Google, Meta Hit With Suits Over Use Of Voices For AI

By Adam Lidgett

A group of journalists and voice actors has hit Google, Meta, Microsoft, chipmaking giant Nvidia and speech synthesis software company ElevenLabs with proposed class actions in Illinois federal court accusing the companies of wrongly using the plaintiffs' voices to train their artificial intelligence models.

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Analysis

Everything's About AI, Even This Case About AI-Free 'Avatar'

By Theresa Schliep

An actor's suit alleging that director James Cameron improperly used her likeness in "Avatar" makes no mention of artificial intelligence and targets a film from nearly two decades ago, but even so, the case raises questions about how much people can protect themselves against unauthorized AI-generated content.

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Copyright Chief Says Cox Ruling Merits Congressional Action

By Ivan Moreno

The leader of the U.S. Copyright Office, Shira Perlmutter, told senators Tuesday they may need to respond to the U.S. Supreme Court's March decision that narrowed contributory liability for internet service providers, saying the ruling "left a bit of a hole in the law."

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Weinstein Accuser Credible, Jury Told As 3rd NY Trial Ends

By Frank G. Runyeon

A Manhattan jury heard closing arguments Tuesday in Harvey Weinstein's third New York rape trial, with a prosecutor arguing that aspiring actress Jessica Mann "has absolutely no motive to lie" about an assault she said took place in 2013.

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Ye Infringed Track At 'Donda' Listening Party, Jury Finds

By Rae Ann Varona

The artist once known as Kanye West and his companies infringed an uncleared sound recording in an early version of his Grammy-winning song "Hurricane," showcased at one of his 2021 "Donda" album listening parties, a Los Angeles jury found Tuesday.

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Authors Accuse OpenAI Of Arguing Differently On Each Coast

By Elliot Weld

An attorney representing authors accusing OpenAI of feeding their copyrighted works into training data for large language models told a New York federal magistrate judge Tuesday that the AI startup was asserting vastly different positions in New York and in an ongoing trial in California about whether it ever intended to become a for-profit enterprise.

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'I Believe I'm Trustworthy,' OpenAI CEO Testifies In Musk Trial

By Dorothy Atkins

OpenAI Inc. CEO Sam Altman took the stand Tuesday in the California federal jury trial over Elon Musk's challenge to OpenAI's for-profit conversion, acknowledging that colleagues have accused him of being deceptive while testifying that "I believe I'm a trustworthy person."

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EBay Rejects $56B GameStop Bid, Says Offer Isn't 'Credible'

By Al Barbarino

EBay said Tuesday it is rejecting a $55.5 billion unsolicited cash-and-stock offer from GameStop Corp., calling the proposal "neither credible nor attractive" and citing concerns over financing, strategic risk and governance at GameStop.

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Brief

SCOTUSblog Founder Can't Delay Tax Fraud Sentencing

By Hailey Konnath

A Maryland federal judge has rejected SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein's request to push back sentencing for his tax evasion conviction, finding that Goldstein "has not shown good cause to continue sentencing."

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NCAA Wants Final Whistle On 1983 Team's Appeal Of NIL Suit

By Abigail Harrison

The National Collegiate Athletic Association urged North Carolina justices to keep out of bounds a name, image and likeness lawsuit from members of a 1983 North Carolina State University championship basketball team, arguing that a lower court was right to find the suit several decades expired.

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Businessman Fights Subpoena In Trump Media Dispute

By Carolina Bolado

A Russian businessman with alleged financial ties to Donald Trump's Truth Social platform has urged a Florida appeals court panel to quash an order requiring him to produce documents in a dispute over taking the company public, arguing the production could implicate his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

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NYC China Police Station Case Is Overblown, Jury Hears

By Stewart Bishop

Counsel for a Chinese American man accused of running a secret police station in New York City for China's government told a Brooklyn federal jury Tuesday that his client is being railroaded for helping out his community.

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Citron Founder Didn't Believe His Own Position, Jury Told

By Craig Clough

A cannabis company CEO testified Tuesday as the first witness in Citron Research founder Andrew Left's criminal securities fraud trial, telling a California federal jury that Left published an inaccurate short sale report on his company that quickly tanked its stock even though it appears he lacked the "conviction" of his attack.

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Investor Says AI Startup Duped Him Out Of $10M

By Jarek Rutz

A Pennsylvania investor has sued LifeBrand Inc.'s founder, executives, a financial adviser and two financial institutions in the Delaware Chancery Court, claiming they used inflated business claims, hidden commissions and insider payouts to induce him to put more than $10 million into the social media monitoring startup.

