Latest news with #Meta-owned
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Eminem publisher sues Meta, claiming unlicensed use of rapper's songs on Facebook, Instagram
Eminem's song publisher has sued the digital giant Meta, claiming the company behind Facebook and Instagram failed to properly secure licensing for music by the Detroit rapper. The lawsuit, filed Friday by Ferndale's Eight Mile Style in Detroit federal court, contends Meta maintains online music libraries with Eminem songs supplied to the public for user posts. Works include hits such as ''Till I Collapse,' which is among the 243 Eminem compositions administered by Eight Mile Style. Friday's filing says previous outreach from Eight Mile Style to Meta prompted the social media company to remove Eminem tracks such as 'Lose Yourself' from its libraries, although karaoke and instrumental versions of that song remain available, according to the suit. The Eminem music has been deployed 'across millions of videos, which have been viewed billions of times,' reads the complaint. Eminem is not a direct party in the suit. The Free Press has reached out to Meta for comment. Eight Mile Style accuses Meta of several forms of copyright infringement. It is seeking yet-to-be determined monetary damages, based on Meta advertising profits, or statutory copyright damages, along with a permanent injunction against the company's use of the Eminem songs. The lawsuit argues that Meta isn't merely allowing posters to include Eminem music in user-generated content — it is 'actively encouraging' them by featuring the songs in its libraries. Eight Mile Style says the Eminem songs are made available for user posts on Facebook, remixes on Instagram Reels and content on the Meta-owned messaging service WhatsApp. Algorithms directly promote the music to users via 'For You' and 'Trending' categories, the suit claims. The lawsuit alleges that Meta accessed the Eminem songs through a 2020 arrangement with the New York digital licensing firm Audiam, which had previously worked with Eight Mile Style. In this situation, the complaint says, Audiam was not authorized by the Ferndale company to enter into an agreement with Meta for the Eminem music. 'Meta's years-long and ongoing infringement of the Eight Mile Compositions is another case of a trillion (with a 'T') dollar company exploiting the creative efforts of musical artists for the obscene monetary benefit of its executives and shareholders without a license and without regard to the rights of the owners of the intellectual property,' reads the complaint. Eight Mile Style, which was co-founded by Eminem's early production team the Bass Brothers, oversees Eminem's catalog of songs published between 1995 and 2005, including releases up through the album 'Encore.' The Ferndale company has aggressively guarded against copyright infringement through the years, most notably in the digital sphere, including high-profile litigation with Apple and Spotify. Facebook was named in a 2013 lawsuit by Eight Mile Style, which alleged the social media service simulated the Eminem track 'Under the Influence' in an ad spot. That dispute was settled out of court. The new Meta suit contends that Eminem's compositions 'are some of the most valuable in the world, and Eight Mile Style is very protective of these iconic songs.' Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@ This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Eminem publisher sues Meta, claiming unlicensed use of songs on FB, IG
TechCrunch
2 days ago
- Business
- TechCrunch
Eight things we learned from WhatsApp vs. NSO Group spyware lawsuit
On May 6, WhatsApp scored a major victory against NSO Group when a jury ordered the infamous spyware maker to pay more than $167 million in damages to the Meta-owned company. The ruling concluded a legal battle spanning more than five years, which started in October 2019 when WhatsApp accused NSO Group of hacking more than 1,400 of its users by taking advantage of a vulnerability in the chat app's audio-calling functionality. The verdict came after a week-long jury trial that featured several testimonies, including NSO Group's CEO Yaron Shohat and WhatsApp employees who responded and investigated the incident. Even before the trial began, the case had unearthed several revelations, including that NSO Group had cut off 10 of its government customers for abusing its Pegasus spyware, the locations of 1,223 of the victims of the spyware campaign, and the names of three of the spyware maker's customers: Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Uzbekistan. TechCrunch read more than 1,000 pages of court transcripts of the trial's hearings. We have highlighted the most interesting facts and revelations below. New testimony described how the WhatsApp attack worked The zero-click attack, which means the spyware required no interaction from the target, 'worked by placing a fake WhatsApp phone call to the target,' as WhatsApp's lawyer Antonio Perez said during the trial. The lawyer explained that NSO Group had built what it called the 'WhatsApp Installation Server,' a special machine designed to send malicious messages across WhatsApp's infrastructure mimicking real messages. 