Music Labels are Ramping Up Enforcement Unlicensed Music in Brand Social Media Posts; SocialMediaToday, December 8, 2022

 Andrew Hutchinson, SocialMediaToday; Music Labels are Ramping Up Enforcement Unlicensed Music in Brand Social Media Posts

"The increasing enforcement of copyright for social media usage flags a new focus for the major labels. In recent years, big recording companies have employed entire teams to scour the online landscape for unlicensed usage of their clients’ work.

That’s been most present on YouTube, where labels had up till recently been able to claim revenue on any video that used their licensed music, providing an additional revenue stream within itself. YouTube has since changed its process, and now gives creators the opportunity to remove violative segments of their uploads, as opposed to simply reverting ad revenue to the labels. But the increased emphasis on music copyright infringement has made this a higher priority for rights-holding organizations.

And TikTok is now their key focus.

The short-form video platform has become a key avenue for music promotion, with popular tracks playing a big part in many viral trends, and even sparking entire careers off the back of TikTok momentum."

Column: Here’s why you can’t ‘own’ your ebooks; Los Angeles Times, December 8, 2022

 MICHAEL HILTZIK, Los Angeles Times; Column: Here’s why you can’t ‘own’ your ebooks

"What’s really happening here is that everyone involved — publishers, online distributors, authors and readers — is trying to come to terms with the capacity of digital technology to overthrow the traditional models of printing, selling and buying readable content. 

Publishers and authors are predictably, and rightly, fearful that they’ll lose out financially; but it’s also quite possible that, properly managed, the technological revolution will make them more money."

CNN Accused of Using Hundreds of Songs Without Permission in New Lawsuit, Rolling Stone, December 1, 2022

JON BLISTEIN, Rolling Stone; CNN Accused of Using Hundreds of Songs Without Permission in New Lawsuit

"CNN IS FACING a $17 million lawsuit accusing it of using hundreds of songs in international broadcast segments without acquiring a license or paying the proper fees.

The lawsuit was filed by Freeplay Music, a production music library company with a catalog of over 50,000 songs to be licensed and used in everything from television broadcasts to advertisements to YouTube videos. According to the suit, obtained by Rolling Stone, several CNN outposts around the world — including the Philippines, Indonesia, and Chile — treated Freeplay’s library like “their own personal cookie jar,” allegedly using over 115 copyrighted works in over 280 segments over the past few years."

YouTube and content creators clash over the platform’s automated copyright tool; Marketplace, November 4, 2022

Marketplace; YouTube and content creators clash over the platform’s automated copyright tool

"Every minute, people upload more than 500 hours of video to YouTube — cat videos, music videos, even videos of people recording their audio podcasts.

And some of those clips include content the people uploading them don’t own, like clips of music from popular songs.

YouTube, and its owner, Google, have an automated technology called Content ID that regularly scans for copyrighted material — including music — and flags it for copyright holders.

Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams spoke about this with Marketplace’s Peter Balonon-Rosen, who explained why the system has some musicians frustrated."

NFTs in Copyright; Lexology, December 8, 2022

Traple Konarski Podrecki & Partners - Tomasz Targosz, Lexology ; NFTs in Copyright

"Frequently, whenever some new technology-related trend emerges, papers that attempt to juxtapose it with various fields of intellectual property law abound, according to the principle X and …. law. Often there is very little that is new behind this, and the described legal “issues” are formulated in an artificial way and are not difficult to solve. A text regarding NFTs in copyright could also be classed as a text of this kind, but in this case there are at least a few questions that need to be addressed. Even if NFTs do not have great practical significance, as some people believe, this category will probably not disappear entirely. Therefore it is worth examining the issue of the areas in which copyright law and NFTs might come into contact, and what implications this has (or doesn’t have, which is no less important). 

