Denmark to tackle deepfakes by giving people copyright to their own features; The Guardian, June 27, 2025

 Miranda Bryant  , The Guardian; Denmark to tackle deepfakes by giving people copyright to their own features

"The Danish government is to clamp down on the creation and dissemination of AI-generated deepfakes by changing copyright law to ensure that everybody has the right to their own body, facial features and voice.

The Danish government said on Thursday it would strengthen protection against digital imitations of people’s identities with what it believes to be the first law of its kind in Europe."

Two Major Lawsuits Aim to Answer a Multi-Billion-Dollar Question: Can AI Train on Your Creative Work Without Permission?; The National Law Review, June 18, 2025

Andrew R. Lee, Timothy P. Scanlan, Jr. of Jones Walker LLP , The National Law Review; Two Major Lawsuits Aim to Answer a Multi-Billion-Dollar Question: Can AI Train on Your Creative Work Without Permission?

"In a London courtroom, lawyers faced off in early June in a legal battle that could shape the future relationship between artificial intelligence and creative work. The case pits Getty Images, a major provider of stock photography, against Stability AI, the company behind the popular AI art generator, Stable Diffusion.

At the heart of the dispute is Getty's claim that Stability AI unlawfully used 12 million of its copyrighted images to train its AI model. The outcome of this case could establish a critical precedent for whether AI companies can use publicly available online content for training data or if they will be required to license it.

On the first day of trial, Getty's lawyer told the London High Court that the company “recognises that the AI industry overall may be a force for good,” but that did not justify AI companies “riding roughshod over intellectual property rights.”

A Key Piece of Evidence

A central component of Getty's case is the observation that Stable Diffusion's output sometimes includes distorted versions of the Getty Images watermark. Getty argues this suggests its images were not only used for training but are also being partially reproduced by the AI model.

Stability AI has taken the position that training an AI model on images constitutes a transformative use of that data. The argument is that teaching a machine from existing information is fundamentally different from direct copying."

U.S. Copyright Office Releases New Copyright Registration Toolkit; U.S. Copyright Office, April 22, 2025

  U.S. Copyright Office, Issue No. 1070; U.S. Copyright Office Releases New Copyright Registration Toolkit

"Today, the U.S. Copyright Office released the Copyright Registration Toolkit, a comprehensive resource designed to help creators, small business owners, advisors, and others navigate the copyright system. As part of the Copyright Office’s Copyright for All initiative, the toolkit is a visual breakdown of copyright, including essential information about copyright law, how to prepare for copyright registration, what to expect during the process, and post-registration considerations.

“The Copyright Registration Toolkit makes copyright information more accessible and user-friendly for all creators,” said Associate Register of Copyrights and Director of Public Information and Education Miriam Lord. “Resources like this one empower authors, artists, musicians, and their advisors to protect and manage creative works with confidence.”

Developed in conjunction with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's intellectual property (IP) toolkits for trademarks, trade secrets, and patents, these resources collectively provide a broad overview of IP protection under U.S. law.

Copyright Office attorneys, writers, and designers collaborated on the toolkit to ensure it serves as a reliable and engaging reference for creators making business decisions about their creative works and for advisors who help guide them in understanding their rights as IP owners.

To explore the Copyright Registration Toolkit, visit the landing page. For further inquiries, the Public Information Office is available Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m. eastern time, to assist with questions about the copyright registration process."

Creators Are Losing the AI Copyright Battle. We Have to Keep Fighting (Guest Column); The Hollywood Reporter, April 16, 2025

 Ed Newton-Rex ; Creators Are Losing the AI Copyright Battle. We Have to Keep Fighting (Guest Column)

"The struggle between AI companies and creatives around “training data” — or what you and I would refer to as people’s life’s work — may be the defining struggle of this generation for the media industries. AI companies want to exploit creators’ work without paying them, using it to train AI models that compete with those creators; creators and rights holders are doing everything they can to stop them."

OpenAI holds off on promise to creators, fails to protect intellectual property; The American Bazaar, January 3, 2025

  Vishnu Kamal, The American Bazaar; OpenAI holds off on promise to creators, fails to protect intellectual property

"OpenAI may yet again be in hot water as it seems that the tech giant may be reneging on its earlier assurances. Reportedly, in May, OpenAI said it was developing a tool to let creators specify how they want their works to be included in—or excluded from—its AI training data. But seven months later, this feature has yet to see the light of day.

