Friday’s Endnotes – 06/21/24

Opinion: As AI is embraced, what happens to the artists whose work was stolen to build it? — “AI companies often argue that it would be impossible for them to license all the content that they need and that doing so would bring progress to a grinding halt. This is simply untrue. OpenAI has signed a succession of licensing agreements with publishers large and small. While the exact terms of these agreements are rarely released to the public, the compensation estimates pale in comparison with the vast outlays for computing power and energy that the company readily spends.”

Five Men Convicted for Operating Major Illegal Streaming Service — “A federal jury in Las Vegas convicted five men this week for their roles in running one of the largest unauthorized streaming services in the United States, which generated millions of dollars in subscription revenue while causing substantial harm to television program copyright owners. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, beginning as early as 2007, Kristopher Dallmann, Douglas Courson, Felipe Garcia, Jared Jaurequi, and Peter Huber operated an online, subscription-based streaming service known as Jetflicks.”

Copyright questions derailed Calif. plan to develop its own bar exam — “The California Bar had proposed paying Kaplan Test Prep up to $1.475 million annually for five years to develop multiple-choice questions similar to those that now appear on the Multistate Bar Exam portion of the national test. That change was projected to save the bar up to $4 million annually by allowing it to expand remote testing and eliminate the cost of renting large event spaces twice a year. But Kaplan on May 16 requested the state bar defer any decision after the National Conference of Bar Examiners sent it a letter two days earlier warning the company to not use any copyrighted MBE materials, according to a California Bar memo. Kaplan has been licensing actual MBE questions for use in its test prep program since 2009, according to the national conference’s letter.”

What Do You Meme? TFW Commercial Use Outweighs Fair Use — “The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed a district court’s copyright infringement decision, finding that a congressional reelection campaign’s use of a popular meme to solicit donations was commercial in nature and therefore not fair use.”

Democrat and Republican Lawmakers Unite to Question Spotify Bundle Move That ‘Sharply Reduces Royalty Payments for Songwriters’ — “The bipartisan group of lawmakers highlighted the long-standing challenges faced by songwriters in receiving fair compensation under the compulsory licensing system, acknowledging that the MMA is a positive step towards fairer compensation for publishers and songwriters, while expressing concern that Spotify’s actions might undermine these efforts. Their concern lies in Spotify’s ‘unexpected decision’ to reclassify its Premium subscription tier as a bundle when offering audiobooks as a free add-on to its $10.99 monthly subscription plan.”