Friday’s Endnotes – 07/18/25

By , July 18, 2025.

The Largest IP Theft in History: Takeaways from the Senate Hearing on AI and Copyright Piracy — “On July 16, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism held a hearing titled Too Big to Prosecute?: Examining the AI Industry’s Mass Ingestion of Copyrighted Works for AI Training. While some courts may struggle to articulate why these pervasive pirating activities of AI companies seem so disturbing—Senators on the Subcommittee took charge in demonstrating the ridiculous, un-American position that what they referred to as “the largest IP theft in history” should ever be condoned.”

US authors suing Anthropic can band together in copyright class action, judge rules — “U.S. District Judge William Alsup said the authors can bring a class action, opens new tab on behalf of all U.S. writers whose works Anthropic allegedly downloaded from ‘pirate libraries’ LibGen and PiLiMi to create a repository of millions of books in 2021 and 2022. Alsup said Anthropic may have illegally downloaded as many as 7 million books from the pirate websites, which could make it liable for billions of dollars in damages if the authors’ case is successful.”

Generative AI & Copyright Law in India: Who Owns Machine-Made Works? — “Although courts in India have not yet ruled definitively on generative AI and copyright ownership, recent judicial and regulatory developments signal growing concern and attention toward the issue.”

Can GenAI and Copyright Coexist? — “Gen AI has the potential to benefit industry and society in many ways. But achieving that potential will require more robust and transparent partnerships between technology firms and the creative industries. On our current path we risk killing the goose—or in this case the authors, musicians, coders, and filmmakers—who laid the golden eggs that are key to the present and future value of gen AI output.”

WeTransfer Changes Policy After Concern It Could Train AI on User’s Photos — “The controversy began after a recent update to WeTransfer’s terms appeared to grant the company broad rights over user content, including a clause referencing the use of data to ‘improve performance of machine learning models that enhance our content moderation process.’ This language raised alarms creative professionals, including photographers, some of whom interpreted the terms as giving WeTransfer permission to use, sell, or share their files with AI companies.”

Friday’s Endnotes – 04/22/22

By , April 22, 2022.

34th Annual Horace M. Manges Lecture – Judge Margaret McKeown, April 4, 2022 — “Judge Margaret McKeown of the Ninth Circuit delivered the Kernochan Center’s 34th Annual Horace M. Manges Lecture, entitled ‘Art, Music, and Mash-ups — A View from the Bench on Creativity and Copyright’ at Columbia Law School on the evening of April 4, 2022.”

New York Public Library makes some banned books free to all — The move, which allows digital checkouts even without an NYPL library card through May, is the result of a partnership with publishers Hachette Book Group, Macmillan Publishers and Scholastic.

MPA Wins Piracy Battle, US Court Orders PrimeWire to Shut Down — Torrentfreak reports, “Several Hollywood studios and Netflix have prevailed in their battle to shut down pirate streaming site PrimeWire. Despite PrimeWire recently removing all links to pirated movies and TV shows and losing more than 60% of its traffic in a month, a US court found the streaming site liable for copyright infringement. PrimeWire’s domains will now be seized.”

Emily Ratajkowski Lawsuit Over Paparazzi Photo Settles — The settlement precludes any legal ruling in a case where the judge entertained Ratajkowski’s fair use defense, in part because the photo was posted on her Instagram Story, which is only available for 24 hours.

Photography Copyright Cases Photographers Should Know — From decisions establishing that photographs are copyrightable to when communicating photos online implicates the exclusive right of public display, the Copyright Alliance reviews the major cases involving photos and copyright law.

Friday’s Endnotes – 09/03/21

By , September 03, 2021.

Instagram Might Not Care About Copyright Law and It Could Land Them in Trouble — Andy Day, writing for FStoppers, chronicles the frustrating efforts to deal with infringement on the social media site by photographer Martin McNeil. “McNeil wants to see the asymmetry of power brought about by the DMCA rebalanced. Artists create the content that makes these platforms money, and yet, the resources to ensure control of their work are massively outweighed by those available to the digital platforms seeking to exploit it.”

EFF Dealt Another Blow in Attempt to Strike Down Section 1201 of the Copyright Act — Devlin Hartline discusses the recent DC District Court decision denying a preliminary injunction to halt enforcement of the Copyright Act’s anti-circumvention provisions. Says Hartline, “Congress was prescient in granting copyright owners rights over the digital locks that they use to secure their copyrighted works on the internet. The scale of online piracy has proven to be enormous, and copyright owners need every tool Congress can give them to nip piracy in the bud.”

