Rose-Graceling Moore, ScreenRant; This Latest AI Book Debacle Is A Disturbing Part Of A Growing Trend
Friday, May 30, 2025
Thursday, May 29, 2025
The Copyright Office’s Report on AI Training Material and Fair Use: Will It Stymie the U.S. AI Industry?; The Federalist Society, May 29, 2025
John Blanton Farmer , The Federalist Society ; The Copyright Office’s Report on AI Training Material and Fair Use: Will It Stymie the U.S. AI Industry?
"Will the Trump Administration Withdraw the Report?
The Trump Administration might withdraw this report.
The Trump Administration is friendlier to the U.S. AI industry than the Biden Administration was. Shortly after taking office, it rescinded a Biden Administration executive order on the development and use of AI, which was restrictive and burdensome.
The day before the report was released, the Trump Administration fired the head of the Library of Congress, which oversees the USCO. The day after the report was issued, it fired the head of the USCO. The administration didn’t comment on whether these firings were related to the report.
The USCO may have rushed out the report to prevent the Trump Administration from meddling with it. The version released was labeled a “pre-publication version.” It’s unusual to release a non-final version.
This report is not the law. Courts will decide this fair use issue. They’ll certainly consider this report, but they aren’t bound to follow it."
Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Fired copyright chief loses first round in lawsuit over Trump powers; Politico, May 28, 2025
KATHERINE TULLY-MCMANUS, Politico ; Fired copyright chief loses first round in lawsuit over Trump powers
"A judge denied a request for reinstatement Wednesday from the ousted head of the national copyright office, rejecting for now her claims that President Donald Trump had no right to fire her."
Tuesday, May 27, 2025
WATCH: Is A.I. the new colonialism?; The Ink, May 27, 2025
ANAND GIRIDHARADAS AND KAREN HAO, The Ink; WATCH: Is A.I. the new colonialism?
"We just got off a call with the technology journalist Karen Hao, the keenest chronicler of the technology that’s promising — or threatening — to reshape the world, who has a new book, Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI.
The book talks not just about artificial intelligence and what it might be, or its most visible spokesperson and what he might believe, but also about the way the tech industry titans resemble more and more the empires of old in their relentless resource extraction and exploitation of labor around the world, their take-no-prisoners competitiveness against supposedly “evil” pretenders, and their religious fervor for progress and even salvation. She also told us about what the future might look like if we get A.I. right, and the people who produce the data, the resources, and control the labor power can reassert their ownership and push back against these new empires to build a more humane and human future."
Trump Defends Firing Copyright Chief, Cites Presidential Power; Bloomberg Law, May 26, 2025
Kartikay Mehrotra
"The Trump administration fired back Monday against ousted Copyright Office chief Shira Perlmutter’s lawsuit, arguing her emergency request for reinstatement should be denied because the president has sweeping authority to remove her."
Author sides with students in revolt over book passage used in AP exam; The Washington Post, May 24, 2025
Kim Bellware, The Washington Post; Author sides with students in revolt over book passage used in AP exam
"Serpell, herself a longtime critic of standardized tests, said the College Board, the billion-dollar standardized-testing juggernaut that administers them, did not ask permission to use her work and distorted her writing.
“Stranger Faces,” a collection of essays on the pleasure people take in unusual faces in works of art, was geared toward professional scholars, not high school readers, Serpell said, and she insists that the complexity of her writing can only be understood in fuller context. The exam excerpt, she said, omitted critical writing that would have made her arguments and rhetorical effects clearer.
As Serpell deals with the fallout — which, in some cases, she said, included death threats — she is siding with the students, taking up their arguments with the College Board and touching off a heated online debate over academic ethics."
Saturday, May 24, 2025
Leadership Limbo at the Library of Congress; Library Journal, May 23, 2025
Hallie Rich, Library Journal; Leadership Limbo at the Library of Congress
"REMAINING NONPARTISAN
According to reporting across major media outlets, staff continue to await guidance from the congressional committees charged with LoC oversight—and questions over the future of the Library as a nonpartisan legislative branch agency hang in the balance. The Congressional Research Service (CRS), the research arm of the Library that works exclusively for members of Congress, provides confidential policy and legal analysis to lawmakers and staff of both chambers, regardless of party affiliation...