Called Media Manager, the tool would “identify copyrighted text, images, audio, and video,” OpenAI said at the time, to reflect creators’ preferences “across multiple sources.” It was intended to stave off some of the company’s fiercest critics, and potentially shield OpenAI from IP-related legal challenges...

OpenAI has faced various legal challenges related to its AI technologies and operations. One major issue involves the privacy and data usage of its language models, which are trained on large datasets that may include publicly available or copyrighted material. This raises concerns over privacy violations and intellectual property rights, especially regarding whether the data used for training was obtained with proper consent.

Additionally, there are questions about the ownership of content generated by OpenAI’s models. If an AI produces a work based on copyrighted data, it is tricky to determine who owns the rights—whether it’s OpenAI, the user who prompted the AI, or the creators of the original data.

Another concern is the liability for harmful content produced by AI. If an AI generates misleading or defamatory information, legal responsibility could fall on OpenAI."

Character.AI Confirms Mass Deletion of Fandom Characters, Says They're Not Coming Back; Futurism, November 27, 2024

MAGGIE HARRISON DUPRÉ , Futurism; Character.AI Confirms Mass Deletion of Fandom Characters, Says They're Not Coming Back

"The embattled AI companion company Character.AI confirmed to Futurism that it removed a large number of characters from its platform, citing its adherence to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA) and copyright law, but failing to say whether the deletions were proactive or in response to requests from the holders of the characters' intellectual property rights...

That's not surprising: Character.AI is currently facing a lawsuit brought by the family of a 14-year-old teenager in Florida who died by suicide after forming an intense relationship with a Daenerys Targaryen chatbot on its platform...

It's been a bad few months for Character.AI. In October, shortly before the recent lawsuit was filed, it was revealed that someone had created a chatbot based on a murdered teenager without consent from the slain teen's family. (The character was removed and Character.AI apologized, as AdWeek first reported.) And in recent weeks, we've reported on disturbing hordes of suicide, pedophilia, and eating disorder-themed chatbots hosted by the platform, all of which were freely accessible to Character.AI users of all ages."

UW System's copyright policy: What it means for professors; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, December 2, 2024

 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; UW System's copyright policy: What it means for professors

"The University of Wisconsin System's proposed copyright policy aims to transfer ownership of faculty teaching materials to the university."

Microsoft boss urges rethink of copyright laws for AI; The Times, October 21, 2024

 Katie Prescott, The Times; Microsoft boss urges rethink of copyright laws for AI

"The boss of Microsoft has called for a rethink of copyright laws so that tech giants are able to train artificial intelligence models without risk of infringing intellectual property rights.

Satya Nadella, chief executive of the technology multinational, praised Japan’s more flexible copyright laws and said that governments need to develop a new legal framework to define “fair use” of material, which allows people in certain situations to use intellectual property without permission.

Nadella, 57, said governments needed to iron out the rules. “What are the bounds for copyright, which obviously have to be protected? What’s fair use?” he said. “For any society to move forward, you need to know what is fair use.”"

The Internet Archive Loses Its Appeal of a Major Copyright Case; Wired, September 4, 2024

 Kate Knibbs, Wired; The Internet Archive Loses Its Appeal of a Major Copyright Case

"THE INTERNET ARCHIVE has lost a major legal battle—in a decision that could have a significant impact on the future of internet history. Today, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled against the long-running digital archive, upholding an earlier ruling in Hachette v. Internet Archive that found that one of the Internet Archive’s book digitization projects violated copyright law.

Notably, the appeals court’s ruling rejects the Internet Archive’s argument that its lending practices were shielded by the fair use doctrine, which permits for copyright infringement in certain circumstances, calling it “unpersuasive.”"

Will the rise of AI spell the end of intellectual property rights?; The Globe and Mail, May 27, 2024

 SHEEMA KHAN , The Globe and Mail; Will the rise of AI spell the end of intellectual property rights?

"AI’s first challenge to IP is in the inputs...

Perhaps the question will become: Will IP be the death of AI?...

The second challenge relates to who owns the AI-generated products...

Yet IP rights are key to innovation, as they provide a limited monopoly to monetize investments in research and development. AI represents an existential threat in this regard.

Clearly, the law has not caught up. But sitting idly by is not an option, as there are too many important policy issues at play."

A fight to protect the dignity of Michelangelo’s David raises questions about freedom of expression; AP, March 28, 2024

Colleen Barry, AP; A fight to protect the dignity of Michelangelo’s David raises questions about freedom of expression

"The decisions challenge a widely held practice that intellectual property rights are protected for a specified period before entering the public domain — the artist’s lifetime plus 70 years, according to the Berne Convention signed by more than 180 countries including Italy.