The simplest way to describe NFTs is information in a blockchain, representing some resource (digital goods). The distinction between an NFT (non-fungible token) and fungible tokens is not so much that they cannot be exchanged (notably, ‘trading’ in NFTs is one of the reasons for which they exist) but that they are unique (no two data chains are alike). This feature means that NFTs bring to the digital world something rare that is known in the physical world. A good example is a genuine work of sculpture of which there is only one. NFTs and copyright converge because the item that can be represented by the token may be an item that qualifies as creative, i.e. is a work as defined in copyright law, although of course this is not essential (for example Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s first tweet, “converted” into an NFT, sold for almost USD 3 million and is not a work). If an NFT is not linked to a work, it will not be a matter of interest in copyright law. For this reason, we will focus on cases that do involve a work, such as a digital file containing a photograph, video, etc.)."

Intellectual property waiver for COVID vaccines should be expanded to include treatments and tests; The Conversation, November 21, 2022

Deborah Gleeson, Associate Professor in Public Health, La Trobe University, Dianne Nicol
Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Tasmania, James Scheibner
Lecturer in Law, Flinders University, The Conversation;

 Intellectual property waiver for COVID vaccines should be expanded to include treatments and tests

"Low and middle-income countries have been impacted disproportionately by the pandemic so far, suffering 85% of the estimated 14.9 million excess deaths in 2020 and 2021. 

Globally, progress in reducing extreme poverty was set back three to four years during 2020–21. But low-income countries lost eight to nine years of progress.

Expanding the WTO decision on COVID vaccines to include treatments and tests could be vital to reduce the health burden on poorer countries from COVID and enable them to recover from the pandemic. The Australian government should get behind this initiative and encourage other countries to do the same."

This VCU Libraries initiative has saved VCU students more than $7M in textbook costs; VCU Libraries, December 1, 2022

Brian McNeill, VCU News; This VCU Libraries initiative has saved VCU students more than $7M in textbook costs

"“One of the things that’s been most exciting to me since coming to VCU is just the interest [in open and affordable content] from faculty,” said Jessica Kirschner, the open educational resources librarian who leads VCU Libraries’ textbook affordability efforts. “We’ve had a record number of applications for our grant program over the past two years, which blew me out of the water. Our faculty are engaged and interested and by and large realize the impact that this work can have on their students.”

Through the initiative, Kirschner works to assist in the creation of new resources, as well as locating, adopting and adapting existing course materials, including library materials and open educational resources.

Open course materials not only support students by eliminating costs, they also can enable better learning experiences and optimize academic outcomes for instructors and students, Kirschner said. Rather than relying on a textbook, she said, a professor can draw from various open resources to customize their class in a way that makes students more engaged.

“When I talk to faculty, I always like to say: ‘Why form your class around the textbook when you can form a textbook around your class?’” she said."

Royal Society of Chemistry will make all its journals open access; Chemistry World, November 1, 2022

 JAMIE DURRANI, Chemistry World; Royal Society of Chemistry will make all its journals open access

"The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) has committed to making all of its journals open access within the next five years. It is the first chemistry publisher to commit to a 100% open access model and hopes to fund the move in a way that will avoid individual authors having to pay article processing charges (APCs)."

US court sentences Chinese spy to 20 years for stealing trade secrets; The Guardian, November 16, 2022

Staff and agencies, The Guardian; US court sentences Chinese spy to 20 years for stealing trade secrets

"A US federal court has sentenced a Chinese intelligence officer to 20 years in prison after he was convicted last year of plotting to steal trade secrets from from US and French aviation and aerospace companies.

Xu Yanjun was accused of a lead role in a five-year Chinese state-backed scheme to steal commercial secrets from GE Aviation, one of the world’s leading aircraft engine manufacturers, and France’s Safran Group, which was working with GE on engine development.

Xu was one of 11 Chinese nationals, including two intelligence officers, named in October 2018 indictments in federal court in Cincinnati, Ohio, where GE Aviation is based."