WILL CONGRESS ACT?
Politico reported on May 21 that Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) “thinks Congress needs to take charge in naming the heads of major legislative branch agencies, including the Library of Congress and Government Accountability Office.” Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) recommended modifying the process for appointing the Librarian of Congress, citing legislation she wrote that removed presidential involvement in appointing the architect of the Capitol. “Just like we changed the rules with architect the Capitol, we should change them here,” she told reporters.
Legislation that would grant appointment authority for the Librarian of Congress, the leader of a legislative branch agency, exclusively to Congress is one potential path forward.
Library professionals who are concerned about the independence of the Library of Congress should "reach out to your member of Congress,” says one source who spoke on the condition of anonymity, “and do so quickly.” The White House’s effort to install new leadership at the Library was staved off because staff are awaiting direction from Congress.
The Librarian of Congress is not appointed at the sole discretion of the president—an appointment requires Senate confirmation. According to reporting by The New York Times, LoC staff are currently following internal procedures by keeping Newlen in charge, but more permanent answers to questions about the future of the Library as a nonpartisan legislative branch agency appear to lie, at this time, with members of Congress."
Judge Hints Anthropic’s AI Training on Books Is Fair Use; Bloomberg Law, May 22, 2025
Annelise Levy
"A California federal judge is leaning toward finding Anthropic PBC violated copyright law when it made initial copies of pirated books, but that its subsequent uses to train their generative AI models qualify as fair use.
“I’m inclined to say they did violate the Copyright Act but the subsequent uses were fair use,” Judge William Alsup said Thursday during a hearing in San Francisco. “That’s kind of the way I’m leaning right now,” he said, but concluded the 90-minute hearing by clarifying that his decision isn’t final. “Sometimes I say that and change my mind."...
The first judge to rule will provide a window into how federal courts interpret the fair use argument for training generative artificial intelligence models with copyrighted materials. A decision against Anthropic could disrupt the billion-dollar business model behind many AI companies, which rely on the belief that training with unlicensed copyrighted content doesn’t violate the law."
Friday, May 23, 2025
Thursday, May 22, 2025
US Copyright Office director sues Trump administration over firing; Reuters, May 22, 2025
Blake Brittain, Reuters; US Copyright Office director sues Trump administration over firing
"The U.S. Copyright Office director fired by the Trump administration sued President Donald Trump and other government officials on Thursday, arguing her firing was unconstitutional and should not be allowed to take effect.
Shira Perlmutter said in the lawsuit that her termination by email on May 10 was "blatantly unlawful," and that only the U.S. Congress can remove her from office."
Copyright Alliance CEO and Others Resign from ALI’s Copyright Restatement Project; Copyright Alliance, May 16, 2025
Copyright Alliance; Copyright Alliance CEO and Others Resign from ALI’s Copyright Restatement Project
"In a statement issued today, Copyright Alliance CEO Keith Kupferschmid announced that he, along with numerous other advisers and liaisons, have resigned from the American Law Institute’s (ALI) Restatement of Copyright Law (Restatement) project, effective immediately. The resignations follow those of four prominent law professors earlier this week.
According to Kupferschmid, “I am officially announcing my departure from the ALI’s Copyright Restatement project for a number of critical reasons, including the fact that throughout the initiative, ALI Copyright Restatement Reporters routinely disregarded concerns and comments shared by the U.S. Copyright Office, judges, and numerous other expert participants. This input was not considered because it differed from the ALI Reporters’ views and biases regarding copyright law.
“Before the start of this project, we and many others warned that the Copyright Restatement effort was likely to look much more like a restatement of the Reporters’ views rather than actual copyright law. Unfortunately, these predictions came true, resulting in the final version of the Copyright Restatement presenting a restrictive and warped view of copyright—one that is inconsistent with the statute and case law and reflects the Reporters’ aspirations to change the copyright law.
