Scraping or Stealing? A Legal Reckoning Over AI Looms; Hollywood Reporter, August 22, 2023

Winston Cho, The Hollywood Reporter ; Scraping or Stealing? A Legal Reckoning Over AI Looms

"Engineers build AI art generators by feeding AI systems, known as large language models, voluminous databases of images downloaded from the internet without licenses. The artists’ suit revolves around the argument that the practice of feeding these systems copyrighted works constitutes intellectual property theft. A finding of infringement in the case may upend how most AI systems are built in the absence of regulation placing guardrails around the industry. If the AI firms are found to have infringed on any copyrights, they may be forced to destroy datasets that have been trained on copyrighted works. They also face stiff penalties of up to $150,000 for each infringement.

AI companies maintain that their conduct is protected by fair use, which allows for the utilization of copyrighted works without permission as long as that use is transformative. The doctrine permits unlicensed use of copyrighted works under limited circumstances. The factors that determine whether a work qualifies include the purpose of the use, the degree of similarity, and the impact of the derivative work on the market for the original. Central to the artists’ case is winning the argument that the AI systems don’t create works of “transformative use,” defined as when the purpose of the copyrighted work is altered to create something with a new meaning or message."

Google and YouTube are trying to have it both ways with AI and copyright; The Verge, August 22, 2023

 Nilay Patel,, The Verge; Google and YouTube are trying to have it both ways with AI and copyright

"There’s only one name that springs to mind when you think of the cutting edge in copyright law online: Frank Sinatra. 

There’s nothing more important than making sure his estate — and his label, Universal Music Group — gets paid when people do AI versions of Ol’ Blue Eyes singing “Get Low” on YouTube, right? Even if that means creating an entirely new class of extralegal contractual royalties for big music labels just to protect the online dominance of your video platform while simultaneously insisting that training AI search results on books and news websites without paying anyone is permissible fair use? Right? Right?

This, broadly, is the position that Google is taking after announcing a deal with Universal Music Group yesterday “to develop an AI framework to help us work toward our common goals.” Google is signaling that it will pay off the music industry with special deals that create brand-new — and potentially devastating! — private intellectual property rights, while basically telling the rest of the web that the price of being indexed in Search is complete capitulation to allowing Google to scrape data for AI training."

At a Jersey Shore bar, Taco Tuesday’s soul lives on in a trademark; The Washington Post, August 21, 2023

Timothy Bella, The Washington Post; At a Jersey Shore bar, Taco Tuesday’s soul lives on in a trademark

"Taco Bell’s legal push to liberate the phrase, which has included the marketing help of NBA great and Taco Tuesday enthusiast LeBron James, has left Gregory with the last trademark of its kind in the country in what he described as a modern-day David vs. Goliath story.

“I just want everybody to know that we started Taco Tuesday,” he said."

'The ghosts are not happy': 2 Fall River businesses clash over use of Lizzie Borden name; The Herald News, August 21, 2023

  Audrey Cooney, The Herald News; 'The ghosts are not happy': 2 Fall River businesses clash over use of Lizzie Borden name

"Zaal’s company US Ghost Adventures, which operates ghost tours in dozens of cities across the U.S., bought the house in 2021.

Miss Lizzie’s Coffee opened two weeks ago, on the anniversary of the Borden murders. The Lizzie-themed coffee shop features bloody axes in the decor and other nods to the slayings, like a "Lizspresso" menu item. Owner Joe Pereira bills it as "the most haunted coffee shop in the world."

Now, Zaal says the coffee shop violates his intellectual property."

As Fight Over A.I. Artwork Unfolds, Judge Rejects Copyright Claim; The New York Times, August 21, 2023

 Zachary Small , The New York Times; As Fight Over A.I. Artwork Unfolds, Judge Rejects Copyright Claim

"“Plaintiff can point to no case in which a court has recognized copyright in a work originating with a nonhuman,” Judge Beryl A. Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia wrote in her decision on Friday, adding that “we are approaching new frontiers in copyright as artists put A.I. in their toolbox.”

Similar rules about “human authorship” have been used in deciding who owned a monkey’s selfie."

