Isaiah Poritz, Annelise Levy, Bloomberg Law; Meta Faces Copyright Reckoning in Authors’ Generative AI Case
"The way courts will view the fair use argument for training generative artificial intelligence models with copyrighted materials will be tested Thursday in a San Francisco courtroom, when the first of dozens of such lawsuits reaches summary judgment.
The White House; World Intellectual Property Day, 2025
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
More than 200 years ago, our Founding Fathers recognized the profound importance of intellectual property, enshrining government-granted legal protections in the Constitution to safeguard American innovation. On World Intellectual Property Day, we renew our resolve to protect and secure the creative triumphs of American inventors and artists as they work to pull the future into the present and turn their dreams into our reality.
Americans have always been leaders in the realms of technology and ideas — and under my Administration, we are driving innovation in every sector, including emerging digital technologies like artificial intelligence. I recently signed an Executive Order on Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence to slash red tape and ensure our continued leadership in this and other critical industries like automation, blockchain, data analytics, and cybersecurity.
For this reason, I established the Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, which is bringing together the best and brightest to shape the United States’ innovation policy and ensure our continued technological leadership. My Administration will not waver in protecting and securing emerging, next-generation technologies that will drive progress and growth in the 21st century.
My Administration is taking strong action to protect the promise of American innovation. For too long, our adversaries and allies alike have sapped our strength and exploited American advancements. Through the strategic use of tariffs, we are recentering our trade policy and securing stronger intellectual property protections in new and existing trade deals. Just as we protect our physical property, we will not tolerate the theft of our intellectual property, and we will defend our businesses and people from those who are seeking to steal American jobs and wealth.
As President Calvin Coolidge once said in an immortal maxim that remains true to this day, “The business of America is business.” Our economy is the greatest in the world because we, more than any other country, incentivize individuals to dream big, take risks, and make the impossible possible. Through our promotion and protection of intellectual property, we are empowering musicians, writers, authors, scientists, and inventors to focus on what they do best.
The future of our great Nation depends on the continued safeguarding of our intellectual property, which fuels economic growth, technological progress, and global competitiveness. This World Intellectual Property Day, we reaffirm our unwavering commitment to protecting and promoting the innovative spirit that continues to make America great.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 26, 2025, as World Intellectual Property Day. I encourage Americans to celebrate the extraordinary achievements of our creators and inventors and the contributions they have made and will continue making to our country.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-sixth day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-ninth.
DONALD J. TRUMP"
, IEEE Spectrum;
"For AI solutions raising ethical red flags, we have an internal review process that may lead to modifications. Our assessment extends beyond the technology’s properties (fairness, explainability, privacy) to how it’s deployed. Deployment can either respect human dignity and agency or undermine it. We conduct risk assessments for each technology use case, recognizing that understanding risk requires knowledge of the context in which the technology will operate. This approach aligns with the European AI Act’s framework—it’s not that generative AI or machine learning is inherently risky, but certain scenarios may be high or low risk. High-risk use cases demand additional scrutiny.
In this rapidly evolving landscape, responsible AI engineering requires ongoing vigilance, adaptability, and a commitment to ethical principles that place human well-being at the center of technological innovation."
Jonathan Maze, Restaurant Business; Crumbl is sued for $24M over music copyright violations
"The music group is asking a court to award it as much as $150,000 for each work used without permission, or nearly $24 million...
Crumbl, which operates more than 1,000 locations and is looking for a buyer, has used social media aggressively since its emergence in 2017. Those videos have played a key role in the chain’s growth and ongoing popularity. The company has 9.8 million followers on TikTok and 6.1 million on Instagram...
Warner in its complaint also referred to Crumbl’s own history of pushing back against copyright infringement. It cited the company’s since-settled lawsuit against the cookie chain Dirty Dough, and Crumbl over the years has aggressively gone after upstart companies that it said mimicked its business."
