3 Count: Superman Superfail

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1: James Gunn’s ‘Superman’ Defeats Attempt to Block UK, Canada Release as Judge Shoots Down Copyright Injunction

First off today, Umberto Gonzalez at The Wrap reports that a judge has denied an injunction against Warner Bros. that would have prevented the company from releasing the upcoming Superman film in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and Canada.

Mark Warren Peary, the executor of the Joseph Shuster estate, filed the lawsuit. Shuster was the co-creator of Superman, and his estate has long argued that it has termination rights to the character. However, those efforts have not gone well. A previous lawsuit over this issue was dismissed, with the court ruling that it had no right to determine the estate’s rights under foreign laws.

In this case, the judge found that the estate had failed to establish either a likelihood of success on the merits or irreparable harm. Though the case continues for now, the denial of the injunction paves the way for the film’s release on July 11.

2: Meta’s AI Memorized Books Verbatim – That Could Cost It Billions

Next up today, Jeremy Hsu at New Scientist reports that researchers have tested multiple artificial intelligence (AI) models and have determined that one of Meta’s models retained the exact text of the books in their training data.

Mark Lemley, a professor of law at Stanford University, conducted the study. Until January, he counted Meta as a client, but dropped them in the middle of the case. However, a recent study he conducted indicates that Meta, unlike other models, memorized the books that it trained on and was able to repeat them verbatim.

According to Lemley, this could bode very poorly for Meta. The company is facing multiple lawsuits over its AI training practices, and he adds that this could open the company up to over a billion dollars in damages.

3: Pirate Site Visits Dip to 216 Billion a Year, But Manga Piracy is Booming

Finally, today, Ernesto Van der Sar at Torrentfreak writes that piracy tracking firm Muso has released its 2024 data, indicating that visits to pirate websites declined over the year, although certain types of piracy continue to thrive.

According to the report, they tracked 216 billion visits to pirate websites. While that is still a large number, it’s less than the 229 billion from 2023. TV piracy was by far the most popular, representing 44.6% of all pirate site visits. Publishing represented another 30.7%. The United States was also the largest country, representing over 12% of all pirate site traffic.

Though the news is mostly good, manga piracy boomed over the year. It accounted for over 70% of publishing-related piracy and increased by more than 100% compared to the previous year. Both music and film piracy dropped significantly compared to 2023.

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