Big Week for AI Music

Three major North American music performing rights organizations, or PROs, have decided to allow registration of musical compositions that are “partially generated using artificial intelligence tools.” ASCAP, BMI and the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) have agreed to accept direct registration within their individual societies. For registration purposes, all three PROs define a partially AI-generated musical work as “one that combines elements of AI-generated musical content with elements of human authorship.” Musical compositions that are entirely created using AI continue to be ineligible for registration in these groups. Continue reading Music Groups Will Register Music ‘Partially’ Generated by AI

YouTube is offering amnesty of sorts, providing those who were kicked off the platform for policy violations a “second chance.” Last week, the Google-owned streamer agreed to pay a $24.5 million settlement to President Donald Trump, who sued over suspension of his YouTube account following the January 2021 U.S. Capitol riots. “We know that our long-held approach of enforcing lifetime terminations can be difficult for creators,” YouTube explained in a blog post highlighting more than $100 billion paid out to creators, artists and media companies through the YouTube Partner Program over the past four years. Continue reading YouTube Offers Some Terminated Accounts a Second Chance

OpenAI is hoping an animated short film called “Critterz” that it got off the ground will have its feature-length debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2026. OpenAI is providing the AI technology to produce the film, which is being funded at $30 million by Paris-based Federation Studios, whose UK subsidiary Vertigo Films will produce in conjunction with Culver City’s Native Foreign, a firm known for blending AI with conventional techniques. OpenAI is providing use of its generative models, including the Sora video generator and DALL-E imager, to create what it hopes will be a test case. The idea is to complete in nine months what would normally take years at a fraction of the cost. Continue reading OpenAI Making Its Film Debut with $30M Animation ‘Critterz’

Google wants to heighten the profile of its Veo 3 video generator, and to help do so has named Henry Daubrez, the longtime creative chief at the multidisciplinary Dogstudio/DEPT, filmmaker in residence at Google Labs. In addition to working with the Google team to continue developing the Veo 3-powered Flow AI filmmaking tool, Daubrez will mentor artists in a new pilot program called Flow Sessions. Select filmmakers will get unlimited access to Flow, a subscription product starting at $20 per month, plus mentorship and AI education as part of Flow Sessions. Continue reading Google Pushes Generative Video with Filmmaker in Residence

Netflix has issued partner guidelines outlining use of generative AI in content workflows. The guidelines emphasize circumstances in which the use of generative AI requires advanced written approval, such as altering a character or performance, any inclusion of generative AI in the final product or using AI in a way that materially impacts union work. Fabricated content that could be “mistaken for real events” is to be avoided. Use of AI for “ideation” is deemed generally acceptable if done within guidelines. Allowing models to train on input or output of material destined for Netflix is off-limits. Continue reading Netflix Publishes Partner Guidelines for GenAI Production Use

AI audio firm ElevenLabs has launched Eleven Music, which lets businesses and individuals generate studio-caliber music using natural language prompts. Users can generate tracks in any genre or style, even adding vocals in different languages. The Eleven Music model was developed in partnership with music licensing firm Merlin and independent publisher Kobalt. Artists and songwriters from the two groups will participate in the development of Eleven Music Pro, a subsequent model planned for release in the coming months. The company says it built-in guardrails to protect rightsholders. Continue reading ElevenLabs Debuts Eleven Music with Kobalt, Merlin Backing

Meta Platforms has released an update for its Brand Rights Protection tools, which help businesses find and report misuse of their brand across advertising and user-generated content posted on popular social platforms Facebook and Instagram. Simultaneously, the company is expanding scam ad reporting to all Brand Rights Protection accounts, enabling businesses to report suspected scam ads at scale, and rolling out a simplified takedown request protocol to save brands time. The new features “include some of the most requested” tools by businesses who rely on these brand safety suites. Continue reading Meta Expands Brand Rights Protection on Its Social Platforms

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has introduced what they’re calling “a discussion draft” of a new anti-piracy bill, the Block Bad Electronic Art and Recording Distributors Act of 2025, known as the Block BEARD Act. Inspired by laws in the UK and Australia, Block BEARD proposes to allow federal courts to order ISPs to block foreign piracy websites that violate U.S. copyright law. It would provide copyright owners who have had their property stolen a new form of relief by having the courts interrupt foreign online piracy operations, preventing them from making unauthorized content available to U.S. households. Continue reading Bipartisan ‘Block BEARD’ Anti-Piracy Bill Surfaces in Senate

The European Union has published a General Purpose AI (GPAI) Code of Practice designed to help companies comply with the AI Act, which includes copyright protections and transparency requirements for advanced models. The Code of Practice bans training models on unauthorized materials and says companies must comply with copyright-holder requests to omit work from datasets. Developers are required to provide documentation describing the features of their AI models. The AI Act began taking effect in August 2024 and is being implemented gradually, with key transparency, governance and privacy provisions coming into force next month. Continue reading EU Releases AI Practices Code to Help with Legal Compliance

Moonvalley, the AI startup behind Marey, a high-quality video generator trained exclusively on licensed content, has just put the product in general release. The credits-based subscription pricing ranges from $15 to $150 per month. In addition to ethical training on 1080p native video, Marey also takes a non-traditional approach on its user interface, eschewing prompts for what it says is a more creatively intuitive process. “Directors need precise control over every creative decision, plus legal confidence for commercial use. Today we’re delivering both,” says Moonvalley CEO and co-founder Naeem Talukdar. Continue reading Moonvalley’s Production-Tailored AI Marey Publicly Released

Cloudflare, which spent the past year introducing tools to help content providers prevent unwanted AI scraping, is launching a marketplace that lets websites charge for the privilege of using a “pay-per-crawl” model. The Internet infrastructure and security company says it is the first to enable blocking AI crawlers by default, providing access only with permission and, if wanted, compensation. As of July 1, AI companies can use Cloudflare’s marketplace to “clearly state their purpose — if their crawlers are used for training, inference, or search — to help website owners decide which crawlers to allow.” Continue reading Cloudflare Pay-per-Crawl Lets Publishers Monetize Scrapes

Creative Commons, the non-profit that pioneered sharing content through permissive licensing, is launching CC Signals, a framework to signal permissions for content use by machines in the age of artificial intelligence. “They are both a technical and legal tool and a social proposition: a call for a new pact between those who share data and those who use it to train AI models,” says Creative Commons CEO Anna Tumadóttir, noting the signals are “based on a set of limited but meaningful options shaped in the public interest.” The framework is designed to bridge the openness of the Internet with AI’s insatiable demand for training data, according to Creative Commons. Continue reading Creative Commons Introduces New Licensing Platform for AI

Runway has introduced a new video generation model, launching a next phase of competition that could transform film production. Notably, its Gen-4 system improves the consistency of characters, locations and objects across multiple scenes, an elusive prospect for most AI video generators. The New York-based startup calls its new development “a step towards Universal Generative Models that understand the world.” The key, Runway says, is to provide a single reference image of the character, item or environment as part of the model’s project material. Runway Gen-4 can generate 5- and 10-second clips at 720p resolution. Continue reading Runway Gen-4 Tackles AI’s Elusive Video Scene Consistency

OpenAI is urging the Trump Administration to declare AI training fair use, seeking unfettered access to copyrighted material for the purpose of educating models. The company is also asking for relief from state AI rules and more permissive AI export rules in a response to President Trump’s call for a U.S. “AI Action Plan.” The deadline to submit responses to the National Science Foundation and Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP) request for information (RFI) regarding the plan was Saturday. Google also publicized its response, which largely echoed OpenAI’s points. Continue reading OpenAI and Google Press for Relief on Copyright, State Laws