Mealey's Copyright
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February 14, 2024
Government: AI-Assisted Invention Patents Require ‘Significant Human’ Role
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Patent applicants must be “natural persons” — artificial intelligences cannot be listed as inventors — and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) analysis of applications including artificial intelligence-assisted inventions focuses on whether a significant human contribution exists, according to guidance published in the Federal Register on Feb. 13.
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February 14, 2024
Judge Dismisses Bulk Of Writers’ Copyright-Based Claims Against OpenAI
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted in part and denied in part a motion by OpenAI Inc. and its affiliated companies involved in developing the ChatGPT artificial intelligence (AI) program to dismiss claims brought against it in two putative class actions filed by authors who say ChatGPT’s development and operations infringe their copyrights.
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February 14, 2024
GitHub, Microsoft, Coders To Confer Over Discovery In AI Copyright Licensing Row
OAKLAND, Calif. — In a dispute over licensing and attribution of computer code in open-source artificial intelligence (AI) collaborations, a California federal judge scolded defendants GitHub Inc. and Microsoft Corp. and five John Doe plaintiffs for not complying with the proper procedures for submitting discovery letters, leading him to deny the relief sought by the parties and to once again order them to meet and confer over their remaining discovery disputes.
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February 13, 2024
Claims Hip-Hop Artist Copied Song Dismissed By New York Federal Judge
NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York in a Feb. 12 order said no reasonable jury could find that “The Box,” a 2019 rap song that spent 11 weeks atop the Billboard “Hot 100” chart, is substantially similar to “Come on Down (Get Your Head Out of the Clouds),” a song released in 1975 by R&B artist Greg Perry.
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February 13, 2024
California Artists Want OpenAI Enjoined From Litigating New York Actions
SAN FRANCISCO — Artists urge a federal court in California to enjoin OpenAI Inc. and related companies from litigating similar actions in a New York federal court, saying the defendants are proceeding there in an effort to find a more friendly jurisdiction.
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February 13, 2024
RIAA, MPA, Other Amici Back DOJ In DMCA 1st Amendment Fight
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Five trade associations teamed up on an amicus curiae brief supporting the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in a dispute over the constitutionality of certain provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), telling the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that a trial court was right to enforce the statute’s anti-circumvention provision because technological protection measures (TPMs) serve an important role in protecting copyrights and free speech.
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February 12, 2024
New York Federal Judge Denies Reconsideration Request In Copyright Row
NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York has again found that musical artists Shawn Carter, professionally known as Jay-Z, Timothy Mosley, professionally known as Timbaland, and Elgin Baylor Lumpkin, professionally known as Ginuwine, are entitled to summary judgment on allegations of copyright infringement.
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February 12, 2024
Frazetta Daughters Lack Standing In Copyright Row, Florida Federal Judge Says
TAMPA, Fla. — Although allegations of direct copyright infringement leveled in connection with a “Frazetta Book Cover Art” book were proven, two of late artist Frank Frazetta’s daughters cannot remain in the case as plaintiffs, a federal judge in Florida indicated in a Feb. 9 summary judgment ruling.
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February 12, 2024
Studio To 2nd Circuit: Discovery Rule Applies In Posted Photo Infringement Suit
NEW YORK — In an appellant reply brief, a photography studio tells the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that it sued over the online posting of its copyrighted pictures within three years of learning of the purported infringing use, making its complaint timely under the “discovery rule.”
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February 09, 2024
Photography Company Loses Bid For Home Venue In Copyright Case
SEATTLE — Allegations that a rental homeowner ended negotiations to purchase copyrighted images of his Idaho rental properties but then displayed the images online have been dismissed by a federal judge in Washington.
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February 08, 2024
Judge Grants Consolidation In Journalists’ AI Suit Against Microsoft, OpenAI
NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York granted a motion to consolidate two journalists’ copyright infringement suit against OpenAI Inc. and related entities with previously consolidated cases involving fiction and nonfiction authors.
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February 07, 2024
Online News Site Suffers Blow; Panel Says Use Of Copyrighted Photo Not Fair
RICHMOND, Va. — The Independent Journal Review (IJR) must face allegations that it infringed a copyrighted photograph of musician Ted Nugent without a defense of copyright invalidity in place, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Feb. 6.
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February 06, 2024
Panel Affirms: Intake Form Insufficiently Creative For Copyright Protection
ST. LOUIS — A win for infringement defendant Berkshire Hathaway Automotive Inc. (BHA) has been confirmed by the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on grounds that the multinational conglomerate’s accused customer intake form is not copyrightable.