AI-Created Art Isn’t Copyrightable, Judge Says in Ruling That Could Give Hollywood Studios Pause; The Hollywood Reporter, August 18, 2023

Winston Cho, The Hollywood Reporter ; AI-Created Art Isn’t Copyrightable, Judge Says in Ruling That Could Give Hollywood Studios Pause

"A federal judge on Friday upheld a finding from the U.S. Copyright Office that a piece of art created by AI is not open to protection. The ruling was delivered in an order turning down Stephen Thaler’s bid challenging the government’s position refusing to register works made by AI. Copyright law has “never stretched so far” to “protect works generated by new forms of technology operating absent any guiding human hand,” U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell found."

Record Labels File $412 Million Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Against Internet Archive; Rolling Stone, August 12, 2023

 ALTHEA LEGASPI, Rolling Stone; Record Labels File $412 Million Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Against Internet Archive

"UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP, Sony Music Entertainment, Capitol, and other record labels filed a copyright lawsuit on Friday against Internet Archive, founder Brewster Kahle, and others over the organization’s “Great 78 Project,” accusing them of behaving as an “illegal record store.” The suit lists 2,749 pre-1972 musical works available via Internet Archive by late artists, including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Chuck Berry, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, and Bing Crosby, among others.

The suit, which was filed in federal court and reviewed by Rolling Stone, claims the Internet Archive’s “Great 78 Project” — launched by Internet Archive as a community project for “the preservation, research and discovery of 78rpm records,” according to its blog — has violated copyright laws. By “transferring copies of those files to members of the public, Internet Archive has reproduced and distributed without authorization Plaintiffs’ protected sound recordings,” the suit alleges.

The nonprofit Internet Archive began in 1996, stating its mission is to “provide Universal Access to All Knowledge.” It purports to be a digital library that provides free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public. Its “Great 78 Project” follows suit; the community project dedicates itself to “the preservation, research and discovery of 78rpm records” per a post about the project. It provides free access to “over 400,000 recordings” as Internet Archive estimates in its post."

Judge Approves Final Injunction in Publishers, Internet Archive Copyright Case; Publishers Weekly, August 15, 2023

 Andrew Albanese , Publishers Weekly; Judge Approves Final Injunction in Publishers, Internet Archive Copyright Case

"After more than three years of litigation, it took judge John G. Koeltl just hours to sign off on the parties’ negotiated consent judgment—but not without a final twist. In a short written opinion made public yesterday, Koeltl sided with the Internet Archive in a final dispute, limiting the scope of the permanent injunction to cover only the plaintiffs’ print books that also have electronic editions available."

Judgment Entered in Publishers, Internet Archive Copyright Case; Publishers Weekly, August 14, 2023

  Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly; Judgment Entered in Publishers, Internet Archive Copyright Case

"More than four months after a federal judge found the Internet Archive liable for copyright infringement for its program to scan and lend library books, the parties have delivered a negotiated agreement for a judgment to be entered in the case. But a final resolution in the case could still be many months, if not years, away, as Internet Archive officials have vowed to appeal.

The jointly proposed agreement includes a declaration that cements the key finding from Judge John G. Koeltl’s March 24 summary judgment decision: that the IA's unauthorized scanning and lending of the 127 in-suit copyrighted books under a novel protocol known as “controlled digital lending” constitutes copyright infringement, including in the IA's controversial "National Emergency Library" (under which the IA temporarily allowed for simultaneous access to its collections of scans in the the early days of the pandemic, when schools and libraries were shuttered).

The proposed agreement also includes a permanent injunction that would, among its provisions, bar the IA’s lending of unauthorized scans of the plaintiffs' in-copyright, commercially available books, as well as bar the IA from “profiting from” or “inducing” any other party’s “infringing" copying, distribution, or display of the the plaintiffs' books "in any digital or electronic form.” Under the agreement, the injunction will not be stayed while the case is on appeal—essentially meaning that once notified the IA will have to stop making unauthorized scans of the plaintiff Publishers' copyrighted works available to be borrowed. Meanwhile, AAP officials said a "side agreement" with the IA will motivate the IA to similarly resolve issues with other non-plaintiff AAP member publishers. 

The parties left one final dispute for Koeltl to clean up, however: what books will be “covered” by the proposed injunction?"

New York Times considers legal action against OpenAI as copyright tensions swirl; NPR, August 16, 2023

Bobby Allyn , NPR; New York Times considers legal action against OpenAI as copyright tensions swirl

"The New York Times and OpenAI could end up in court. 

Lawyers for the newspaper are exploring whether to sue OpenAI to protect the intellectual property rights associated with its reporting, according to two people with direct knowledge of the discussions. 

