Mealey's Copyright : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Copyright

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.
April 29, 2024
Motion To Dismiss Partly Granted In Dispute Over NFTs, Source Code

SEATTLE — A federal judge in Washington on April 26 said unjust enrichment claims leveled against two companies in connection with their procurement of source code and other proprietary information must be dismissed because the benefit they allegedly received was indirectly conferred.
April 26, 2024
N.Y. Federal Magistrate Judge Recommends Fee Denial In Clash Between Music Schools

NEW YORK — A request by a music school and its founder for reimbursement of the attorney fees they incurred in successfully defending allegations of copyright infringement, unfair competition and trade secret misappropriation should not be granted, a federal magistrate judge in New York has recommended.
April 24, 2024
Copyright, Trademark, Trade Dress Case Against TikTok Will Largely Proceed

SAN FRANCISCO — Although a motion to dismiss by TikTok Inc. was partly granted April 23, the copyright, trademark and trade dress claims by a China-based company can be repleaded in a fourth amended complaint (FAC), a federal judge in California ruled.
April 23, 2024
Judge Notes Importance Of Music Industry’s AI Suit, Won’t Provide Timeline

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A federal judge said two motions, one seeking a preliminary injunction and another seeking dismissal, in music publishers’ case alleging copyright infringement against Anthropic PBC over the training of its artificial intelligence remain “a priority” and that he was aware that the plaintiffs hoped for expedited disposition but said he would provide no timeline for a decision.
April 18, 2024
Judge Won’t Rethink Dismissal Ruling In GitHub AI Copyright Suit

OAKLAND, Calif. — Five Doe defendants who claim that they did not receive proper attribution for use of their licensed materials on GitHub Inc.’s online collaboration platform failed in their quest for reconsideration of dismissal of their claims under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) when a California federal judge ruled that they did not “show reasonable diligence in bringing the motion” and did not establish any of the prerequisites for justifying reconsideration.
April 18, 2024
‘Top Gun’ Movie Sequel Did Not Infringe Copyrights; Experts On Similarities Barred

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge granted Paramount Pictures’ motion for summary judgment after finding that the “Top Gun: Maverick” film did not infringe on any copyrights held by the author of a 1983 magazine article on the experiences of F-14 pilots and radio intercept officers training at the Navy’s Fighter Weapons School, known as Top Gun, and that certain expert witnesses are inadmissible.
April 17, 2024
Florida Federal Judge Stands By Summary Judgment In Frazetta Copyright Case

TAMPA, Fla. — A bid by the publisher of a book chronicling the work of late artist Frank Frazetta to undo a recent summary judgment of direct copyright infringement failed April 16, when a federal judge in Florida denied a motion for reconsideration.
April 16, 2024
California Plaintiffs Appeal Denial Of Intervention In New York OpenAI Suits

NEW YORK — California plaintiffs whose motion to intervene in New York artificial intelligence copyright infringement cases filed a notice of appeal after the federal judge overseeing the New York cases concluded that the similar but different defendants and claims required denying the request.
April 16, 2024
Microsoft, OpenAI Defend Using News To Train AI In Copyright Suit

NEW YORK — A news organization never explains how any use of its material to train ChatGPT could have injured it, that copyright management information was removed in anything but a private setting or that the artificial intelligence reproduces protected works, Microsoft Corp. and various OpenAI Inc. entities told a federal court in New York in a pair of April 15 motions to dismiss.
April 16, 2024
Panel: Ad Use Of Flag, Plea To Buy American Is Not Literally False

DENVER — A request for damages in connection with the use of a construction equipment company’s copyrighted photographs in alleged false advertisements that implored consumers to buy a competitor’s American-made products was rightly rejected by a federal judge in Oklahoma, the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled.
April 16, 2024
Music Industry Seeks Expedited Review Of AI Infringement Action

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Music publishers asked a federal judge in Tennessee for the status of their request for a preliminary injunction enjoining Anthropic PBC’s training of its artificial intelligence, saying expedited review of the motion and details on when the court plans to hold oral arguments will allow for an efficient presentation.
April 12, 2024
Activision Must Face ‘Warzone’ Trademark Counterclaim In California

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California on April 11 lifted a previously entered stay of discovery in litigation over “Call of Duty: Warzone” and the “WARZONE” trademark, which Activision Inc. stands accused of infringing by a counterclaimant, in denying the videogame maker’s motion for judgment on the pleadings.
April 11, 2024
Architect To 5th Circuit: Promo Materials Without Notice Infringed Copyright

NEW ORLEANS — A license agreement with a developer specified that any publication of its copyrighted works must include its copyright management information (CMI), an architectural firm tells the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in its reply brief, insisting that this applied to promotional materials created by third parties at the developer’s behest.
April 10, 2024
Popular Instagram User Wins Leave To Amend Copyright Claims Against Travel Company

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An Icelandic woman with more than 1 million Instagram followers defeated a travel marketing company’s motion to dismiss copyright infringement claims on April 9, with a District of Columbia federal judge instead granting the plaintiff leave to file a third amended complaint.
April 10, 2024
Court Erred On Timing, Logic In OpenAI Trademark Dispute, Party Says

SAN FRANCISCO — No evidence supports the conclusion that the OpenAI mark acquired secondary meaning by September 2022, and the court’s holding otherwise ignores that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office denied it that status as late as April 2023, a competitor for the mark says in a motion for reconsideration.