3 Count: Hidden Piracy

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1: OpenAI Gets Partial Win in Authors’ Copyright Lawsuit

First off today, Reuters reports that a federal judge has dismissed potions of a lawsuit filed against OpenAI over its use copyright-protected material to train it AI chatbot ChatGPT.

The lawsuit, which was spearheaded by a group of celebrity authors, has been significantly trimmed as the court ruled that ChatGPT’s output does not infringe the copyrights of the plaintiffs. However, the court did not address the larger question of whether using such material to train the system was an infringement.

The plaintiffs have until March 13 to file an amended complaint. The lawsuit is just one of several against AI companies over the use of copyright-protected work both for training and appearing in the output of various AI systems.

2: Travis Scott Sued for Alleged Copyright Infringement Over ‘Stargazing’ and ‘Til Further Notice’

Next up today, Daniel Tencer at Music Business Worldwide reports that musician Travis Scott has been sued over two of his popular songs, Stargazing and Til Further Notice.

The lawsuit was filed by songwriter Dion Norman and producer Derrick “Mellow Fellow” Ordogne who alleged that the Scott tracks, released in 2018 and 2023 respectively, use unauthorized samples of a 1991 track that they created.

In addition to Scott, the lawsuit also names Sony Music Entertainment and producers who worked on the Scott tracks. The lawsuit seeks compensatory, statutory and punitive damages as well as attorney’s fees.

3: A Piracy App Outranked Netflix on the App Store Before Apple Pulled It

Finally today, Mariella Moon at Engadget reports that Apple has removed a popular app named Kimi from its app store after it was discovered that the app enabled access to pirated content.

The app presented itself a spot the difference game though the main purpose of the app was to provide access to pirated content, including movies and TV shows. Despite the ruse, the app was widely seen as easy to use, simply a matter of downloading it and running it.

Apple did not say why the app was removed but it began to draw widespread attention from both the media and users. The app was briefly more downloaded than various legitimate ones, such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.

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