For weeks, The Times and the maker of ChatGPT have been locked in tense negotiations over reaching a licensing deal in which OpenAI would pay The Times for incorporating its stories in the tech company's AI tools, but the discussions have become so contentious that the paper is now considering legal action."

Photo Agencies Publish Open Letter Demanding AI Copyright Protection; petaPixel, August 10, 2023

 MATT GROWCOOT, PetaPixel; Photo Agencies Publish Open Letter Demanding AI Copyright Protection

"The world’s leading photo agencies and photographer associations have co-signed an open letter calling for legal protections against artificial intelligence (AI).

Getty Images, the Associated Press, Agence France-Press, the European Pressphoto Agency, and the National Press Photographers Association are among the organizations calling for intellectual property (IP) rights to be respected. 

While praising generative AI technology and its potential benefits to society, the signees warn that a flood of synthetic content into the public sphere has the potential to undermine the public’s trust in the media."

Taylor Swift fans were right: Her next album is ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’; The Washington Post, August 10, 2023

Emily Yahr, The Washington Post ; Taylor Swift fans were right: Her next album is ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’

"This will be Swift’s fourth rerecorded album in her quest to own her masters after a dispute with her former Nashville record label."

Prosecraft has infuriated authors by using their books without consent – but what does copyright law say?; The Conversation, August 9, 2023

Dilan Thampapillai Associate Professor, University of New South Wales, UNSW Sydney , The Conversation; Prosecraft has infuriated authors by using their books without consent – but what does copyright law say?

"In amending its laws, Australia legislated that parody or satire could form the basis of a fair dealing exception. A specific transformative use exception was not created. 

So, it is significantly less clear as to whether the use contemplated by Prosecraft or Shaxpir would be considered fair dealing in Australia. 

Australia has either missed a trick or dodged a bullet by failing to include transformative use as a fair dealing exception. It depends where you stand in the ongoing conflict between AI tech and human authors. But Australia’s laws are less AI-friendly than the US.

For the moment, published human authors are banking on the idea that if they can knock out the shadow library, they can hobble the reach of AI tech."

Film and music industries on edge: AI's growing influence stirs fear of job displacement, copyright issues; KATU2ABC, August 8, 2023

KONNER MCINTIRE and JANAE BOWENS , KATU2ABC; Film and music industries on edge: AI's growing influence stirs fear of job displacement, copyright issues

"Currently, the Orrin G. Hatch-Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act provides some protection to musicians. It was made law in 2018 and helps to ensure musicians are fairly compensated by publishers.

The law directly addresses piracy which has cost artists billions of dollars.

Five years later, Congressional leaders, including Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.,who serves as the Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, are concerned the law will not protect musicians against AI.

“For Congress, we’re now looking at old challenges with new dangers, including the ever-present threat of piracy as well as artificial intelligence, which pose still unknown questions for intellectual property protection efforts even as they open doors to a new world of technological capability that is, at present, limitless,” the congressman recently wrote in an op-ed.“If we don’t get AI right, it could very well render not only the Music Modernization Act obsolete – but also the policy choices we make next.”"

Meta launches AudioCraft, an open-source AI music generator; Mashable, August 3, 2023

Cecily Mauran  , Mashable; Meta launches AudioCraft, an open-source AI music generator

"Meta's new AI music generator is the latest in a slew of AI products recently released by the tech company. 

On Wednesday, Meta announced the release of AudioCraft, an open-source generative AI that creates audio and music from text prompts. AudioCraft has three models, MusicGen for composing music, AudioGen for creating sound effects, and EnCodec, which uses AI to assist in audio compression that outperforms the MP3 format. 

In case you were wondering about copyright issues, MusicGen was trained on Meta-owned and licensed music."

Academic Book About Emojis Can’t Include The Emojis It Talks About Because Of Copyright; Techdirt, August 4, 2023

Mike Masnick, Techdirt ; Academic Book About Emojis Can’t Include The Emojis It Talks About Because Of Copyright

"Sounds interesting enough, but as Goldman highlights with an image from the book, Kiaer was apparently unable to actually show examples of many of the emoji she was discussing due to copyright fears. While companies like Twitter and Google have offered up their own emoji sets under open licenses, not all of them have, and some of the specifics about the variations in how different companies represent different emoji apparently were key to the book...

