FBI busts musician’s elaborate AI-powered $10M streaming-royalty heist
FBI busts musician’s elaborate AI-powered $10M streaming-royalty heist
Feds say it's the first US criminal case involving artificially inflated music streaming.
I am just impressed by the idea and execution. Just wow. Too bad he took it too far.
Definitely an abuse of the system, but I'm struggling to see where criminal law says you can't make a bunch of fake accounts to listen to garbage music.
In agreeing to be paid by music streaming platforms they almost certainly agreed not to do exactly this. Which makes it fraud.
Fraud is pretty broad and covers most things that deliberately misrepresent reality to take money from someone else.
From justice.gov:
SMITH, 52, of Cornelius, North Carolina, is charged with wire fraud conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; and money laundering conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
In a 2017 email to himself, Smith calculated that he could stream his songs 661,440 times daily, potentially earning $3,307.20 per day and up to $1.2 million annually.
Great idea, but why would you email yourself about it?
I have a friend that I’ve tried to convince using a notes app, but he swears that emailing himself notes and to-do lists is more effective. He’s wrong, but to each their own.
Bio...graphy?
They only take crimes against the rich seriously - what a joke of a country the US is.
The better people.... Shiti organics just suck too much
Great use of taxpayer money ,🤡
NGL... I'm upset I didn't think of this