Friday’s Endnotes – 02/16/24

Music publishers fire back at Anthropic in AI copyright lawsuit — From the reply brief (link in article): “in the unlikely event that Anthropic’s guardrails prevent its models from distributing copies of Publishers’ lyrics in the future, the models’ output of ‘new’ lyrics remains unfair. That output is enabled by unauthorized copying, attracts subscription fees and investment, and competes directly with songwriters and publishers whose own lyrics are the raw material for Anthropic’s substitutes. In Anthropic’s preferred future, songwriters will be supplanted by AI models built on the creativity of the authors they displace. Instead of stimulating creativity and ‘promoting broad public availability of literature, music, and the other arts,’ Anthropic’s copying propagates uncopyrightable, synthetic imitations of human expression, subverting the purposes of fair use.”

Congress Should Protect the Rights of American Creators with Site-Blocking Legislation — “Many democratic allies of the U.S., such as Australia, India, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and others, have enacted narrow, targeted ‘site-blocking’ laws. These laws set forth procedures for their courts or agencies to block access to piracy websites for internet users residing within a country’s legal borders. Studies have shown that, when these laws are enacted, user traffic to piracy websites and platforms that have been blocked drops between 80 percent and 90 percent.”

Court Trims Authors’ Copyright Lawsuit Against Open AI — “A federal judge in California this week dismissed four of six claims made by authors in a now consolidated lawsuit alleging that Open AI infringes their copyrights. But the court gave the authors a month to amend their complaint, and the suit’s core claim of direct infringement—which Open AI did not seek to dismiss—remains active.”

3 New Copyright Claims Board Decisions — Jonathan Bailey has been watching the proceedings of the copyright small claims tribunal closely. First launched in June 2022, the Board has begun issuing final determinations in disputes. Bailey takes a look at three recent ones where the Board has weighed in on substantive matters such as fair use.

The MLC Sues Pandora to Recover Unpaid Royalties, Late Fees — “The Mechanical Licensing Collective (the MLC) has sued Pandora for allegedly failing to adequately pay and report its monthly royalties, specifically in connection with the operation of its ad-supported tier ‘Pandora Free’ (also known as ‘radio’ or ‘free Pandora’).”