Intellectual Property
Authors’ Vicarious Infringement Claims Against ChatGPT Dismissed
Matt KristoffersenThe U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California recently dismissed most of a collection of claims brought by a group of authors against OpenAI, alleging that the artificial intelligence company infringes their copyright when it uses their works to train its large language model ChatGPT.
Supreme Court, Second Circuit Consider Copyright Infringement Statute of Limitation Implications
Gillian VernickNeither case squarely presented the question of when a copyright claim ‘accrues,’ understood by many federal circuits as when the copyright owner first “discovers” the allegedly infringing use. However, the challenges that both cases raise about the discovery rule’s application may hint at its potential impermanence.
Fourth Circuit Rules Against News Org’s Use of Ted Nugent Photograph
Jamie Ehrlich and Cynthia A. GierhartThe Fourth Circuit ruled that a news organization’s use of a photograph of musician Ted Nugent did not constitute fair use, siding with the photographer who argued that the news organization did not alter or add any new expression required to overcome the requirements for proper attribution.
Federal Court Dismisses Copyright Lawsuit Against Friends, Sex and the City, Other Shows
Elizabeth A. McNamara and Meenakshi KrishnanThe Court found that no lay observer could find any substantial similarities between the protectible material of Lee’s work and the four shows.
California Federal Court Grants Summary Judgment for Defendants in Ad Astra Copyright / Idea Theft Case
David Aronoff and Josh BornsteinPlaintiff alleged that Ad Astra infringed his copyright in and stole ideas from his unproduced spec screenplay entitled Cosmic Force. However, in granting summary judgment the Court ruled that these claims failed to raise genuine issues warranting a trial.
Federal Court Holds that Incidental Capture of Photos in Background of Documentary Film is Fair Use
Adam Rich and Samuel BayardThis decision will be helpful to documentary filmmakers who incidentally capture copyrighted works while documenting actions and events that are of legitimate public concern.
Federal Court in Tiger King Case Cites Warhol in Dismissing Copyright Claim Against Netflix
Anthony DohertyDespite some gloom and doom about the future of fair use after the Supreme Court’s decision in Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Inc. v. Goldsmith last May, it seems that for documentary film makers at least, fair use is in roaring good health.
D.C. Federal Court Says AI Generated Art Not Copyrightable
Alycia S. TullochAfter the years-long saga surrounding whether a two-dimensional piece of artwork created by Dr. Thaler’s Creativity Machine could be registered as a copyright, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia issued a final order stating that machine generated artwork is not copyrightable.
“Server Test” Is Reaffirmed (For Now) in Hunley v. Instagram
Jim Rosenfeld and Raphael Holoszyc-PimentelThe server test has been the law in the Ninth Circuit since 2007, but in recent years it has come under attack in lower courts in other jurisdictions.
Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith Roundtable Discussion
Caren Decter, David Korzenik and Mickey OsterreicherThe decision has been controversial and has received mixed reviews within the copyright bar, so MLRC convened an expert roundtable to weigh-in.