This newsletter is written and curated by Robert Caple, founder of Stop Content Theft, with over a decade’s experience in content protection and platform enforcement.

Welcome to the first edition of The Content Theft Briefing, a weekly addition to my monthly newsletter, with the more immediate updates that directly affect creators and their content.

This week has been very music-industry focused, with Suno and Spotify under the spotlight as the music industry contends with AI-generated music and impersonation, while OpenAI receive more lawsuits than they can shake a robot arm at.

In more positive news, it’s good to see Google demoting unoriginal ‘AI Slop’ (though this isn’t an outright promotion of human content) while brands promote their human-ness as a USP – a trend we’re sure to see more of.

Strange times we’re living in, folks.

TL;DR

• YouTube Shorts make it easier for creators to generate content with their AI avatar

• Controversial AI-music app Suno in battle with major record labels

• Google demote unoriginal AI-generated content in Search

• Brands use ’No AI’ to fight back against the slop

YouTube Shorts will let creators generate AI avatars of themselves

YouTube users can now create an AI avatar of themselves in YouTube Shorts, allowing users to artificially implant their face and voice into existing videos and pictures or create new content with a simple prompt. These will all be watermarked and disclosed as AI-generated content.

If you thought YouTube was full of AI slop already, you ain’t seen nothing yet…

Suno and major labels clash over sharing AI-generated music

Suno’s negotiations with Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment have stalled, unable to reach a licensing deal for the labels’ music to be used in the app. A major sticking point is UMG’s demand that the AI-generated music stays within the app, while Suno want it to be available to be distributed externally. Warner Music signed a deal with Suno in November, but the remaining two major labels are holding out.

Looks like two out of three IS bad…for Suno anyway.

Suno’s AI music tools make it easy to mimic copyrighted songs

While Suno’s licensing deals hang in the balance, an investigation by The Verge has proven how easy it is to bypass their copyright filters to create AI covers of Beyonce, Black Sabbath and Aqua (because the world needs more versions of ‘Barbie Girl’). This will only add fuel to the fire Suno is fighting with the RIAA who have alleged that the company “trained their AI models on copyrighted music without permission”.

Watch this space.

AI is impersonating musicians on Spotify — and stealing their revenue

If it isn’t obvious why apps like Suno and Udio are a threat to the music industry, let me introduce you to Jason Moran, Benedict Cork, and Murphy Campbell. three artists who have had their voice imitated by AI and new content uploaded to Spotify under their names. Artists are now competing against their own likeness, with their reputation being tarnished as they lose revenue in the process.

Spotify are taking steps to counter this issue with ‘Artist Profile Protection’, but stronger steps are certainly needed.

Google updates Search to demote AI-generated spam content

To be clear: Google are not prioritising human-made content or banning AI-generated content.

Their latest Search update prioritises “Sites with original research & proprietary data”, meaning they are prioritising content that supplies new information or knowledge rather than just repeating what already exists – regardless of how it was generated. There’s much more to the update, though, so dig in.

Brands adopt ‘No AI’ disclaimers to stand out amid the slop

In their latest campaign, underwear brand Aerie have committed to having “No AI generated bodies or people”, having also pledged never to use AI tools to generate or manipulate images of their models. Cookware leaders Le Creuset have also promoted their use of human designers and proudly proclaim that their videos are AI-free.

With consumers fatigued by the swathes of AI slop filling their feeds, more brands will be looking to highlight their human side, at least in their marketing. Whether they use AI tools behind the scenes of their business is another story.

Authors file new copyright lawsuit against OpenAI over training data

Penguin Random House, the largest publisher in the world, has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in Munich, claiming that ChatGPT infringed their copyright by reproducing a significant portion of content from one of their children’s book series by German author Ingo Siegner.

This will be yet another lawsuit to add to the list, with George R. R. Martin, Jodi Picoult, Sarah Silverman, and Encyclopaedia Brittanica all having sued OpenAI in the last couple of years.

AI-Generated Influencer Content Compliance 2026

AuditSocials have published a thorough report on the landscape of AI-generated influencer content, including updates on how social media platforms are differentiating between human and AI-generated content. It is especially useful for its coverage of deepfakes, AI voice cloning, with a compliance checklist for brands to use when utilising AI influencer content.

If you’re a creator, management company, or agency dealing with content theft, get in touch.

This newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.

Written and produced by a human. All opinions are my own.