3 Count: Top Gun Summary

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1: Paramount Asks Judge to Shoot Down ‘Top Gun’ Heirs’ Copyright Lawsuit

First off today, Blake Brittain at Reuters reports that Paramount and heirs to the original article that inspired the first Top Gun movie have filed dueling motions for summary judgement, asking the court to decide the case in their favor.

The lawsuit was filed by the widow and on of Ehud Yonay, who wrote the original Top Guns article that inspired the original Top Gun movie. According to the Yonays, Paramount snapped up the rights to the article soon after it was published to make the film. However, through copyright termination, they were able to reclaim the rights in the original article in 2020. They claim that Paramount failed to license the article when making the 2022 sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, prompting the lawsuit.

However, now both sides are asking the judge to toss the case and rule in their favor. Paramount claims that the works are very different and that the similarities between the film and the original article are purely factual and not protected by copyright. The Yonays, however, argue that Paramount licensed the article originally but changed their stance after the article reverted to them. The judge has not ruled on the motions.

2: FTC Takes Shots at AI in Rare Filing to US Copyright Office

Next up today, Bryan Masse at VentureBeat reports that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed comments with the US Copyright Office (USCO) regarding generative artificial intelligence (AI) and has taken a strong stance against AI in doing so.

The USCO has been seeking public comments around AI since August. In that inquiry, they are focusing both on whether AI works should be protected by copyright and whether training AI on copyright-protected works is, in and of itself, an infringement. While this comment period has drawn attention from a variety of stakeholders, the FTC made the unusual step of filing their own.

In their comment, they expressed concerns both about the use of AI to deceive or trick customers and the way AI systems are trained. However, the FTC took it a step further and said that, even if the scraping of copyright-protected work for the purpose of AI training is a fair use, it could still run afoul of FTC consumer protections law, in particular, the clauses that prevent “unfair methods of competition.”

3: Rock Photographer Lynn Goldsmith Beat the Warhol Estate at the Supreme Court, But It Cost Millions

Finally today, Steve Knopper at Billboard reports that photographer Lynn Goldsmith has revealed how much her Supreme Court battle with the Andy Warhol Foundation cost her. Over $2.5 million.

Goldsmith was sued by the Warhol estate after she alleged that unlicensed Warhol prints of the musician Prince were infringements of photographs she had taken of the musician. This prompted a legal battle that, in May, the Supreme Court ruled on, siding with Goldsmith.

However, that victory did not cheap. According to the interview, her legal bills total over $2.5 million, with little hope of recouping that through damages in the case. To pay those bills, Goldsmith sold her Aspen home and moved to Nashville, where she said it was much cheaper. Goldsmith did raise funds through a GoFundMe, but only received $70,000. In addition to her legal bills, Goldsmith also stated that her legal team agreed to work pro bono after a certain point in the case.

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