Now, my first reaction to this is that using the emoji and stickers and whatnot in the book seems like a very clear fair use situation. But… that requires a publisher willing to take up the fight (and an insurance company behind the publisher willing to finance that fight). And, that often doesn’t happen. Publishers are notoriously averse to supporting fair use, because they don’t want to get sued.

But, really, this just ends up highlighting (once again) the absolute ridiculousness of copyright in the modern world. No one in their right mind would think that a book about emoji is somehow harming the market for whatever emoji or stickers the professor wished to include. Yet, due to the nature of copyright, here we are. With an academic book about emoji that can’t even include the emoji being spoken about."

Agence France-Presse pursues copyright case against X, formerly known as Twitter; AP, August 3, 2023

AP; Agence France-Presse pursues copyright case against X, formerly known as Twitter

"AP; Agence France-Presse pursues copyright case against X, formerly known as Twitter  "France’s international news agency, Agence France-Presse, says it is pursuing a copyright case against X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, in an effort to secure potential payment for its news content."

Inside The Anti-Ownership Ebook Economy; Library Journal, August 3, 2023

 Claire Woodcock  , Library Journal; Inside The Anti-Ownership Ebook Economy

"Most libraries don’t own their own ebooks. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to LJ readers, yet it’s a statement that continues to confound elected officials and administrators who get an astounding amount of say in how much money public and academic libraries are allotted.

This is one of the reasons I, along with my coauthors Sarah Lamdan, Michael Weinberg, and Jason Schultz at the Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy at New York University (NYU) Law, published our recent report, The Anti-Ownership Ebook Economy: How Publishers and Platforms Have Reshaped the Way We Read in the Digital Age. In nearly 60 pages, this report takes a hard look at how license agreements dictate what consumers—both individual and institutional—get to do with their digital book collections."

Can You Copyright a Photograph of Your AI Art?; Make Use Of, August 3, 2023

CRAIG BOEHMAN, Make Use Of; Can You Copyright a Photograph of Your AI Art?

"So you've created an AI-generated artwork. You've used only prompts. And by law, you can't copyright it, so what do you do?

You take a picture of it!

By taking a picture of the work, not only do you own the copyright of the photo, but you also enjoy all the other protections of copyright, including the right to use your photo commercially."

Dua Lipa faces new copyright lawsuit over hit Levitating; BBC, August 2, 2023

Riyah Collins , BBC; Dua Lipa faces new copyright lawsuit over hit Levitating

"The legal action, which was filed in Los Angeles on Monday, claims Bosko is entitled to more than $20m (£15.6m).

It says British-Albanian star Dua Lipa had permission to use the talk box on the original recording but not on any remixes, Reuters reported.

It alleges the 27-year-old reused the work without permission on further releases, including The Blessed Madonna remix, which featured Madonna and Missy Elliott, another remix featuring DaBaby and a performance by Dua Lipa at the American Music Awards."

Webb Wright , The Drum; What you need to know about the copyright issues surrounding generative AI; The Drum, August 1, 2023

Webb Wright , The Drum; What you need to know about the copyright issues surrounding generative AI

"“The basic question of whether or not an AI using copyrighted work constitutes copyright infringement is for now an open issue,” says patent attorney Robert McFarlane. Ultimately, McFarlane believes that some uses of generative AI will be deemed to constitute copyright infringement, while others won’t. “These cases that are just starting now are going to try to draw that line,” he says."

Judgment Phase of Internet Archive Copyright Case Appears Imminent; Publishers Weekly, August 1, 2023

 Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly; Judgment Phase of Internet Archive Copyright Case Appears Imminent

"It's now been more than four months since a federal judge found the Internet Archive liable for copyright infringement for its program to scan and lend library books. But after a court order late last week, the parties finally appear headed toward the judgment phase of the litigation.

Since the verdict, the parties have (per the court's order) been conferring over the contours an "appropriate procedure to determine the judgment to be entered in the case." And after numerous extensions through the spring and summer, judge John G. Koeltl appears to have run out of patience. In a July 28 order, Koeltl gave the parties until August 11 to deliver their recommendations, adding "no more extensions."

New AI systems collide with copyright law; BBC News, July 31, 2023

 Suzanne Bearne, BBC News; New AI systems collide with copyright law

""I remember thinking, if this can happen on a small scale, it can happen on a giant scale," says the artist from Zandvoort in the Netherlands.

