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Clear filtersOn October 23, owners of Elvis song rights sued Anthropic in California federal court over lyrics to songs recorded by Elvis Presley. They allege Anthropic copied lyrics without a license to train its AI models and stripped titles and credits during data cleaning. No court has decided any claim.
Eminem's former employee Joseph Strange pleaded guilty to criminal copyright infringement on October 22 in federal court in the Eastern District of Michigan. The Justice Department says he copied and sold unreleased music for about $50,000 without authorization. The court has not decided whether to accept the plea agreement, and no sentence has been imposed.
Apple and the other defendants prevailed on October 22 at the Ninth Circuit in Francesca Gregorini's copyright appeal over Servant. Gregorini alleged the show's first three episodes were substantially similar to her film The Truth About Emanuel. The panel affirmed the jury's verdict for the defendants.
Reservoir Media Management and two other music publishers sued Anthropic on October 21 in federal court in the Northern District of California. They allege Anthropic copied the lyrics of 853 compositions to train its AI model without a license or payment. Anthropic has not responded in court, and no court has decided the claims.
Matthew Michael Hobbs, the creator behind Puppy Songs, sued Kroger in California federal court over an allegedly unlicensed TikTok video featuring Cheese Tax. The October 19 complaint asserts separate copyright claims for the sound recording and the underlying composition. Hobbs alleges that the song was never available in TikTok's Commercial Music Library.
The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment in songwriter Cyril Vetter's copyright dispute because it lacked a quorum, not after a decision on the merits. The October 19 order leaves intact a Fifth Circuit ruling recognizing the recovery of worldwide rights in Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love) following termination of an earlier grant.
Songwriter Aviel Calev Hirschfield sued Drake, OVO Sound and two Universal Music entities in Los Angeles federal court on October 16, alleging that Janice STFU copied the chorus of a demo he sent to producers working with Drake. Hirschfield claims the released track reproduces his lyrics, melody and cadence without credit or compensation. Drake's representatives deny the allegations and say he wrote the song. The complaint seeks damages and profits attributable to the alleged infringement.
Amazon must continue defending direct and vicarious copyright claims over allegedly copied T-shirt artwork sold through Merch on Demand. An Ohio federal judge rejected those portions of Amazon's summary judgment bid on October 14, while granting it judgment on contributory infringement. Weekend Warrior Clothing, which sells apparel as USA Drinking Team, alleges that third-party creators uploaded its designs and Amazon displayed, manufactured and sold the resulting merchandise. The court has not determined that Amazon infringed any valid copyright.
Warner Music Group labels and publishers filed a New York federal lawsuit against Luxottica companies behind Ray-Ban, Oakley and other eyewear brands. The October 9 complaint alleges that promotional videos used at least 427 copyrighted recordings and compositions without permission, including music associated with Dua Lipa, Charli xcx and Bruno Mars.
Pharrell Williams and Talamasca asked a Los Angeles federal court to dismiss Chad Hugo's copyright claims in the dispute between the longtime Neptunes collaborators. Their October 6 motion argues that Hugo's second amended complaint does not adequately identify the works he claims to co-own or distinguish rights in musical compositions from rights in sound recordings. The filing seeks dismissal of the federal claims and, if they fall, dismissal without prejudice of the remaining state-law claims.
USA TODAY and 13 affiliated publishing entities sued seven OpenAI entities in Manhattan federal court on October 8. The complaint alleges that OpenAI copied their journalism without permission for model training and reproduced protected content in its products. The publishers seek more than $250 million in damages, an injunction and destruction of models and training sets that incorporate their content.
Laffapalooza sued Apple, Tubi, distributor Urban Home Entertainment, and producer Marcus Joseph King over allegedly unauthorized streaming of its comedy films, including Jamie Foxx Presents Laffapalooza. The October 2 Georgia federal complaint alleges that King licensed the works to the distributor without authority and that the films then appeared on streaming platforms. Laffapalooza also asks the court to resolve its ownership dispute with King. The claims have not been decided.
Thomas Rhett and HYBE America's Blue Highway Records announced Fifty-One/Forty-Nine Records, an artist-led label that will serve as the home for his recorded music. Rhett said the partnership gives him the opportunity to own his body of work while retaining support for future recordings. The announcement did not disclose financial terms, the label's ownership structure, or whether the arrangement includes his earlier catalog.
Mattie Music Group, the publisher of Bill Withers' catalog, filed a federal copyright lawsuit over Olivia Dean's I've Seen It. The complaint alleges that the song copies protected melody from Just the Two of Us and names Capitol Records, Universal Music Group, Sony, and Kobalt entities as defendants. Dean and her co-writers are not defendants.
The Third Circuit affirmed partial summary judgment for Thomson Reuters in its copyright case against ROSS Intelligence. The court held that 2,243 Westlaw headnotes were sufficiently original for protection and that ROSS's use of them to train a competing legal search system was not fair use.
A Washington federal judge entered a $4.5 million default judgment against James Williams, known online as Archbox, after Nintendo accused him of distributing pirated Switch games through online shops and promoting them on Reddit.
Universal Music Group companies sued DistroKid in Delaware federal court, alleging that the distributor continued placing infringing recordings on streaming services and misrepresented its approach to artificial intelligence content and fraud.
A California federal judge dismissed Wixen Music Publishing's direct and contributory copyright claims against Meta after finding that Wixen had not adequately alleged its ownership or exclusive rights in the 681 works at issue.
Melissa Mais filed a Virginia federal lawsuit against dancehall artist Masicka, whose legal name is Javaun Nicholas Fearon, alleging that she wrote material connected to four of his songs and that her work was used without permission or compensation.
Round Hill Music and affiliated companies filed separate federal copyright lawsuits against Suno and Anthropic, alleging unauthorized use of songs and recordings to develop and operate their artificial intelligence systems.