https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/09/us-rejects-ai-copyright-for-famous-state-fair-winning-midjourney-art/ Why bother?! Was that not the first question that came to you after reading the piece? Why was the artist trying to obtain copyright registration in the first place? For possible monetary gains? To cause an outrage? To see if he can get away with it, thus gaining notoriety? Despite appearances, most of us […]

I found this a cool read after discussing AI and copyrighted lyrics in class last week. These upcoming cases will lay the groundwork for how AI will be governed. Interestingly the parties involved here are no small players so it will be particularly interesting to see how the fair use argument plays out in court. […]

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To encourage customers continue buying and using their Generative AI-based products, Microsoft is offering legal protection for AI copyright infringement challenges:  https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2023/09/07/copilot-copyright-commitment-ai-legal-concerns/ Microsoft says “if a third party sues a commercial customer for copyright infringement for using Microsoft’s Copilots or the output they generate, we will defend the customer and pay the amount of any […]

I heard a wonderful interview on the drive home today.  Tom Power of CBC was interviewing the legendary George Clinton.  For those of you unfamiliar (which I hope isn’t many), George Clinton is the brilliant mind behind Parliament (go listen to Give Up the Funk), Funkadelic (go listen to Maggot Brain), and of course, Parliament-Funkadelic.  […]

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Hi all, I wanted to share a podcast episode I listened to recently. The podcast, “The Daily” by the New York Times, discussed how Gilead (a pharmaceutical company) delayed the release of a new version of a drug to maximize its profits from existing patents. Gilead initially developed a drug for H.I.V. treatment which had […]

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Hello! I found this interesting article regarding a copy copywriting another copy! Humans of Bombay – one of the many unauthorized spin-offs of Humans of New York – is suing People of India for copyright infringement. Humans of Bombay is claiming that their photo format (posting a photo of an individual with an excerpt of […]

Hi everyone, I stumbled upon this update about Google’s use of generative AI and thought a deeper dive into some of their new uses of AI would be interesting. As seen in this news article, Google has joined Microsoft, Adobe, and others in pledging to protect consumers who use their generative AI products from IP […]

Looking at Francis, Day & Hunter Ltd v Twentieth Century Fox Corp Ltd [Francis] made me think of a few artists who could possibly challenge the general rule that there is no separate copyright in the title of the work, or rather, satisfy the exception. The quote regarding the exception to the rule: …provided that [the title] […]

If you are like me and enjoy Sci-fi movies and games or messy contract disputes, this article will be an interesting one! Recently, California-based game company Evil Genius Games (“EG”) sued Netflix for breach of contract over the streaming giant’s forthcoming new science fiction series “Rebel Moon”. The contract between Netflix and EG agreed on […]

Afraid the cameras in the room were not working but all else was. Slides & video below…Jon  

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