'Astonishing Theft': Microsoft, OpenAI Staff Reckoned With AI

By Dorothy Atkins

Microsoft and OpenAI employees internally acknowledged for years that AI tools trained on news articles would likely replace publishers, leading to a "doom loop," with a Microsoft director calling it "an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions" and potentially the "largest theft of labor in human history," documents unsealed Thursday show.

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Ex-FCC Leaders Call ABC Probe Attack On Free Speech

By Christopher Cole

A bipartisan group of former top officials at the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday urged a D.C. federal court to put a halt to the agency's ongoing probe of ABC's Disney-owned stations, calling it an attack on free speech.

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Art Institute Wins Appeal In Schiele Nazi-Loot Dispute

By Corey Rothauser

A New York state appeals court Thursday vacated a warrant and orders requiring the Art Institute of Chicago to surrender an Egon Schiele painting to the heirs of Jewish art collector Fritz Grünbaum, finding a criminal-law procedure for returning stolen property could not be used to resolve a sharply contested ownership dispute without full civil proceedings.

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Talk Of Ex-NFL Star's Penis Size Not Actionable, Judge Says

By Bonnie Eslinger

Former NFL football player Matt Kalil can't sue his ex-wife, Haley Kalil, on claims she improperly shared private information about him publicly, a Minnesota federal judge ruled Thursday, saying her comments about the size of his penis are a legitimate matter of public concern.

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Local Publishers Say OpenAI, Microsoft Stole Their News

By Craig Clough

More than two dozen regional, local, trade and specialty publishers have sued OpenAI Inc. and Microsoft Corp. in New York federal court, alleging the companies copied hundreds of thousands of copyrighted articles without permission to train products including ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot.

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Exonerated NJ Power Broker Sues Philly Inquirer For $100M

By George Woolston

New Jersey power broker George E. Norcross III alleged in a $100 million defamation suit filed Thursday in Pennsylvania state court that the Garden State's failed racketeering case against him was built upon fabricated claims and notes that an editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer funneled to prosecutors.

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Amazon Sued For Use Of 'Drunk Shakespeare' In 'Off Campus'

By Gina Kim

Producers of the live comedy theatrical productions "Drunk Shakespeare" sued Amazon in Florida federal court Thursday, alleging that an episode of Amazon's streaming college romantic drama "Off Campus" infringed their trademark by copying aspects of the productions and using the "Drunk Shakespeare" name.  

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Weaponization Fund Plaintiffs Say Discovery Ruling Was Right

By Jared Foretek

Plaintiffs suing over the Trump administration's once-proposed "anti-weaponization fund" are telling a Virginia federal judge to reject the U.S. Department of Justice's objections to a magistrate judge's discovery order, accusing the administration of stonewalling their requests and urging prompt discovery production.

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Industry Groups, IP Attys Back High Court PTAB Denials Case

By Theresa Schliep

The bar association for the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, a group of intellectual property law attorneys and others have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to scrutinize the discretionary denial policies of current U.S. Patent and Trademark Office leadership.

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Skycom Engineer Says Huawei Was His Real Boss In Iran

By Stewart Bishop

A Tehran-born engineer who has since become a U.S. citizen on Thursday testified that he worked for Huawei on projects for the Iranian government, despite technically being employed by what prosecutors say was a thinly veiled subsidiary that the Chinese telecommunications company used to evade U.S. sanctions.

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LinkedIn Secures Ban On Sweeping Data Scraping Operations

By Allison Grande

A California federal judge finalized an agreement that permanently bars a pair of software companies accused of running "industrial-scale" data scraping mills that extracted information from millions of LinkedIn profiles from accessing the professional networking platform and requires them to destroy any data they've obtained. 

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Meta's Slow Content Reviews Not Biggest Concern, Jury Told

By Cara Salvatore

Meta's longtime content policy czar testified Thursday in New Mexico's data privacy trial that leaving up some violating posts for days while they underwent extra review was "less of a concern" than the mistake of pulling down an acceptable post by a high-profile account.

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DOJ Touts 'Substantial' Ad Tech Fix, Leaves Room For Appeal

By Bryan Koenig

The U.S. Department of Justice walked a fine line between hailing a Virginia federal judge's newly unsealed decision ordering Google to open up its advertising placement technology dominance, and leaving open the possibility of appealing the judge's accompanying rejection of its request for a breakup.

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SpaceXAI, Apple Must Show Texas Judge Antitrust Deal Terms

By Dorothy Atkins

A Texas federal judge has ordered Elon Musk's companies and Apple Inc. to provide him with a copy of their recent settlement for in-camera review after OpenAI Inc. demanded to look over the agreement and argued its terms may undermine the antitrust allegations SpaceXAI LLC is still pursuing against OpenAI.