“There is a general undercurrent of anti-copyright sentiment that runs through the entire Copyright Restatement that manifests itself through a disproportionate focus on atypical court decisions that limit the scope of copyright protection. Not only does the ALI Restatement emphasize minority and outlier decisions and focuses on the exceptions rather than the rules, but at times during the project, the Reporters also drew conclusions that the current law simply does not support.
“It is for these reasons that I have signed onto a letter to the ALI voicing my concerns and stepping down from my role as liaison. I am not alone in this belief, as evidenced by the fact that approximately half of the advisers and liaisons have, or are in the process of, resigning from this project, one that that falls far short of the ALI’s otherwise high standards and stellar reputation.”
###
ABOUT THE COPYRIGHT ALLIANCE
The Copyright Alliance is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest and educational organization representing the copyright interests of over two million individual creators and over 15,000 organizations in the United States, across the spectrum of copyright disciplines. The Copyright Alliance is dedicated to advocating policies that promote and preserve the value of copyright, and to protecting the rights of creators and innovators. The Copyright Alliance is the unified voice of the copyright community, and the views espoused may not reflect the specific views of any individual or organization. For more information, please visit our website."
Restatement of the Law, Copyright Is Approved; The American Law Institute, May 20, 2025
Press Release, The American Law Institute ; Restatement of the Law, Copyright Is Approved
"The American Law Institute’s membership voted today to approve Restatement of the Law, Copyright. This is the first Restatement devoted to copyright law and provides guidance to courts in areas in which the governing statute leaves significant scope for discretion in this complex field. Restatements are primarily addressed to courts. They aim at clear formulations of the law and reflect the law as it presently stands or might appropriately be stated by a court. Launched in 2014, the project has been presented in stages at ALI’s Annual Meetings over the past five years.
The Reporter for the project is Christopher Jon Sprigman of New York University School of Law. Associate Reporters are Daniel J. Gervais of Vanderbilt University Law School; Lydia Pallas Loren of Lewis & Clark Law School; R. Anthony Reese of University of California, Irvine School of Law; and Molly S. Van Houweling of University of California, Berkeley School of Law.
“The Copyright Restatement represents a major milestone in ALI’s ongoing work to clarify areas the law,” said ALI Director Diane P. Wood. “Copyright law is rooted in a detailed federal statute, yet the courts continue to play a critical role in interpreting key concepts and applying them in new technological and creative contexts. This Restatement brings coherence and analytical rigor to these interpretive challenges. It provides courts and practitioners with a principled guide to the areas in which judges have been asked to exercise their discretion. Like ALI’s recent Restatement work on U.S. Foreign Relations Law and The Law of American Indians, the Copyright project reflects our commitment to supporting the sound development of the law.”
“The Copyright Act, while comprehensive in some areas, leaves many important questions to be worked out in the courts,” added Reporter Sprigman. “This Restatement distills and organizes how courts have addressed these open questions and offers clear guidance. Copyright law has never stood still—it evolves with the ways we create, share, and build upon culture, knowledge, and information. The Copyright Act provides the scaffolding, but the courts play a central role on many of the most consequential questions in copyright law. What this Restatement does is gather, organize, and clarify the case law that fills in those statutory gaps. We aimed to reflect how judges have actually decided these issues and to present the guidance in a way that is accessible, coherent, and faithful to doctrine. It has been a privilege to work with such a deeply knowledgeable team of Associate Reporters, Advisers, Liaisons, and ALI members, and I believe the final product will serve as an essential secondary source for years to come.”
This Restatement offers guidance to courts in areas of copyright law including the boundary between copyrightable expression and uncopyrightable ideas and facts; the scope of exclusive rights; ownership and transfer rules; infringement standards; defenses like fair use and first sale; and available remedies.
The publication is organized into eleven chapters:
- Subject Matter and Standards
- Scope of Protection
- Initial Ownership, Transfers, Voluntary Licenses, and Termination of Grants
- Copyright Formalities
- Duration of Copyright
- Copyright Rights and Limitations
- Copyright Infringement
- Secondary Liability
- Remedies for Copyright Infringement
- Copyright-Protection-and-Management Systems
- Procedural Issues and Relationship to Other Bodies of Law
ALI Reporters, under the oversight of the Director, will now prepare the Institute’s official text for publication. At this stage, Reporters may update citations, make editorial revisions, and incorporate any final changes approved during the Annual Meeting. Until the official Volume is published, the approved Tentative Drafts represent the official position of The American Law Institute and may be cited as such.
