AI Licensing Startups Bloom in Wake of Copyright Legal Battles — “Created by Humans recently launched a platform that lets tech firms shop for author-sanctioned catalogs of books. Narrativ has built a marketplace for voice actors to license their likenesses and entered into an agreement with labor union SAG-AFTRA. And Prorata, whose tools can help break down AI outputs to compensate each contributor, has partnered with over 400 publications since August, including Fortune, The Atlantic and Axel Springer, as well as Universal Music Group.”
Copyright Case Between Deborah Roberts and Richard Beavers Gallery ‘Amicably Resolved’ — “A judge ultimately determined that of the 16 works presented as evidence in the case, 9 did not amount to copyright infringement, however the remaining 7 bear such a degree of similarity that a ‘total concept and feel of each collage is sufficiently similar to defeat a motion to dismiss.’ The case was allowed to proceed.”
Shedding Light: Briefs Filed in Kadrey v. Meta — “As we see in the shorthand of social media, the developers write their own dichotomy by simultaneously humanizing and dehumanizing their products. In one breath, they compare machine leaning (ML) to human learning but then drop the analogy when they seek to claim that the protected ‘expression’ in the works used is not copied or stored by their mysterious and complex ‘training’ models. The AAP brief argues that copying ‘expression’ is central to training an LLM, and the professors’ brief shows why ‘learning like a human’ is precisely why fair use does not exempt Meta from obtaining licenses.”
EU copyright law roundup – first trimester of 2025 — “Slightly overdue, but here comes the first roundup of 2025. The EU courts have issued just one judgment in this trimester, but to make up for it, there have been several interesting policy initiatives.”
Meta says it will resume AI training with public content from European users — “The company’s AI training efforts had been hampered by stringent European Union data privacy laws, which give people control over how their personal information is used. Vienna-based group NOYB, led by activist Max Schrems, had complained to various national privacy watchdogs about Meta’s AI training plans and urged them to stop the company before it started training its next generation of AI models.”