Audio authors: Q&A about Envato third-party distribution and licensing

Opted-out as well. No transparency, the terms are not clear.

The whole situation is quite comical!
I immediately think of a parallel with a prenuptial agreement, when a wife says to her husband: “If you do not want me to be used by third parties for a small fee, please fill out a “opt-out form” by Monday evening.”

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I really don’t know how to play this. I do have work on other libraries but not exclusive. I don’t want to miss out on any potential earnings but how can I tell at this stage ?

Again and Again, Shutterstocks intentions are only to serve Shutterstocks interests. Exploting Authors and the property they own is the only means to that end. There is no real opportunity here. This just amounts to a willful transfer of intellectual property from you to Shutterstock. If you take this deal, you lose all control over your property forever. In exchange you are compensated an “unknown fee that can not be determined just yet”. I have never seen such a ridiculous offer, ever in my life.

“Hey Man let’s allow 3rd party companies to legally copy, ingest, study, train and re-ouput my music into AI MUSIC for a fee that we can not determine yet”

Are you kidding me?

You are going to sign on and willfully agree to this “deal”?

And lose all control over your intellectual property forever?

It’s completely ridiculous!

At least wait until you see how the case against SUNO and UDIO turns out. Those companies clearly just trained off of copyrighted music anywhere and everywhere they could get access to it without getting permission from anyone, ever. Those actions are illegal and will be ruled illegal once this case gets in front of a jury.I do believe those sites will be ordered shut down down and the damages awarded will bankrupt those two companies.

Don’t you find it interesting how there is so much “secrecy” surrounding this new moment in the music industry. SSSSSHHHHH, No one can talk about this! Don’t say where we are getting our data! Don’t talk about who we are selling the data too! …Yet everyone knows what is going on…Intellectual Property is overtly being copied by AI companies to obtain the “goods” to output new “AI music Material” to the public for a subscription fee, but with no royalties paid to authors who supplied the “original manufacturing goods” (our precious data - sound recordings, titles, descriptions, keywords)

To think these people will ever pay recurring monthly royalties to human authors is ignorant at best.

There is NOTHING in this deal for music producers, absolutely NOTHING!

So why support it?

I am at peace with the new reality, I must compete against AI music. Consumers will have two choices:

  1. subcribe / Pay for AI music and license that lower quality stuff, or
  2. subscribe and pay for human made music and buy that stuff

We’ll see who wins the new music competition war…AI? or real people?

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Just opted out. Pond5 made big promises when they took our music without our permission, and apart from a small insignificant one time payment I’ve seen nothing. I have no faith in this model, nor do I see a chance of fair compensation. Cheers from Berlin, Sascha

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This will most likely play out in a similar form I feel like.

Hello everyone,

I also believe that it is necessary to unsubscribe to ensure our work is not shared with third parties. However, I still have doubts that even if we do so, our work might still be shared with third parties.

What guarantee do we have that this won’t happen? After all, when the AI ​​training model was introduced a year ago, those who disagreed had to delete their accounts. Others who do not closed theirs accounts their data will be used for AI TRAINING I am right ?

So, third parties did gain access to our data based on this fact…

How can we trust that if we opt out, our work won’t be shared?

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Very interesting question raised out here.
Is there anything that stops AI companies from using our previews?

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Is there anything that stops AI companies from using our previews?

In my opinion which is not to offer official legal advice from the USA perspective, a music producer could send relentless “cease and desist” emails, or mail “cease and desist” letters, to the breaching AI company. CID (CONTENT ID) will probably be able to uncover these breaches when music not opted into AI training is suddenly generating copyright strikes. Music Producers can then file a law suit that seek damages of $150,000 per track for breach of copyrights. That’s what the major labels did aganinst Suno and Udio. So they have set the precedent. Production music tracks can and do generate earnings of $150,000 per track. Many folks have earned $150,000 from a “production music/ Stock Music” Hit track…

Cease and Desist: What Is It?

A copyright infringement cease and desist letter is a document that demands a violating party that’s copying, stealing, or imitating your original work to provide proper credit or stop immediately. This notice threatens legal action unless the violator stops profiting from, claiming credit for, or using your original work without permission.

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Oh, thanks for sharing, good to have this on the fingertips just in case :+1:
150k per track… From this point, I started to wait for their violation :grin:

You think I am joking? I am not

Suno and Udio are profiting from all the work they “AI studied and trained off of” copyrighted music, without permission from the original copyright holders They sell subscriptions to end users to make a profit. They do not share royalties from those works they studied and trained off of, and in the case of SUNO, they say the word promptor/ subscriber who pays them $30 a month, owns the copyright to the new AI machine generated music output which are clearly derivatives of human made music tracks, or copyrights owned by humans.

If this stands as a new copyright in the eyes of the law and in the eyes of the USA copyright office, and also any copyright office around the globe, then that will just be insane. That will in effect, end music copyright law as we know it.

No-no, it’s fine, I’m without any irony, no offense, please :pray:

The world gets crazier and crazier. Just imagined, that the tech guy at Rihanna’s show gets more money, than Rihanna herself… Hope we will eventually win this somehow.

Since there was no response from Envato, I opted out.
Like everyone else, I’m waiting for an email confirmation that I did opted out.

It’s a shame we had to deal with “offers” like this at all.

If and when Envato/Shutterstock provides clear and flexible win-win terms on third-party agreements, I’d be glad to consider participating again.

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Either we’re glad to consider it again or not, @BenLeong was loud and clear that they have no intention to re-open this once in a lifetime offer in the future. That’s the bait. Step into the void with no info whatsover, NOW OR NEVER. Personally, never.

Anyway, in the end, the robots win. :robot:

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The rise of the machines in full glory. :grinning:

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I’ve opted out from the deal. While I’m open to new oportunities, I didn’t have a choice considering those points:

  • There were instruments and samples used in my works form companies that prohibit AI training.
  • The lack of initiative to split additional distribution platforms and deals with AI companies.
  • The approach to the formation of the compensation structure.

I would like to thank the comunity for providing the additional information and clarification that made me do the right choice.

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Hi colleagues,

I wanted to share some thoughts about the decision we need to make by July 29, 2024, regarding sharing our music with AI companies…

A) Control over our content: If we opt out, we will have greater control over where and how our music is used. This minimizes the risk of our tracks being used to generate new works with AI without our consent.

B) Potential earnings: Envato claims that we will share in the revenue based on new subscribers. If we have doubts about whether these earnings will be sufficient, we should consider if the risk outweighs the potential gain. It is important to review the contractual terms, which have still not been shared with us.

C) Long-term perspective: We should consider the impact this decision will have on our careers and income in the long term. Our decision should align with our long-term goals and values.

D) Protection of intellectual property: If intellectual property is crucial to us, opting out might be the better choice. While AI technologies can offer new opportunities, the risk of losing control over our works is real.

These are only a few suggestions why I will opt out. Hope this helps others to make a decision if they are still not sure what to do.

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I only have a handful of tracks here on Audiojungle and never get sales anymore but I still think its best to opt out considering the lack of transparency.

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You can negotiate without making the authors compromise

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Your email should ask if we want to opt in, not if we want to opt out. That is so tricky.

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