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Watchdogs Sue Trump Over Early Truth Social Post Access

By Jared Foretek

Two government watchdog groups are suing President Donald Trump and other high-ranking officials, claiming that their sale of early access to Trump's policy-focused Truth Social posts violates the First and Fifth amendments and only serves to enrich the president and his social media platform.

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Doximity Hit With Investor's Suit Over Ad Strategy Claims

By Sydney Price

Medical professional networking platform operator Doximity Inc. was hit with a shareholder's proposed class action accusing it of concealing it was losing market share to its competitors and that its website did not rely on the "deep engagement" advertising strategy it had previously touted.

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AT&T Seeks To End Biz Landline Service In 34 States, DC

By Nadia Dreid

AT&T is continuing its quest to end legacy copper line service across the United States, this time asking the Federal Communications Commission for permission to end traditional phone service for businesses in 34 states and Washington, D.C.

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Groups Seek 4.4 GHz Revamp, But Clash On Exclusive Use

By Christopher Cole

Top wireless carriers and shared-spectrum advocates issued reports this week saying the government needs to set the 4 gigahertz band on a path toward industry use, but are at odds on whether to set aside the airwaves for full-power exclusive licenses.

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2nd Circ. Pauses Nielsen Order In Cumulus Tying Case

By Nadia Dreid

The Second Circuit has put on hold a preliminary injunction ordering the Nielsen Co. to offer its national ratings data separate from its local offerings after the company argued that the lower court changed the terms of the injunction after the Second Circuit approved it the first time.

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Brief

Cruz, Markey Urge Senate To Pass Bill On AM Radio In Cars

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., have called on the Senate to advance the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act following its passage in the House of Representatives.

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NFL Agent Blocked From Defending Poaching Suit, 3rd Circ. Told

By P.J. D'Annunzio

Counsel for NFL agent Todd France told a Third Circuit panel Thursday that his client was deprived of the opportunity to fight allegations that he poached another agent's client, asking the court to vacate an $810,846 arbitration award against him.

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TV Azteca Files Ch. 15 Seeking Recognition Of Mexican Reorg

By Alex Wittenberg

Spanish-language television company TV Azteca has filed for Chapter 15 relief in New York bankruptcy court, seeking U.S. recognition of its Mexican restructuring and an order protecting it from litigation in New York that it says threatens its creditors.

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Meta Deal Highlights Advisory Jury Issues, Litigation Risk

The $17 billion settlement of youth safety claims brought against Meta offers lessons for all consumer-facing companies because the court made the rare move of empaneling an advisory jury and the case was built on what the company learned from its own studies, says Mark Morgan at McCarter & English.

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Senate Confirms Kirkland Partner To Texas Federal Bench

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 49-45 on Thursday to confirm Kasdin Miller Mitchell, a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, to serve as a U.S. district judge for the Northern District of Texas.

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Analysis

Sue To Stop AI Armageddon? Not So Fast, Attys Say

By Y. Peter Kang

As executives at leading artificial intelligence companies increasingly assert that their own technology could one day pose an existential threat to humanity, a natural question follows: If the risk is real, can anyone sue to stop it before disaster strikes?

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Clancy Atty Denies Malpractice Claim By Man Serving Life

By Julie Manganis

A prominent Massachusetts criminal defense attorney best known for representing Lindsay Clancy has been accused in a separate case of "abandoning" a client who is serving life sentences for second-degree murder and home invasion, allegations the lawyer denies.

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AI Flubs, More Secure PACER Get Judiciary Forum Spotlight

By Jeff Overley

Misuse of artificial intelligence tools and a "state-of-the-art" revamp of electronic dockets in federal cases were among the hottest topics Thursday at a major meeting of judiciary leaders, who also heard a lawmaker warn of eroding trust in the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Analysis

For Single-Party FTC, Easier Suits May Come With A Cost

By Bryan Koenig

The Federal Trade Commission has ditched its historical multimember, multiparty ethos for a one-party regime in which fewer dissents might make it easier for Chairman Andrew Ferguson to pursue his agenda, but it also forecloses the potential "moderating influence" that comes with winning broad buy-in from commissioners of two parties.

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Immigration Attorney Wants SEC Sanctioned In EB-5 Case

By Tom Lotshaw

An immigration attorney and her firm asked a New York federal judge to sanction the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to reasonably investigate an allegedly bogus unregistered securities claim it brought against them in an EB-5 immigrant investor case.

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