More broadly, the decisions raise the question of whether institutions should be the arbiters of taste, and to what extent freedom of expression is being limited...

Court cases have debated whether Italy’s law violates a 2019 European Union directive stating that any artwork no longer protected by copyright falls into the public domain, meaning that “everybody should be free to make, use and share copies of that work.”

The EU Commission has not addressed the issue, but a spokesman told the AP that it is currently checking “conformity of the national laws implementing the copyright directive” and would look at whether Italy’s cultural heritage code interferes with its application."

Roundtable discussion: Tribes, intellectual property, and consumer protection; United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), November 30, 2023 9 AM EST - 5 PM EST

 United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) ; Roundtable discussion: Tribes, intellectual property, and consumer protection

Join intellectual property (IP) experts, senior officials from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and other federal agencies, and Tribal representatives for an in-depth examination of consumer protection, the protection and enforcement of IP, and the impact of counterfeit goods on the economies of Native American communities.

Topics to be explored will include:

• The scope and impact of IP crime on Native Americans
• How to protect Native American arts and crafts
• State and tribal cooperation on consumer protection investigations
• International developments in the protection of traditional knowledge, cultural expressions, and genetic resources
• Strategies for raising public awareness and changing consumer behaviors

YouTube to offer option to flag AI-generated songs that mimic artists’ voices; The Guardian, November 14, 2023

Dan Milmo , The Guardian; YouTube to offer option to flag AI-generated songs that mimic artists’ voices

"Record companies can request the removal of songs that use artificial intelligence-generated versions of artists’ voices under new guidelines issued by YouTube.

The video platform is introducing a tool that will allow music labels and distributors to flag content that mimics an artist’s “unique singing or rapping voice”.

Fake AI-generated music has been one of the side-effects of leaps forward this year in generative AI – the term for technology that can produce highly convincing text, images and voice from human prompts.

One of the most high-profile examples is Heart on My Sleeve, a song featuring AI-made vocals purporting to be Drake and the Weeknd. It was pulled from streaming services after Universal Music Group, the record company for both artists, criticised the song for “infringing content created with generative AI”. However, the song can still be accessed by listeners on YouTube."

'The ghosts are not happy': 2 Fall River businesses clash over use of Lizzie Borden name; The Herald News, August 21, 2023

 Audrey Cooney, The Herald News; 'The ghosts are not happy': 2 Fall River businesses clash over use of Lizzie Borden name

"Zaal’s company US Ghost Adventures, which operates ghost tours in dozens of cities across the U.S., bought the house in 2021.

Miss Lizzie’s Coffee opened two weeks ago, on the anniversary of the Borden murders. The Lizzie-themed coffee shop features bloody axes in the decor and other nods to the slayings, like a "Lizspresso" menu item. Owner Joe Pereira bills it as "the most haunted coffee shop in the world."

Now, Zaal says the coffee shop violates his intellectual property."

Photo Agencies Publish Open Letter Demanding AI Copyright Protection; petaPixel, August 10, 2023

  MATT GROWCOOT, PetaPixel; Photo Agencies Publish Open Letter Demanding AI Copyright Protection

"The world’s leading photo agencies and photographer associations have co-signed an open letter calling for legal protections against artificial intelligence (AI).

Getty Images, the Associated Press, Agence France-Press, the European Pressphoto Agency, and the National Press Photographers Association are among the organizations calling for intellectual property (IP) rights to be respected. 

While praising generative AI technology and its potential benefits to society, the signees warn that a flood of synthetic content into the public sphere has the potential to undermine the public’s trust in the media."

US farmers win right to repair John Deere equipment; BBC News, January 9, 2022

 Monica Miller, BBC News; US farmers win right to repair John Deere equipment

"Consumer groups have for years been calling on companies to allow their customers to be able to fix everything from smartphones to tractors.

The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) and Deere & Co. signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Sunday.

"It addresses a long-running issue for farmers and ranchers when it comes to accessing tools, information and resources, while protecting John Deere's intellectual property rights and ensuring equipment safety," AFBF President Zippy Duvall said.

Under the agreement, equipment owners and independent technicians will not be allowed to "divulge trade secrets" or "override safety features or emissions controls or to adjust Agricultural Equipment power levels.""

