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Mealey's Copyright

  • April 04, 2025

    Magistrate Judge: OpenAI’s Definition Of Competitor ‘Wildly Overboard’

    NEW YORK — OpenAI entities’ portrayal of a small Chilean company working on artificial intelligence language bias as a competitor is “wildly overbroad” and would render anyone working in the field of AI a competitor, a federal magistrate judge in New York said in denying a protective order seeking to shield certain documents from an expert witness.

  • April 04, 2025

    Judge Denies Dismissal Of Copyright Suit Against Trump For Song Use

    ATLANTA — A federal judge in Georgia denied a bid from President Donald J. Trump and associated entities to dismiss the second amended complaint brought by parties charged with overseeing the works of late soul musician Isaac Hayes for alleged infringement of the song “Hold On, I’m Comin.’”

  • April 03, 2025

    AI Copyright Plaintiffs Ask Judge To Confirm Extension After Discovery Breach

    SAN FRANCISCO — Artificial intelligence copyright plaintiffs on April 2 asked a federal judge in California to enforce a recent ruling granting more time to respond to a summary judgment motion as result of the violation of a discovery agreement, saying the failure to turn over what the court already recognized as relevant evidence and its broad privilege claims are making responding “burdensome.”

  • April 03, 2025

    Judge Tosses Cannabis IP Suit Against Meta And NYC’s Intervenor Suit

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York dismissed with prejudice a complaint against Meta Platforms Inc. by a “serial IP litigant” who accused the social media company of infringing copyrights associated with marijuana products, holding that the man failed to show Meta infringed the copyrights by allowing the posting of photos with the products’ logos.

  • April 02, 2025

    Thomson Reuters Rebuts Need For Immediate Review Of AI Copyright Ruling

    WILMINGTON, Del. — Interlocutory review in an artificial intelligence training copyright presents complicated issues of the type not permissible in immediate appeals and the resolution of any such appeal would not materially advance the case, Thomson Reuters Enterprise Centre GMBH tells a federal judge in Delaware on April 1 in opposing Ross Intelligence Inc.’s attempt at quickly reversing a summary judgment ruling.

  • April 02, 2025

    Judge: Chicago, Former Top Cop Infringed On Reporter’s Protest Video

    CHICAGO — Chicago’s use of a freelance photojournalist’s footage from protests that turned violent in summer 2020 during a police press conference did not constitute a fair use, a federal judge in Illinois held.

  • April 01, 2025

    Federal Judge: No Jurisdiction To Consider Kennedy Assassination Tape Copyrights

    DALLAS — A federal judge in Texas on March 31 dismissed a complaint brought by a group that focuses on access to public records against a Texas historical society that owns the copyrights associated with footage showing the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, holding that the group failed to establish that the court has subject matter jurisdiction.

  • March 28, 2025

    Judge Dismisses AI Infringement Claims In Music Lyric Suit

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — Contributory infringement and vicarious infringement claims in a case alleging that a company’s artificial intelligence outputs copyrighted music lyrics fail to establish requisite acts by a third party, and contradictory allegations about the removal of copyright management information doom that claim, a federal judge in California said in granting a motion to dismiss while allowing leave to amend.

  • March 28, 2025

    Some Claims Survive Dismissal In News Outlets’ AI Copyright Suit, Judge Says

    NEW YORK — Direct and contributory infringement claims survive a motion to dismiss but Digital Millennium Copyright Act, unfair competition by misappropriation and abridgment claims largely do not, a federal judge in New York said in an order allowing amendment and promising release of a forthcoming opinion “expeditiously.”

  • March 27, 2025

    2nd Circuit: Judge Missed Confusion Analysis In Lego Figure Injunction Order

    NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held March 26 that it cannot determine whether a Connecticut federal judge was right to rule that a toy company’s redesigned figurines still ran afoul of a preliminary injunction previously ordered in an intellectual property dispute with Lego A/S and affiliated Lego entities (collectively, Lego).