* * *
About The American Law Institute
The American Law Institute is the leading independent organization in the United States producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and improve the law. The ALI drafts, discusses, revises, and publishes Restatements of the Law, Model Codes, and Principles of Law that are influential in the courts and legislatures, as well as in legal scholarship and education. By participating in the Institute’s work, its distinguished members have the opportunity to influence the development of the law in both existing and emerging areas, to work with other eminent lawyers, judges, and academics, to support the rule of law and the legal system, and to contribute to the public good."
Fannin County school play canceled over copyright violation, principal says; WSBTV.com, May 20, 2025
WSBTV.com News Staff , WSBTV.com; Fannin County school play canceled over copyright violation, principal says
"While the changes themselves were not detailed, and Channel 2 Action News has reached out for more information, school officials said the copyright violation from their license of the play made their decision for them.
“Upon investigation, we learned that the performance did not reflect the original script. These alterations were not approved by the licensing company or administration. The performance contract for The Crucible does not allow modifications without prior written approval. Failing to follow the proper licensing approval process for additions led to a breach in our contract with the play’s publisher,” school officials said. “The infraction resulted in an automatic termination of the licensing agreement. The second performance of The Crucible could not occur because we were no longer covered by a copyright agreement.”
The school also confirmed in their statement that the script is taught in English classes at the institution, though it is not a required text."
A.I.-Generated Reading List in Chicago Sun-Times Recommends Nonexistent Books; The New York Times, May 21, 2025
Talya Minsberg , The New York Times; A.I.-Generated Reading List in Chicago Sun-Times Recommends Nonexistent Books
"The summer reading list tucked into a special section of The Chicago Sun-Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer seemed innocuous enough.
There were books by beloved authors such as Isabel Allende and Min Jin Lee; novels by best sellers including Delia Owens, Taylor Jenkins Reid and Brit Bennett; and a novel by Percival Everett, a recent Pulitzer Prize winner.
There was just one issue: None of the book titles attributed to the above authors were real. They had been created by generative artificial intelligence.
It’s the latest case of bad A.I. making its way into the news. While generative A.I. has improved, there is still no way to ensure the systems produce accurate information. A.I. chatbots cannot distinguish between what is true and what is false, and they often make things up. The chatbots can spit out information and expert names with an air of authority."
Wednesday, May 21, 2025
We're All Copyright Owners. Why You Need to Care About AI and Copyright; CNET, May 19, 2025
Katelyn Chedraoui , CNET; We're All Copyright Owners. Why You Need to Care About AI and Copyright
"Most of us don't think about copyright very often in our daily lives. But in the age of generative AI, it has quickly become one of the most important issues in the development and outputs of chatbots and image and video generators. It's something that affects all of us because we're all copyright owners and authors...
What does all of this mean for the future?
Copyright owners are in a bit of a holding pattern for now. But beyond the legal and ethical implications, copyright in the age of AI raises important questions about the value of creative work, the cost of innovation and the ways in which we need or ought to have government intervention and protections.
There are two distinct ways to view the US's intellectual property laws, Mammen said. The first is that these laws were enacted to encourage and reward human flourishing. The other is more economically focused; the things that we're creating have value, and we want our economy to be able to recognize that value accordingly."
