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

Mealey's Copyright

August 01, 2025
Meta Stole, Distributed Porn To Train AI, Companies Allege

SAN FRANCISCO — Meta Platforms Inc. torrented thousands of adult films that provide unique human interactions and facial expressions during the training of the large language models behind artificial intelligence that output video, two companies say in a copyright infringement suit filed in a federal court in California.
August 01, 2025
Microsoft, GitHub Respond To Coders’ AI Appeal; Amici Warn Of ‘Super-Copyright’

OAKLAND, Calif. — Coders have not shown that artificial intelligences produce code identical to their own, and interpreting federal law to cover works that merely resemble a copyrighted work would produce “staggering” results, Microsoft Corp. and online code platform GitHub told the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a response brief. Meanwhile, in a quartet of amicus curiae briefs, the court heard that reading the identicality requirement broadly would undermine the purpose of copyright law and threaten create a “super-copyright” and encourage dubious litigation.
July 31, 2025
Fired Copyrights Register Denied Preliminary Injunction For No Irreparable Harm

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The register of copyrights and director of the U.S. Copyright Office who was purportedly fired in May by President Donald J. Trump failed to show that she will be irreparably harmed without a preliminary injunction, a federal judge in the District of Columbia ruled July 30, denying a motion for that relief.
July 31, 2025
Judge Allows Briefing On Surviving Distribution Claim After AI Copyright Rulings

SAN FRANCISCO — A fair use ruling in an artificial intelligence copyright case left alive a “leeching and seeding” claim involving Meta Platforms Inc.’s alleged distribution of protected works through torrenting and the parties can work out a schedule for summary judgment briefing on the issue, a federal judge in California said.
July 31, 2025
2nd Circuit: Adapter’s ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ Rights Fully Terminated By Author

NEW YORK — A panel in the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals agreed with a New York federal judge that a publishing company’s rights to develop a stage adaptation of Harper Lee’s novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” were fully terminated when Lee served the company with a notice of termination in 2011, rejecting the argument that the company still had rights to stage an adaptation created under an agreement.
July 30, 2025
Judge Certifies AI Class; Plaintiffs Say No Reason For Immediate Fair Use Appeal

SAN FRANCISCO — After a judge certified a class in an artificial intelligence copyright suit, the plaintiffs pushed back on Anthropic PBC’s request for immediate appeal of a fair use ruling, saying an interlocutory appeal will prevent the company from having to go to trial.
July 30, 2025
‘Shadow Library’ Allegations Suffice In AI Copyright Action, Authors Say

SAN FRANCISCO — Allegations of direct copyright infringement and artificial intelligence companies’ decision to hide the sources of their training data suffice at the motion to dismiss stage, authors in a pair of consolidated cases told a federal court in California.
July 29, 2025
11th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Russian Pop Band Copyright Complaint

ATLANTA — An 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on July 28 affirmed a Florida federal judge’s dismissal of a Florida company’s copyright infringement claims against a French digital music company for allegedly infringing on rights associated with a Soviet-era Russian pop group, agreeing that the Florida company failed to establish jurisdiction under the state’s long-arm statute.
July 25, 2025
Federal Circuit OKs Judgment On Patent, Copyright, Other Claims On Steel Brace

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A steel company failed to show that a construction company infringed its patent describing a type of bracing for preventing seismic damage to buildings, a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held, affirming a Utah federal judge’s grant of summary judgment in the construction company’s favor.
July 23, 2025
Judge Dismisses Trump’s Bid For Co-Authorship Of Bob Woodward Audiobook

NEW YORK — President Donald J. Trump failed to show that he is the joint author or copyright owner of the audiobook version of a book by journalist Bob Woodward that included clips of recordings of interviews with Trump, a New York federal judge ruled, dismissing Trump’s second amended complaint against the reporter, publisher Simon & Schuster Inc. and its parent company.
July 23, 2025
Judge: Copyright Claims Not Among Those Surviving In Voice Actors’ AI Suit

NEW YORK — Two voice actors may proceed with claims that a company breached its contract by using recording to train artificial intelligence and infringement claims stemming from the use of the actual voice in presentations, but copyright and Lanham Act claims and those stemming from AI output fall, a federal judge in New York said in partially granting a motion to dismiss.
July 22, 2025
Microsoft, GitHub Say Coders Lack Injury, Identicality In AI Appeal

OAKLAND, Calif. — Coders have not shown that artificial intelligences produce code identical to their own, and interpreting federal law to cover works that merely resemble a copyrighted work would produce “staggering” results, Microsoft Corp. and online code platform GitHub told the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a response brief.
July 18, 2025
Media Companies Appeal Whether AI MDL Required Revisiting DMCA Dismissal