Pfizer, BioNTech countersue Moderna over COVID-19 vaccine patents; Reuters, December 6, 2022

Blake Brittain, Reuters ; Pfizer, BioNTech countersue Moderna over COVID-19 vaccine patents

"Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) and its German partner, BioNTech SE (22UAy.DE), fired back at Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) on Monday in a patent lawsuit over their rival COVID-19 vaccines, seeking dismissal of the lawsuit in Boston federal court and an order that Moderna's patents are invalid and not infringed.

Moderna first sued Pfizer in August, accusing the company of violating its rights in three patents related to innovations that Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Moderna said it pioneered before the COVID-19 pandemic."

Guns N' Roses sue online Texas gun and flower shop for trademark infringement; Entertainment Weekly, December 5, 2022

Jessica Wang, Entertainment Weekly; Guns N' Roses sue online Texas gun and flower shop for trademark infringement

"An online gun and floral shop in Texas might soon be knockin' on a courtroom door over a trademark infringement lawsuit filed on behalf of Guns N' Roses.

The rock band comprised of Axl Rose, Saul "Slash" Hudson, and Michael "Duff" McKagan filed a lawsuit Thursday against Jersey Village Florist, which operates the online shop Texas Guns and Roses, for wholesale appropriation and infringement of the Guns N' Roses name without the band's approval, license, or consent.

In the complaint obtained by EW, the band argues that the store's name is "likely to cause confusion" with the Guns N' Roses mark. It also, per the suit, "falsely suggested a connection" with the band that could "dilute" the name. The online shop has capitalized on the band's "goodwill, prestige, and fame" without permission, Guns N' Roses alleges, which has been "particularly damaging" given the nature of the business."

Canada Steals Cultural Works From The Public By Extending Copyright Terms; TechDirt, November 29, 2022

Mike Masnick, TechDirt ; Canada Steals Cultural Works From The Public By Extending Copyright Terms

"Canada has quietly done it: extending copyrights on literary, dramatic or musical works and engravings from life of the author plus 50 years year to life of the author plus 70 years.

Quietly on November 17, 2022, and appearing online this morning, an Order in Council was issued on behalf of Her Excellency the Governor General, on the recommendation of the Minister of Industry and the Minister of Canadian Heritage to fix December 30, 2022 as the day Bill C-19, Division 16 of Part 5 comes into force. What does this all mean? With the passing of Bill C-19 this past June, the Copyright Act was amended to extend the term of copyright for literary, dramatic or musical works and engravings to life of the author plus a period of 70 years following the end of the calendar year in which that author dies. What was unclear at the time of royal assent was WHEN exactly this would come into force — if on or after January 1, 2023, one more year of works would enter the public domain. Unfortunately, we now know that this date has been fixed as December 30, 2022, meaning that no new works will enter the Canadian public domain for the next 20 years.

This should be a huge scandal. The public has been stripped of its rights to share information for twenty years. Based on what? Literally nothing, but demands from heirs of deceased authors to continue to receive subsidies from the very public they just stripped the rights from.

It is beyond ridiculous that any country in the world is extending copyright in this day and age, rather than decreasing it."

Pasternak ordered to pay 99% of costs in copyright case; The Bookseller, December 5, 2022

SIAN BAYLEY, The Bookseller; Pasternak ordered to pay 99% of costs in copyright case

"Pasternak’s book is a factual account of the real-life inspiration for the character of Lara in Dr Zhivago, who she argued was Olga Ivinskaya, the author’s secret mistress and literary muse. Prescott’s novel uses the Cold War response to the publication of Dr Zhivago as part of its narrative, describing how the CIA smuggled copies of Dr Zhivago into the Society Union after the communist regime banned it. 

Speaking about today’s costs hearing, Prescott said: “I’m greatly relieved that the High Court has ruled that Anna Pasternak must pay 99% of our legal costs. It’s a shame so much time and money has been spent on a claim that never should have been brought in the first place, by a person who never even read my book. I’ve moved on, and I hope that Anna too can move on and find some personal peace. I hope this ruling means that in the future, baseless claims can be avoided; they only hurt writers during a time where the world needs books more than ever.”"

