FBI busts musician’s elaborate AI-powered $10M streaming-royalty heist

arstechnica.com

I am just impressed by the idea and execution. Just wow. Too bad he took it too far.

Technology @beehaw.org

sabreW4K3 @lazysoci.al

12mo ago

FBI busts musician’s elaborate AI-powered $10M streaming-royalty heist

arstechnica.com /information-technology/2024/09/fbi-busts-musicians-elaborate-ai-powered-10m-streaming-royalty-heist/

Technik @feddit.org

lebkuchen @feddit.org

12mo ago

FBI busts musician’s elaborate AI-powered $10M streaming-royalty heist

arstechnica.com /information-technology/2024/09/fbi-busts-musicians-elaborate-ai-powered-10m-streaming-royalty-heist/

News @lemmy.world

some_guy @lemmy.sdf.org

12mo ago

FBI busts musician’s elaborate AI-powered $10M streaming-royalty heist

arstechnica.com /information-technology/2024/09/fbi-busts-musicians-elaborate-ai-powered-10m-streaming-royalty-heist/

17 comments

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.
  
  Oh, sure. I get that. Sending yourself reminders is absolutely understandable. Sending yourself documented evidence of your plans to defraud someone is entirely different.
  
  I mean, if you treat your inbox as a to-do list, that's not that far-fetched
  
  Google keep used to (don't use it anymore) store your notes "backed up" by email. You could view all your notes in gmail.
  Maybe it was something like that?
- 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

17 comments