Bill Willingham: Willingham Sends Fables Into the Public Domain. “As of now, 15 September 2023, the comic book property called Fables, including all related Fables spin-offs and characters, is now in the public domain. What was once wholly owned by Bill Willingham is now owned by everyone, for all time. It’s done, and as most experts will tell you, once done it cannot be undone. Take-backs are neither contemplated nor possible.”
Ars Technica: “Most notorious” illegal shadow library sued by textbook publishers [Updated]. “Publishers suing include Cengage Learning, Macmillan Learning, McGraw Hill, and Pearson Education. They claimed that Library Genesis (aka Libgen) is operated by unknown individuals based outside the United States, who know that the shadow library is ‘one of the largest, most notorious, and far-reaching infringement operations in the world’ and intentionally violate copyright laws with ‘absolutely no legal justification for what they do.’”
Boing Boing: Typeface trolls shaking down users of Adobe’s font platform. “Do you use a font through Adobe’s font platform? Is it Proxima Nova? Users of the typeface report being threatened by a foundry that claims to represent its creator, and Adobe isn’t taking calls. The copyright troll business model, where lawyers demand money from people who know that proving their innocence would cost even more, has come to the land of fancy fonts.”
Ars Technica: US rejects AI copyright for famous state fair-winning Midjourney art. “On Tuesday, the US Copyright Office Review Board rejected copyright protection for an AI-generated artwork that won a Colorado State Fair art contest last year because it lacks human authorship required for registration, Reuters reports. The win, which was widely covered in the press at the time, ignited controversy over the ethics of AI-generated artwork.”
Verdict: OpenAI faces further copyright lawsuits from leading authors. “Three more authors have filed copyright lawsuits against OpenAI alleging their works were used in the training of its ChatGPT AI. The authors, Michael Chabon, Rachel Snyder and Ayelet Waldman, have all claimed their published works have been used in the training process of ChatGPT without their consent or knowledge.”
The Verge: Internet Archive appeals loss in library ebook lawsuit. “The Internet Archive announced today that it has appealed its loss in a major ebook copyright case. A notice indicates that it’s filed with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Hachette v. Internet Archive, a publishing industry lawsuit over the nonprofit group’s Open Library program. The appeal follows a settlement that saw the Archive limit access to some of its scanned books as well as a second suit filed by music publishers over the Archive’s digitization of vintage records.”
TorrentFreak: Z-Library Opens ‘Z-Points’ Around the World to Share Paper Books. “Z-Library, which is commonly known as a pirate ebook repository, has opened up 11 physical book distribution points around the world. From the United States to South Sudan, there are Z-Points in every inhabited continent. The ultimate goal is to broaden the library’s scope to the physical realm, further promoting book sharing.”
Reuters: Microsoft to defend customers on AI copyright challenges. “Microsoft will pay legal damages on behalf of customers using its artificial intelligence (AI) products if they are sued for copyright infringement for the output generated by such systems, the company said on Thursday.”
TorrentFreak: Google Preemptively Banned Hundreds of Millions of ‘Pirate’ URLs Last Year. “Google remains committed to tackling online piracy. In a recent letter to the US Patent and Trademark Office, the company says that it blocked hundreds of millions of URLs before they appeared in the search engine. These preemptive takedowns are part of a broader strategy that also deals with advertisements for streaming piracy that hasn’t happened yet.”
Reuters: US appeals court curbs Copyright Office’s mandatory deposit policy. “The U.S. Constitution bars the U.S. Copyright Office from demanding that a publisher deposit physical copies of its books with the office or pay a fine, a Washington, D.C., federal appeals court said on Tuesday.”
Centre for Economic Policy Research: The effect of copyright on the digitisation and availability of visual artworks. “This column exploits a change in copyright protection in the US to examine how copyright affects the digitisation and distribution of artworks over the internet. The authors find a strong increase in online image availability for original artworks that move into the public domain. Analysis of worldwide Google image search data reveals that digital artwork surrogates made available online are heavily reused downstream, suggesting they are of measurable high public and commercial value.”
The George Washington University: A Database from GW Law Informs Users on Litigation Relating to AI. “Legal scholars and others familiar with databases such as those maintained by LexisNexis and Westlaw know that they report opinions from finished cases. The AI Litigation Database tracks cases from the time they are filed. The cases are searchable by keyword, the jurisdiction in which they were filed and area of application, among other terms. Application areas include employment, intellectual property, facial recognition and many more.”
TorrentFreak: TV Museum Will Die in 48 Hours Unless Sony Retracts YouTube Copyright Strikes. “Rick Klein and his team have been preserving TV adverts, forgotten tapes, and decades-old TV programming for years. Now operating as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, the Museum of Classic Chicago Television has called YouTube home since 2007. However, copyright notices sent on behalf of Sony, protecting TV shows between 40 and 60 years old, could shut down the project in 48 hours.”
Quartz: Google’s new AI-powered search results are ripping off news sites. “Earlier this year, as part of its experiments with artificial intelligence, Google released a new search feature that provides an AI-generated overview of search results. The idea is to get users to their answers faster, without needing to leave the search results page. Google says the AI-generated digests use key points from news articles that are not behind a paywall. Critics say the summaries amount to theft, and could incentivize media organizations to put more of their work behind paywalls.”
USPTO: Transitioning from TESS to new search. “Did you know the Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) will soon be replaced by a new public trademark search system? Do you want to learn how to use your advanced TESS searching skills with the new system? Join our free experienced practitioner training webinar on Tuesday, September 19, from 2-3:30 p.m. ET.”
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