Aggrieved by the lack of protection for artists, she grouped together with five other artists to set up the European Guild of Artificial Intelligence Regulation.

"The aim is to create legislation and regulation to protect copyright holders and artists from predatory AI companies," she says."

Local internet star wages cat fight over online copyrights; Monroe Journal, July 28, 2023

RAY VAN DUSEN, Monroe Journal; Local internet star wages cat fight over online copyrights

"After reporting the fake pages as infringing on her copyrights, she was previously able to have two of them taken down but said they have since reappeared online.

“That’s when the imposters started coming after me and started sending threatening emails to back off. When I didn’t back off, the imposters started reporting my videos as copyright infringement and said I was stealing my own YouTube videos from them,” she said."

Senators aim to protect small businesses from foreign IP theft with new bill; CNBC, July 27, 2023

 Chelsey Cox, CNBC; Senators aim to protect small businesses from foreign IP theft with new bill

"The American IP Defense and Enforcement Advancement Act, or the IDEA Act, is a bipartisan response to large losses business owners face each year due to IP theft. Misuse of IP has cost the U.S. economy an estimated $225 billion to $600 billion each year, according to a 2017 report from the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property that was cited by the lawmakers.

If passed, the IDEA Act will reauthorize a state and local law enforcement intellectual property enforcement program at $25 million per year from 2024-29. The program – which supports state, local and tribal jurisdictions in preventing and reducing, investigating, and prosecuting IP theft crimes – was initially authorized for 2009-13.

The program, called PRO-IP, funded enforcement infrastructure in Austin, Texas, and Jackson, Mississippi, as well as a sheriff’s program in Chicago. There would be particular emphasis on a list of countries under watch by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. They include China, Mexico, Guatemala and Colombia — areas where IP theft against U.S. small businesses is particularly rampant."

Jason Aldean's 'Try That In A Small Town' music video edited due to copyright issues; Good Morning America (GMA), July 26, 2023

Angeline Jane Bernabe , Good Morning America (GMA); Jason Aldean's 'Try That In A Small Town' music video edited due to copyright issues

"Jason Aldean's "Try That In A Small Town" music video, which has faced controversy since its release last week, has been edited due to third party copyright clearance issues.

Last week, CMT told "Good Morning America" that it has pulled the music video from its rotation as Aldean faced backlash for the song from social media critics."

Meta, Microsoft, hundreds more own trademarks to new Twitter name; Reuters, July 25, 2023

 Blake Brittain, Reuters; Meta, Microsoft, hundreds more own trademarks to new Twitter name

"Billionaire Elon Musk's decision to rebrand Twitter as X could be complicated legally: companies including Meta (META.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O) already have intellectual property rights to the same letter.

X is so widely used and cited in trademarks that it is a candidate for legal challenges - and the company formerly known as Twitter could face its own issues defending its X brand in the future.

"There's a 100% chance that Twitter is going to get sued over this by somebody," said trademark attorney Josh Gerben, who said he counted nearly 900 active U.S. trademark registrations that already cover the letter X in a wide range of industries."

Elon Musk Apparently Didn’t Bother To Make Basic Preparations Ahead Of His Chaotic, Comical Rebranding Of Twitter As ‘X’ Despite His Decades-Long Obsession With The Letter; UPROXX, July 25, 2023

Mike Redmond, UPROXX ; Elon Musk Apparently Didn’t Bother To Make Basic Preparations Ahead Of His Chaotic, Comical Rebranding Of Twitter As ‘X’ Despite His Decades-Long Obsession With The Letter

"To the surprise of no one, there was a whole lot of diligence left on the table.

Despite Musk having a decades-long obsession with the name X, to the point that it led to his ouster at PayPal, it appears that nobody at Twitter thought to check if anyone had already registered the X trademark. Turns out, Musk’s rival Mark Zuckerberg is already sitting on the name along with 900 other copyright registrations (including Microsoft). Whoops."

If artificial intelligence uses your work, it should pay you; The Washington Post, July 26, 2023

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, The Washington Post; If artificial intelligence uses your work, it should pay you

"Renowned technologists and economists, including Jaron Lanier and E. Glen Weyl, have long argued that Big Tech should not be allowed to monetize people’s data without compensating them. This concept of “data dignity” was largely responding to the surveillance advertising business models of companies such as Google and Facebook, but Lanier and Weyl also pointed out, quite presciently, that the principle would only grow more vital as AI rose to prominence...