"Will AI devastate humanity or uplift it? Philosopher Christopher DiCarlo's new book examines how we can navigate when AI surpasses human capacity.
Christopher DiCarlo, philosopher, educator and ethicist who teaches in Philosophy Department at the University of Toronto. Author of "Building a God: The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and the Race to Control It.""
Josh Taylor, The Guardian; Sydney woman who sold a cartoon cat T-shirt told to pay US$100,000 in Grumpy Cat copyright case
"Others across the globe have found themselves in similar situations. There are posts on Reddit asking what to do after finding a default judgment has been made against them.
“I had no idea ‘Grumpy Cat’ was a thing. ‘Grumpy Cat’ was not even mentioned on my design neither looked my design like their stupid cat,” one poster said.
Prof Graeme Austin, chair in private law at Victoria University in New Zealand, said US trademark law gives courts powers to impose tough damages awards in infringement cases, including statutory damages of up to US$200,000.
“Wholesale default judgment proceedings in trademark and copyright cases are a familiar strategy for intellectual property owners,” he said."U.S. Copyright Office, Issue No. 1070; U.S. Copyright Office Releases New Copyright Registration Toolkit
"Today, the U.S. Copyright Office released the Copyright Registration Toolkit, a comprehensive resource designed to help creators, small business owners, advisors, and others navigate the copyright system. As part of the Copyright Office’s Copyright for All initiative, the toolkit is a visual breakdown of copyright, including essential information about copyright law, how to prepare for copyright registration, what to expect during the process, and post-registration considerations.
“The Copyright Registration Toolkit makes copyright information more accessible and user-friendly for all creators,” said Associate Register of Copyrights and Director of Public Information and Education Miriam Lord. “Resources like this one empower authors, artists, musicians, and their advisors to protect and manage creative works with confidence.”
Developed in conjunction with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's intellectual property (IP) toolkits for trademarks, trade secrets, and patents, these resources collectively provide a broad overview of IP protection under U.S. law.
Copyright Office attorneys, writers, and designers collaborated on the toolkit to ensure it serves as a reliable and engaging reference for creators making business decisions about their creative works and for advisors who help guide them in understanding their rights as IP owners.
To explore the Copyright Registration Toolkit, visit the landing page. For further inquiries, the Public Information Office is available Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m. eastern time, to assist with questions about the copyright registration process."
Judy Wang and Nicol Turner Lee , Brookings; AI and the visual arts: The case for copyright protection
"Looking ahead
As AI-generated art continues to reshape the creative landscape, the legal and economic challenges surrounding copyright, authorship, and enforcement will only grow more complex. Ongoing lawsuits, reactions from artists, and market shifts highlight the struggle to define human authorship and protect artists’ rights in an era where AI-generated works hold significant commercial value, but lack clear copyright protections. With increasing pressure on legislative and regulatory bodies to address these issues, the future of AI-generated art will depend on policies that balance innovation with fair compensation and safeguards for human creativity.
While we await the final part of the Copyright Office’s report, which will determine the legal implications of training AI on copyrighted data, the more pressing determinant of fair use in GenAI training may come from the courts. Yet, regardless of the outcome, the Copyright Office should transcend its passive regulatory guidance and actively develop new mechanisms to distinguish human-authored elements from AI-generated ones to enforce its present guidance. In addition, the office must think creatively about flexible frameworks that can account for future, more nuanced and complex modes of collaboration between human and GenAI systems. This may require stronger disclosure requirements, improved detection methods, and a reexamination of what constitutes meaningful human authorship in an increasing AI-involved creative process.
