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Mealey's Copyright

  • May 28, 2024

    ISP Tells 4th Circuit Labels’ Misconduct Merits Relief, Discovery In Copyright Row

    RICHMOND, Va. — An internet service provider (ISP), which was found liable for its subscribers’ infringing behavior in downloading copyrighted songs, entreaties the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to find that it was wrongly deprived of the opportunity to conduct additional discovery and seek relief from the infringement judgment after it was discovered that the plaintiff record labels engaged in discovery misconduct by withholding and misrepresenting evidence from their investigation firm that was used against the ISP at trial.

  • May 28, 2024

    In Cribl And Splunk Copyright Fight, Fair Use Finding Explained

    SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California on May 24 issued an opinion detailing the rationale behind his instruction to jurors that certain copying and uses of Splunk Inc. software by Cribl Inc. qualify as fair use under federal copyright law, as well as an order in which he declared that a violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) can be premised on allegations of copyright misuse and rejected the copyright owner’s position that fair use rights can be “contracted away.”

  • May 28, 2024

    Judge Faults Lengthy ChatGPT Complaint As Akin To Town Hall Fodder

    SAN FRANCISCO — Plaintiffs’ lengthy complaint against Microsoft Corp. and various OpenAI entities over the training of artificial intelligence raises policy concerns more appropriate in a town hall than a courtroom, a federal judge in California said May 24 in granting motions to dismiss a class complaint that includes allegations under the California unfair competition law (UCL) and other state laws.

  • May 24, 2024

    Media Companies Seek Opportunity To Respond To OpenAI’s New Standing Challenge

    NEW YORK — After briefing wrapped on artificial intelligence companies’ motion to dismiss two media companies’ Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) case for lack of standing, the media companies accused OpenAI Inc. and the other defendants of changing their argument mid-briefing and on May 23 asked a New York federal court for leave to file a surreply so they could respond.

  • May 23, 2024

    Motion To Dismiss Sinks Copyright Claims Over Scuba Diving Cop Show

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York has dismissed with prejudice allegations of copyright infringement leveled by an author who says he was first to conceive of the idea behind the hit Japanese television show “DCU:  Deep Crime Unit.”

  • May 20, 2024

    High Court Won’t Consider Copyright Discovery Rule In Online Photo Use Row

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Hearst Newspapers LLC’s plea that the U.S. Supreme Court settle the application of the atextual discovery rule to the Copyright Act fell on deaf ears, as the high court in its May 20 order list denied the media company’s petition for certiorari in a dispute over its use of a photographer’s copyrighted photographs on the websites of several of its publications.

  • May 20, 2024

    California Federal Judge Denies JMOL, New Trial In CoComelon Copyright Case

    SAN FRANCISCO — A copyright infringement verdict and $17.7 million award by a California jury in July in a dispute between competing YouTube channels will not be undone, a federal judge there has ruled, deeming the outcome of the trial supported by substantial evidence.

  • May 16, 2024

    Judge Won’t Compel Authors Guild Evidence In Authors’ AI Copyright Suit

    SAN FRANCISCO — While authors portray documents in a related case as clearly relevant to their artificial intelligence copyright claims against OpenAI Inc. and others, their failure to go beyond declaratory statements and explain the relevance of any evidence requires denying the request to compel production, a federal judge in California said.

  • May 16, 2024

    Record Companies Beat Motion To Dismiss; Copyright Claims Over Digitization Proceed

    SAN FRANCISCO — Entities at the helm of the “Great 78 Project” — an initiative dedicated to converting 78 rpm records into digital format and then making the recordings available online for free — were denied dismissal of copyright infringement allegations leveled against them by various recording companies by a federal judge in California on May 15.

  • May 14, 2024

    Tiger King Case Will Be Reheard; Panel Seeks More Briefing On Impact Of Warhol

    DENVER — A March ruling reinstating copyright claims against Netflix Inc. and a production company over video footage taken at the funeral of the late husband of Joseph Maldonado-Passage — also known as “Joe Exotic,” the “Tiger King” featured in the docuseries of the same name — is back on hold, after a panel of the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals agreed May 13 to a limited rehearing in the case.

  • May 14, 2024

    2nd Circuit: Miscategorized Copyright Registration More Than An Inaccuracy

    NEW YORK — An appellant who saw his infringement case against rapper Donald Glover, performing as Childish Gambino, and others dismissed for failure to satisfy the copyright registration requirement was unable to secure reversal from the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which rejected arguments that mistakenly registering a musical work as a sound recording is tantamount to an inaccuracy.

  • May 14, 2024

    Kiwi Farms Operator Can’t Persuade High Court To Hear Copyright Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on May 13 said it won’t weigh in on a reversal by the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals of a Utah federal judge’s decision that dismissed copyright infringement claims leveled against the owner and operator of the Kiwi Farms website.

