Rights

Embedding a social media post allows websites to share content without hosting the content themselves – but is such a tool a violation of copyright? A photographer wants the US Supreme Court to consider that question. In a petition for review filed on March 28, photographer Elliot McGucken is asking the court to consider if displaying a work without hosting the work using embedding tools violates copyright after lower courts dismissed the case.

Source: Does embedding an Instagram violate copyright? A photographer wants the Supreme Court to decide

The new bill is similar to last year’s, in that it effectively creates a right of publicity at the US federal level for the first time. The bill aims to reduce potential litigation by giving platforms featuring user-generated content (UGC) immunity if they quickly remove unauthorized deepfakes and notify the complainant once a deepfake has been removed. It also seeks to protect First Amendment rights by creating exemptions for such things as news reporting and satire.

Source: NO FAKES Act aimed at cracking down on deepfakes reintroduced in US Congress – this time with support of Google and OpenAI

Multiple years and twists later, the major labels’ copyright infringement lawsuit against the Internet Archive looks to be trending towards a resolution. That’s according to the litigants themselves, which just recently requested a 30-day stay in the case. The presiding judge promptly approved the sought pause, and as a result, we should know sooner rather than later whether the parties will finally put the matter to bed.

Source: Internet Archive, Major Labels ‘Optimistic’ About Lawsuit Settlement

Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., originally introduced the No Fakes Act in 2023, which would make it illegal to distribute a computer-generated likeness of a person without their consent. SAG-AFTRA, which represents 160,000 performers, and the Recording Industry Association of America have each made the bill a top priority, as they fear that artificial intelligence will lead to a deluge of impersonation.

Source: YouTube Endorses No Fakes Act, as Lawmakers Renew Push to Outlaw Unauthorized AI Clones

At an April 8 summit on AI, held in Washington, D.C., by the Association of American Publishers and the Copyright Alliance, Vermont senator Peter Welch and former Virginia representative Bob Goodlatte, among others, stressed that copyright protections should not be dismantled to accelerate AI development.

Source: Politicians Assert U.S. Constitution Mandates Protecting Creativity

A group of prominent intellectual property law professors has weighed in on the high-stakes AI copyright battle between several authors and Meta. In an amicus brief, the scholars argue that using copyrighted content as training data can be considered fair use under U.S. copyright law, if the goal is to create a new and ‘transformative’ tool. This suggests that fair use could potentially apply to Meta’s training process, even if the underlying data was obtained without permission.

Source: Training AI Using ‘Pirated’ Content Can Be Fair Use, Law Professors Argue * TorrentFreak

Ministers are planning a fresh round of reviews they hope will mollify lawmakers nervous about controversial plans to overhaul U.K. copyright laws to facilitate AI innovation. The reviews will focus on finding technical ways to allow creators to easily and effectively “opt out” from AI companies training models on their work without permission and have more clarity about when their work has been used. However, technical solutions could take several months to emerge.

Source: UK plans fresh round of talks to take sting out of AI copyright proposals

Tony Blair’s thinktank has urged the UK to relax copyright laws in order to let artificial intelligence firms build new products, as it warned a tougher approach could strain the transatlantic relationship. “Without similar provisions in the United States, it would be hard for the UK government to enforce strict copyright laws without straining the transatlantic relationship it has so far sought to nurture.”

Source: UK needs to relax AI laws or risk transatlantic ties, thinktank warns