Further, artists, tech companies, and policymakers must be brought to the table to ensure copyright law reflects the newest collaborations in AI and art, protects human creativity, and accommodates technological progress. Without safeguards, the rapid influx of AI into the art market could lead to a systemic devaluation of human original authorship and growing precarity in the creative field. The future of AI-generated art hinges on such governance. "
U.S. Chamber of Commerce; 2025 International IP Index
"Last month, I prompted Meta AI with a question: “Is it okay to use pirated books to train AI?” The machine’s response was unequivocal. “Using pirated books to train AI is not okay,” it admonished. “In fact, it’s a serious violation of copyright laws and can have significant consequences for authors and publishers. Recently, it’s been reported that Meta used millions of pirated books to develop its AI programs, which has sparked widespread outrage and condemnation from the writing community.”"
SHERIN SHIBU EDITED BY MELISSA MALAMUT , Entrepreneur; Jack Dorsey Says Intellectual Property Law Shouldn't Exist, and Elon Musk Agrees: 'Delete All IP Law'
"While Dorsey may want to end intellectual property law, copyright holders are still holding on to their work. Dozens of cases have been filed over the past few years in U.S. federal court against AI companies like OpenAI, Google, and Meta, as authors, artists, and news organizations accuse these companies of using their copyrighted work to train AI models without credit or compensation.
AI needs ample training material to keep it sharp. It took about 300 billion words to train ChatGPT, an AI chatbot now used by over 500 million people weekly. AI image generator DALL·E 2 needed "hundreds of millions of captioned images from the internet" to become operational."
Cameron Larkin , The Daily Mississippian; From the courtroom to the notepad: Ian Crosby advocates for fair use
"How can journalism and artificial intelligence coexist? What are the practical uses of AI in a field like journalism? What does the legal side of all of this look like?
Lead counsel for the New York Times v. OpenAI copyright lawsuit, Ian Crosby, answered these questions and many more at the “Addressing the Impact of Social Media and Artificial Intelligence on Democracy” symposium hosted April 1-2 by the University of Mississippi’s brand-new Jordan Center for Journalism Advocacy and Innovation...
Knowing this, Crosby said that AI does not have to be viewed as the enemy many people make it out to be; rather, when used and operated in the right way, AI can be a tool for journalists.
“Just to be clear, I don’t think that any of my clients feel that AI is bad (or) that AI shouldn’t exist,” Crosby said. “AI has amazing uses, and those uses should persist.”
One practical use Crosby suggested for AI in journalism is for the “needle in the haystack problem.” Crosby said that AI is useful for delving into large data sets, such as government documents, to quickly sift through and pick out key information much quicker than a human could."
Alana Bonilla , HypeBot; How to Find Copyright Owners For Covers and Samples
"Want to use a someone else’s audio legally but don’t know who owns it? This expert guide shows you how to find copyright holders fast – and get the permissions you need without the legal headaches."
Stephanie Convery , The Guardian; The philosopher’s machine: my conversation with Peter Singer’s AI chatbot
"Singer has had a long and high-profile career in philosophy. He has only recently retired from Princeton University, where he was professor of bioethics. His CV is extensive (it runs to a full 102 pages). He has a Substack, a podcast, a Bluesky account, a journal he co-edits, and a polished online presence. As I’m scrolling through the storied septuagenarian philosopher’s blog, the chatbot pops up in the corner of the page. I can’t help but feeling like I am being sold something.
In launching his chatbot, Singer described the tool as “employing the Socratic method” – that is, dialogue – to “[guide] users through a process of critical thinking and self-examination”. But I have questions about that.
Me: Do you think it is philosophically justifiable to outsource the discussion of ethics to a chatbot?
Peter Singer AI: Outsourcing ethical discussions to a chatbot can be philosophically justifiable if viewed as a tool to enhance and facilitate ethical reflection. Chatbots can provide insights, pose questions, and offer perspectives that might help individuals think more deeply about ethical issues.
However, it’s crucial to remember that chatbots lack human experience, empathy, and the ability to understand context fully. They should be used as a complement to human judgment and conversation, not a replacement.
Engaging with a chatbot can stimulate thinking and provide a starting point for deeper exploration, but ultimately, ethical decision-making involves personal reflection and discussion with others.
