Bot listening is probably fraud.
shani66@ani.social 2 weeks ago
Lawsuit, sure, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t illegal.
Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Silentiea@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Yay…
NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
That’s still civil
jwmgregory@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
uh, yes? it’s at the least fraud fs? the article says the doj is charging mike smith with three money laundering charges and one count of wire fraud. obviously the wire fraud charge comes from an argument that smith defrauded the distribution companies into illegitimately paying out royalties for false streams. note that the artificial intelligence solution only comes into the argument for the purposes of how he committed the crime, it really had nothing to do with the crime itself, at least intrinsically. if you read the press release from the doj, you can see that they make a pretty airtight argument that, quote:
SMITH made numerous misrepresentations to the Streaming Platforms in furtherance of the fraud scheme. For example, SMITH repeatedly lied to the Streaming Platforms when he used false names and other information to create the Bot Accounts and when he agreed to abide by terms and conditions that prohibited streaming manipulation. SMITH also deceived the Streaming Platforms by making it appear as if legitimate users were in control of the Bot Accounts and streaming music when, in fact, the Bot Accounts were hard coded to stream SMITH’s music billions of times. SMITH also caused the Streaming Platforms to falsely report billions of streams of his music, even though SMITH knew that those streams were in fact caused by the Bot Accounts rather than real human listeners.
SMITH’s hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs were streamed by his Bot Accounts billions of times, which allowed him to fraudulently obtain more than $10 million in royalties.
it is not illegal to lie. it is absolutely illegal to lie for the purposes of financial gain. sure, i’m not disagreeing that what he did could not somehow be construed as something of a robin hood character arc (even tho he most certainly did this for the purposes of his own personal enrichment). but he almost definitely is guilty of the wire fraud charge and i do have a strong feeling, based on the prosecutorial level of this case, the involvement of a specialized division of the fbi, and his purported co-conspirators; that the money laundering charges are ironclad as well. frankly, i’m hoping his co-conspirators actually do end up going to trial and we get to learn what the company that aided in his fraud actually was. on fucking god it’d be one thing if he ran this grift machine for a little while, paid off a lil bit of his debts and all, maybe even lived off of it. but to steal $10 million fucking dollars with it, even when he knew he was committing fraud and had to explicitly hide his criminal activity??? no shit the fbi was hot on your trail. what an absolutely, colossal dipshit michael smith must be. i respect the ingenuity but it is so blindingly obvious that 10 million dollars was egregiously too many times to press a “free money button” you just invented in a capitalist autocratic hellscape.
DaddysLittleSlut@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Just wanted to add something. Lying for Financial gain isn’t illegal it’s how you do it. Like people lie for Financial gain all the time.
jwmgregory@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
that’s fair, my absolute statement doesn’t reflect the exclusive way anti fraud laws are written. you certainly might find and successfully exploit legal ways to lie for financial gain, but at best it’s unethical and at worst you’ll have to defend why your deceit isn’t criminal fraud in a lawsuit. it kind of depends on who you piss off the most, imo.
DaddysLittleSlut@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I would not just say unethical. You have to consider multiple facets and situations. While yes it may not be best. Sometimes they have to feed children or otherwise. To put it simply most things aren’t black and white.
Lev_Astov@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
According to the article, they’re going for multiple counts of money laundering and wire fraud with 20 years each.
FahrenheitGhost@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
People who are not part of the wealthy elite stealing profits is illegal. Doesn’t matter what the method was.
futatorius@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
And yet Xitter, Farcebook and similar platforms still publish their stats as if all their users are real human beings. So why isn’t that fraud?
shuzuko@midwest.social 2 weeks ago
Because it’s only fraud if a normal person makes money from it, duh 🤪
dabster291@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Summzashi@lemmy.one 2 weeks ago
Plausible deniability is the answer.
xenoclast@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
This is the truth. He would have been fine if he was super rich