3 Count: Supreme Questions

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1: US Supreme Court Asked to Hear Dispute Over Copyrights for AI Creations

First off today, Blake Brittain at Reuters reports that computer scientist Stephen Thaler has asked the Supreme Court of the United States to hear his case involving the copyrightability of AI-generated work.

The case began in 2018, when Thaler attempted to register an AI-generated image titled “A Recent Entrance to Paradise” with the US Copyright Office. The office refused, saying that AI-generated images do not qualify as works of human authorship and that only humans can hold copyright.

Thaler sued the Copyright Office, but both the district court and the court of appeals upheld the decision. He has now filed a petition with the Supreme Court, arguing that it is a critical issue and that failing to grant copyright protection to AI works would have a “chilling effect” on others using the technology.

2: Piracy Claims Can’t Be Added to Music Publishers’ Copyright Case Against Anthropic, Says Judge

Next up today, Mandy Dalugdug at Music Business Worldwide reports that a judge has denied music publishers’ request to append piracy claims to their lawsuit against Anthropic.

Universal Music Publishing Group, Concord Music and ABKCO Music filed the lawsuit in 2023. They alleged that Anthropic infringed on their copyrights by both training on and regurgitating song lyrics through its Claude AI system.

The publishers attempted to expand the lawsuit, alleging that Anthropic used BitTorrent to obtain the original lyrics. However, the judge has denied that request, saying that it is too far along in the case to do so. However, the publishers may be able to file a separate lawsuit addressing those allegations.

3: Apple Sued, Again, for Allegedly Using Copyrighted Material to Train Its AI

Finally, today, Matt Binder at Mashable reports that a pair of neuroscientists have filed a lawsuit against Apple, alleging that the company used pirated book libraries that included their work to train various AI systems.

The lawsuit is the second such case to be filed against Apple in recent months. Last month, two other authors filed a similar case against Apple, claiming that the company used pirated content to train AI systems.

Both lawsuits are most likely hoping to emulate a recent settlement between Anthropic and authors who sued them. That settlement saw Anthropic agree to pay $1.5 billion in damages to authors over allegations of piracy.

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