My most memorable and exciting philosophy lessons were the ones in which, as a class, we hotly debated ideas in which we were all materially and emotionally invested. The AI floats loftily above the emotional fray, coolly dispensing pre-programmed wisdom from the cloud, while we grapple with the contradictions and complications of actually living. Between the chatbot and me, there is only one of us for whom the dialogue elicits an emotional response, because for only one of us does the conversation actually matter."
Ed Newton-Rex ; Creators Are Losing the AI Copyright Battle. We Have to Keep Fighting (Guest Column)
"The struggle between AI companies and creatives around “training data” — or what you and I would refer to as people’s life’s work — may be the defining struggle of this generation for the media industries. AI companies want to exploit creators’ work without paying them, using it to train AI models that compete with those creators; creators and rights holders are doing everything they can to stop them."
TyLisa Johnson, Poynter ; When was the last time AI made you laugh? Scenes from the 2025 Summit on AI, Ethics and Journalism
"This year’s Summit on AI, Ethics and Journalism, led by Poynter and The Associated Press, unfolded over two days in New York City’s financial district at the AP’s headquarters.
Here’s a brief summit recap through images:"
Sigal Samuel, Vox; The real argument artists should be making against AI
[Paywall to access]
Kyle Wiggers , TechCrunch; Law professors side with authors battling Meta in AI copyright case
"A group of professors specializing in copyright law has filed an amicus brief in support of authors suing Meta for allegedly training its Llama AI models on e-books without permission.
The brief, filed on Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division, calls Meta’s fair use defense “a breathtaking request for greater legal privileges than courts have ever granted human authors.”"
Jonathan D. Reichman of Hunton Andrews Kurth - Publications , The National Law Review; Entrance to [Copyright] Paradise Halted by the Human-Authorship Requirement
"In mid-March, a federal appeals court affirmed a ruling finding that artwork created solely by an artificial intelligence (AI) system is not entitled to copyright protection. Thaler v. Perlmutter, No. 23-5233 (D.C. Cir. Mar. 18, 2025). This decision aligns with the position taken by the US Copyright Office in its recent report in light of the ongoing evolution, application, and litigation surrounding AI systems. U.S. Copyright Office, Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, Part 2: Copyrightability (2025).
While this decision may appear straightforward, future developments could arise through an application to the US Supreme Court or through cases addressing the extent of human involvement necessary in AI-generated works that seek copyright protection.
Key Takeaways
REECE ROGERS , Wired; I’m Not Convinced Ethical Generative AI Currently Exists
"For me, the ethics of generative AI use can be broken down to issues with how the models are developed—specifically, how the data used to train them was accessed—as well as ongoing concerns about their environmental impact. In order to power a chatbot or image generator, an obscene amount of data is required, and the decisions developers have made in the past—and continue to make—to obtain this repository of data are questionable and shrouded in secrecy. Even what people in Silicon Valley call “open source” models hide the training datasets inside...
The ethical aspects of AI outputs will always circle back to our human inputs. What are the intentions of the user’s prompts when interacting with a chatbot? What were the biases in the training data? How did the devs teach the bot to respond to controversial queries? Rather than focusing on making the AI itself wiser, the real task at hand is cultivating more ethical development practices and user interactions."
Maureen Groppe , USA TODAY; A banana taped to a wall? This artist says he did it first. The Supreme Court ignored him.
"California artist Joe Morford tried, hoping the Supreme Court would give him credit for being the first person to tape a banana to the wall in the name of art. But the justices on Monday rejected his fruit suit.
That leaves in place lower court rulings that Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, who sold his banana art work, “Comedian,” for about $6.2 million last year, did not rip the idea off of Morford."
"
The US Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation last week centralized casesacross the country in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York for pretrial activity, which could include dispositive motions including summary judgment, as well as contentious discovery disputes that have been common among the cases.
“This will help create more consistency in the pre-trial outcomes, but it also means that you’ll get fewer tries from different plaintiffs to find a winning set of arguments,” Peter Henderson, an assistant professor at Princeton University, said in an email...