Z-Library operators arrested, charged with criminal copyright infringement; The Register, November 18, 2022

 

Jessica Lyons Hardcastle, The Register ; Z-Library operators arrested, charged with criminal copyright infringement

"Two Russian nationals accused of operating Z-Library – one of the largest online book piracy websites – have been charged with criminal copyright infringement, wire fraud and money laundering.

According to a newly unsealed indictment, 33-year-old Anton Napolsky and 27-year-old Valeriia Ermakova, both of St Petersburg, Russia, operated the site between January 2018 and November 2022, allowing people to freely download pirated books and academic papers.

The duo "did knowingly and willfully infringe a copyright for purposes of commercial advantage and private financial gain" by distributing copyrighted works "having a total retail value of more than $2,500," according to the court documents [PDF].

They were arrested on November 3 in Cordoba, Argentina, at the request of the United States. Around the same time, the Feds also took down Z-Library's network of nearly 250 domains and seized its assets – much to the dismay of students everywhere who used the site to access textbooks and academic journals without paying the hefty price tags charged by academic publishers."

Explainer: The Supreme Court, Fair Use and the Future of Protected Artistic Expression; Jurist, December 1, 2022

 Jaimee Francis | Boston University School of Law, Jurist; Explainer: The Supreme Court, Fair Use and the Future of Protected Artistic Expression

"What’s at stake here?

The decision of the current Supreme Court case can shape the future of what does and does not constitute fair use. Goldsmith claimed that Warhol’s images based upon her copyrighted photographs constituted a derivative work. Thus, Goldsmith argued that the Warhol Foundation infringed her exclusive right to prepare derivative works and is therefore liable to her. The Warhol Foundation, however, argued that Warhol’s images were sufficiently transformative and thus constituted fair use. As such, the Warhol Foundation argued that it did not infringe Goldsmith’s copyright and is therefore not liable for its use of Goldsmith’s work in the Prince illustrations.

By finding in favor of Goldsmith, who owns copyright in the Prince photographs, the applicability of fair use may be limited. In this scenario, future content creators may face increased liability when creating new content based on copyrighted work. Because creativity is often inspired by some underlying work, such a decision may stifle creativity. As the Acuff-Rose case highlights, for example, works like parodies of a copyrighted work would constitute infringement without fair use. On the other hand, by finding in favor of the Warhol Foundation, which used Goldsmith’s copyrighted work in its work, future copyright owners may be denied a remedy when a user has unfairly used their creative work. Because the copyright regime has historically protected a creator’s financial incentive, such a decision may stifle creativity. In either scenario, creativity may be stifled: over-protecting a work may prevent others from using that work in their creative process, while under-protecting a work may prevent creators from entering the market without an assurance of monetary gain. As the Gerald Ford case highlights, for example, some uses may unfairly exploit the initial creator’s work. As the Supreme Court noted in that case, quoting in part an earlier decision, “The challenge of copyright is to strike the ‘difficult balance between the interests of authors and inventors in the control and exploitation of their writings and discoveries on the one hand, and society’s competing interest in the free flow of ideas, information, and commerce on the other hand.'”"

May ‘Bad Spaniels’ Mock Jack Daniel’s? The Supreme Court Will Decide.; The New York Times, December 5, 2022

  Adam Liptak, The New York Times; May ‘Bad Spaniels’ Mock Jack Daniel’s? The Supreme Court Will Decide.

"The justices agreed last month to decide the fate of the Bad Spaniels Silly Squeaker dog toy, which looks a lot like a bottle of Jack Daniel’s but with, as an appeals court judge put it, “lighthearted, dog-related alterations.”

The jokes are scatological. The words “Old No. 7 Brand Tennessee Sour Mash Whiskey” on the bottle are replaced on the toy by “the Old No. 2, on your Tennessee carpet.” Where Jack Daniel’s says its product is 40 percent alcohol by volume, Bad Spaniels’s is said to be “43 percent poo.”