  • March 26, 2025

    Plaintiffs Drop 1 YouTube AI Training Suit, Let State Law Claims Be Dismissed

    SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California granted a voluntarily motion to dismiss California unfair competition law (UCL) and other state law claims from a pair of cases involving the use of YouTube videos in the training of artificial intelligence while the plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed a third case in the wake of a motion to dismiss their amended complaint.

  • March 25, 2025

    Copyright Plaintiffs: Microsoft Has Relevant Evidence In OpenAI Suit

    SAN FRANCISCO — A magistrate judge imposed the wrong standard in concluding that Microsoft Corp. has to produce records related to OpenAI entities’ alleged copyright infringement because Microsoft’s $13 billion investment in the entities and their close relationship with the tech giant means Microsoft almost certainly possesses evidence relevant to the case, plaintiffs told a federal judge in California in seeking relief from the ruling.

  • March 24, 2025

    Judge Allows Limp Bizkit Copyright Claims Against UMG To Survive

    LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California allowed to stand copyright infringement claims from band Limp Bizkit and associated entities against Universal Music Group Inc. (UMG) in a royalty dispute, largely denying a motion to dismiss the band’s amended complaint.

  • March 19, 2025

    Copyright Act Contemplates Human Authors, Not AI, D.C. Circuit Affirms

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Copyright protections require a human author and the U.S. Copyright Office properly denied an application listing an artificial intelligence as the author, the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said March 18 in affirming a district court ruling.

  • March 18, 2025

    AI Search Engine Sufficiently Targets New York, Dow Jones Says

    NEW YORK — Artificial intelligence company Perplexity AI markets its highly interactive website nationwide and is registered to do business in New York and transacts business in the state, providing a sufficient anchor to the jurisdiction, Dow Jones & Co. Inc. and a related affiliate tell a federal judge in opposing dismissal or transfer.

  • March 17, 2025

    ISP To High Court: 5th Circuit Wrong To Find Liability In Piracy Fight

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — An internet service provider (ISP) tells the U.S. Supreme Court that the question of whether ISPs can be held to be vicariously liable for copyright infringement based on the behavior of internet customers is a “major question” that could have far-reaching impact on ISP companies; according to the ISP, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was wrong to find in favor of plaintiff-appellee music labels that it was liable for failure to prevent instances of infringement.

  • March 14, 2025

    2nd Circuit Affirms Fair Use Finding, Fee Rejection In Professors’ Copyright Fight

    NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a New York federal judge’s finding that a faculty member at a City University of New York (CUNY) community college did not infringe on the work of another CUNY faculty member during a presentation, agreeing with the judge that the defendant faculty member’s use of the copyrighted material constituted fair use.

  • March 13, 2025

    AI Plaintiffs Say Meta’s Torrenting Is Clear Copyright Violation

    SAN FRANCISCO — Meta Platforms Inc.’s torrenting of protected works to secure material to train its artificial intelligence constitutes a copyright violation and is not protected by fair use, plaintiffs tell a federal judge in California.

  • March 11, 2025

    Supreme Court Rejects Another Copyright Attorney Fee Petition Involving Photos

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 10 rejected a real estate company’s request to consider whether the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrongly upheld a rejection of its request for attorney fees in a copyright infringement case brought against it, and then voluntarily dismissed, by a plaintiff photography company; it’s one of multiple recent denials of certiorari petitions in copyright cases involving the photography company.

  • March 11, 2025

    Supreme Court: No Rehearing In Copyright Attorney Fee Fight

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 10 denied a copyright defendant’s petition for rehearing, again leaving in place a finding from the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that he was not the “prevailing party” under federal copyright law in the face of the copyright owner’s voluntary dismissal of the case.

  • March 10, 2025

    Supreme Court Won’t Consider If Copyrights Affected By Contract Ruling

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 10 decided that it would not hear a software company’s argument that the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ reversal of a $1.6 billion award in a contract dispute with International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) would lead to ripple effects regarding the use of copyrighted software.

  • 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.