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Mealey's Copyright

  • March 04, 2025

    9th Circuit Affirms Copyright Judgment In Software Ownership Dispute

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed all of a California federal judge’s findings on copyright infringement in a dispute between a software company and a logistics company over the ownership rights to a software product, including the judge’s refusal to impose contempt sanctions on the defendant entity.

  • March 04, 2025

    Google, Alphabet Say AI Copyright Claims Lacking, Seek To Strike Class

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — Whether plaintiffs satisfactorily registered copyrights, sufficiently detail their claims and could possibly justify injunctive relief in their consolidated action against Google LLC and Alphabet Inc. sits with a federal judge in California after briefing on motions to dismiss and strike class claims wrapped up in the artificial intelligence case.

  • March 03, 2025

    Microsoft Identifies Individuals Allegedly Involved In Unlawful AI Conduct

    ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Microsoft Corp. filed an amended complaint identifying four individuals previously listed as anonymous defendants who allegedly used the company’s artificial intelligence systems for unlawful purposes, including creating images of misogyny and deepfake intimate images of celebrities.

  • March 03, 2025

    Judge: Photo Company Can’t Show Infringement By Real Estate Firm

    WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A photography company fails to point to any evidence that a real estate company intentionally participated in the infringement of two copyrighted photos that were posted on the social media accounts of an individual affiliated with the real estate firm, a federal judge in Florida ruled after considering dueling motions for summary judgment from the parties.

  • February 28, 2025

    Judge Won’t Let AI Copyright Plaintiffs Set Search Terms

    SAN FRANCISCO — Plaintiffs’ efforts at relitigating issues they lost undermines rulings designed to prevent delays, and the parties appear to be “taking turns to simply conjure up something about which to fight,” a judge overseeing consolidated federal copyright litigation in California involving artificial intelligence said Feb. 27 in denying requested discovery.

  • February 28, 2025

    Record Labels Seek Rehearing In Copyright Row With Vimeo Before 2nd Circuit

    NEW YORK — A group of record labels asked the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reconsider its finding that the labels failed to show that video sharing website Vimeo Inc. had “red flag” knowledge that user-uploaded videos contained copyrighted musical recordings, arguing in a petition for panel rehearing that the decision was in part undergirded by an erroneous reading of the labels’ argument.

  • February 26, 2025

    Federal Judge: Musician Owes More Than $286K In Fees In Rap Copyright Battle

    NEW YORK — A musician who sued rapper Donald Glover, who performs as Childish Gambino, and multiple related entities for allegedly copying one of his songs in the 2018 hit “This Is America” owes more than $286,000 in attorney fees, a federal judge in New York ruled.

  • February 25, 2025

    Judge: Media Outlet Alleges Injury, Copyright Removal For Single DMCA Claim

    NEW YORK — While Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) protections don’t exactly match with historical analogs, the act hews closely enough to protected property rights to provide injury, and a news organization adequately alleges that OpenAI entities removed copyright management information (CMI) from articles during the training of artificial intelligence, a federal judge in New York said while dismissing the remainder of the DMCA claims against OpenAI and Microsoft.

  • February 25, 2025

    Supreme Court Leaves 5th Circuit Copyright Infringement Affirmation In Place

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rejecting a petition for a writ of certiorari on Feb. 24, the U.S. Supreme Court will not hear arguments from a distribution company that the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was wrong to uphold a finding of copyright infringement against it for its use of another company’s software.

  • February 21, 2025

    NBA Teams, Others To High Court: Take Up Copyright ‘Discovery Rule’ Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A group of eight teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA) filed one of three amicus curiae briefs in support of a design company’s argument before the U.S. Supreme Court that the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrongly vacated a New York federal judge’s finding that copyright claims against it were time-barred.

  • February 21, 2025

    Citing ‘Glacial Pace,’ Plaintiffs In AI Copyright Suit Seek To Compel Discovery

    SAN FRANCISCO — While the company behind the Claude artificial intelligence promises to produce discovery before upcoming deadlines, its “glacial pace” over the last four months necessitates a court order compelling the production by certain deadlines to ensure that it doesn’t benefit from further delay, plaintiffs in a copyright suit tell a federal judge in California in a Feb. 20 letter brief.

  • February 21, 2025

    Perplexity AI Says New York Court No Place For Copyright Suit

    NEW YORK — A copyright lawsuit challenging an artificial intelligence-assisted search engine doesn’t belong in New York courts, Perplexity AI Inc. told a federal judge there while advocating for dismissal or transfer to a court in San Francisco.