Dark LLMs: The Growing Threat of Unaligned AI Models; Cornell University, May 15, 2025
Michael Fire, Yitzhak Elbazis, Adi Wasenstein, Lior Rokach , Cornell University; Dark LLMs: The Growing Threat of Unaligned AI Models
"Large Language Models (LLMs) rapidly reshape modern life, advancing fields from healthcare to education and beyond. However, alongside their remarkable capabilities lies a significant threat: the susceptibility of these models to jailbreaking. The fundamental vulnerability of LLMs to jailbreak attacks stems from the very data they learn from. As long as this training data includes unfiltered, problematic, or 'dark' content, the models can inherently learn undesirable patterns or weaknesses that allow users to circumvent their intended safety controls. Our research identifies the growing threat posed by dark LLMs models deliberately designed without ethical guardrails or modified through jailbreak techniques. In our research, we uncovered a universal jailbreak attack that effectively compromises multiple state-of-the-art models, enabling them to answer almost any question and produce harmful outputs upon request. The main idea of our attack was published online over seven months ago. However, many of the tested LLMs were still vulnerable to this attack. Despite our responsible disclosure efforts, responses from major LLM providers were often inadequate, highlighting a concerning gap in industry practices regarding AI safety. As model training becomes more accessible and cheaper, and as open-source LLMs proliferate, the risk of widespread misuse escalates. Without decisive intervention, LLMs may continue democratizing access to dangerous knowledge, posing greater risks than anticipated."
Most AI chatbots easily tricked into giving dangerous responses, study finds; The Guardian, May 21, 2025
Ian Sample , The Guardian; Most AI chatbots easily tricked into giving dangerous responses, study finds
"Hacked AI-powered chatbots threaten to make dangerous knowledge readily available by churning out illicit information the programs absorb during training, researchers say.
The warning comes amid a disturbing trend for chatbots that have been “jailbroken” to circumvent their built-in safety controls. The restrictions are supposed to prevent the programs from providing harmful, biased or inappropriate responses to users’ questions.
The engines that power chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude – large language models (LLMs) – are fed vast amounts of material from the internet.
Despite efforts to strip harmful text from the training data, LLMs can still absorb information about illegal activities such as hacking, money laundering, insider trading and bomb-making. The security controls are designed to stop them using that information in their responses.
In a report on the threat, the researchers conclude that it is easy to trick most AI-driven chatbots into generating harmful and illegal information, showing that the risk is “immediate, tangible and deeply concerning”...
The research, led by Prof Lior Rokach and Dr Michael Fire at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, identified a growing threat from “dark LLMs”, AI models that are either deliberately designed without safety controls or modified through jailbreaks. Some are openly advertised online as having “no ethical guardrails” and being willing to assist with illegal activities such as cybercrime and fraud."
Tuesday, May 20, 2025
The AI and Copyright Issues Dividing Trump’s Court; Jacobin, May 19, 2025
DAVID MOSCROP , Jacobin; The AI and Copyright Issues Dividing Trump’s Court
"As many have pointed out, the copyright-AI battle is not only a central struggle within the Trump administration; it is also a broader conflict over who controls intellectual property and to what end. For decades, corporations have abused copyright to unreasonably extend coverage periods and impoverish the public domain. Their goal: maximizing both control over IP and profits. But AI firms aren’t interested in reforming that system. They’re not looking to open access or enrich the commons — they just want training data. And in fighting for it, they may end up reshaping copyright law in ways that outlast this administration.
As Nguyen notes, after the Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, was turfed by DOGE-aligned officials, Trump antitrust adviser Mike Davis posted to Truth Social: “Now tech bros are going to steal creators’ copyrights for AI profits. . . . This is 100 percent unacceptable.” Trump reposted it. That’s the shape of the struggle: MAGA populists, who see their own content as sacred property, are up against a tech elite that views all content as extractable fuel."
Monday, May 19, 2025
Donald Trump’s Library of Congress fight is really about the separation of powers; AP, May 16, 2025
SEUNG MIN KIM, Associated Press (AP); Donald Trump’s Library of Congress fight is really about the separation of powers
"It’s not really about the books.
President Donald Trump’s abrupt firing of top officials at the Library of Congress and equally sudden attempt to appoint a slate of loyalists as replacements has instead morphed into an enormous fight over the separation of powers, as the White House tries to wrest control of what has for centuries been a legislative institution.
It’s a power struggle with potentially vast consequences. The Library of Congress not only stores the world’s largest collection of books but also an office overseeing reams of copyrighted material of untold value.
There is a research institute that has long been protected from outside influence. Its servers house extremely sensitive information regarding claims of workplace violations on Capitol Hill, as well as payments and other financial data for the legislative branch’s more than 30,000 employees. There’s even speculation that the whole affair is tied to an ongoing debate over whether big tech companies can use copyrighted material for artificial intelligence systems."
