Mealey's Copyright
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August 26, 2024
Federal Judge: Artist’s Trademark, Copyright Claims Against Amazon Largely Survive
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A federal judge in California partly denied a motion from Amazon.com Inc. to dismiss a complaint brought against it by an artist, holding that the artist adequately established that the defendant infringed upon his trademarks by selling counterfeited works, but noted that the artist conceded that he failed to establish other elements of his claims.
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August 23, 2024
Magistrate Judge: Office Depot Owed Some Fees In Copyright, Contract Dispute
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A federal magistrate judge in Florida said that Office Depot Inc. should recover just under $1 million in attorney fees from a software development company that accused the retailer of copyright misappropriation through its use of a database created by the developer after a federal judge previously held that a licensing agreement between the two companies allowed Office Depot’s use of the database.
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August 22, 2024
Record Labels, ISP Both Complain Of 4th Circuit’s Copyright Holding To High Court
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In dueling petitions for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court, a group of record labels and music publishers say the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrongly vacated a $1 billion award for vicarious copyright infringement by an internet service provider (ISP), while the ISP argues the Fourth Circuit erred in finding it is liable for contributory infringement.
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August 21, 2024
Anthropic Faces 1st AI Copyright Suit From Authors
SAN FRANCISCO — Three authors filed a class action against Anthropic PBC in a California federal court claiming that the company’s business model consists of “largescale theft” of “hundreds of thousands of copyrighted books” so that it can train its artificial intelligence.
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August 20, 2024
7th Circuit: Extortionist Failed To Show Ownership Over Celebrity Photos
CHICAGO — A panel of the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed an Illinois federal judge’s dismissal of a copyright claim brought by a former actor and convicted extortionist against multiple news outlets, agreeing that the man failed to show that he had copyright ownership of photographs of him appearing with multiple celebrities published by the outlets after his arrest.
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August 20, 2024
2nd Circuit: No Exception To Copyright Act Limitations Statute’s Discovery Rule
NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel vacated a New York federal judge’s finding that a photography studio’s copyright claims were time-barred, saying the judge incorrectly held that an exception to the “discovery rule” precludes “sophisticated plaintiffs” from bringing a copyright claim three years after the discovery of the alleged infringement.
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August 19, 2024
11th Circuit Rejects Artist’s Copyright Claims For Banana Piece
ATLANTA — A panel of the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 16 affirmed a Florida federal judge’s grant of summary judgment in favor of an artist who saw online virality after duct taping a banana to a wall at a Miami art fair, agreeing with the judge that another artist failed to show how the work infringed on his own art piece also involving a banana duct taped to a wall from nearly two decades earlier.
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August 16, 2024
9th Circuit Reverses Finding Of No Jurisdiction In Sumo Wrestling Copyright Fight
SAN FRANCISCO — A partially split panel of judges in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals partially reversed a California federal judge’s decision to dismiss a copyright infringement dispute between two broadcasting companies over a sumo wrestling competition because the alleged infringement occurred entirely in Japan; the panel majority held that the plaintiff company could conceivably show the circumvention of copyright law occurred domestically.
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August 15, 2024
News Outlets Say Stable Diffusion AI Ruling Supports Copyright Case
NEW YORK — A ruling allowing induced copyright infringement claims and finding Stable Diffusion artificial intelligence itself an infringing work applies to contributory infringement claims alleging that ChatGPT memorized works and will output “near-verbatim” replicas, news outlets argue in an Aug. 14 notice of supplemental authority.
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August 15, 2024
Guitar Seller Says 1st Circuit Wrongly Ordered New Trial In Copyright Case
BOSTON — A guitar seller who was accused of copyright infringement by a guitar manufacturer that said it used a copyrighted photo of guitar headstocks on its website filed a petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc after a First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ordered a new trial in a New Hampshire federal court, arguing that the panel widened a circuit split over what standard a court can use to determine the relationship between alleged infringement and subsequent revenue.
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August 15, 2024
Judge Says Some AI Copyright Claims Survive In Visual Arts Suit
SAN FRANCISCO — An amended complaint permissibly adds claims and defendants, and while some of those claims are unsuccessful, copyright claims against DeviantArt, Stability AI Ltd. and others survive, thanks in part to new allegations of improper copying of works to train artificial intelligence, a federal judge in California said in partially granting motions to dismiss.
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August 14, 2024
5th Circuit Issues Updated Opinion In Copyright Row Over Canadian Legal Codes
NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued a new version of a July opinion in which it reversed a Texas federal judge’s grant of summary judgment against a publisher accused by a Canadian developer of legal codes and standards of illegally republishing complete versions of the code because the code is effectively uncopyrightable “law” in Canada, removing a reference to the developer referring to itself as a government agency.
