By , July 28, 2023.

Scuttling Blackbeard’s Law — Plagiarism Today’s Jonathan Bailey notes a recent law enacted in North Carolina that repealed the 2015 law that effectively placed any audiovisual footage of underwater shipwrecks into the public domain. The law arose out of a dispute between the state and photographer Rick Allen which ultimately led to the Supreme Court, which issued a March 2020 decision addressing copyright infringement and state sovereign immunity. The litigation continues; following the Supreme Court decision, the district court allowed Allen to amend his original complaint.

The Pen Is Mightier Than The Large Language Model — “AI regulation that protects America’s creatives would also preserve the quality of its journalism, poetry, television shows, movies, stories and books that the U.S. is known and admired for around the world. Without our written culture, the ground we stand on as an exemplar of speech that is not only free, but also high quality, will substantially weaken.”

Off the Charts: Derivative Work Copyright Registers All Material in Derivative Work — “In a matter of first impression, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit … agreed with other circuits that by registering a derivative work, an author registers all the material included in the derivative work, including any unregistered original works.”

YouTube Rippers’ Appeal of RIAA’s $83 Million Piracy Win Moves Forward — “While Mr. Kurbanov previously walked away from the U.S. court battle, he may choose to keep on fighting. In a new filing submitted yesterday, a challenge against the piracy liability ruling and damages award was docketed at the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The appeal doesn’t come as a complete surprise. More than a year ago, Kurbanov’s legal team already signaled their intention to challenge the verdict. A notice of appeal was filed in March 2022, but it took more than a year before the case was formally docketed.”

The Impact of the Supreme Court’s Goldsmith Decision on Copyright Enforcement Against AI Tools — “The U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion in Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith sent ripples through the legal and artistic communities. Months later, legal scholars and art journalists continue to debate whether the decision opens the door for federal courts to act as ‘art critics.’ Many, however, downplay how the Supreme Court’s decision impacts the ways in which copyright owners may enforce their rights against generative AI tools.”