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u/LinooneyonReddit1d ago
Anna’s Archive to pay $322million after losing court case for scraping “nearly all of the world’s commercial sound recordings” from Spotify
Trust Metrics
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95
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80
Claim Accuracy92%
Source Quality95%
Framing & Tone85%
Context80%
Analysis Summary
A federal judge ordered Anna's Archive, a piracy group that scraped 86 million songs from Spotify, to pay $322 million in damages—$300 million to Spotify and $7+ million combined to Universal, Sony, and Warner. Judge Rakoff found the group violated copyright law, the DMCA, and court orders after they released scraped files via torrent even after a preliminary injunction. The bigger problem: the operators are anonymous, so collecting the judgment may be impossible—but the precedent of $2,500 damages per file will likely apply to future AI training scrapes and mass data theft cases.
Claims Analysis (6)
“Anna's Archive ordered to pay $322 million after losing court case for scraping nearly all of the world's commercial sound recordings from Spotify”
Confirmed by Engadget, Tom's Hardware, NME, Digital Music News, and The Verge. Judge Jed S. Rakoff issued default judgment on this exact amount.
“Warner, Sony and Universal will receive over $7 million in damages, while Spotify receives $300 million”
Explicitly stated in linked NME article and corroborated across multiple independent sources covering the judgment breakdown.
“Anna's Archive scraped 256 million rows of track metadata and 86 million audio files”
Billboard reporting cited in article. Engadget and Tom's Hardware confirm 86 million songs figure. Scale of scraping independently documented.
“Judge found Anna's Archive guilty of direct copyright infringement, breach of contract, and violation of the DMCA”
Judge Jed S. Rakoff's ruling explicitly cited in linked article. Corroborated by The Verge and other sources covering the judgment details.
“Anna's Archive released scraped files on February 9 via 47 separate torrents after preliminary injunction was issued”
Specific date and distribution method documented in linked article based on plaintiff filings. Shows violation of court orders.
“It's unclear whether Anna's Archive operators will pay, as they are anonymous”
Linked article notes anonymity of operators makes collection uncertain. The Verge headline explicitly frames this as 'Spotify just won $322 million from music pirates it can't find.'
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