Meta Secretly Trained Its AI on a Notorious Piracy Database, Newly Unredacted Court Docs Reveal — “In his order, Chhabria referenced an internal quote from a Meta employee, included in the documents, in which they speculated, ‘If there is media coverage suggesting we have used a dataset we know to be pirated, such as LibGen, this may undermine our negotiating position with regulators on these issues.’ Meta declined to comment.”
Copyright Cases in 2024: A Year in Review — “Over the past year, all eyes have understandably been on the various ongoing cases brought by copyright owners against generative AI companies. But while we await decisions in those cases, which we’ll cover in an upcoming blog, there were a few non-AI copyright cases decided that could have a lasting impact on copyright owners, users of copyrighted works, internet service providers and others. Below are summaries of these 2024 copyright cases, some of which will see further developments on appeal in 2025.”
PW Talks with Maria Pallante, President & CEO of the Association of American Publishers — “Recently, we have begun to see access agreements and other AI licenses emerge, which is good news, because licensing should be a win-win-win for tech, publishers, and authors. It permits developers to work with content that is safe, sophisticated, and curated, and to obtain a measure of relief from copyright liability. Licensing also permits publishers and authors to collaborate with tech companies as both partners and clients, authorizing some AI uses for a fair price but prohibiting other uses, such as market substitutes. Creativity and innovation are supposed to be symbiotic like this.”
The Hidden Cost of ‘Free’: The Big Steal Shines a Light on the Domestic Threat to U.S. IP Rights — “The Big Steal provides more hope than despair. Its message suggests that America’s embrace of property and rule-of-law are alive, if not so well, when it comes to IP rights over the past decade. Greater IP certainty, better awareness of the role of patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets, and legislation, can help to neutralize the effects of systematic IP infringement and serve to keep the U.S. competitive in the battle for innovation leadership it has come to take for granted.”
U.S. Trade Representative Lists the Most Notorious Piracy Threats — “The Office of the United States Trade Representative has published its annual list of problematic piracy websites and other “notorious markets.” This year’s overview includes the usual suspects operating in the torrent and streaming sectors, as well as some intermediaries, including various hosting companies. The USTR hopes that by highlighting the threats, platform operators or foreign authorities will take action.”