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An Illinois judge rejected a copyright infringement claim brought by rapper Gutta, alleging that a song released by hip-hop artist Future infringed his rights. Scott Hervey and Jamie Lincenberg talk about this dispute on this episode of The Briefing.Continue Reading The Briefing: Judge Finds Lyrics and Themes “Guns, Money, and Jewelry” Too Commonplace for Copyright Protection

In JBrick, LLC v. Chazak Kinder, Inc. et al, 1-21-cv-02883 (EDNY Sep. 21, 2023) (Hector Gonzalez), the District Court for the Eastern District of New York granted the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment regarding the validity of its copyright. Continue Reading Court Rules Lego Creation Based on Religious Texts is Eligible for Copyright Protection

Last year, Jason M. Allen won first place at the Colorado State Fair (the “Competition”) for the two-dimensional artwork entitled Théâtre D’opéra Spatial (the “Work”), which he produced with the aid of Artificial Intelligence (“AI”). Despite receiving this accolade and Allen’s arguments that he contributed significant creative elements to the AI-generated Work, his attempts to copyright the work have been unsuccessful.Continue Reading Award-Winning AI Art Not Copyrightable

By:  Weintraub Tobin Summer Associate Josh Concepcion

The Ninth Circuit recently revisited the issue of “embedding” content by a website and its implication for copyright infringement claims. On July 17, 2023, the Ninth Circuit issued its opinion in Hunley v. Instagram, LLC, and affirmed the trial court’s ruling that Instagram, a social media platform, could not face liability for secondary infringement under the “Server Test” because plaintiffs could not prove infringement of their copyrighted photographs since the third-party news platforms had “embedded,” but did not store, the copyrighted photos on their own websites. The Court ultimately reasoned that because the plaintiff posted their photos on Instagram and essentially stored a copy of those images on Instagram’s servers, Instagram did not violate or infringe on the plaintiff’s rights since Instagram had a sublicense to display photos posted onto their platform and the third-party news sites had “embedded” the content in their articles.Continue Reading Social Media Giants and Copyright: Instagram’s Ninth Circuit Win Sets Precedent Against Photographers