A tag attached to the toy says it is “not affiliated with Jack Daniel Distillery.”

Trademark cases generally turn on whether the public is likely to be confused about a product’s source. In the Bad Spaniels case, a unanimous three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, said the First Amendment requires a more demanding test when the challenged product is expressing an idea or point of view."

Copyright Office and USPTO Announce NFT Study and Roundtables; U.S. Copyright Office, November 22, 2022

U.S. Copyright Office, NewsNet 988; Copyright Office and USPTO Announce NFT Study and Roundtables

"The U.S. Copyright Office and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office are publishing a Federal Register notice announcing a U.S. Copyright Office and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) joint study to examine various matters related to intellectual property that arise from the use of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

In a letter dated June 9, 2022, Senators Patrick Leahy and Thom Tillis requested that the Copyright Office and the USPTO conduct a joint study and address issues related to NFTs and intellectual property rights in consultation with the private sector, drawing from the technological, creative, and academic sectors.

To assist in preparing a report for Congress, the notice seeks written responses from the public to several questions. It also announces that the Copyright Office and USPTO intend to hold virtual public roundtables in January 2023.

For additional information, including instructions for submitting comments and asking to participate in the roundtables, please visit the Copyright Office website. Comments must be received no later than January 9, 2023."

 JAMES VINCENT, The Verge; The scary truth about AI copyright is nobody knows what will happen next

"...is any of this actually legal?

The question arises because of the way generative AI systems are trained. Like most machine learning software, they work by identifying and replicating patterns in data. But because these programs are used to generate code, text, music, and art, that data is itself created by humans, scraped from the web and copyright protected in one way or another.

For AI researchers in the far-flung misty past (aka the 2010s), this wasn’t much of an issue. At the time, state-of-the-art models were only capable of generating blurry, fingernail-sized black-and-white images of faces. This wasn’t an obvious threat to humans. But in the year 2022, when a lone amateur can use software like Stable Diffusion to copy an artist’s style in a matter of hours or when companies are selling AI-generated prints and social media filters that are explicit knock-offs of living designers, questions of legality and ethics have become much more pressing."

Jury orders Steve King's campaign to pay $750 for using copyrighted meme; Des Moines Register, November 18, 2022

 William Morris, Des Moines Register; 

Jury orders Steve King's campaign to pay $750 for using copyrighted meme

"King's campaign used Sam's photo, superimposed over a background of the U.S. Capitol, in a Facebook post in January 2020 urging supporters to "Fund our memes!!!" Laney Griner, who copyrighted the photo in 2012, sent a cease-and-desist letter soon after, and, in December 2020, sued King and his campaign for copyright infringement and invasion of privacy against Sam, now a teen...

The jury agreed that King's campaign violated the copyright and awarded $750 in damages, the minimum allowed by statute. But it did not find that King, who denied knowledge of the meme before it was posted, had personally violated the copyright. Jurors also found neither campaign nor candidate had invaded Sam Griner's privacy with the Facebook post...

Although used freely as a meme online, the photo also has commercial value. The Griners have licensed its use in ad campaigns and objected to King's unauthorized use of it for fundraising purposes, according to the complaint."

Twitter’s Broken Its Copyright Strike System, Users Are Uploading Full Movies; Forbes, November 20, 2022

Paul Tassi, Forbes; Twitter’s Broken Its Copyright Strike System, Users Are Uploading Full Movies

"It should be fairly obvious to anyone what kind of liability it opens Twitter up to if their copyright system is non-functional, and its newly limited pool of workers are going to need to manually hunt down infringers. Once media companies get wind of this, we could see Twitter hit with all sort of DMCA claims and potential legal issues if they can’t get a handle on this quickly. I’m picturing Disney content starting to be uploaded here and them going nuclear."

