Thus far, AI companies have utilized YouTube’s extensive repository of videos, captions, and other content without securing permission. Calliope Networks, an AI-focused content licensing startup, aims to alter this practice with its new “License to Scrape” program, targeting YouTube content creators directly.
Calliope Networks’ CEO, Dave Davis, highlights the demand from AI companies to scrape YouTube content, emphasizing the actions of these companies. The startup’s goal is to create a legal and straightforward tool for this process. Unlike platforms such as Reddit, YouTube has not established agreements with major AI firms to scrape its content. The “License to Scrape” program seeks to avert direct negotiations with the company by organizing a collective of creators and negotiating a comprehensive license on their behalf.
Davis, who transitioned from a role at the Motion Picture Licensing Corporation to establish Calliope, anticipates that the AI industry will eventually favor licensing over unpermitted scraping. This shift aligns with the broader trend of growth among AI data licensing startups. Calliope Networks is also a founding member of the Datasets Providers Alliance, a trade group that mandates creators and rights holders to consent to scraping.
The proposed operational model by Davis entails YouTube creators entering into contracts with Calliope, which will then sublicense their content for training generative AI foundational models. To attract AI firms, a substantial volume of content must be aggregated, requiring significant participation from YouTubers. Calliope plans to collect a portion of the licensing fees from the AI companies.
This scraping license format is inspired by the blanket licensing approaches used in the music industry by organizations such as Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP).
Currently in the early stages of recruitment, Davis estimates that acquiring between 25,000 to 50,000 hours of YouTube content is necessary before gaining substantial interest from the AI industry—a reflection of the industry’s reliance on large data volumes.
Although no prominent individuals have endorsed the license as of yet, Calliope has engaged several influencer marketing agencies, including Viral Nation, to onboard clients. According to Bianca Serafini, Viral Nation’s head of content licensing, there has been positive feedback from creators, with expectations that many of their nearly 900 YouTubers will participate. Serafini notes that this initiative is unprecedented in their experience.