Intellectual property waiver for COVID vaccines should be expanded to include treatments and tests; The Conversation, November 21, 2022

 Deborah Gleeson, Associate Professor in Public Health, La Trobe University, Dianne Nicol

Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Tasmania, James Scheibner
Lecturer in Law, Flinders University, The Conversation;

 Intellectual property waiver for COVID vaccines should be expanded to include treatments and tests

"Low and middle-income countries have been impacted disproportionately by the pandemic so far, suffering 85% of the estimated 14.9 million excess deaths in 2020 and 2021. 

Globally, progress in reducing extreme poverty was set back three to four years during 2020–21. But low-income countries lost eight to nine years of progress.

Expanding the WTO decision on COVID vaccines to include treatments and tests could be vital to reduce the health burden on poorer countries from COVID and enable them to recover from the pandemic. The Australian government should get behind this initiative and encourage other countries to do the same."

Republicans took away Disney’s special status in Florida. Now they’re gunning for Mickey himself; Los Angeles Times, May 11, 2022

 HUGO MARTÍN, Los Angeles Times; Republicans took away Disney’s special status in Florida. Now they’re gunning for Mickey himself

"No legislation has been proposed to extend the copyright a third time, and copyright experts and lawmakers say it’s not likely that any legislators will want to lead that battle, given the opposition and fury it generated in the 1990s. Other companies’ copyrighted characters would also expire, sending more notable characters into the public domain. 

Disney critics say the company continues to have influence over copyright law, pointing to the recent naming of Suzanne Wilson as the general counsel and associate register of copyrights for the United States Copyright Office. She formerly oversaw intellectual property and interactive and media legal functions for Walt Disney Co.

Legal experts say the debate over copyright protection is moot because the only version of Mickey Mouse that is expiring is the 1928 black-and-white one depicted in “Steamboat Willie.” Copyright protections remain in place for later versions of Mickey Mouse, the more commercially recognized one that wears white gloves, has bigger ears, distinctive eyes and a pet dog named Pluto, according to experts.

Crucially, Disney also still holds trademark protection on Mickey Mouse, which does not expire. While a copyright keeps other companies from replicating the Mickey Mouse image, a trademark ensures that other companies can’t use the Mickey Mouse image in a way that might suggest their products are made by Disney."

New Bill to Limit Copyright to 56 Years, Would be Retroactive; PetaPixel, May 13, 2022

 JAMES DERUVO, PetaPixel; New Bill to Limit Copyright to 56 Years, Would be Retroactive

"Senator Josh Hawley has introduced a bill that would cap copyright on intellectual property to a maximum of 56 years, with no extensions. If passed, the bill would also retroactively apply to existing copyrights.

f the bill passes it would impact hundreds if not thousands of intellectual works currently enjoying the protection nearly 100 years after the death of the original copyright holder.

Though the bill doesn’t mention Disney specifically by name, the Copyright Clause Restoration Act of 2022, which has been submitted by Republican Senator Josh Hawley (MS), is believed to be a punishment against Disney’s resistance to Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law."

Trademark and copyright considerations for NFTs; Reuters, May 2, 2022

 Sharon Urias, Reuters ; Trademark and copyright considerations for NFTs

"NFTs are mostly used to verify ownership of digital goods. An easy way to understand NFTs is to think of them as unalterable certificates of authenticity for digital goods. For example, if someone purchases a piece of digital art, the NFT acts to validate and verify ownership and authenticity of the artwork. In the "real world," the closest analogy is an autographed original painting that is authenticated by the artist's signature or a certificate of authenticity issued by a reputable source...

One common question asked by clients is whether, when they purchase NFTs, they also obtain the copyright associated with it. The answer is: Not necessarily. It is important to understand what is included in the smart contract that confers the purchaser's rights to the digital asset. Similar to the purchase of a physical painting in our analogy above, although the purchaser has acquired the right to display the work, and to resell it, ownership of the copyright is not automatically conveyed.

The artist owns the copyright unless the author assigns it to the purchaser...

NFTs present interesting and novel questions for trademarks as well...

One of the questions to be resolved is whether traditional trademark legal doctrines, such as the first-sale doctrine, protects a seller, such as StockX, or whether the NFTs are new, distinct products that seek to capitalize on the trademark owners' marks...

It is always challenging for the law to keep pace with the expansion and development of new technologies and innovations. It is no different with NFTs. With the increased growth of NFTs, the need for protection also grows. Although NFTs present many opportunities for businesses, it is essential that NFT sellers clearly delineate in the smart contract what is and is not permitted with respect to intellectual property rights. In that way, both NFT sellers and buyers will be able to protect themselves and best monetize these assets."