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Timbaland Is Standing With Suno. What Does That Mean For Creators?

Generative AI is new technology. But the debate over its legal issues sounds awfully familiar. Is it just a little bit of history repeating?

As Suno faces controversy and litigation from rightsholders arguing that AI companies need to license the music they use to train their software, Timbaland may be there to make a case that this doesn’t matter that much. The company’s subsequent bankruptcy filing contained a reference to a payment to Chuck D for “the cost of speaking engagements and support,” according to Joseph Menn ’s excellent All the Rave: The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning’s Napster. This strategy, as much as the technology involved, allowed Uber and Airbnb to grow so big that it can be hard to remember that they are basically high-tech ways to get around local taxi and hotel regulations.

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