'Once received, those messages would trigger the user's phone to reach out to a third server and download the Pegasus spyware. The only thing they needed to make this happen was the phone number,' said Perez. NSO Group's research and development vice president Tamir Gazneli testified that 'any zero-click solution whatsoever is a significant milestone for Pegasus.' NSO admitted that it kept targeting WhatsApp users after the lawsuit was filed Following the spyware attack, WhatsApp filed its lawsuit against NSO Group in November 2019. Despite the active legal challenge, the spyware maker kept targeting the chat app's users, according to NSO Group's research and development vice president Tamir Gazneli. Gazneli said that 'Erised,' the codename for one of the versions of the WhatsApp zero-click vector, was in use from late-2019 up to May 2020. The other versions were called 'Eden' and 'Heaven,' and the three were collectively known as 'Hummingbird.' NSO confirms it targeted an American phone number as a test for the FBI Contact Us Do you have more information about NSO Group, or other spyware companies? From a non-work device and network, you can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, or via Telegram and Keybase @lorenzofb, or Do you have more information about NSO Group, or other spyware companies? From a non-work device and network, you can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, or via Telegram and Keybase @lorenzofb, or email . For years, NSO Group has claimed that its spyware cannot be used against American phone numbers, meaning any cell number that starts with the +1 country code. In 2022, The New York Times first reported that the company did 'attack' a U.S. phone but it was part of a test for the FBI. NSO Group's lawyer Joe Akrotirianakis confirmed this, saying the 'single exception' to Pegasus not being able to target +1 numbers 'was a specially configured version of Pegasus to be used in demonstration to potential U.S. government customers.' The FBI reportedly chose not to deploy Pegasus following its test. How NSO's government customers use Pegasus NSO's CEO Shohat explained that Pegasus' user interface for its government customers does not provide an option to choose which hacking method or technique to use against the targets they are interested in, 'because customers don't care which vector they use, as long as they get the intelligence they need.' In other words, it's the Pegasus system in the backend that picks out which hacking technology, known as an exploit, to use each time the spyware targets an individual. NSO says it employs hundreds of people NSO Group's CEO Yaron Shohat disclosed a small but notable detail: NSO Group and its parent company, Q Cyber, have a combined number of employees totalling between 350 and 380. Around 50 of these employees work for Q Cyber. NSO's headquarters shares the same building as Apple In a funny coincidence, NSO Group's headquarters in Herzliya, a suburb of Tel Aviv in Israel, is in the same building as Apple, whose iPhone customers are also frequently targeted by NSO's Pegasus spyware. Shohat said NSO occupies the top five floors and Apple occupies the remainder of the 14-floor building. 'We share the same elevator when we go up,' Shohat said during testimony. The fact that NSO Group's headquarters are openly advertised is somewhat interesting on its own. Other companies that develop spyware or zero-days like the Barcelona-based Variston, which shuttered in February, was located in a co-working space while claiming on its official website to be located somewhere else. Pegasus spyware cost European customers millions During their testimony, an NSO Group employee revealed how much the company charged European customers to access its Pegasus spyware between 2018 and 2020, saying the 'standard price' is $7 million, plus an additional $1 million or so for 'covert vectors.' These new details were included in a court document without the full context of the testimony, but offers an idea of how much advanced spyware like Pegasus can cost paying governments. While not explicitly defined, 'covert vectors' likely refer to stealthy techniques used to plant the spyware on the target phone, such as a zero-click exploit, where a Pegasus operator doesn't need the victim to interact with a message or click a link to get hacked. The prices of spyware and zero-days can vary depending on several factors: the customer, given that some spyware makers charge more when selling to countries like Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates, for example; the number of concurrent targets that the customer can spy on at any given time; and feature add-ons, such as zero-click capabilities. All of these factors could explain why a European customer would pay $7 million in 2019, while Saudi Arabia reportedly paid $55 million and Mexico paid $61 million over the span of several years. NSO describes a dire state of finances During the trial, Shohat answered questions about the company's finances, some of which were disclosed in depositions ahead of the trial. These details were brought up in connection with how much in damages the spyware maker should pay to WhatsApp. According to Shohat and documents provided by NSO Group, the spyware maker lost $9 million in 2023 and $12 million in 2024. The company also revealed it had $8.8 million in its bank account as of 2023, and $5.1 million in the bank as of 2024. Nowadays, the company burns through around $10 million each month, mostly to cover the salaries of its employees. Also, it was revealed that Q Cyber had around $3.2 million in the bank both in 2023 and 2024. During the trial, NSO revealed its research and development unit — responsible for finding vulnerabilities in software and figuring out how to exploit them — spent some $52 million in expenses during 2023, and $59 million in 2024. Shohat also said that NSO Group's customers pay 'somewhere in the range' between $3 million and 'ten times that' for access to its Pegasus spyware. Factoring in these numbers, the spyware maker was hoping to get away with paying little or no damages. 'To be honest, I don't think we're able to pay anything. We are struggling to keep our head above water,' Shohat said during his testimony. 'We're committing to my [chief financial officer] just to prioritize expenses and to make sure that we have enough money to meet our commitments, and obviously on a weekly basis.' First published on May 10, 2025 and updated with additional details.
