Netflix struggled to reassure skeptical lawmakers that its proposed $82 billion takeover of Warner Bros Discovery would benefit consumers, workers and the broader entertainment industry. During the hearing, senators quizzed Netflix co‑chief executive Ted Sarandos on the fate of theatres if the deal were to be approved, the effects of the merger on subscription prices and on the entertainment workforce.
Source: Netflix struggles to defend Warner Bros merger at US Senate hearing
At a Senate antitrust hearing on Tuesday, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos declined to give a “yes or no” answer when asked if he would commit to “full residuals” for union workers. “I would like to tell you this is a very complicated answer, because we prepay,” Sarandos said. Sarandos noted that the major studios are just days away from sitting down with the entertainment unions for bargaining, where this will be an issue.
Source: Ted Sarandos Hedges on Netflix Residual Payments at Senate Hearing: ‘Not a Yes or No’
On Tuesday, European songwriters and composers, along with representatives of their collective management organizations, came together with key EU policymakers to address the long-standing and growing phenomenon of so-called “coercive buy-out practices” affecting audiovisual composers. Buy-out practices in contracts typically force music authors to give away all or part of their rights in exchange for an often low onetime upfront payment.
Source: EU Legislators Call for an End to ‘Coercive Rights Buy-Outs’
The Supreme Court is taking up a case on whether Paramount violated the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) by disclosing a user’s viewing history to Facebook. The case, Michael Salazar v. Paramount Global, hinges on the law’s definition of the word “consumer.” Salazar filed a class action against Paramount in 2022, alleging that it “violated the VPPA by disclosing his personally identifiable information to Facebook without consent.”
Source: Supreme Court to decide how 1988 videotape privacy law applies to online video
NVIDIA has asked a federal court to dismiss an expanded copyright lawsuit, arguing that authors failed to prove their books were actually used to train AI models. The chip giant says merely contacting Anna’s Archive doesn’t constitute infringement and challenges virtually every new claim in the amended complaint.
Source: NVIDIA: Contact With Anna’s Archive Doesn’t Prove Copyright Infringement * TorrentFreak
If you generate an image entirely through AI and use it in your marketing, you may have no copyright protection over that asset. A competitor could use it without consequence. If you want legal protection, you need to add a substantial human creative contribution, and you need to document what that contribution was. However, the threshold of how much AI help is not yet precisely defined.
Source: Deploying Visual AI is a legal minefield…how to avoid getting hit – Kaptur
Web publishers and news organizations could be given the power to stop Google scraping their content for its AI Overviews, under measures announced by the UK competition watchdog to loosen its grip on online search. Media organizations have experienced a drop in click-through traffic to their websites – and therefore their revenue – since Google started posting AI summaries at the top of search results.
Source: UK media groups should be allowed to opt out of Google AI Overviews, CMA says
The lawsuit, filed in California federal court last Thursday (January 23), claims Meta has “willfully” infringed the copyrights of over 330 musical works – including songs by The Doors, Weezer, Styx, The Black Keys, Missy Elliott and Townes Van Zandt – after the companies’ licensing agreement expired on December 10, 2025.
Source: Wixen files $50m copyright suit against Meta, claims tech giant wants to replace songwriters with AI
A group of YouTubers who are suing tech giants for scraping their videos without permission to train AI models has now added Snap to their list of defendants. The plaintiffs — internet content creators behind a trio of YouTube channels with roughly 6.2 million collective subscribers — allege that Snap has trained its AI systems on their video content for use in AI features.
Source: YouTubers sue Snap for alleged copyright infringement in training its AI models | TechCrunch
President Trump renewed his threat to tariff films made overseas on Monday, but also suggested that he would offer “low-interest bonds” to help stimulate domestic production. In an interview with the New York Post, the president did not explain his proposal but indicated he is still considering the decline in production.
Source: Trump Offers ‘Low-Interest Bonds’ to Help Hollywood Production While Again Threatening Tariffs