Scammer jailed for using 10,000 bots and AI songs to overtake Taylor Swift in streaming charts
Fraudster jailed for using 10K bots and AI songs to outstream Taylor Swift
What happened
A defendant in the U.S. Justice Department's first prosecuted streaming-fraud case was sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to forfeit $8,091,843.64 for using 10,000 bots and AI-generated songs to inflate play counts and surpass artists including Taylor Swift. The Justice Department said the scheme eroded the streaming royalty pool and reduced royalties for real artists overall. The defense sought probation, arguing that one person should not be punished for an industry's problems, but the court accepted the department's argument about deterrence.
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