3 Count: Paella Piracy

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1: Music Publishers Reach Deal With AI Giant Anthropic Over Copyrighted Song Lyrics

First off, today, Winston Cho at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that a group of music publishers has reached a deal with the AI company Anthropic that will prevent the company from displaying its users copyright-protected song lyrics or new lyrics based on such works.

The publishers sued Anthropic in 2023, accusing it of copyright infringement. They cited Anthropic’s use of at least 500 songs to train their AI systems. The judge was considering a preliminary injunction in the case, but this deal heads that off.

The deal says that Anthropic will maintain its current “guardrails” to prevent its users from accessing song lyrics or generating new lyrics based on existing ones. If issues arise with those systems, Anthropic has agreed to respond “expeditiously.” The judge in the case has signed off on the agreement.

2: Six Strings Club Sued for Copyright Infringement, Accused of Playing Music Without a License

Next up today, Lauren Warnecke at WGLT reports that the Six Strings Club in Bloomington, Illinois, has been sued for playing music without a license.

Broadcast Media Inc. (BMI) filed the lawsuit over allegations that the club has played BMI-licensed music without a license. According to BMI, they have contacted the club more than 45 times since 2022, including by phone, email, and postal mail.

BMI is a performing rights organization (PRO) that provides licenses for musical compositions played in public spaces, such as clubs, restaurants, and stores. According to BMI, its library contains over 22 million songs. The lawsuit claims that the club repeatedly played live and recorded music without such a license.

3: Paella Piracy? Lawsuit Claims Owners of New Palo Alto Spanish Restaurant Stole Recipes, Key Information From Bay Area Rival TeleféricCouple Allegedly Downloaded and Dashed

Finally, today, Ethan Baron at the Mercury News reports that the restaurant group Teleféric Barcelona has filed a lawsuit against two former employees, alleging that they used confidential information, including recipes and marketing information, to start a competing restaurant.

Teleféric Barcelona filed a lawsuit against the husband-and-wife team of David Linares and Elisabet Reviriego. Teleféric alleges that the duo worked for them and had unfettered access to confidential information. According to the lawsuit, the duo copied much of that information before leaving, supposedly to move back to Spain. Instead, they began work on opening a competing restaurant.

Teleféric accuses the duo of violating their trade secrets. Since recipes and other data are not protected by copyright, trade secret is the only intellectual property type that directly applies. Linares and Reviriego have said they are examing the case but stand by their actions in preparing to open their restaurant.

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