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August 13, 2024
After Dismissing UCL Claim, Judge Relieves Plaintiffs Of ChatGPT Discovery
SAN FRANCISCO — Attorney-created prompts and testing of ChatGPT constitute protected opinion work product, and copyright infringement plaintiffs did not waive work product protections by including some results in their complaint, and the protections are not overcome simply because production would shed light on the case, a federal judge in California said in granting relief from a magistrate judge’s ruling.
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August 12, 2024
New York Times Says Judge Nixed Ruling OpenAI Cites Ordering Discovery Of Prompts
NEW YORK — A judge recently overruled a magistrate judge’s order that was cited by OpenAI Inc. and related entities in their effort to obtain prompts and other material related to presuit testing of ChatGPT, the New York Times Co. (NYT) told a federal judge in New York on Aug. 9 in its copyright infringement action against the creators of the artificial intelligence.
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August 12, 2024
5th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Singer’s Copyright Claim Against Rolling Stones
NEW ORLEANS — In a per curiam opinion, a panel of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that a Louisiana federal judge was correct to dismiss a Spanish singer’s copyright infringement complaint against The Rolling Stones, its members and associated record labels because the singer failed to establish that the court had personal jurisdiction over the defendants.
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August 07, 2024
Judge Relates Pair Of AI Copyright Actions As Briefing On Dismissal Begins
SAN FRANCISCO — Arguments about differences in parties and the specificity of claims in two copyright suits might stand in the way of consolidation of the actions but do not prevent relating the cases, which involve artificial intelligence created by defendant Google LLC, a federal judge in California said in a docket entry.
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August 07, 2024
D.C. Circuit Affirms Finding That DMCA Does Not Run Afoul Of 1st Amendment
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel rejected two technologists’ challenge to the constitutionality of certain provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), holding that a federal district court rightly enforced the statute’s anti-circumvention provision with regard to technological protection measures (TPMs).
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August 06, 2024
Federal Judge Tosses Singer’s ‘Shotgun’ Copyright Suit Targeting Music Companies
MIAMI — A federal judge in Florida dismissed a copyright claim brought by a Venezuelan musician claiming that several music companies illegally uploaded his music to online music streaming platforms, adopting a federal magistrate judge’s report wherein the magistrate judge found that the musician’s complaint is an impermissible shotgun pleading and that the musician failed to substantiate some of his claims.
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August 05, 2024
11th Circuit: Court Must Reconsider If Tech Company’s Full Code Is Copyrightable
ATLANTA — A panel of the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that a Florida federal magistrate judge failed to fully consider the copyrightability of the code of a company that makes a software comparing life insurance quotes in a case the company brought against competitors it said stole its trade secrets by taking portions of its database, ordering the judge to make a new finding of facts for the company’s copyright claim
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August 02, 2024
Judge Grants Summary Judgment To Airline On Copyright Claim Against Reseller
FORT WORTH, Texas — A federal judge in Texas held that American Airlines Inc. was entitled to summary judgment on copyright infringement claims it brought against a company that exploits an airline ticket loophole to save customers money on tickets, finding that the company failed to show that its use of the American Airlines flight symbol on its website was a fair use of the flight symbol.
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August 01, 2024
1st Circuit Orders New Copyright Infringement Damages Trial For Guitar Maker
BOSTON — A panel of the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ordered a new jury trial on the issue of infringing profits on a copyright claim brought by a guitar manufacturer who said a guitar seller used a copyrighted photo of guitar headstocks on its website, holding that a New Hampshire federal judge did not accurately explain the manufacturer’s burden of proof in jury instructions.
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August 01, 2024
Code Publisher Seeks Rehearing After 5th Circuit Finds Codes Uncopyrightable
NEW ORLEANS — In a pair of petitions, a Canadian developer of legal standards and codes requested either panel rehearing or rehearing en banc after a split panel in the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a Texas federal judge’s grant of summary judgment against a publisher accused by the developer of illegally republishing complete versions of the code, arguing that the panel incorrectly held that the codes are effectively “law” in Canada.
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July 31, 2024
Authors’ UCL Claim Dismissed From ChatGPT Copyright Case
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on July 30 granted a motion by OpenAI Inc. and affiliates to dismiss authors’ claims that they violated California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by training artificial intelligence on copyrighted material after finding the claim preempted by federal copyright law.
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July 31, 2024
Federal Magistrate Judge: Photographer’s Copyright Claims Not Time-Barred
NEW YORK — A federal magistrate judge in New York recommended that a web company’s motion to dismiss copyright infringement claims brought against it by a photographer be denied, saying the company is wrong to argue that the claims are time-barred because accrual began when the alleged infringement was discovered in 2022, not when the alleged infringement occurred in 2015.
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July 30, 2024
Stability AI Wants Copyright Suit Sent To California
WILMINGTON, Del. — California federal court provides an all-around better location for an artificial intelligence copyright suit, Stability AI Ltd. and related entities told a federal judge in Delaware on July 29, saying that California provides better access to witnesses and evidence, a less congested court and an already pending suit involving similar allegations.