  • May 13, 2024

    Appellant Seeks Rehearing Of No Coverage Ruling In Dispute Over Gold Treasure

    SEATTLE — An appellant on May 10 asked the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to rehear its April 26 opinion that affirmed a lower federal court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of an ocean marine general liability insurer in a declaratory judgment lawsuit disputing coverage for an underlying $7.5 million covenant judgment that resolved claims that the appellant was denied possession and use of the tangible and intangible work product that was created during gold salvage expeditions.

  • May 10, 2024

    In Tentative Ruling, Judge Says Some AI Copyright Claims Likely Survive

    SAN FRANCISCO — Artists’ copyright infringement claims appear to adequately allege that an artificial intelligence program stores copyrighted works and can be further tested at summary judgment, a federal judge in California said in a tentative ruling on motions to dismiss.

  • May 10, 2024

    Data Scraper Prevails In Spat With X Corp., Judge Finds Copyright Preemption

    SAN FRANCISCO — Dismissal in full, with leave to amend, was granted May 9 in a breach of contract and unfair competition action by X Corp., with a federal judge in California declaring that “the extent to which public data may be freely copied from social media platforms, even under the banner of scraping, should generally be governed by the Copyright Act,” and not by “conflicting, ubiquitous” terms of use.

  • May 10, 2024

    Local, Regional News Outlets Sue Microsoft, OpenAI Over ChatGPT Training Data

    NEW YORK — Eight regional and local news organizations filed a copyright lawsuit in a federal court in New York, adding to the growing list of entities suing Microsoft Corp. and OpenAI over the data they used to train their artificial intelligence products.

  • May 09, 2024

    Divided High Court Affirms Copyright Damages Ruling; Dissent Says DIG Warranted

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a divided opinion issued May 9, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed findings by the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that a copyright plaintiff can recover damages for infringing acts occurring more than three years before filing suit so long as the infringement was alleged within three years of being discovered.

  • May 08, 2024

    Microsoft, OpenAI Shared Knowledge On CMI Removal, Media Outlet Says

    NEW YORK — Microsoft Inc. and OpenAI’s close relationship necessitates that they shared material with improperly removed copyright management information (CMI) and knew that removing the material from training sets could result in ChatGPT plagiarizing the content, a media company tells a federal judge in New York in opposing dismissal of its suit.

  • May 08, 2024

    Jury Verdict Clearing Famed Tattoo Artist In Copyright Row Will Stand

    LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California has turned away a plaintiff photographer’s request for a new trial on allegations that Katherine Von Drachenberg, better known as Kat Von D, copied his photograph of the late Miles Davis for a tattoo she created for a friend in 2017.

  • May 02, 2024

    OpenAI Faults Media’s ‘Generalized Allegations’ In ChatGPT Copyright Suit

    NEW YORK — Journalism outlets’ allegation that ChatGPT-4 produces copyrighted material does not provide an injury on which they can proceed, and removal of copyright management information from internal datasets allegedly used to train the artificial intelligence cannot possibly meet the standard of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), OpenAI Inc. and related entities told a federal judge in New York in seeking dismissal.

  • May 01, 2024

    Website Owner Asks High Court About Scope Of Contributory Copyright Infringement

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The owner and operator of the Kiwi Farms website, who was found liable for contributory infringement over site users’ posting of copyrighted materials, tells the U.S. Supreme Court in a petition for certiorari that the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling improperly expanded secondary liability by holding that receiving a takedown notice sufficiently establishes knowledge of infringement meriting action by a site operator.

  • April 30, 2024

    Ownership Challenge By Valve Referred To U.S. Copyright Office

    SEATTLE — A federal judge in Washington on April 29 ordered a copyright infringement action stayed while the register of the U.S. Copyright Office addresses allegations that a plaintiff knowingly provided inaccurate information when declaring himself author of the allegedly infringed work.

  • April 30, 2024

    California UCL Claims At Core Of Briefing In ChatGPT AI Case

    SAN FRANCISCO — Briefing recently wrapped in California federal court on a motion to dismiss claims in consolidated lawsuits in which authors allege that OpenAI Inc. and others violated the California unfair competition law (UCL) by training artificial intelligence on copyrighted material.

  • April 30, 2024

    Former Governor Defends AI Copyright Suit From Vagueness, Fair Use Challenges

    NEW YORK — Allegations of a news and finance organization’s illicit use of copyrighted material in the training of artificial intelligence suffice to survive a motion to dismiss, and the company’s conclusory statements about fair and intended uses could open “Pandora’s box,” former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and others argue in opposing a motion to dismiss filed in a federal court in New York.  The defendants argue that general statements about training of AI and the lack of allegations of commercial usage of the product doom the complaint.

  • April 29, 2024

    9th Circuit Affirms No Coverage Ruling In Dispute Arising From Gold Treasure

    SEATTLE — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 26 affirmed a lower federal court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of an ocean marine general liability insurer in a declaratory judgment lawsuit disputing coverage for an underlying $7.5 million covenant judgment that resolved claims that the appellant was denied possession and use of the tangible and intangible work product that was created during gold salvage expeditions.