NEW YORK — Two media companies filed a notice that they will ask the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to review a ruling dismissing a Digital Millennium Copyright Act claim against OpenAI Inc. and others as well as whether creation of a multidistrict litigation governing artificial intelligence copyright suits warranted reconsideration of the opinion.
July 18, 2025
Judge Certifies AI Class, Wants Response To Fair Use Appeal Motion

SAN FRANCISCO — In a pair of developments, a California federal judge on July 17 granted a class certification motion in an artificial intelligence copyright suit involving pirated works, saying “It will be straightforward to prove the classwide wrong done” and the case is the exact type that benefits from representative litigation. In an earlier ruling the judge asked for a response to Anthropic PBC’s motion for reconsideration or an interlocutory appeal of a ruling on the company’s fair use arguments.
July 16, 2025
Newly Amended MosaicML Copyright Claims Lack Specifics, Companies Say

SAN FRANCISCO — Plaintiffs in a recently amended action involving artificial intelligence copyright claims make conclusory allegations but never actually link the training of the models to copyrighted works or the plaintiffs’ own works, two companies responsible for training large language models tell a federal judge in California in seeking dismissal of the action.
July 15, 2025
Judge: Fair Use Protects Anthropic’s Use Of Copyrighted Works

SAN FRANCISCO — The use of authors’ copyrighted works for training the large language models behind Anthropic PBC’s artificial intelligence was transformative and is akin to schooling children and constitutes fair use, leaving only allegations that the company pirated copies for inclusion in a digital library, a federal judge in California said in largely granting summary judgment to Anthropic.
July 15, 2025
Independent Music Artist Sues AI Music Companies Over Copyright

In a pair of class lawsuits filed in federal courts in Massachusetts and New York, a country music artist and his recording company claim that artificial intelligence companies illegally copied his and other independent artists’ works, bypassing the type of licensing deals on which artists like himself rely.
July 15, 2025
Class Says OpenAI, Others Stole Copyrighted Works To Train AI

SAN FRANCISCO — Various OpenAI Inc. entities created their artificial intelligence ChatGPT by stealing copyrighted works from the internet rather than obtaining the material legally, plaintiffs allege in a class action filed in California federal court.
July 14, 2025
Judge Won’t Reconsider Ruling Denying Leave To Amend In AI Case

NEW YORK — News outlets will not get to amend their copyright action involving ChatGPT after a federal judge in New York determined that different rulings by other judges and the case’s inclusion in a recently created multidistrict litigation did not warrant revisiting denying leave to amend.
July 11, 2025
4th Circuit OKs Scrapping Of Manufacturer’s Repeat Copyright, Trade Secret Claims

RICHMOND, Va. — A Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that a Taiwanese manufacturer’s copyright infringement, trade secret misappropriation and other claims against a machine distributor failed for being based on conclusory allegations; the panel further found no error in a North Carolina federal judge’s refusal to allow the manufacturer leave to amend its complaint after the company “engaged in pleading practices that approached bad faith.”
July 09, 2025
6th Circuit: Songwriter’s Granddaughter Can’t Void Copyright Terminations

CINCINNATI — A panel in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a Tennessee federal judge’s decision to dismiss a complaint from the granddaughter of the writer of American songbook standards like “Que Sera, Sera” and “Silver Bells” challenging her mother’s terminations of the copyrights for the songs.
July 07, 2025
Federal Judge Tosses Software Company’s IP Claims For Jurisdictional Issues

RALEIGH, N.C. — A federal judge in North Carolina on July 3 held that a software company was not the real party in interest in its intellectual property suit involving a software it makes for insurance companies after it assigned all of its intellectual property rights to its parent company, dismissing the complaint.
July 03, 2025
Judge Grants Summary Judgment On FOIA Claim Involving Copyrighted JFK Film

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted the National Archives & Records Administration’s (NARA) motion for summary judgment on allegations by an open records advocacy group that it violated the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), holding that it was not a violation for NARA to require proof of permission from the holder of copyrights to allow access to a well-known video showing the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
July 03, 2025
Judge Finds For Meta On Fair Use, DMCA In AI Copyright Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — Plaintiffs in a copyright infringement suit over Meta Platforms Inc.’s artificial intelligence could potentially prevail on the theory that the technology threatens to so dilute the market for their works that fair use doesn’t protect the conduct, but the “half-hearted argument” presented by the plaintiffs falls short, a federal judge in California said in granting Meta summary judgment on fair use and Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) claims.
June 30, 2025
High Court To Consider ISPs’ Liability For Users’ Infringement

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 30 granted a petition for a writ of certiorari from an internet service provider (ISP) that told the court that the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was wrong to find it liable for contributory infringement for the actions of internet users who infringed on copyrights held by a group of record labels and music publishers; the high court also denied the labels’ cross-petition challenging the Fourth Circuit’s decision to vacate a $1 billion award in their favor for vicarious infringement.