You know that the music industry makes a penny or two from music streaming services. Not so in the case of an unknown 53-year-old Danish man. He was just convicted of a 2 million kroner (roughly $290,000/$230,000) fraud by passing off other people's music as his own, earning millions in streaming through Spotify, Apple Music, and other services.

The outcome of this trial, reported by The Guardian, is a small blip in Danish law. Initially, the prosecution had attempted to charge the company with fraud and copyright abuse to the tune of just over 4.3 million kroner ($620,000/$500,000), but the court found the evidence insufficient to accurately ascertain the number of streams played or the amount of royalties incurred.

Between 2014 and 2019, the streamer in question took songs from other artists, adjusted the length, tempo, and overall editing to create nearly 700 songs, which he released under his company name. The court found him guilty of copyright violations for 37 of those songs.

However, in order to generate such revenues, the total number of streaming plays would have to reach millions. For example, in 2021, Apple announced that $0.01 per play is the average royalty payment, so this figure would be $290,000 for a total of 29 million streams. As a small independent publisher, the man will probably receive less than this from Spotify and Apple, but it must be remembered that the initial amount earned was supposed to be double the final amount charged.

Defense lawyers are considering appealing the decision in the Danish High Court, but the judge sentenced the man to 18 months (three of which were spent incarcerated), confiscation of 2 million kroner from the man and his company, and a personal fine of 200,000 kroner ($29,000/$23,000,000).

I must admit that I had no idea that this sort of thing could be so potentially lucrative. Online e-bookstores like Amazon are full of AI-generated scraps, but they are not selling by the millions. But the fact that this man has managed to slip under the radar for so long and rake in so much money could be the tip of a very large copyright iceberg.

If the appeal fails and the conviction is upheld, more cases will be filed in courts in other countries. It will be interesting to see how this case plays out over the next few months.