Mealey's Copyright
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August 14, 2023
Panel: Completion Of Building Not Infringement Of Architect’s Copyright
ST. LOUIS — The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 11 upheld an Iowa federal judge’s determination that no actionable copyright infringement took place when the purchaser of an uncompleted building included in a Chapter 7 liquidation proceeding finished work on the structure without the permission of an architect.
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August 14, 2023
7th Circuit Vacates, Remands Denial Of Fee Award In Copyright Case
CHICAGO — Findings by a federal judge in Illinois that an award of attorney fees in favor of a software licensee accused of infringement would not advance the purpose of federal copyright law “strays from our law,” the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Aug. 11 in vacating and remanding.
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August 10, 2023
Apple Wins Transfer Of Copyright Case To New York Federal Court
SAN FRANCISCO — A romance author’s copyright lawsuit against Apple Inc. in connection with its distribution of an allegedly infringing e-book belongs in New York federal court, a federal judge in California ruled Aug. 9.
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August 09, 2023
9th Circuit Denies Fees Requested By Prevailing Party In Copyright Case
SAN FRANCISCO — On the heels of a recent bankruptcy discharge, a film director will not be ordered to reimburse attorney fees an actress incurred in defending a favorable summary judgment in California federal court, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said Aug. 8.
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August 07, 2023
Copyright Row Over Ownership Of ‘Trump Tapes’ Sent To New York
PENSACOLA, Fla. — A federal judge in Florida on Aug. 4 transferred a lawsuit by former President Donald J. Trump over copyright ownership of audio recordings made by journalist Bob Woodward to New York federal court.
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August 01, 2023
Emergency TRO Entered In Trademark, Copyright Row Between Shein, Temu
CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois said July 31 that Roadget Business Pte. Ltd., operator of the low-cost fashion and home goods website Shein.com, is likely to succeed on its contributory and vicarious trademark infringement and copyright infringement claims against the operators of the competing website Temu.com.
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July 31, 2023
‘Virtually Certain’ Copyright Violations Keep AI Github Claims Alive, Class Says
OAKLAND, Calif. — Anonymous plaintiffs defended California unfair competition law (UCL) and other claims stemming from the alleged use of licensed software posted to the Github repository to train artificial intelligence from a motion to dismiss, saying their allegations were “plausible, highly likely and indeed, virtually certain.”
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July 31, 2023
Maine Federal Judge Partly Dismisses Copyright Case Against EBay Inc.
PORTLAND, Maine — An artist whose copyrighted photographs of her children were photoshopped and then used by others selling counterfeit costumes on eBay.com saw her direct and contributory copyright infringement claims against the online marketplace dismissed July 28 by a federal judge in Maine.
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July 28, 2023
Copyright, Trademark Claims Leveled Over Kushner Documentary Tossed
ROANOKE, Va. — A Virginia federal judge on July 27 granted dismissal of allegations of copyright and trademark infringement by the author of “Slumlord Millionaire,” a how-to book about the real estate industry, in connection with an identically-titled episode of the Netflix Inc. series “Dirty Money.”
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July 25, 2023
8th Circuit Affirms: Copyright Defendant Lacks Minimum Contacts
ST. LOUIS — A copyright infringement lawsuit between two competing publishers over an ethics textbook was properly dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction by an Iowa federal judge, the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled July 24.
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July 24, 2023
Zillow Asks 9th Circuit To Rethink Compilation Ruling In Online Photo Use Spat
SEATTLE — One month after a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a lower court’s finding that a statutory damages award against Zillow Group Inc. for its unauthorized use of photos on its website should be calculated on a per-photo basis, the real estate listings platform provider filed a motion for rehearing on July 21, arguing that the infringed photos constituted a single compilation, thus meriting a single damages award.
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July 20, 2023
Jury Verdict, Fee Award Vacated By Panel In Chart Copyright Row
SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in what it deemed a case of first impression ruled that the registration of a derivative work entitles the author to a registration for all material included in the derivative, including material that previously appeared in an unregistered, original work.
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July 19, 2023
9th Circuit: No Secondary Copyright Infringement For Embedded Instagram Photos
SAN FRANCISCO — Because pictures from Instagram’s platform are not saved on the servers of third-party websites that embed the pictures in posts, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found that the social network operator cannot be found liable for secondary infringement of any embedded copyrighted photos.