‘Wild West’ of Generative AI Poses Novel Copyright Questions; Bloomberg Law, November 18, 2022

Riddhi Setty and Isaiah Poritz , Bloomberg Law; ‘Wild West’ of Generative AI Poses Novel Copyright Questions 

"Artist Kris Kashtanova became the first person to register a copyright for an artificial intelligence-assisted work in September, for an 18-page comic book called “Zarya of the Dawn” that was created with the AI art program Midjourney.

In recent weeks, however, Kashtanova said the Copyright Office wants to revoke the registration because it had overlooked the use of AI in the creation of the comic.

The rapid rise of artificial intelligence applications has left the burgeoning industry reckoning with how the powerful new technology interacts with copyright laws that govern everything from source code to art prints. The legal landscape is far from clear, with both the creators of AI tools and the artists who use them confronting copyright questions that haven’t yet been answered.

“It’s like the wild west right now,” said Ryan Abbott, an attorney at Brown Neri Smith & Khan LLP.

In what appears to be the first copyright infringement suit against the creator of an AI program, research company OpenAI Inc.—which has created a number of AI programs including generative art program DALL-E—was hit with a class action earlier this month by two software developers who said another OpenAI program called Copilot unlawfully duplicates their code without the proper license or attribution."

'Weird Al' Yankovic wants to 'bring sexy back' to the accordion; Fresh Air, NPR, November 16, 2022

Terry Gross, Fresh Air, NPR; 'Weird Al' Yankovic wants to 'bring sexy back' to the accordion

"GROSS: What kind of permissions do you legally need now to do a song parody, the kind that you do where often it's, like, musically note for note from the original recording but, you know, the lyrics are different? So, you know, you're satirizing the lyric, but the music isn't really - the instrumentation isn't really a satire. It's the thing. It's the - sounds like the original thing.

YANKOVIC: It's a gray area in terms of legally what I need to do especially in cases like "Smells Like Nirvana" because, again, that's satire. And that's considered free speech and fair use. And if push came to shove, if it went to the courts, generally, that's - you know, the courts rule in favor of the parody artist. But I - you know, I don't go by just what's legal. I go for what I think is right. And what's right to me is always getting permission from the original songwriters and get their blessing. Because if an artist doesn't want me to do their song, I will back off. I mean, no matter what, you know, the courts or the law says, it's like, I just want to, you know, do good by them because I respect artists. And I don't ever want them to feel like I'm, you know, stepping on their toes."

Two Russian Nationals Charged with Running Massive E-Book Piracy Website; Department of Justice U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of New York, November 16, 2022

Department of Justice

U.S. Attorney’s Office

Eastern District of New York

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

"Two Russian Nationals Charged with Running Massive E-Book Piracy Website

Defendants Operated Z-Library, Which Offered Free Download of Copyrighted Works

Earlier today, in federal court in Brooklyn, an indictment and a complaint were unsealed charging Russian nationals Anton Napolsky and Valeriia Ermakova with criminal copyright infringement, wire fraud and money laundering for operating Z-Library, an online e-book piracy website.  The pair was arrested on November 3, 2022 in Cordoba, Argentina at the request of the United States.  At the same time, Z-Library’s network of online domains was also taken offline and seized by the U.S. government, pursuant to a court order that was also unsealed today.

Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Michael J. Driscoll, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), announced the arrests and charges.

“As alleged, the defendants profited illegally off work they stole, often uploading works within mere hours of publication, and in the process victimized authors, publishers and booksellers,” stated United States Attorney Peace. “This Office is committed to protecting the intellectual property rights that enable creative and artistic expression, and holding individuals accountable for threatening those rights.”

“The defendants are alleged to have operated a website for over a decade whose central purpose was providing stolen intellectual property, in violation of copyright laws.  Intellectual property theft crimes deprive their victims of both ingenuity and hard-earned revenue. The FBI is determined to ensure those willing to steal and profit from the creativity of others are stopped and made to face the consequences in the criminal justice system,” stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Driscoll.