While streamlined, the pretrial proceedings figure to remain contentious as the parties press novel questions about how copyright laws apply to the game-changing generative AI technology. The disputes carry vast ramifications for companies reliant on millions of copyrighted works to train their models."
America's Navy; List of Books Removed from USNA Library
[Kip Currier: The freedoms to read, speak, and think are fundamental American values enshrined by our Constitution. Libraries should and must have books and resources that represent a wide range of information, views, and lived experiences. Whether or not we as individuals or members of groups agree or disagree with every book in a library is immaterial and contrary to our freedoms. As the late Robert Croneberger, Director of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (1986-1998), aptly observed, a library is not doing its job if it doesn't have at least one book that offends every person.
Military service members have served, fought, and died to preserve our freedoms and core values. Enlisted persons and their families should and must have access to a broad continuum of ideas and information. Anything less is blatant censorship that is antithetical to the American way of life.]
[Excerpts from list]
"How to be an antiracist / Ibram X. Kendi.
Uncomfortable conversations with a black man / Emmanuel Acho.
Why didn't we riot? : a Black man in Trumpland / Issac J. Bailey.
Long time coming : reckoning with race in America / Michael Eric Dyson.
State of emergency : how we win in the country we built / Tamika D. Mallory as told to Ashley A. Coleman ; [forewords, Angela Y. Davis and Cardi B].
How we can win : race, history and changing the money game that's rigged / Kimberly Jones.
My vanishing country : a memoir / Bakari Sellers.
The gangs of Zion : a Black cop's crusade in Mormon country / Ron Stallworth, with Sofia Quintero.
American hate : survivors speak out / edited by Arjun Singh Sethi.
The rage of innocence : how America criminalizes Black youth /
Kristin Henning.
Our time is now : power, purpose, and the fight for a fair America /
Stacey Abrams.
What's your pronoun? : beyond he & she / Dennis Baron.
Rainbow milk : a novel / Paul Mendez.
The genesis of misery / Neon Yang.
The last white man / Mohsin Hamid.
Light from uncommon stars / Ryka Aoki.
Everywhere you don't belong : a novel / by Gabriel Bump.
Evil eye : a novel / Etaf Rum.
Lies my teacher told me : everything your American history
textbook got wrong / James W. Loewen.
Gender queer : a memoir / by Maia Kobabe ; colors by Phoebe
Kobabe.
The third person / Emma Grove."
ASHLEY BELANGER , Ars Technica; Judge calls out OpenAI’s “straw man” argument in New York Times copyright suit
"Essentially, the judge agreed with the NYT that OpenAI has not yet provided any evidence that the newspaper knew how ChatGPT would perform until the product was out in the wild. Therefore, he denied OpenAI's motion to dismiss those claims as time-barred, while denouncing as a "straw man" an OpenAI argument that the NYT, "as a 'sophisticated publisher,' had a duty 'to take prompt action after being put on notice of what it now claims to be alleged infringement.'""
CORYNNE MCSHERRY, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF); EFF Urges Third Circuit to Join the Legal Chorus: No One Owns the Law
"This case concerns UpCodes, a company that has created a database of building codes—like the National Electrical Code—that includes codes incorporated by reference into law. ASTM, a private organization that coordinated the development of some of those codes, insists that it retains copyright in them even after they have been adopted into law, and therefore has the right to control how the public accesses and shares them. Fortunately, neither the Constitution nor the Copyright Act support that theory. Faced with similar claims, some courts, including the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, have held that the codes lose copyright protection when they are incorporated into law. Others, like the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in a case EFF defended on behalf of Public.Resource.Org, have held that, whether or not the legal status of the standards changes once they are incorporated into law, making them fully accessible and usable online is a lawful fair use. A federal court in Pennsylvania followed the latter path in this case, finding that UpCodes’ database was a protected fair use."