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July 14, 2023
Patent, Copyright, False Advertising Claims Won’t Proceed In Utah Dispute
SALT LAKE CITY — A lawsuit by two companies that assert a variety of intellectual property-related claims against a competitor and former employee was trimmed substantially by a federal judge in Utah at the summary judgment stage.
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July 14, 2023
Music Publishers Call 2nd Circuit’s Direct Liability Standard ‘Impossibly Narrow’
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ holding that direct copyright liability can be found only against “the person who actually presses the button” to make infringing copies runs counter to the Copyright Act and U.S. Supreme Court precedent, a group of music publishers tells the high court in a reply brief supporting their petition for certiorari.
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July 13, 2023
Google Accused Of Stealing Data From Gmail Accounts To Train AI Chatbot
SAN FRANCISCO — Eight anonymous plaintiffs filed a putative class action accusing Alphabet Inc., Google LLC and their AI subsidiary of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL), copyright law and privacy laws by “stealing everything ever created and shared on the internet by hundreds of millions of Americans,” including the plaintiffs’ private data contained in their private Google email accounts, to train their AI chatbot.
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July 11, 2023
Content Companies Say Artists Misunderstand How AI Apps Work
SAN FRANCISCO — Three companies engaged in artificial intelligence content generation told a federal judge in California that artists accusing them of stealing original works misstate copyright law and misunderstand how the programs in question work.
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July 10, 2023
Dismissal Bid By Costco, Other Copyright Defendants Denied In California
LOS ANGELES — Three defendants will face a claim for damages and attorney fees in connection with infringement of an unregistered copyright in light of a ruling by a federal judge in California that the design at issue qualifies as a derivative of a copyrighted work.
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July 10, 2023
Sarah Silverman, Writers Sue AI Companies For Using Copyrighted Works
SAN FRANCISCO — The actress and comedian Sarah Silverman and two writers on July 7 filed a putative class action claiming that they are the owners of copyrighted works that were acquired by OpenAI Inc. and affiliated companies and used as part of the datasets with which they trained the ChatGPT AI chatbot, in violation of copyright infringement laws and California’s unfair competition law (UCL).
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July 07, 2023
Copyright Registration Issued To Visual Artist Invalidated In New Mexico
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A federal magistrate judge in New Mexico has declared invalid a copyright issued to a plaintiff that incorporates the work of another artist without attribution, following referral of the matter to the Register of Copyrights.
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July 05, 2023
Judge Won’t Dismiss UCL Suit Against Company That Posted Woman’s Yearbook Photo
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge denied a motion by an aggregator of yearbook photographs to dismiss a putative class action against it for violating California right of publicity and unfair competition laws, finding that the lone remaining plaintiff plausibly alleged that the aggregator incorporated her image into its “advertising flow” directing website visitors to make a purchase.
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July 05, 2023
OpenAI Contests California Competition, Copyright Claims
OAKLAND, Calif. — Plaintiffs claiming that artificial intelligence programs produce licensed materials posted to GitHub without attribution have not shown the programs produced the code for anyone but themselves or that copyright law would not preempt their case and have not adequately pleaded their claims under the California unfair competition law (UCL), OpenAI tells a federal judge in California in a motion to dismiss an amended complaint.
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July 05, 2023
Reconsideration Of Bid For Intra-District Transfer In Copyright Case Denied
OAKLAND, Calif. — A federal magistrate judge in California is standing by her recent decision to deny a defendant’s request to transfer an upcoming retrial on willfulness and statutory damages in a copyright infringement action from one district court location to another.
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July 05, 2023
9th Circuit Upholds Dismissal Of Copyright Claims Against Nirvana
SAN FRANCISCO — Copyright infringement allegations by the granddaughter and sole heir of British author C.W. Scott-Giles — creator of “Upper Hell,” a drawing in a 1949 translation of Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy — against the band Nirvana were properly dismissed on forum non conveniens grounds, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled July 3.
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June 30, 2023
Authors Say AI Chatbot Companies Use Copyrighted Work Without Credit
SAN FRANCISCO — Two authors filed a putative class action accusing the companies that created ChatGPT and other AI chatbots of copyright infringement, unjust enrichment and violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by using their copyrighted works of fiction in the training datasets for their software without permission or compensation.