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Mealey's Copyright

  • August 30, 2024

    7th Circuit: No Enforceable Contract To Support Company’s Securities Claims

    CHICAGO — A panel of the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that an Illinois federal judge was correct to dismiss claims of securities fraud and other claims brought by a company against a software startup, holding that the plaintiff company failed to show that an enforceable agreement regarding an exchange of ownership interest for an investment existed.

  • August 29, 2024

    9th Circuit Affirms Arbitrator Award In Copyright Fight Over Video Game Cheats

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Washington federal judge did not err by approving an arbitrator’s award of nearly $4.4 million against the creator of a video game cheating software on copyright claims brought by the developer of a game, a panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held, finding that the arbitrator committed no errors in litigating the case.

  • August 29, 2024

    AI Copyright Suit Should Stay In Delaware, Getty Images Argues

    WILMINGTON, Del. — An artificial intelligence image copyright lawsuit lacks any connection to the defendants’ preferred forum of California, and in the event the suit is sent out west, plaintiff Getty Images [US] Inc. would oppose consolidation with pending litigation, rendering any potential efficiencies “illusory,” Getty says in a brief in opposition to a renewed motion to transfer filed in Delaware federal court.

  • August 29, 2024

    5th Circuit: Judge Erred On Trade Secret Claims, But Not Copyright Claims

    NEW ORLEANS — A panel of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that a Louisiana federal judge was correct to issue a final judgment in favor of a plaintiff technology security company on copyright infringement claims it brought against a former distribution partner, but the panel also found that the judge was incorrect to issue a judgment in favor of the plaintiff on trade secrets claims.

  • August 27, 2024

    Majority Affirms Judgment For Insured In Copyright Infringement Coverage Suit

    CINCINNATI — A majority of the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower federal court’s $36,923,844.50 judgment in favor of an insured in a coverage dispute over underlying copyright infringement claims brought by record companies, rejecting the insurer’s argument that certain exclusions in the Internet and network security insurance policy barred coverage.

  • August 26, 2024

    Federal Judge: Rap Group Owed Royalties In Contract, Copyright Dispute Over Song

    NEW YORK — A music publisher must pay royalties to a hip-hop group that created a 1986 hit single despite the label’s concern that the song infringed the theme song of the long-running television show “Dragnet,” a federal judge in New York ruled, granting a motion for summary judgment from the musical group and denying a motion for summary judgment from the label.

  • August 26, 2024

    Federal Judge: Artist’s Trademark, Copyright Claims Against Amazon Largely Survive

    RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A federal judge in California partly denied a motion from Amazon.com Inc. to dismiss a complaint brought against it by an artist, holding that the artist adequately established that the defendant infringed upon his trademarks by selling counterfeited works, but noted that the artist conceded that he failed to establish other elements of his claims.

  • August 23, 2024

    Magistrate Judge: Office Depot Owed Some Fees In Copyright, Contract Dispute

    WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A federal magistrate judge in Florida said that Office Depot Inc. should recover just under $1 million in attorney fees from a software development company that accused the retailer of copyright misappropriation through its use of a database created by the developer after a federal judge previously held that a licensing agreement between the two companies allowed Office Depot’s use of the database.

  • August 22, 2024

    Record Labels, ISP Both Complain Of 4th Circuit’s Copyright Holding To High Court

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In dueling petitions for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court, a group of record labels and music publishers say the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrongly vacated a $1 billion award for vicarious copyright infringement by an internet service provider (ISP), while the ISP argues the Fourth Circuit erred in finding it is liable for contributory infringement.

  • August 21, 2024

    Anthropic Faces 1st AI Copyright Suit From Authors

    SAN FRANCISCO — Three authors filed a class action against Anthropic PBC in a California federal court claiming that the company’s business model consists of “largescale theft” of “hundreds of thousands of copyrighted books” so that it can train its artificial intelligence.

  • August 20, 2024

    7th Circuit: Extortionist Failed To Show Ownership Over Celebrity Photos

    CHICAGO — A panel of the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed an Illinois federal judge’s dismissal of a copyright claim brought by a former actor and convicted extortionist against multiple news outlets, agreeing that the man failed to show that he had copyright ownership of photographs of him appearing with multiple celebrities published by the outlets after his arrest.

  • August 20, 2024

    2nd Circuit: No Exception To Copyright Act Limitations Statute’s Discovery Rule

    NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel vacated a New York federal judge’s finding that a photography studio’s copyright claims were time-barred, saying the judge incorrectly held that an exception to the “discovery rule” precludes “sophisticated plaintiffs” from bringing a copyright claim three years after the discovery of the alleged infringement.

  • August 19, 2024

    11th Circuit Rejects Artist’s Copyright Claims For Banana Piece

    ATLANTA — A panel of the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 16 affirmed a Florida federal judge’s grant of summary judgment in favor of an artist who saw online virality after duct taping a banana to a wall at a Miami art fair, agreeing with the judge that another artist failed to show how the work infringed on his own art piece also involving a banana duct taped to a wall from nearly two decades earlier.