As alleged in the indictment and court filings, Z-Library bills itself as “the world’s largest library” and claims to offer more than 11 million e-books for download.  Z-Library, which has been active since approximately 2009, offers e-book files in a variety of file formats, stripped of their copyright protections, and encourages users to upload and download titles.  Many of the e-books offered by Z-Library are protected intellectual property for which authors hold copyrights and publishers hold exclusive distribution rights, and which Z-Library has no right or license to distribute, and which are available elsewhere only with anti-circumvention measures applied. As such, a central purpose of Z-Library is to allow users to download copyrighted books for free in violation of U.S. law.   In addition to its homepage, Z-Library operates as a complex network of approximately 249 interrelated web domains.  As part of this action, those domains were taken offline and seized by the U.S. government.

The charges in the indictment are allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.  

The government’s case was initiated by the Office’s Cyber Crime Task Force.  Assistant United States Attorney Chand Edwards-Balfour, Alexander Mindlin, Antoinette N. Rangel and Kaitlin Farrell are prosecuting the case.  Brian Morris of the Office’s Asset Recovery Section is handling forfeiture matters.

The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, the FBI’s Legal Attachés abroad and foreign authorities in multiple countries provided critical assistance in this case.  In particular, the Office extends its appreciation to the Argentine authorities for their assistance in the capture of Napolsky and Ermakova.

Multiple organizations representing the victim authors and publishers also provided critical assistance in this case.  The Office extends its particular appreciation to The Authors Guild in New York and The Publishers Association in London for their assistance.  The Office also extends its appreciation to the National Cyber-Forensics & Training Alliance for its assistance in the domain takedown.     

The Defendants:

ANTON NAPOLSKY
Age:  33
St. Petersburg, Russia

VALERIIA ERMAKOVA
Age:  27
St. Petersburg, Russia

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 22-CR-525 (NM)

Attachment(s): 

Download Indictment"

U.S. Copyright Office; Dancing with Copyright: A Conversation with Janet Eilber and Jamar Roberts; U.S. Copyright Office, November 17, 2022

U.S. Copyright Office; Dancing with Copyright: A Conversation with Janet Eilber and Jamar Roberts

"The Copyright Office hosted a conversation on copyright, dance, and choreography with Janet Eilber, artistic director for the Martha Graham Dance Company, and Jamar Roberts, a critically acclaimed choreographer and resident choreographer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. This conversation was recorded in February 2022."

Descendant of Doctor Zhivago author loses copyright court case; The Guardian, October 25, 2022

Haroon Siddique, The Guardian; Descendant of Doctor Zhivago author loses copyright court case

"A descendant of the Doctor Zhivago author, Boris Pasternak, has lost a claim for copyright infringement against the writer of a novel about the publication of the Russian epic.

Anna Pasternak claimed seven chapters in Lara Prescott’s work of historical fiction, The Secrets We Kept (TSWK), copied elements from her own book Lara, a 2016 biography of her great uncle’s lover Olga Ivinskaya."

A.I.-Generated Art Is Already Transforming Creative Work; The New York Times, October 21, 2022

Kevin Roose, The New York Times ; A.I.-Generated Art Is Already Transforming Creative Work

"These programs use what’s known as “generative A.I.,” a type of A.I. that was popularized several years ago with the release of text-generating tools like GPT-3 but has since expanded into images, audio and video.

It’s still too early to tell whether this new wave of apps will end up costing artists and illustrators their jobs. What seems clear, though, is that these tools are already being put to use in creative industries."

Who Owns the Copyright in A Tattoo?; Lexology, October 17, 2022

McKee Voorhees & Sease PLC - Brandon W. Clark, Lexology; Who Owns the Copyright in A Tattoo?

"In this, the first ever case of its kind to reach a jury, the jury found in favor of Alexander. However, the decision was something of a hollow victory for Alexander as the jury only awarded damages of $3,750. This case illustrates many of the issues with putting a copyright case in front of a jury as the court removed many of Take Two’s potential defenses from the jury’s consideration including de minimus use, an implied license, and waiver.

