How Can AI Models Legally Obtain Training Data?–Doe 1 v. GitHub (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Kieran McCarthy Doe 1 v. GitHub, Inc. is one of the first major class-action lawsuits to dive into questions of online collection of “public data” and generative AI training data sets. Given the importance of generative AI…
Class Certification Denied Over Rightsowners’ Demands for Content ID Access–Schneider v. YouTube
The court summarizes the case: “plaintiffs allege that YouTube has violated the copyright laws by withholding broad access to Content ID….Plaintiffs also allege that YouTube automatically strips metadata out of uploaded videos, including copyright management information (CMI), which makes it…
Ill-Advised Attempt to Blow Up the DMCA Online Safe Harbors Unsurprisingly Fails–Athos v. YouTube
Athos owns the copyrights to many classic Mexican films. Users regularly upload its film clips to YouTube. These uploads have irritated Athos since 2014. However, Athos rejected YouTube’s fast-lane options for copyright owners (such as the Copyright Match Tool, Content…
DMCA 512(c) Safe Harbor Doesn’t Apply to Photo Embedding–Great Bowery v. Best Little Sites
This case involves Annie Leibovitz photos, represented by licensing and enforcement agency Trunk Archive. Allegedly, users of comicbookmovie.com (CBM) embedded the Leibovitz photos into the site by linking to the images hosted on third-party sites. Once CBM learned of the…
Surprise! Another 512(f) Claim Fails–Bored Ape Yacht Club v. Ripps
This is another lawsuit involving the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs. (Q: why are the apes so bored? A: because they spend so much time in court proceedings). In this lawsuit, BAYC sued an “appropriation artist,” Ripps, who sought…
Services Aren’t Liable for Ignoring the DMCA’s 512(g) Counternotification Procedures–Hopson v. Google
This case involves a UGC anime site called Gelbooru, run by Hopson. Rightsowners sent DMCA takedown notices targeting the site to Google. (Lumen has many takedown notices containing the word “Gelbooru”). Google stripped out the notices’ identifying information and forwarded…
You’re a Fool if You Think You Can Win a 512(f) Case–Security Police and Fire Professionals v. Maritas
Today is April Fool’s day, and longtime readers know that I do not participate in gags that undermine my credibility as a blogger. So this post is 100% true, even if it might sound farcical. * * * This ruling…
Understanding the CCB’s First Two Final Determinations (Guest Blog Post–Part 3 of 3)
By guest blogger Elizabeth Townsend Gard, John E. Koerner Endowed Professor of Law, Tulane University Law School [See part 1 about defendant opt-outs and part 2 about defendant defaults.] Eight months after filing, the first two Copyright Claims Board (CCB)…
Copyright Claims Board (CCB) Default Notices (Guest Blog Post–Part 2 of 3)
by guest blogger Elizabeth Townsend Gard [Eric’s note: this is the second of a three-part series from Prof. Gard looking at the Copyright Claims Board and some of its outcomes. The first part looked at defendant opt-outs.] As of March…
Copyright Claims Board (CCB) Opt-Outs – How’s That Going? (Guest Blog Post–Part 1 of 3)
by guest blogger Elizabeth Townsend Gard [Eric’s note: this is the first of a three-part series from Prof. Gard looking at the Copyright Claims Board and some of its outcomes.] CCB respondents may opt out of a proceeding within 60…