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FCC OKs EchoStar $40B Spectrum Sales To AT&T, SpaceX

By Ganesh Setty

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr announced on Tuesday that FCC staff has approved EchoStar's sale of "underused" spectrum to AT&T and SpaceX, in deals collectively totaling roughly $40 billion.

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Comcast, Power Co. In FCC Tug Of War Over Pole Upgrades

By Christopher Cole

Comcast claims it's still having problems getting Appalachian Power Co. to cover the cost of utility pole fixes for broadband upgrades, but it's not clear whether the Federal Communications Commission is ready to spring into action to resolve the dispute.

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Low-Power TV Group Asks FCC To Allow 5G Broadcast Standard

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

The Low-Power TV Broadcasters Association asked the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday to allow it to use the 5G broadcast standard to deliver content to smartphones.

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Sports Broadcasting Protections Need Overhaul, Groups Say

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

State broadcasting groups have called on Congress to update the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 to protect fan access to programming amid the growing number of streaming paywalls.

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Gray, Dish Settle FCC Complaint After Retransmission Deal

By Christopher Cole

Gray Television has settled with Dish Network over a complaint to the Federal Communications Commission alleging that the satellite TV provider was airing Gray's content without permission, after the companies ended a retransmission consent dispute this month.

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Brief

Trump Gets Time For Justices To Review $83M Carroll Verdict

By Gina Kim

President Donald Trump can delay enforcement of the $83.3 million verdict for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll while he appeals the Second Circuit's en banc refusal to rehear his appeal, as long as he puts up $7.5 million in interest that may accrue during Supreme Court proceedings, the panel said Monday. 

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Spanish Broadcasting Gets Approved For $7M In DIP Funding

By Emlyn Cameron

A Delaware bankruptcy judge on Tuesday gave radio station operator Spanish Broadcasting System Inc. interim access to $7 million of its proposed $30 million postpetition financing package and set a confirmation hearing for June.

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4 Emerging Approaches To AI Protective Order Language

Over the last year, at least five federal district courts have issued or analyzed specific protective order provisions restricting the use of generative artificial intelligence platforms with protected materials, establishing that proactive AI-specific provisions are now standard practice and demonstrating that no single model works for every case, says Joel Bush at Kilpatrick.

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Assessing Material Adverse Event Clauses Amid Iran Conflict

As deals signed before the current Middle East conflict come under pressure, determinations over material adverse effect clauses are arising in real time, and whether an MAE has been wrongfully invoked may be as consequential as whether it was validly established in the first place, say Amran Nawaz and Ralph Stobwasser at Secretariat.

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Opinion

USPTO Must Address The Right Question In Sanofi Case

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Appeals Review Panel's questions in Ex parte Baurin indicate recognition of broader doctrinal issues, but rather than approaching from separate angles, the panel should concentrate on a single fundamental question about obviousness-type double patenting, says Jeremy Lowe at Spencer Fane.

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How They Won It

Attys For Tufts Profs Didn't Blink In A Tenure Standoff

By Julie Manganis

When Jennifer Henricks and Kevin Peters first learned what was happening to tenured professors at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston a few years ago, they knew that what was at stake involved more than just a dispute over the terms of a contract.

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Palestinian Ex-Associate Slaps DLA Piper With Bias Claim

By Lynn LaRowe

DLA Piper has been hit with a federal civil rights lawsuit in Illinois from a former summer associate alleging discrimination, a hostile work environment and retaliation based on her identity as a Palestinian, Gazan, Arab and Muslim woman.

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Fired Immigration Judge Says Trump Can't Skirt Bias Laws

By Grace Elletson

A former immigration judge urged a D.C. federal court not to throw out her bias suit challenging her firing, arguing the U.S. Department of Justice was pushing the "breathtaking proposition" that the president was empowered to commit unlawful discrimination.

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Law Student Can't Get School To Nix Kirk Comment Discipline

By Mike Curley

A Texas federal judge on Tuesday said the court cannot force Texas Tech University's leaders to rescind a reprimand against a law student who allegedly celebrated following the death of Charlie Kirk, as the university has sovereign immunity.

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Michigan Dems Noncommittal On Trump's Judicial Pick

By Courtney Bublé

Michigan's two Democratic senators played it coy on Tuesday when asked if they would support the district court nominee for their state that the president announced the night before.

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PayPal Settles Gov't DEI Probe With Small Biz Program

By Sarah Jarvis

The U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday that it has reached a settlement with PayPal Inc. to end an investigation into what the department said was a discriminatory investment program for Black- and minority-owned businesses.

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