Spotify Says 'Anti-Copyright Extremists' Scraped Its Library (musically.com)
- Reference: 0180437923
- News link: https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/25/12/22/1128259/spotify-says-anti-copyright-extremists-scraped-its-library
- Source link: https://musically.com/2025/12/22/spotify-says-anti-copyright-extremists-scraped-its-library/
Spotify described the activists as "anti-copyright extremists who've previously pirated content from YouTube and other platforms" and confirmed it is actively investigating the incident. The activists claim this represents "the world's first 'preservation archive' for music which is fully open" and covers "around 99.6% of listens."
They appear to have used Spotify's public web API to scrape the metadata and circumvented DRM to access audio files. Spotify insists that this is not a security breach affecting user data. Though the more pressing concern for the music industry may be AI training rather than pirate streaming services -- similar YouTube datasets have reportedly been used by unlicensed generative AI music services.
[1] https://musically.com/2025/12/22/spotify-says-anti-copyright-extremists-scraped-its-library/
Extreamists? (Score:4, Insightful)
Do we have to abuse every word until its meaningless.
You can call them extremists, when the bomb some data-center, or gun down a group of intellectual property attorneys at the firms anal barbecue.
Until I think we can go with 'activists' or maybe even 'agitators', hell 'criminal offenders' if you wish, but extremists is kind of a weird take.
Re:Extreamists? (Score:5, Funny)
intellectual property attorneys at the firms anal barbecue.
Erm.. uhh. well that's one way to describe what's waiting for those people in the afterlife.
Re: (Score:2)
I gotta be honest, finding the words attorneys and anal barbecue in the same sentence doesn't surprise me as much as it should.
Re: (Score:1)
yeah, anal should have been annual, but given we are talking about lawyers, the first auto correct works just as well.
Re: (Score:2)
A named drink?
Perhaps a refreshing Johnny Silverhand or David Martinez?
Re: (Score:3)
it's pirates, ye scurvy-ridden pox-bucket! yarr!
Re:Extreamists? (Score:5, Funny)
Of course they are. They've downloaded all the data, so now they're ex-stream-ists.
Re: Extreamists? (Score:2)
I saw what you did there. Take your upvote and get out. lol
Re: (Score:2)
Political extremism might be usually defined as violent, but extreme just means at the ultimate end of something. A copyright extremist releasing the entirety of a copyrighted catalog is about as extreme as it gets for copyright.
Re: (Score:2)
You don't think basically erasing a trillion dollar industry is extreme?
Re: (Score:1)
I thought the music industry was destroyed by the cassette tape. Did I miss something?
Re: (Score:1)
I'm sure they will call them terrorists soon enough.
Those "extremists", were their names... (Score:4, Insightful)
... OpenAI, Meta, Google, Anthropic, Xai, ... who happen to have been active in anti-copyright extremism quite a lot in recent years, stuffing their "AI"-models full of material they never licensed?
Re: (Score:2)
Anna's Archive was, in fact, a major source of training data for many of the above.
Re: (Score:1)
Why didn't you say so?
That makes this independently produced AI training material, and therefore, a matter of national defense. And thus, copyright and other nuisance laws don't apply. The fate of our nation is more important them some silly law. /s
Training Data Set Defense (Score:2)
I'm sure this is all just a misunderstanding by Spotify and they drop it once they learn the "extremists" were simply collecting data to train their AI model. Hell, Trump may even preemptively pardon them for AI or something.
Re: Training Data Set Defense (Score:2)
If someone tells him Spotify is foreign, I'm sure he'll do it unless someone else talks to him first.
Re: (Score:1)
Right?
If this were OpenAI, nobody would bat an eye.
Good. Copyright must be reformed. (Score:1)
Copyright must be reformed to work to encourage creation, not fill the pockets of Spotify et al.
Copyright is a PRIVILEGE we give to CREATORS and 5 years is a reasonable copyright term limit, more than that DISCOURAGES creation.
fffuck spotify (Score:4, Insightful)
[1]Here's why [reddit.com]
Will the spotify year in review be updated to tell you how many children were trafficked as the result of the ICE ads they carry?
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1pbmdg7/spotify_stands_by_ice_recruitment_ads_despite/
The end (Score:2)
I guess this is the end of non-DRMd Spotify music. Now you will need a commercial os and player like with many legitimate streaming sites. IE no Linux.
Nice job! (Score:2)
Good to read happy stories here now and then for a change.
Good. (Score:2)
I hope a company in China gets ahold of the database and trains a good music generator AI on it and releases it for free.
People hate GenAI because it *doesn't* suck... (Score:2)
...not because it does.
It's all about gatekeeping the skill, time, and budget floor and propping up the wall between "producers" and "consumers". I worked hard to get where I am, therefore it shouldn't be made easier. I worked hard to make $20/hour, therefore we shouldn't raise the minimum wage. Etc.
The reason there aren't legions and legions of programmers protesting AI on twitter is because programmers are accustomed to change and we've learned to embrace it, yet every time there's a technology that chan
Irony (Score:1)
The ironic thing is that in the early days of Spotify if you downloaded the audio file, which was mp3s back then, and looked at the metadata you would find tags of old mp3 scene pirate groups. In other words, Spotify bootstrapped itself off of piracy. So they really canâ(TM)t be too mad about this.
Oh noes (Score:1)
This is going to cost artists at least a nickel in Spotify royalties!
Re: (Score:2)
I suspect Spotify will ask the feds for funding to pursue copyright enforcement.
Re: (Score:1)
Oh, this will get illegal Five Eyes surveillance for sure. It's a trillion-dollar industry.