The Andy Warhol photo of Prince copyright fair use case that went to the Supreme Court settles

Last year the Supreme Court decided the case of Andy Warhol Foundation Visual Arts v. Goldsmith, 143 S. Ct. 1258 (2023). [Read our blog post from shortly after the decision.] The case was particularly intriguing because it involved the artwork of a famous artist (Andy Warhol) that depicted a famous musician (Prince). The court's decision [...]

By |2024-03-18T17:11:20-05:00March 18th, 2024|Copyright|Comments Off on The Andy Warhol photo of Prince copyright fair use case that went to the Supreme Court settles

GenAI and copyright: Court dismisses almost all claims against OpenAI in authors’ suit

Plaintiff authors sued large language model provider OpenAI and related entities for copyright infringement, alleging that plaintiffs’ books were used to train ChatGPT. Plaintiffs asserted six causes of action against various OpenAI entities: (1) direct copyright infringement, (2) vicarious infringement, (3) violation of Section 1202(b) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”), (4) unfair competition [...]

By |2024-03-14T21:25:44-05:00February 14th, 2024|Artificial Intelligence, Copyright, Infringement|Comments Off on GenAI and copyright: Court dismisses almost all claims against OpenAI in authors’ suit

DMCA subpoena to “mere conduit” ISP was improper

Because ISP acted as a conduit for the transmission of material that allegedly infringed copyright, it fell under the DMCA safe harbor in 17 U.S.C. § 512(a), and therefore § 512(h) did not authorize the subpoena issued in the case. Some copyright owners needed to find out who was anonymously infringing their works, so they [...]

By |2024-03-04T10:18:27-06:00February 12th, 2024|Copyright, DMCA, Litigation|Comments Off on DMCA subpoena to “mere conduit” ISP was improper

Fourth Circuit reverses lower court’s decision in online copyright infringement case

Plaintiff photographer sued defendant news website for copyright infringement over a photo of Ted Nugent that defendant used in an online article. The lower court granted summary judgment for defendant, finding that its use of the photo was fair use. Plaintiff sought review with the Fourth Circuit. On review, the court reversed, applying the factors set out [...]

By |2024-02-09T14:46:36-06:00February 7th, 2024|Copyright|Comments Off on Fourth Circuit reverses lower court’s decision in online copyright infringement case

Online platforms will have to answer for online sales of alleged counterfeit products

A federal court in New York has denied the motion to dismiss filed by Chinese online platforms Alibaba and AliExpress in a lawsuit brought by a toymaker alleging that these companies’ merchant customers were engaged in contributory trademark and copyright infringement through the online sale of counterfeit products. Background of the Case Plaintiff toymaker accused [...]

By |2023-12-28T09:25:05-06:00December 28th, 2023|Copyright, Couterfeiting, Trademarks|Comments Off on Online platforms will have to answer for online sales of alleged counterfeit products

Does a human who edits an AI-created work become a joint author with the AI?

If a human edits a work that an AI initially created, is the human a joint author under copyright law? U.S. copyright law (at 17 U.S.C. § 101) considers a work to be a "joint work" if it is made by two or more authors intending to mix their contributions into a single product. So, [...]

By |2023-07-08T15:27:47-05:00July 8th, 2023|Artificial Intelligence, Copyright|Comments Off on Does a human who edits an AI-created work become a joint author with the AI?

Fair Use and Transformativeness – Unpacking Warhol v. Goldsmith

Is Andy Warhol’s Orange Prince transformative and non-infringing? The copyright bar and much of the  art world has been anxiously awaiting the answer to this question since the Supreme Court decided to take up the matter.   Apparently, Justices Kagan and Roberts were waiting for the same thing. Background In 1984, Andy Warhol created for Vanity [...]

By |2023-06-09T12:31:00-05:00May 26th, 2023|Copyright, Intellectual Property, Licesnsing, Name Image Likeness, Right of Publicity|Comments Off on Fair Use and Transformativeness – Unpacking Warhol v. Goldsmith
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