Artificial Intelligence Resources Compiled for Legal Community; Court News Ohio, May 13, 2025
Staff Report , Court News Ohio; Artificial Intelligence Resources Compiled for Legal Community
"Artificial intelligence and generative artificial intelligence (AI, collectively) are rapidly evolving technologies that impact many, if not most, facets of human life. AI’s potential impact on judicial systems is no exception – from how judges and magistrates write opinions, to the briefs and motions prepared by attorneys, to the evidenceprovided by plaintiffs and defendants.
To assist the legal community, an array of resources is now available on the Supreme Court of Ohio website about AI and its use in the courts and legal profession.
The new “Artificial Intelligence Resource Library” offers:
- AI ethics guidelines for judicial officers and attorneys.
- AI practices in state courts.
- Legal association reports and statements.
- Journal and scholarly articles.
- Useful courses on the topic.
The library content is organized for three groups: courts; attorneys; and the public (particularly nonlawyers who represent themselves in court)."
'Criminal': Elton John condemns UK's AI copyright plans; Reuters, May 18, 2025
Reuters; 'Criminal': Elton John condemns UK's AI copyright plans
"The biggest names in the industry, including John, Paul McCartney, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Ed Sheeran and others, have urged the government to change course, saying the proposal will make it even harder for young people to make a living in the creative industries.
"The danger is for young artists, they haven't got the resources to keep checking or fight big tech," John told the BBC. "It's criminal and I feel incredibly betrayed.""
Sunday, May 18, 2025
RIP American innovation; The Washington Post, May 12, 2025
Bina Venkataraman, The Washington Post; RIP American innovation
"That U.S. businesses have led the recent revolution in artificial intelligence is owed to the decades of research supported by the U.S. government in computing, neuroscience, autonomous systems, biology and beyond that far precedes those companies’ investments. Virtually the entire U.S. biotech industry — which brought us treatments for diabetes, breast cancer and HIV — has its roots in publicly funded research. Even a small boost to NIH funding has been shown to increase overall patents for biotech and pharmaceutical companies...
Giving out grants for what might look frivolous or wasteful on the surface is a feature, not a bug, of publicly funded research. Consider that Agriculture Department and NIH grants to study chemicals in wild yamsled to cortisone and medical steroids becoming widely affordable. Or that knowing more about the fruit fly has aided discoveries related to human aging, Parkinson’s disease and cancer.
For obvious reasons, companies don’t tend to invest in shared scientific knowledge that then allows lots of innovation to flourish. That would mean spending money on something that does not reap quick rewards just for that particular company.
Current business trends are more likely to help kill the U.S. innovation engine. A growing share of the country’s research and development is now being carried out by big, old companies, as opposed to start-ups and universities — and, in the process, the U.S. as a whole is spending more on R&D without getting commensurately more economic growth."
Intellectual property is our bedrock; Daily Journal, May 17, 2025
Phil Kerpen, Daily Journal; Intellectual property is our bedrock
"Elon Musk is probably the second-most powerful man in the world these days, so when he responded to Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s “delete all IP law” post with “I agree,” we need to take this radical proposal seriously.
Musk and Dorsey want their AI bots to remix all the world’s content without having to worry about who owns it, but it’s important that we slow down and start from first principles, or we risk undermining one of the foundations of our Constitution and economic system.
The moral case for IP was already powerfully articulated prior to American independence by John Locke. In his 1694 memorandum opposing the renewal of the Licensing Act, Locke wrote: “Books seem to me to be the most proper thing for a man to have a property in of any thing that is the product of his mind,” which is no doubt equally true of more modern creative works. Unlike physical property, which is a mixture of an individual’s work effort and the pre-existing natural world, creative works are the pure creation of the human mind. How could they not then properly be owned by their authors?
The Constitution cements this truth. Article I, Section 8 empowers Congress “to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” This clause isn’t incidental; it’s a deliberate choice to recognize inventors and authors properly have a property right in their creations and is the only right expressly protected in the base text of the Constitution, before the Bill of Rights was added...