When I do a movie, and I sign my contract with a movie studio, I agree that the studio will own the copyright to the movie. Which feels fair and non-threatening. The studio paid to make the movie, so it should get to monetize the movie however it wants. But if I had known that by signing this contract and allowing the studio to be the movie’s sole copyright holder, I would then be allowing the studio to use that intellectual property as training data for an AI that would put me out of a job forever, I would never have signed that contract."

International Copyright Issues and Artificial Intelligence; U.S. Copyright Office, Wednesday, July 26, 2023 11 AM - 1 PM EDT

U.S. Copyright Office; International Copyright Issues and Artificial Intelligence

The United States is not alone in facing challenging questions about generative artificial intelligence and its implications for copyright law and policy. On July 26, 2023, join the Copyright Office for a discussion on global perspectives on copyright and AI. Leading international experts will discuss how other countries are approaching copyright questions including authorship, training, and exceptions and limitations. They will provide an overview of legislative developments in other regions and highlight possible areas of convergence and divergence.

This webinar is a part of the Copyright Office’s initiative to examine copyright law and policy issues raised by AI technology, including the scope of copyright in works generated using AI tools and the use of copyrighted materials in AI training. For more on copyright and AI, visit copyright.gov/ai.

Time: July 26, 2023, 11:00 a.m.- 1:00 p.m.

Speakers:

• Jane Ginsburg, Columbia Law School
• Andres Guadamuz, University of Sussex
• Bernt Hugenholtz, University of Amsterdam
• Matthew Sag, Emory University School of Law
• Luca Schirru, KU Leuven
• Marcus von Welser, Vossius
• Raquel Xalabarder Plantada, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
• Shlomit Yanisky-Ravid, Ono Academic College
• Peter Yu, Texas A&M University School of Law"

Why Carol Burnett Sued Family Guy (& What Happened Next); ScreenRant, July 25, 2023

MATTHEW MOORE, ScreenRant; Why Carol Burnett Sued Family Guy (& What Happened Next)

"Carol Burnett sued Family Guy for portraying her iconic sketch series without permission, wanting to protect her comedy legacy. 

The lawsuit stemmed from an episode where Peter jokes about Burnett working as a janitor, using her famous character the Charwoman. 

The lawsuit was dismissed, with the judge ruling that Family Guy had the right to create parodies, maintaining the reputation of both parties."

The Generative AI Battle Has a Fundamental Flaw; Wired, July 25, 2023

  WILL BEDINGFIELD, Wired; The Generative AI Battle Has a Fundamental Flaw

"At the core of these cases, explains Sag, is the same general theory: that LLMs “copied” authors’ protected works. Yet, as Sag explained in testimony to a US Senate subcommittee hearing earlier this month, models like GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 do not “copy” work in the traditional sense. Digest would be a more appropriate verb—digesting training data to carry out their function: predicting the best next word in a sequence. “Rather than thinking of an LLM as copying the training data like a scribe in a monastery,” Sag said in his Senate testimony, “it makes more sense to think of it as learning from the training data like a student.”...

Ultimately, though, the technology is not going away, and copyright can only remedy some of its consequences. As Stephanie Bell, a research fellow at the nonprofit Partnership on AI, notes, setting a precedent where creative works can be treated like uncredited data is “very concerning.” To fully address a problem like this, the regulations AI needs aren't yet on the books."

Victory! Embedded Links to Photos on Instagram Don’t Infringe Photographers’ Copyrights, Court Rules; EFF, July 20, 2023

KAREN GULLO , EFF; Victory! Embedded Links to Photos on Instagram Don’t Infringe Photographers’ Copyrights, Court Rules

"The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a ruling published this week, made clear that linking does not constitute infringement, and kept in place an important test to determine under what circumstances entities can be held liable for displaying copyrighted content online."

How judges, not politicians, could dictate America’s AI rules; MIT Technology Review, July 17, 2023

Melissa Heikkilä, MIT Technology Review; How judges, not politicians, could dictate America’s AI rules

"It’s becoming increasingly clear that courts, not politicians, will be the first to determine the limits on how AI is developed and used in the US."