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February 01, 2024
Hearst, Photographer Argue In High Court Briefs Over Copyright Discovery Rule
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a reply brief supporting its petition for certiorari, Hearst Newspapers LLC asserts that the U.S. Supreme Court “has never applied a discovery rule to the Copyright Act” and has twice left the question open, representing that the present copyright dispute over the online use of photographs, presents “a simple and clean record” for the court to resolve the “flawed” reasons that circuits have applied the atextual rule.
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January 30, 2024
Celebrity Tattoo Artist Cleared By Jurors In Copyright Infringement Case
LOS ANGELES — A jury empaneled in California federal court has resoundingly rejected allegations that Katherine Von Drachenberg, better known as Kat Von D, infringed a copyrighted photograph of the late jazz musician Miles Davis with a tattoo she created in 2017.
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January 29, 2024
No Laughing Matter: Dudesy AI Sued Over George Carlin Comedy Video
LOS ANGELES — Individuals using an artificial intelligence created and publicly posted a “click-bait” video of deceased comedian George Carlin without authorization for the use of his likeness or any license to use copyrighted material, the comedian’s representatives allege in a lawsuit filed in California federal court.
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January 26, 2024
Widow’s Bid To Terminate ‘Funny Girl’ Copyrights Rejected By 2nd Circuit
NEW YORK — A lawsuit by the widow of a lyricist who sought a declaratory judgment that she can terminate rights to songs from the Broadway musical “Funny Girl” was properly rejected on summary judgment by a federal judge in Connecticut, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled.
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January 24, 2024
Insurers Have No Duty To Defend Against Copyright Suit, California Panel Affirms
LOS ANGELES — A California appeals panel on Jan. 23 affirmed a lower court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of professional liability and excess insurers, finding that the insurers have no duty to defend or indemnify their investment adviser insured against an underlying copyright lawsuit.
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January 24, 2024
Copyright Act Protects AI-Generated Artwork, Man Says On Appeal
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Precedent governing application of the Copyright Act doesn’t require a human creator, and the law’s very purpose supports granting its protections to art created by an artificial intelligence, a man tells the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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January 24, 2024
Authors In OpenAI Copyright Fight Praise Joint Stipulation, Oppose Stay
NEW YORK — Parties’ carefully crafted stipulation creates “tremendous efficiencies” while removing the threat of dismissal motions and attempts to transfer a pair of class action copyright lawsuits against OpenAI Inc., and the court should reject an outside party’s request that it be stayed and a steering committee be formed, authors tell a federal judge in New York in a Jan. 23 letter.
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January 23, 2024
Music Publishers Say Proposed Amicus Brief In AI Case Is Off Key
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Music publishers on Jan. 22 said a proposed Jan. 19 amicus curiae brief by groups comprising artificial intelligence investors is unnecessary at this stage of their copyright infringement lawsuit and is unlikely to add much to the dispute other than costs and time.
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January 23, 2024
Authors, OpenAI Entities Stipulate To Case Guidelines In Copyright Lawsuit
NEW YORK — Parties to class action copyright lawsuits against OpenAI Inc. and related entities brought by fiction writers and nonfiction authors have agreed to consolidate the two cases and that the defendants will not seek transfer or dismissal of existing claims, among other framework for the cases to proceed, a federal judge in New York said in a Jan. 22 order adopting the stipulation. Meanwhile, two journalists who recently filed a similar suit asked the court on Jan. 23 to hold the stipulation in abeyance until the court decides whether to include their suit in the consolidated actions.
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January 22, 2024
Meritless Publicity Claims In AI Copyright Suit Warrant Fee Award, Company Says
SAN FRANCISCO — Because the plaintiffs dropped right-to-publicity claims from their amended complaint challenging artificial intelligence’s use of their works, it is clear that those claims were meritless, and the court should grant a motion to strike and award fees under the state’s anti-SLAPP statute, Stability AI Ltd. tells a federal judge in California in a reply brief.
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January 22, 2024
High Court Grants Bid By Solicitor General To Argue U.S. Views In Copyright Case
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ten days after U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar moved to participate as amicus curiae in the upcoming oral argument in a case that poses the question of whether damages can be recovered for infringement occurring before the three-year statute of limitations under the Copyright Act’s discovery accrual rule, the request was granted Jan. 22 by the U.S. Supreme Court.
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January 18, 2024
Anthropic Defends Use Of Copyrighted Lyrics, Says Injunction Unnecessary
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Music publishers filed suit in the wrong jurisdiction, but besides that, no evidence suggests that Anthropic PBC’s Claude artificial intelligence will produce copyrighted lyrics going forward absent “special attacks” designed to get it to do so, that the use of those works for training is anything other than fair use or that any use of the copyrighted works caused an injury, the company argues in opposing a preliminary injunction.