Anthropic cut up millions of used books, and downloaded 7M pirated ones – judge

Apparently it's a common business practice. Spotify (even though I can't find any proof) seems to have build their software and business on pirated music. There is some more in this Article [0].

https://torrentfreak.com/spotifys-beta-used-pirate-mp3-files...

Funky quote:

> Rumors that early versions of Spotify used ‘pirate’ MP3s have been floating around the Internet for years. People who had access to the service in the beginning later reported downloading tracks that contained ‘Scene’ labeling, tags, and formats, which are the tell-tale signs that content hadn’t been obtained officially.

It was the opposite. Their mission was to combat music piracy by offering a better, legal alternative.

Daniel Ek said: "my mission is to make music accessible and legal to everyone, while ensuring artists and rights holders got paid"

Also, the Swedish government has zero tolerance for piracy.