  • February 21, 2025

    9th Circuit: Singer Can’t Show Katy Perry, Others Infringed Song

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a California federal judge’s dismissal of a woman’s suit against pop singer Katy Perry and several associated individuals and record labels, agreeing with the judge that the woman failed to show how Perry’s song “Smile” infringed on a song she wrote and recorded.

  • February 20, 2025

    2nd Circuit: Publisher Doesn’t Show Infringement In Audiobook Dispute

    NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Feb. 19 agreed with a New York federal judge that an author’s publishing company clearly permitted the distribution of audiobooks based on her work, including through subscription programs offered by Amazon.com Inc. through its audiobook platform, affirming the judge’s dismissal of the publisher’s copyright infringement claims.

  • February 19, 2025

    Judge: State Law Claims Preempted In Rap Song Copyright Battle

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York rejected a request from a group of rappers and associated recording entities to dismiss copyright infringement claims against them accusing them of wrongfully denying another rapper writing credit for a 2016 smash hit, holding that the plaintiff rapper stated his claims adequately enough to survive dismissal.

  • February 13, 2025

    Judge Upholds Limits On Depositions, Discovery In ChatGPT Copyright Case

    SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California denied a motion for relief from a pretrial order, turning away arguments that limits on depositions were improper in such a complex copyright infringement case and that OpenAI entities’ income was relevant evidence in the case.

  • February 12, 2025

    Federal Circuit Says AI Researcher Again Fails To Show Government Took Research

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has again upheld the dismissal of a pro se complainant’s claims against the U.S. government, rejecting arguments that the government inappropriately used his research into artificial intelligence and that a judge in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims committed judicial misconduct in overseeing the case.

  • February 12, 2025

    Thomson Reuters Largely Prevails On Summary Judgment In AI Copyright Case

    WILMINGTON, Del. — Thomson Reuters Enterprise Centre GMBH’s headnotes surpass the low bar for originality, and sufficient evidence exists that a competitor actually or substantially copied thousands of them to train its artificial intelligence with the intent to compete in the same market, a federal judge in Delaware said Feb. 11 in largely granting summary judgment.

  • February 06, 2025

    IBM To High Court: 5th Circuit’s Contract Ruling Unrelated To Copyrights

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) told the U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 5 that it should not grant a petitioner company’s request for a writ of certiorari because there was no error when the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a $1.6 billion award in a contract dispute between the companies.

  • February 05, 2025

    9th Circuit: Former Church Member Lost License To Share Teachings In 2021

    SEATTLE — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals agreed with a Washington federal judge that a former member of a Seattle-based religious community did not breach a licensing agreement by uploading copyrighted church materials after the 1999 death of the organization’s founder but reversed the judge’s finding that the license was terminated in 2021.

  • February 03, 2025

    Judge: Microsoft Must Comply With Constitutional Notice Rule In AI Copyright Suit

    NEW YORK — A federal court rule governing notice for constitutional questions applies to Microsoft Corp.’s “as applied” challenge to New York’s trademark dilution statute in an artificial intelligence case, a federal judge in the state said in ordering Microsoft to comply with the rule.

  • February 03, 2025

    9th Circuit Affirms Fair Use Finding In Aerospace Testing Code Dispute

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge correctly found that an aerospace company’s use of replacement parts with copyrighted code from an aircraft testing software company constituted a fair use, a panel in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held in a per curiam memorandum disposition.

  • January 30, 2025

    Spotify’s Subscription Is A ‘Bundle’ For Royalty Purposes, Judge Finds

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York on Jan. 29 dismissed with prejudice a government-appointed music license administrator’s copyright lawsuit brought against music streamer Spotify USA Inc., holding that the license administrator failed to show how Spotify violated copyright law by reporting its “Premium” subscription product as a “bundled subscription offering” instead of simply a “subscription offering.”

  • January 29, 2025

    Atari, State Farm Settle Infringement Claim Over Arcade Cabinet In Insurance Ads

    DALLAS — Atari Interactive Inc. and State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. and advertising companies that worked with it stipulated to the dismissal of all claims stemming from allegations that State Farm used an Atari arcade cabinet in an ad campaign without the company’s permission.

  • January 28, 2025

    Judge Tosses Designer’s Copyright Claims For Use Of Character On Album Art

    LOS ANGELES — A designer who accused a hip-hop producer of copyright infringement for using a character he designed on multiple album covers since 1999 failed to show that the implied license granted to the producer had any kind of expiration date, a federal judge in California held, granting a motion from the producer and related entities for judgment on the pleadings.