Broadcasters Score Big Legal Win Against Locast, a Popular App Streaming Network TV — “In an order favoring the broadcasters, U.S. District Court Judge Louis Stanton writes that under the law, fundraising can only be used to defray costs of operating the service, not of expanding it into new markets. ‘Since portions of its user payments fund Locast’s expansion, its charges exceed those ‘necessary to defray the actual and reasonable costs of maintaining and operating the secondary transmission service,’ which is the only exemption granted in Section 111 (a) (5).'” Locast has since announced it is shutting down.

State Sovereign Immunity Study — The U.S. Copyright Office this week published its study on copyright infringement by states and state entities. The study was requested by Congress in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2020 Allen v. Cooper decision, which struck down a law allowing copyright owners to sue states for infringement. The study found that while “state infringement represents a legitimate concern for copyright owners,” the Office could not say with certainty that the “record would be found sufficient to meet the constitutional test for abrogation.” Nevertheless, the Office concluded that the issue is worthy of Congressional attention, and it would support alternatives to abrogation legislation.

Exclusive: Amazon to remove more content that violates rules from cloud service, sources say — “It could turn Amazon, the leading cloud service provider worldwide with 40% market share according to research firm Gartner, into one of the world’s most powerful arbiters of content allowed on the internet, experts say.”

Friday’s Endnotes – 07/09/21

By , July 09, 2021.

Copyright Office Releases Report on Best Practice Recommendations for the Mechanical Licensing Collective — The report outlines how the newly established Mechanical Licensing Collective can ensure songwriters are getting the royalties they’ve earned under the new blanket license for digital streaming, focusing on on how the MLC can identify and locate songwriters of unclaimed accrued royalties, encourage songwriters to claim their royalties, and reduce the incidence of unclaimed royalties.

A Years-Long Intellectual Property Battle Over a Painting of David Bowie Has Been Dismissed by a Berlin Court — “The court found that Moebius’s work differed from Evans’s in both form and message. ‘It radiates softness and tranquility, which is primarily caused by the altered eye area,’ the court said of Moebius’s image. ‘The drawing shows a world-famous artist performing an everyday, yet absurd gesture with great seriousness.’ By contrast, Evans’s photograph is defined by the strong contrast in its lighting and the vertical line formed by finger and nose. In it, Bowie ‘commands the viewer to remain calm,’ the court said.”

5th Circuit set to referee ‘egregious’ 12th Man copyright case — “Bynum sent the chapter to the Texas A&M Athletic Department’s media-relations team in 2010 to inquire about obtaining photographs to accompany it. The chapter listed Bynum as the book editor and copyright owner, and listed the commissioned writer as Whit Canning, a well-known Texas sportswriter. In 2014, media rep Brad Marquardt found the yellowed pages of Bynum’s 2010 manuscript, had his secretary ‘key them in,’ and posted it online as a special report that Canning had prepared for Texas A&M. . . . During the three days the story remained online, the department promoted it to ‘hundreds of thousands’ of social media followers and subscribers to its ‘TAMU Times’ e-newsletter – destroying the market for his book among its ‘core audience,’ Bynum alleged.”

RIAA and Rightscorp Defeat RCN’s Claims of “Fraudulent” Piracy Notices — “The RIAA and its anti-piracy partner Rightscorp have won a legal battle over allegedly ‘fraudulent’ piracy notices. A New Jersey federal court dismissed the complaint of Internet provider RCN, which failed to show that it was financially hurt as a direct result of any incorrect notices sent. The case is not completely over yet, however.”

French anti-trust decision on Google’s copyright talks with publishers due in coming days — “Antitrust investigators have accused Alphabet’s Google of failing to comply with the state competition authority’s orders on how to conduct negotiations with news publishers over copyright, sources who read the investigators’ report have said. Several publishers complained the talks weren’t made in ‘good faith’ and that Google didn’t provide access to some of its traffic data to determine a remuneration for news content online. Google has repeatedly said it held talks in good faith.”

Friday’s Endnotes – 03/05/21

By , March 05, 2021.

“Grumpy Cat” is Long Gone But Her Copyright Lives On in Court — Ernesto Van der Sar reports at Torrentfreak, “Grumpy Cat is no longer with us. Tardar Sauce passed away in 2019 but the humans she shared a house with are keeping her memory alive. They do this in the form of merchandise, but also in court where they have filed over a dozen lawsuits against sellers of counterfeit and copyright-infringing products.”

How Black people in the 19th century used photography as a tool for social change — Artist and educator Samantha Hill examines a number of ways that “Black Americans from the 19th century used photography as a tool for self-empowerment and social change.”