  • August 16, 2024

    9th Circuit Reverses Finding Of No Jurisdiction In Sumo Wrestling Copyright Fight

    SAN FRANCISCO — A partially split panel of judges in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals partially reversed a California federal judge’s decision to dismiss a copyright infringement dispute between two broadcasting companies over a sumo wrestling competition because the alleged infringement occurred entirely in Japan; the panel majority held that the plaintiff company could conceivably show the circumvention of copyright law occurred domestically.

  • August 15, 2024

    News Outlets Say Stable Diffusion AI Ruling Supports Copyright Case

    NEW YORK — A ruling allowing induced copyright infringement claims and finding Stable Diffusion artificial intelligence itself an infringing work applies to contributory infringement claims alleging that ChatGPT memorized works and will output “near-verbatim” replicas, news outlets argue in an Aug. 14 notice of supplemental authority.

  • August 15, 2024

    Guitar Seller Says 1st Circuit Wrongly Ordered New Trial In Copyright Case

    BOSTON — A guitar seller who was accused of copyright infringement by a guitar manufacturer that said it used a copyrighted photo of guitar headstocks on its website filed a petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc after a First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ordered a new trial in a New Hampshire federal court, arguing that the panel widened a circuit split over what standard a court can use to determine the relationship between alleged infringement and subsequent revenue.

  • August 15, 2024

    Judge Says Some AI Copyright Claims Survive In Visual Arts Suit

    SAN FRANCISCO — An amended complaint permissibly adds claims and defendants, and while some of those claims are unsuccessful, copyright claims against DeviantArt, Stability AI Ltd. and others survive, thanks in part to new allegations of improper copying of works to train artificial intelligence, a federal judge in California said in partially granting motions to dismiss.

  • August 14, 2024

    5th Circuit Issues Updated Opinion In Copyright Row Over Canadian Legal Codes

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued a new version of a July opinion in which it reversed a Texas federal judge’s grant of summary judgment against a publisher accused by a Canadian developer of legal codes and standards of illegally republishing complete versions of the code because the code is effectively uncopyrightable “law” in Canada, removing a reference to the developer referring to itself as a government agency.

  • August 13, 2024

    After Dismissing UCL Claim, Judge Relieves Plaintiffs Of ChatGPT Discovery

    SAN FRANCISCO — Attorney-created prompts and testing of ChatGPT constitute protected opinion work product, and copyright infringement plaintiffs did not waive work product protections by including some results in their complaint, and the protections are not overcome simply because production would shed light on the case, a federal judge in California said in granting relief from a magistrate judge’s ruling.

  • August 12, 2024

    New York Times Says Judge Nixed Ruling OpenAI Cites Ordering Discovery Of Prompts

    NEW YORK — A judge recently overruled a magistrate judge’s order that was cited by OpenAI Inc. and related entities in their effort to obtain prompts and other material related to presuit testing of ChatGPT, the New York Times Co. (NYT) told a federal judge in New York on Aug. 9 in its copyright infringement action against the creators of the artificial intelligence.

  • August 12, 2024

    5th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Singer’s Copyright Claim Against Rolling Stones

    NEW ORLEANS — In a per curiam opinion, a panel of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that a Louisiana federal judge was correct to dismiss a Spanish singer’s copyright infringement complaint against The Rolling Stones, its members and associated record labels because the singer failed to establish that the court had personal jurisdiction over the defendants.

  • August 07, 2024

    Judge Relates Pair Of AI Copyright Actions As Briefing On Dismissal Begins

    SAN FRANCISCO — Arguments about differences in parties and the specificity of claims in two copyright suits might stand in the way of consolidation of the actions but do not prevent relating the cases, which involve artificial intelligence created by defendant Google LLC, a federal judge in California said in a docket entry.

  • August 07, 2024

    D.C. Circuit Affirms Finding That DMCA Does Not Run Afoul Of 1st Amendment

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel rejected two technologists’ challenge to the constitutionality of certain provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), holding that a federal district court rightly enforced the statute’s anti-circumvention provision with regard to technological protection measures (TPMs).

  • August 06, 2024

    Federal Judge Tosses Singer’s ‘Shotgun’ Copyright Suit Targeting Music Companies

    MIAMI — A federal judge in Florida dismissed a copyright claim brought by a Venezuelan musician claiming that several music companies illegally uploaded his music to online music streaming platforms, adopting a federal magistrate judge’s report wherein the magistrate judge found that the musician’s complaint is an impermissible shotgun pleading and that the musician failed to substantiate some of his claims.

  • August 05, 2024

    11th Circuit: Court Must Reconsider If Tech Company’s Full Code Is Copyrightable

    ATLANTA — A panel of the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that a Florida federal magistrate judge failed to fully consider the copyrightability of the code of a company that makes a software comparing life insurance quotes in a case the company brought against competitors it said stole its trade secrets by taking portions of its database, ordering the judge to make a new finding of facts for the company’s copyright claim