A coalition of music creator advocacy organizations has filed an amicus brief in Vetter v. Resnik, a copyright case currently before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The brief urges the Court to affirm that U.S. copyright termination rights apply worldwide—an interpretation that would significantly expand protections for songwriters and music creators in the global marketplace.
Source: Creator Orgs Rally in Support of Copyright Case Vetter v. Resnik
A broad coalition of groups representing European writers, performers, producers and publishers issued a joint statement on Wednesday, warning that Europe’s AI Act is not properly protecting copyrights. In a joint statement, groups, including those representing European actors, writers, journalists, film producers, musicians, translators, and visual artists, took aim at the implementation of the act, which was passed last year and hailed as the world’s first and most far-reaching government regulation of artificial intelligence technology.
Source: European Creators Slam AI Act Implementation, Warn Copyright Protections Are Failing
This technology could enable proper attribution and compensation for original songwriters, composers and rightsholders, Orfium said. The project comes as the Gen AI music and audiovisual content is expected to grow to€64 billion in 2028 from the current €3 billion, according to data from CISAC.
Source: Orfium awarded EU grant to lead research project into copyright detection in AI-generated music
Today’s announcement is of several commitments that aim to improve the income for legacy artists, songwriters and session musicians. For the artists, all three majors have committed to ‘disregarding’ unrecouped balances – advances they haven’t paid off – for artists signed before the start of 2000, with this date rolling forward every year.
Source: UK government reveals streaming reforms – focusing on label commitments
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) introduced legislation on Monday that would restrict AI companies from using copyrighted material in their training models without the consent of the individual owner. The AI Accountability and Personal Data Protection Act also would allow individuals to sue companies that uses their personal data or copyrighted works without their “express, prior consent.”
White House officials are preparing an executive order targeting tech companies with what they see as “woke” artificial-intelligence models, their latest effort to go after diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, people familiar with the matter said. The order would dictate that AI companies getting federal contracts be politically neutral and unbiased in their AI models, an effort to combat what administration officials see as liberal bias in some models, the people said.
Source: White House Prepares Executive Order Targeting ‘Woke AI’
The European Parliament passed the Artificial Intelligence Act, the first law that would regulate AI. Critics are wondering how powerful that will be. Practically, like most legislation, the act represented a compromise, applying different levels of regulatory scrutiny to applications with different levels of risk. Broadly, it fell far short of perfect, but it was much better than the proposed 10-year moratorium on enforcing state laws affecting AI in the American “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
Source: The European Union Passed Its Artificial Intelligence Bill. Will It Enforce It?
In a major victory for authors, U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled July 17 that three writers suing Anthropic for copyright infringement can represent all other authors whose books the AI company allegedly pirated to train its AI model as part of a class action lawsuit. Alsup’s most recent ruling follows an amended complaint from the authors looking to certify classes of copyright owners in a “Pirated Books Class” and in a “Scanned Books Class.
Source: Judge Rules Class Action Suit Against Anthropic Can Proceed
The European Commission is planning to open a “full-scale” investigation into Universal Music Group‘s proposed acquisition of Downtown Music Holdings. That’s according to a report published by Reuters, citing “three people with direct knowledge of the matter.” UMG’s Virgin Music Group revealed in December that it had agreed to buy Downtown Music Holdings LLC in a $775 million deal.
Source: EU to launch ‘full-scale’ investigation into UMG’s $775m Downtown deal, Reuters reports
Google requests a stay in a copyright infringement case brought by textbook publishers pending the Supreme Court’s decision in Cox v. Sony. A lawsuit filed against Google by several textbook publishers in 2024 accuses the tech giant of not doing enough to prevent piracy, and, in fact, profiting from it. Google saw a win when the publishers’ vicarious liability claim was dismissed, but a claim for contributory infringement is yet to be decided.
Source: Google Pauses Infringement Litigation Amid Supreme Court Look