Five Takeaways From the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Intellectual Property’s AI and Copyright Hearing; JD Supra, July 21, 2023

Nathaniel Bach, Monica Kulkarni, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP , JD Supra; Five Takeaways From the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Intellectual Property’s AI and Copyright Hearing

"On July 12, 2023, the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Intellectual Property held its second hearing on artificial intelligence (AI) and intellectual property (IP). The first hearing, held on June 7, 2023, focused on AI’s implications for patent law, while this second hearing centered on copyright issues. Hearing participants, both senators and witnesses, seemed to recognize that the industry needs to strike a balance between promoting AI innovation and protecting creators’ rights, particularly in the context of training generative AI models using data gathered from the Internet. While opinions on the means to achieve that end certainly differed across witnesses—who ranged from the head of public policy at Stability AI to a concept artist—the general consensus was that more clarity on the federal level regarding how to protect creators’ rights would be beneficial to stakeholders across the board...

Accordingly, the senators focused their questioning on mainly five topics, providing a glimpse of what potential federal legislation could look like:..."

How a Drug Maker Profited by Slow-Walking a Promising H.I.V. Therapy; The New York Times, July 22, 2023

Rebecca Robbins and Sheryl Gay Stolberg, The New York Times; How a Drug Maker Profited by Slow-Walking a Promising H.I.V. Therapy

"Gilead, one of the world’s largest drugmakers, appeared to be embracing a well-worn industry tactic: gaming the U.S. patent system to protect lucrative monopolies on best-selling drugs...

Gilead ended up introducing a version of the new treatment in 2015, nearly a decade after it might have become available if the company had not paused development in 2004. Its patents now extend until at least 2031.

The delayed release of the new treatment is now the subject of state and federal lawsuits in which some 26,000 patients who took Gilead’s older H.I.V. drugs claim that the company unnecessarily exposed them to kidney and bone problems."

Top tech firms sign White House pledge to identify AI-generated images; The Washington Post, July 21, 2023

 Cat Zakrzewski, The Washington Post; Top tech firms sign White House pledge to identify AI-generated images

"The White House on Friday announced that seven of the most influential companies building artificial intelligence have agreed to a voluntary pledge to mitigate the risks of the emerging technology, escalating the Biden administration’s involvement in the growing debate over AI regulation.]

The companies — which include Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and Chat GPT-maker OpenAI — vowed to allow independent security experts to test their systems before they are released to the public and committed to sharing data about the safety of their systems with the government and academics.

The firms also pledged to develop systems to alert the public when an image, video or text is created by artificial intelligence, a method known as “watermarking.”

In addition to the tech giants, several newer businesses at the forefront of AI development signed the pledge, including Anthropic and Inflection. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post. Interim CEO Patty Stonesifer sits on Amazon’s board.)"

Cheaper TB drugs for millions after global deal on patent rights agreed; The Guardian, July 18, 2023

 Kaamil Ahmed, The Guardian ; Cheaper TB drugs for millions after global deal on patent rights agreed

"Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson has struck a deal to allow generic versions of its tuberculosis drug to be supplied to low-income countries – but the deal has been criticised for not going far enough to end the company’s monopoly on global supplies of bedaquiline.

The global patent of the drug ends on Tuesday 18 July, but in a number of countries Johnson & Johnson continues to control the market with secondary patents – for which small modifications are made to a product to extend a patent.

J&J’s decision will allow the Stop TB Partnership coalition to procure and supply generic bedaquiline to 44 low- and middle-income countries through its Global Drug Facility (GDF)."

Llama 2: why is Meta releasing open-source AI model and are there any risks?; The Guardian, July 20, 2023

Dan Milmo , The Guardian; Llama 2: why is Meta releasing open-source AI model and are there any risks?

"Are there concerns about open-source AI?

Tech professionals including Elon Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI, have expressed concerns about an AI arms race. Open-sourcing makes a powerful tool in this technology available to all.

Dame Wendy Hall, regius professor of computer science at the University of Southampton, told the Today programme there were questions over whether the tech industry could be trusted to self-regulate LLMs, with the problem looming even larger for open-source models. “It’s a bit like giving people a template to build a nuclear bomb,” she said.

Dr Andrew Rogoyski, of the Institute for People-Centred AI at the University of Surrey, said open-source models were difficult to regulate. “You can’t really regulate open source. You can regulate the repositories, like Github or Hugging Face, under local legislation,” he said.

“You can issue licence terms on the software that, if abused, could make the abusing company liable under various forms of legal redress. However, being open source means anyone can get their hands on it, so it doesn’t stop the wrong people grabbing the software, nor does it stop anyone from misusing it.”"