Internet Archive ends legal battle with record labels over historic recordings; San Francisco Chronicle, September 15, 2025

Aidin Vaziri, San Francisco Chronicle; Internet Archive ends legal battle with record labels over historic recordings

"The case, UMG Recordings, Inc. v. Internet Archive, targeted the Internet Archive’s Great 78 Project, an initiative to digitize more than 400,000 fragile shellac records from the early 20th century. The collection includes music by artists such as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, and has been made available online for free public access.

Record labels including Universal, Sony Music Entertainment and Capitol Records had sought $621 million in damages, arguing the Internet Archive’s streaming of these recordings constituted copyright infringement.

The lawsuit drew widespread attention from musicians and preservationists."

Trump campaign ordered to stop using classic R&B song; Associated Press via Politico, September 3, 2024

Associated Press via Politico; Trump campaign ordered to stop using classic R&B song; Associated Press via Politico

"A federal judge in Atlanta ruled Tuesday that Donald Trump and his campaign must stop using the song “Hold On, I’m Comin’” while the family of one of the song’s co-writers pursues a lawsuit against the former president over its use.

The estate of Isaac Hayes Jr. filed a lawsuit last month alleging that Trump, his campaign and several of his allies had infringed its copyright and should pay damages. After a hearing on the estate’s request for an emergency preliminary injunction, U.S. District Judge Thomas Thrash ruled that Trump must stop using the song, but he denied a request to force the campaign to take down any existing videos that include the song."

Billie Eilish and Nicki Minaj want stop to 'predatory' music AI; BBC, April 2, 2024

Liv McMahon , BBC; Billie Eilish and Nicki Minaj want stop to 'predatory' music AI

"Billie Eilish and Nicki Minaj are among 200 artists calling for the "predatory" use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the music industry to be stopped.

In an open letter also signed by Katy Perry and the estate of Frank Sinatra, they warn AI "will set in motion a race to the bottom" if left unchecked...

Other artists have since spoken out about it, with Sting telling the BBC he believes musicians face "a battle" to defend their work against the rise of songs written by AI.

"The building blocks of music belong to us, to human beings," he said.

But not all musicians oppose developments in or use of AI across the music industry, and electronic artist Grimes and DJ David Guetta are among those backing the use of such AI tools."