WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States Copyright Office opened a formal inquiry Wednesday into music streaming fraud, asking artists, labels, publishers, streaming services, distributors and other stakeholders for evidence about the problem’s scale, economic damage and possible solutions.
The notice of inquiry, published October 7 in the Federal Register at Congress’s request, examines bot farms, click farms, playlist manipulation, account hijacking, fraudulent marketing companies and altered copies of other artists’ recordings. It also asks how artificial intelligence may enable fraud at greater scale and distort royalty payments, audience data, playlist placement, touring decisions and music discovery.
The Copyright Office is seeking input on platform fines, royalty clawbacks, customer and content verification, information sharing, metadata standards, a possible shared database of known fraud, legislation and criminal enforcement. Comments will be submitted through Regulations.gov under Docket No. 2026-6.
The proceeding is an information-gathering inquiry. It does not establish that any company or individual violated the law, and it does not impose a new rule. The record may inform Congress as it considers voluntary, statutory or regulatory responses.
The notice cites the federal prosecution of Michael Smith as a prominent example of alleged artificial-intelligence-assisted streaming fraud. Smith was sentenced October 6 to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
The Radio News Now question: Should streaming platforms and distributors be required to share verified fraud findings so repeat offenders cannot simply move between services?
Source: U.S. Copyright Office music streaming fraud proceeding and the October 7, 2026, Federal Register notice.