India Today
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- India Today
WhatsApp Status gets 4 new features, new music and layout options added
WhatsApp has introduced four new features for its Status section to make it more interactive. The Meta-owned messaging platform is now rolling out features including the ability to add music tracks as stickers, customisable layouts, the Add Yours feature, and photo stickers. These updates are expected to roll out gradually to all users in the coming months.'We're adding four new WhatsApp Status features that give you new ways to express yourself through collaging, music and stickers,' says Meta in the official announcement blog take a quick look at all the upcoming WhatsApp features and how to use them. 1. Layout feature to create collagesOne of the highlighted features Meta is rolling out for WhatsApp is the new Layout feature. This feature allows users to create collages directly within the app. Users will be able to choose up to six photos and arrange them into a collage using built-in editing tools. They will be able to use this feature to share highlights from an event, a trip, or just daily snapshots in a more visually engaging format—similar to Instagram.2. Song Sharing and Music StickersWhatsApp recently rolled out music support for stories, similar to Instagram. With the More with Music feature, users can post a song directly as their Status. Additionally, WhatsApp allows users to create music stickers, which enable you to overlay your favourite track on a photo or selfie, turning a simple picture into a dynamic audio-visual post. advertisement3. Photo StickersAnother engaging tool being added is Photo Stickers. This feature lets users turn any photo into a custom sticker that can be resized, cropped, or shaped as desired. 'Turn a photo into a sticker and add it to your status. You'll be able to edit it so it's the right size and shape,' writes Meta. 4. Add YoursSimilar to interactive formats used on other platforms like Facebook and Instagram, the new Add Yours feature brings a collaborative element to WhatsApp Status. Users will be able to post a photo or video along with a prompt like 'Best coffee moment' or 'Throwback pic,' inviting friends to respond with their own notes that the upcoming changes are part of WhatsApp's plans to enhance personal expression while maintaining the platform's end-to-end encryption and privacy-first approach.
What's On
3 days ago
- Business
- What's On
WhatsApp Business users could soon be charged per message
You have one new notification… WhatsApp, the Meta-owned messaging service that's taken the world by storm over the last decade, and has become arguably the most widely-used messaging platform in the UAE, will soon be a paid service on its Business variant. Images: unsplash The messaging platform will begin charging registered businesses using WhatsApp Business, from July 1 onwards. The move is being introduced with the aim of simplifying pricing, and aligning to industry-standard rates being followed by similar messaging services. For registered businesses using WhatsApp Business to communicate with customers, utility and authentication rates will also be updated, with volume tiers being introduced as part of the brand's new pricing strategy. It will follow an incentivised model, with businesses becoming eligible for better rates as they use more – resulting in longer term savings. But there are a couple of things to note. Marketing template messages, authentication template messages and delivered utility template messages will be charged – per message, as opposed to per conversation – and how much the business is charged per message, will depend on the recipient's country code. As elaborated by Meta, businesses will have a bit of leeway in when they choose to respond to customers, due to a designated 24-hour customer service window – which resets every time a new message is sent. Within this 24-hour customer service window, companies can send both free-form and utility messages at no cost, so they would only be charged for marketing template messages. However… Individual users of WhatsApp Business will not be required to pay to use the app. In the UAE, several expatriates and owners of multiple phone numbers (and consequently, multiple WhatsApp accounts) currently run both WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business on their phones. You can find out more on the new changes, on WhatsApp's official page. > Sign up for FREE to get exclusive updates that you are interested in
Time of India
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
‘Missed nagin dance' says internet as baraat of 400 persons 'crashes' Wall Street
A video of a 400-person Indian wedding processor or baraat taking over New York's iconic Wall Street has taken the internet by storm. Originally shared by DJ AJ on Meta-owned Instagram, the video shows guests dressed in dazzling traditional Indian attire—lehengas, sarees, sherwanis, and kurta pajamas—dancing joyfully in the middle of the street. The procession was led by the bride and groom, surrounded by friends and family, while thumping beats filled the air. 'We shut down Wall Street for a 400-person baraat—who would've ever thought?! Definitely a once-in-a-lifetime kind of magic,' reads the caption of the Instagram post. Set against the towering backdrop of Manhattan's financial district, the celebration drew attention from curious onlookers. Many New Yorkers could be seen stopping in their tracks, taking out their phones to capture the vibrant spectacle. How social media reacted to the viral Baraat at New York's Wall Street The unexpected mash-up of Indian wedding traditions and Wall Street's iconic setting has sparked a wave of reactions online, with viewers calling the moment 'surreal,' 'magical,' and 'pure joy.' 'We Indians are good at shutting things. And we are proud of it', joked one user. 'Try doing this inside White House next time,' commented another. A third user humorously joked 'We're getting more angles of the Wall St Baraat than 9/11.' 'Missed nagin dance though,' jibed another user. Some users expressed concerns over the shut down. One user questioned 'How's that an achievement to celebrate?'. 'If it caused inconvenience to others then it should not be acceptable,' commented another. AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