‘Deep Nostalgia’ Can Turn Old Photos of Your Relatives Into Moving Videos — You may have seen those animated versions of historic images recently. Andrew Liszewski takes a look at the AI technology behind them over at Gizmodo.

Keith Kupferschmid (Copyright Alliance): ‘Copyright will help the economy get back on its feet’ — Emmanuel Legrand talks with Copyright Alliance CEO Keith Kupferschmid about the CASE Act and Protecting Lawful Streaming Act, both of which were enacted recently, along with what the future holds for US copyright policy.

U.S. Music Groups Unveil “50 States of Music” Website Showcasing New Data on the Economic Impact of the Music Industry in Every State — The music groups have compiled a wealth of data about the financial and cultural contributions of the US music industry, broken down by state.

Friday’s Endnotes – 06/19/20

By , June 19, 2020.

What You Need to Know About the Copyright Office’s Section 1201 Rulemaking — The US Copyright Office is holding a webinar on June 23 to provide an overview of section 1201 and the upcoming rulemaking proceeding. It will discuss the governing legal standards, the exemptions established by the last rulemaking, the Office’s streamlined procedure to renew existing exemptions, and the process for seeking new or expanded exemptions.

World Trade Organization: Saudis facilitated sports piracy — The WTO ruled in a long-running dispute over the beoutQ broadcasting network. ABCNews reports, “Saudi Arabia failed to take action to stop beoutQ’s operations and protect the intellectual property of rights holders, the WTO dispute panel concluded. The panel highlighted how beIN was prevented from hiring lawyers in Saudi Arabia to take action in the courts against the piracy.”

The Dutch DSM copyright transposition bill: safety first (up to a point) – Part 1 — Remy Chavannes at the Kluwer Copyright Blog takes a deep dive into the first bill transposing the EU’s DSM copyright directive into national law. Also check out Part 2 and Part 3.

Internet Archive to End ‘National Emergency Library’ Initiative — “Citing a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by publishers, Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle announced this week that the IA’s National Emergency Library initiative will cease operating on June 16, two weeks earlier than its previously announced June 30 closing date.”

Photographer Selling Copyright to Nirvana’s First Major Magazine Cover Shoot — “Watermann says he has decided to sell the shoot because of the economic devastation brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. ‘I shoot live music, and music is gone,’ he says. ‘More specifically, I’m a tour photographer. I travel around the world with my clients and document them performing every night… Because of the virus, big concerts were the first thing to be canceled this year and they aren’t coming back until next summer. Meaning I’ll have no real income for the next 12 months. So, I’m flipping an asset in order to keep my business running.'”

Friday’s Endnotes – 04/17/20

By , April 17, 2020.

Court Rules Photographer Gave Up Exclusive Licensing Rights by Posting on Instagram — This week, the Southern District Court of New York dismissed a copyright infringement claim brought by a professional photographer against Mashable. The Hollywood Reporter writes that Judge “Wood comes to this conclusion by discussing how Sinclair agreed to Instagram’s Terms of Use when creating her account. Those terms granted to Instagram ‘a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to the Content.’ Wood writes that because Sinclair ‘uploaded the Photograph to Instagram and designated it as ‘public,’ she agreed to allow Mashable, as Instagram’s sublicensee, to embed the Photograph in its website.'” [Note that Instagram’s terms of service are not unique—most sites that allow users to upload content have similar terms.]

The Breakdown: What Songwriters Need to Know about the Music Modernization Act and Royalty Payments — The U.S. Copyright Office introduces the landmark legislation to songwriters and composers, and points to its more comprehensive page of educational resources on the MMA, including print and video materials.

COVID-19 Relief for Music Industry Workers — MSK attorneys Eleanor Lackman and Craig Bradley provide helpful information regarding unemployment compensation and PPP loans under the CARES Act for bands and musicians.

DSM Directive: French Competition Authority orders Google to negotiate Remuneration with Press Publishers — IPKat reviews the decision from the French antitrust agency regarding Google’s actions following France’s implementation of Article 15 of the Digital Single Market Directive, recently adopted by the EU, which provided a press publishers right. Among other conclusions, “The FCA held that Google’s likely dominant position in the market was the reason why Google was able to impose such conditions on the press publishers. As the traffic generated by Google is crucial and non-replaceable for press publishers and news agencies, they have no choice but to comply with the policy and to accept conditions that are even more unfavourable them than the ones that existed before the transposition of the DSM Directive.”

