Man pleads guilty to $8M AI-generated music scheme

Post by tempaccount5050 » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 9:05 AM UTC

jonathanlydall wrote: post #22

lemontheme wrote: post #7

Flooding stream services with slop and autoplaying it through a bot farm is obviously bad behavior, but is it illegal, punishable with jail time (5 years mentioned)? I see no victims other than large streaming services who failed to account for a changing reality. I’m getting ‘because of torrenting metallica won’t be able to afford its third private jet’ vibes from this

He indisputably defrauded $8M from these companies by "tricking" them into giving it to him. Whereas with pirating by downloading a song, the "damage" is completely hypothetical, it's not like the downloader got actual money from doing the download and it's far from certain they would have paid the normal fee if the piracy option was not available. It's unproveable that the publisher actually lost any money from the…

Post by ChrisMarshallNY » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 9:09 AM UTC

lemontheme wrote: post #7

Flooding stream services with slop and autoplaying it through a bot farm is obviously bad behavior, but is it illegal, punishable with jail time (5 years mentioned)? I see no victims other than large streaming services who failed to account for a changing reality. I’m getting ‘because of torrenting metallica won’t be able to afford its third private jet’ vibes from this

Post by fc417fc802 » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 9:15 AM UTC

tempaccount5050 wrote: post #31

jonathanlydall wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He indisputably defrauded $8M from these companies by "tricking" them into giving it to him. Whereas with pirating by downloading a song, the "damage" is completely hypothetical, it's not like the downloader got actual money from doing the download and it's far from certain they would have paid the normal fee if the piracy option was not available. It's unproveable that the publisher actually lost any money from the…

Nah, that's insane. "You ticked our endolpoint KPI shit in a way we don't like" = actual crime? Gtfo

Post by pocksuppet » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 9:28 AM UTC

phire wrote: post #11

This conviction has nothing to do with uploading AI generated music. The illegal part was using tens-of-thousands of bot accounts to listen to them (and the ads) generating fraudulent revenue for himself. This is just the same old view botting (aka click fraud) that has been going on for decades. The AI generated music aspect is irrelevant. Click fraud is cut and dry wire fraud: Using electronic communications to dec…

Post by pocksuppet » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 9:35 AM UTC

petesergeant wrote: post #36

randyrand wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In click fraud, it's the platform company defrauding the ads purchasers, by claiming the clicks are legit. All this guy did was break TOS, and find a broken business model. No fraud. Should have found a lawyer.

> Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, transmits or causes to be transmitted by means of wire, radio, or television communication in interstate or foreign commerce, any writings, signs, signals, pictures, or sounds for the purpose of executing such scheme or artifice…