Deleting all IP law is like banning free speech to stop misinformation — it might narrowly accomplish its goal, but only by destroying what we ought to be protecting."
Sir Elton John ‘incredibly betrayed’ by Government’s path on copyright law; The Independent, May 18, 2025
John Besley , The Independent; Sir Elton John ‘incredibly betrayed’ by Government’s path on copyright law
"Sir Elton John described the Government as “absolute losers” and said he felt “incredibly betrayed” after calls by peers to amend the Data (Use and Access) Bill to include greater copyright protections against artificial intelligence (AI) were resisted.
Earlier this week, the House of Lords supported an amendment designed to ensure copyright holders would have to give permission over whether their work was used, and in turn, see what aspects had been taken, by who and when.
MPs voted 297 to 168, majority 129, to disagree with this change on Wednesday evening, which means the stand-off between the two Houses over the wording of the Bill continues."
Saturday, May 17, 2025
Anthropic’s law firm throws Claude under the bus over citation errors in court filing; The Register, May 15, 2025
Thomas Claburn, The Register; Anthropic’s law firm throws Claude under the bus over citation errors in court filing
"An attorney defending AI firm Anthropic in a copyright case brought by music publishers apologized to the court on Thursday for citation errors that slipped into a filing after using the biz's own AI tool, Claude, to format references.
The incident reinforces what's becoming a pattern in legal tech: while AI models can be fine-tuned, people keep failing to verify the chatbot's output, despite the consequences.
The flawed citations, or "hallucinations," appeared in an April 30, 2025 declaration [PDF] from Anthropic data scientist Olivia Chen in a copyright lawsuit music publishers filed in October 2023.
But Chen was not responsible for introducing the errors, which appeared in footnotes 2 and 3.
Ivana Dukanovic, an attorney with Latham & Watkins, the firm defending Anthropic, stated that after a colleague located a supporting source for Chen's testimony via Google search, she used Anthropic's Claude model to generate a formatted legal citation. Chen and defense lawyers failed to catch the errors in subsequent proofreading.
"After the Latham & Watkins team identified the source as potential additional support for Ms. Chen’s testimony, I asked Claude.ai to provide a properly formatted legal citation for that source using the link to the correct article," explained Dukanovic in her May 15, 2025 declaration [PDF].
"Unfortunately, although providing the correct publication title, publication year, and link to the provided source, the returned citation included an inaccurate title and incorrect authors.
"Our manual citation check did not catch that error. Our citation check also missed additional wording errors introduced in the citations during the formatting process using Claude.ai."...
The hallucinations of AI models keep showing up in court filings.
Last week, in a plaintiff's claim against insurance firm State Farm (Jacquelyn Jackie Lacey v. State Farm General Insurance Company et al), former Judge Michael R. Wilner, the Special Master appointed to handle the dispute, sanctioned [PDF] the plaintiff's attorneys for misleading him with AI-generated text. He directed the plaintiff's legal team to pay more than $30,000 in court costs that they wouldn't have otherwise had to bear.
After reviewing a supplemental brief filed by the plaintiffs, Wilner found that "approximately nine of the 27 legal citations in the ten-page brief were incorrect in some way."
Two of the citations, he said, do not exist, and several cited phony judicial opinions."
Friday, May 16, 2025
Democrats press Trump on Copyright Office chief’s removal; The Hill, May 14, 2025
JARED GANS, The Hill ; Democrats press Trump on Copyright Office chief’s removal
"A half dozen Senate Democrats are pressing President Trump over his firing of the head of the U.S. Copyright Office, arguing that the move is illegal.
“It threatens the longstanding independence and integrity of the Copyright Office, which plays a vital role in our economy,” the members said in the letter. “You are acting beyond your power and contrary to the intent of Congress as you seek to erode the legal and institutional independence of offices explicitly designed to operate outside the reach of partisan influence.” ...
The head of the Copyright Office is responsible for shaping federal copyright policy, and the senators argued the role is particularly crucial as the country confronts issues concerning the intersection of copyright law and technologies like artificial intelligence."
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