Supreme Court to hear cases on Trump’s financial docs, religious freedom and Electoral College via telephone — Finally, after postponing all oral arguments in light of COVID-19, this week the Supreme Court announced it will resume hearing arguments in a number of cases by telephone. Unfortunately for copyright fans, arguments in Google v. Oracle, which had originally been scheduled for March 26, will not be heard this term; instead, they will be rescheduled for some time after the Court reconvenes for its new term starting in October.

Friday’s Endnotes – 10/25/19

By , October 25, 2019.

CASE Act passed the House of Representatives Tuesday 410-6. Congressional Record. Roll call vote.

Small Claims Copyright ‘CASE Act’ Passes US House of Representatives — “Advocacy organizations for publishers, authors, and copyright applaud the 410-to-6 vote in the House for the long-promoted CASE Act.”

For Marginalized Communities, the CASE Act Bridges Copyright’s Equity Gap — The morning of the vote, Morning Consult published this powerful piece from Lateef Mtima, summarizing what the bill is about. “The CASE Act is about access to justice, both for copyright owners and users who presently cannot afford the price of admission to the system. Access to justice should not be theoretical and mythical when the struggles that marginalized copyright owners and users face are real. For the creative community, the CASE Act means that true protection under the law will finally be within reach.”

Mini-Post: A Brief and Notes of the Argument in Wheaton v. Peters via Justice Baldwin — Zvi Rosen points to a number of documents he has recently made online, including an “abstract of the argument” from plaintiff in Wheaton v. Peters, the first Supreme Court copyright decision. Essentially a brief at a time when briefing was not common, the document touches on arguments that are still relevant today.

A European perspective on paparazzi photographs of celebrities and lawsuits against celebrities over the posting of photographs of themselves — Copyright disputes between celebrities and photographers seem to be increasingly common these days. Eleonora Rosati takes a look at the copyright issues under European law.

Friday’s Endnotes – 10/11/19

By , October 11, 2019.

Copyright in State Legal Materials – Looking Back to 1888 — Zvi Rosen takes a closer look at the three 19th century decisions that Public Resource is relying on in a case the Supreme Court will hear this term. The question involves the scope of the “edicts of law” doctrine, which excludes copyright protection for material that has the force of law. Public Resource filed its opening brief with the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Two Photographers Sue NYC Parks for Publicizing ‘Unearthed’ 1978 Photos — The photographers are claiming the parks department picked a whole bouquet of oopsie-daisies when they ran a heavily publicized campaign with the photos without having permission from the copyright owners.

Court Denies Audible Request for Settlement Conference in ‘Captions’ Case — The latest in the lawsuit brought by publishers against ebook distributor Audible. ” In a letter to the court on Thursday, lawyers for Audible suggested a 30-day hold on the litigation over its Captions program, and a referral to a magistrate judge to oversee settlement talks during that period. But the plaintiff publishers threw cold water on that proposal, prompting federal judge Valerie Caproni to deny Audible’s request.”

Temple and Hayden Respond to Tillis on Copyright Modernization Efforts — IPWatchdog reports on a letter from Librarian of Congress Hayden and Register of Copyrights Temple to Senate IP Subcommittee Chairman Tillis in response to a series of questions regarding the ongoing modernization efforts in the US Copyright Office. And also, happy 20th anniversary to IPWatchdog.

Friday’s Endnotes – 09/02/16

By , September 02, 2016.

Copyright’s Race, Gender and Age: A First Quantitative Look at Registrations — Robert Brauneis and Dotan Oliar crunch the numbers on copyright registration applications from 1978 through 2012 to see what demographic information can be revealed.

Motion Picture Unions Opposed to FCC “Set-Top-Box” Proposal — David Newhoff writes, “Just like most labor in the United States, today’s motion picture craftspeople are the beneficiaries of hard-fought rights — many negotiated decades ago — to share in the financial rewards of successful products they do not own. Films and TV shows are mostly made by middle-class, freelance workers whose average, annual incomes comprise not only day rates and overtime, but also residuals and health and pension benefits. These terms are negotiated and managed for most crew and performers by the unions DGA, SAG-AFTRA, and IATSE. These unions are opposed to the FCC ‘Set-Top Box’ proposal because, as it stands, the proposal would break the licensing structure on which their compensation packages are based.”

No, the Internet Has Not Killed the Printed Book. Most People Still Prefer Them. — Though over 500 years old, the technology of the printed book remains widely popular. A recent Pew Research Center reveals that the popularity of the printed book “has not slowed in recent years”, despite the continuing rise of ebooks and ebook readers.

Why a camera might be the least important thing a photographer brings to the job — In case you missed it: I posted an article I wrote on Medium about the importance of separating the tools of creators from the actual creative work, a point sometimes lost. Though the article focuses on photographers, the point is applicable to all types of creators.

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