While the issues are novel and some of the case specific facts are fascinating, the outcome of the case could have a significant impact on copyrights and licensing for video games, television, motion pictures, and photographs. It is too early to tell what specific impact the result could have, and the minimal damages award will likely prevent an onslaught of similar cases, but the result does indicate a potential increase in risk when using someone’s name, image, and likeness, and will likely change the way these licenses are drafted in the future.

From a practical perspective, since copyright rights can only be transferred via a signed writing, the one sure way to avoid this risk is to ensure that tattoo artists sign a copyright assignment at the time the work is completed."

Obituary: Marybeth Peters, Former Register of Copyrights; Publishers Weekly, September 30, 2022

Jim Milliot, Publishers Weekly; Obituary: Marybeth Peters, Former Register of Copyrights

"Marybeth Peters, who served as the U.S. Register of Copyrights from 1994 to 2010, died on September 29. She was 83.

Peters spent her career working in the copyright field, and was considered a leading expert on both international and domestic copyright issues. Prior to her appointment as Register of Copyrights, Peters held a variety of positions in the copyright office. During her time there, Peters played a key role in adapting copyright to the digital age, including helping to implement both the 1976 Copyright Act and the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The controversial Google Book Search lawsuit also took place during her tenure, and Peters was critical of the proposed settlement, arguing that it was at odds with the law. The settlement was eventually rejected by Judge Denny Chin."

The Supreme Court meets Andy Warhol, Prince and a case that could threaten creativity; NPR, October 12, 2022

Nina Totenberg, NPR ; The Supreme Court meets Andy Warhol, Prince and a case that could threaten creativity

"You know all those famous Andy Warhol silk screen prints of Marilyn Monroe and Liz Taylor and lots of other glitterati? Now one of the most famous of these, the Prince series, is at the heart of a case the Supreme Court will examine on Wednesday. And it is a case of enormous importance to all manner of artists...

However the Supreme Court rules, its decision will have rippling practical consequences. So it is no surprise that some three dozen friend of the court briefs have been filed arguing on one side or the other, and representing everyone from the American Association of publishers and the Motion Picture Association of America to the Library Futures Institute, the Digital Media Licensing Association, Dr. Seuss Enterprises, the Recording Industry Association of America and even the union that represents NPR's reporters, editors and producers, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

The outcome could shift the law to favor more control by the original artist, but doing that could also inhibit artists and other content creators who build on existing work in everything from music and posters to AI creations and documentaries."

Ralph Lauren apologizes after wife of Mexico's president accuses US fashion giant of 'plagiarism' by appropriating Indigenous designs from country's pre-Hispanic cultures for $360 cardigan; Daily Mail, October 21, 2022

 Daily Mail; Ralph Lauren apologizes after wife of Mexico's president accuses US fashion giant of 'plagiarism' by appropriating Indigenous designs from country's pre-Hispanic cultures for $360 cardigan

"Ralph Lauren has apologized after the wife of Mexico's president accused the luxury US clothes brand of plagiarizing indigenous designs, which she described as an appropriation of the work of the country's pre-Hispanic cultures."

Copyright Fair Use: How Much Copying is Too Much Copying?; Lexology, August 15, 2022

Goodell DeVries Leech & Dann LLP - Jim Astrachan, Lexology; Copyright Fair Use: How Much Copying is Too Much Copying?

"...no plagiarist can excuse the wrong by showing how much of his work he did not pirate.” These words were written by Judge Learned Hand in 1936. His point was that a taking of someone else’s expression will not be excused merely because it is insubstantial in quantity when held up for comparison to the infringing work.

Years back a copyright defendant client related copyright lore as a defense to his actions. He swore up and down that copying was permissible as long as not more than 10 percent of the source work was taken. Many times that belief has been mistakenly repeated. Many of the older, bedrock, principles of copyright practice are worth repeating. Perhaps this repetition comes from being the teacher that I suspect is part of my DNA.

The “ancient” case of Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enterprises, 471 U.S. 539 (1985) should absolutely disabuse anyone of this silly notion."