3 Count: No Guidance
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1: Chris Brown and Drake Sued for at Least $5m Over Alleged Copyright Infringement on ‘No Guidance’
First, today, Daniel Tencer at Music Business Worldwide reports that Chris Brown and Drake are facing a lawsuit filed by two other musicians who claim their 2019 song No Guidance infringes on an earlier work.
Artists Tykeiya Dore and Marc Stephens filed the lawsuit. They allege that No Guidance copied elements of their 2016 song I Got It. The lawsuit highlights similarities between the choruses and other musical elements.
In addition to Brown and Drake, the lawsuit targets various other companies and individuals who worked on No Guidance. It even targets YouTube over alleged defamation after it refused to act on a copyright notice, determining it to be fraudulent. The lawsuit seeks damages of at least $5 million.
2: LAION Wins Copyright Infringement Lawsuit in German Court
Next up today, Andres Guadamuz at TechnoLlama reports that the German non-profit LAION has emerged victorious in a case against a photographer over the use of his images to train AI systems.
LAION is a German non-profit organization that creates open-sourced AI models and datasets. Photographer Robert Kneschke sued the organization, alleging that they unlawfully used his photos in the LAION dataset.
LAION did not deny the copying. Instead, they argued that they were covered under existing copyright exemptions in the country. The court agreed, noting LAION’s non-profit nature, even though the dataset would go on to be used by commercial entities. This provides a broad exception for using copyright-protected works in datasets, especially for non-profit organizations.
3: EU Court of Justice Rules on Copyright Protection for Non-EU Designers of Works of Applied Art: A Kwantum Leap?
Finally, today, a press release by Crowell reports that the European Court of Justice has ruled that member states must protect works of applied art (including furniture, appliances, etc.) the same regardless of country of origin.
US furniture company Vitra filed the lawsuit. They alleged that the EU company Kwantum infringed their copyright in their DSW Chair. However, Kwantum argued that since such works aren’t protected in the United States, they shouldn’t enjoy protection in the EU.
However, the highest court in the EU has now ruled that member states must protect such works equally, regardless of their country of origin. This is despite the Berne Convention, which only requires signatories to grant foreign works rights they have in their own country.
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