Policy

Perplexity claims News Corp tried to ‘entrap’ chatbot to make copyright case

Perplexity wrote to a New York judge last week arguing the News Corp subsidiaries should be forced to hand over records showing the hundreds of queries they made to “fish” for a basis to sue within its AI search tool before launching the claim in October 2024. Perplexity told Judge Katherine Failla: “This discovery would reveal an inconvenient truth: Plaintiffs repeatedly and deceptively crossed the line from investigation to entrapment.”

Source: Perplexity claims News Corp tried to ‘entrap’ chatbot to make copyright case

Supreme Court declines to hear dispute over copyrights for AI-generated material

The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to take up the ​issue of whether art generated by artificial intelligence can be copyrighted under U.S. law, turning ‌away a case involving a computer scientist from Missouri who was denied a copyright for a piece of visual art made by his AI system. Plaintiff Stephen Thaler had appealed to the justices after lower courts upheld a U.S. Copyright Office ​decision that the AI-crafted visual art at issue in the case was ineligible for copyright protection ​because it did not have a human creator.

Supreme Court declines to hear dispute over copyrights for AI-generated material

YouTuber sues Runway AI in latest copyright class action over AI training

Artificial intelligence video startup Runway AI has been hit with a proposed class action lawsuit in California federal court for allegedly misusing YouTube content to train its video generation platform. YouTube creator David Gardner said in the complaint, opens new tab, filed in Los Angeles on Monday, that Runway bypassed YouTube’s copyright protections to illegally download user videos for its AI training.

Source: YouTuber sues Runway AI in latest copyright class action over AI training

AIs can generate near-verbatim copies of novels from training data

The world’s top AI models can be prompted to generate near-verbatim copies of bestselling novels, raising fresh questions about the industry’s claim that its systems do not store copyrighted works. A series of recent studies has shown that large language models from OpenAI, Google, Meta, Anthropic, and xAI memorize far more of their training data than previously thought.

Source: AIs can generate near-verbatim copies of novels from training data

‘Melania’ Producer on the Tricky Politics of Licensing Stones or Prince Songs

When a dispute arose over orchestral music appearing in the new Melania Trump documentary, “Melania,” aficionados of music, film and politics all stood to pay attention. The subject of licensing music rights is fascinating and thorny enough in its own right. Add to that a member of Radiohead, Jonny Greenwood, and one of today’s top film directors, Paul Thomas Anderson, seeming to have a beef with the nation’s First Couple, and naturally it made headlines.

Source: ‘Melania’ Producer Marc Beckman on the Jonny Greenwood Dispute, the Tricky Politics of Licensing Stones or Prince Songs, and the First Lady’s Forthcoming Docuseries: ‘I Think Amazon MGM Got a Very Good Deal’

Netflix, Prime Video and Other Streamers in U.K. Will Be Subject to ‘Enhanced Regulation’ 

Streaming platforms in the U.K. are set to come under “enhanced regulation” from media regulator Ofcom, which already oversees television and radio broadcasting in the country. The rules will give Ofcom the power to accept viewer complaints and investigate streaming platforms. The U.K. government is set to implement another layer of legislation to the Media Act 2024 to bring video on demand services in the U.K. under Ofcom’s eye.

Source: Netflix, Prime Video and Other Streamers in U.K. Will Be Subject to ‘Enhanced Regulation’ and Ofcom Investigations Following New Legislation

European Parliament Proposes Changes to Copyright Protection in the Age of AI

In late January 2026, a leaked version of the EP’s compromise amendments to its draft report became available. The compromise amendments for the most part simply beef up the proposals in the earlier, draft report – for example, by proposing a more robust licensing and remuneration regime for training data and post-training uses. However, there are a couple of proposals worth noting.

Source: European Parliament Proposes Changes to Copyright Protection in the Age of Generative AI

CLEAR Act Would Create Notice Requirements for Copyrighted Works in AI Training Data

If enacted as drafted, the bill would establish mandatory reporting requirements for companies developing artificial intelligence (AI) models that are trained using original works that are protected under U.S. copyright law, and would create an additional cause of action for copyright owners alleging that generative AI developers failed to give such notice with respect to their works.

Source: CLEAR Act Would Establish Notice Requirements for Copyrighted Works in AI Training Data

Anna’s Archive Quietly ‘Releases’ Millions of Spotify Tracks, Despite Legal Pushback

Despite being sued by Spotify and several record labels, Anna’s Archive has silently begun releasing the actual music files from its massive Spotify scrape. The shadow library’s backend torrent index now lists dozens of new torrents containing approximately 2.8 million tracks totaling roughly 6 terabytes of audio data. This marks a significant escalation in the already historic standoff with the music industry.

Source: Anna’s Archive Quietly ‘Releases’ Millions of Spotify Tracks, Despite Legal Pushback * TorrentFreak

The Missing Fair Use Argument in the Copyright Battle Over AI Summaries

Two of the lawsuits target Google for antitrust violations, alleging that publishers’ content is effectively compelled for inclusion in AI Overviews as a condition of search visibility. But no court has yet addressed the more fundamental question: even where summaries do resemble protected content, might they still qualify as fair use?

Source: The Missing Fair Use Argument in the Copyright Battle Over AI Summaries

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