Wednesday, April 8, 2026

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13 articles tagged with “Legal & Policy”

US Supreme Court building with scales of justice and AI neural network overlay representing copyright intent test
AI & Publishing

SCOTUS Cox Ruling Could Raise the Bar for Publisher Copyright Claims Against AI

The US Supreme Court's unanimous ruling in Cox Communications v. Sony Music has established a new 'intent' test for contributory copyright infringement that could significantly affect publishers' legal strategies against AI firms. The 9-0 decision, authored by Justice Clarence Thomas, holds that secondary liability requires either active inducement or a service 'tailored' for infringement with no substantial non-infringing use — mere knowledge of infringement is no longer sufficient. Publishers Weekly's Edward Nawotka identifies the ruling as a double-edged development: it raises the bar for claims against AI companies, but also opens a new strategic avenue centred on whether AI models are 'tailored' to produce creative outputs that substitute for copyrighted human works.

Publishers Weekly
SCOTUSCox CommunicationsAI Copyright
European Parliament hemicycle during vote with EU flag and open book in foreground — AI copyright resolution
Legal & Policy

EU Parliament Adopts Resolution on Generative AI Copyright — Proposes 5–7% Flat-Rate Fee on AI Turnover

The European Parliament adopted a resolution on 'Copyright and generative artificial intelligence' by 460 votes to 71, with 88 abstentions. The resolution, led by Rapporteur Axel Voss, calls for a retroactive copyright global licence fee of 5–7% of AI developers' global turnover for past unauthorised uses of copyrighted works — estimated to generate approximately €420 million for creators. It mandates title-specific transparency obligations for AI training content, proposes a voluntary collective licensing framework managed through a EUIPO-administered 'licensing hub,' and asserts that EU copyright law applies to all AI systems available on the EU market regardless of where training data was processed.

European Parliament
EUEuropean ParliamentAI Copyright
Server room with amber warning light and monitor showing Library Genesis 81.7 TB — Meta BitTorrent infringement case
Legal & Policy

US Judge Allows New Contributory Infringement Claim in Authors vs. Meta — BitTorrent Seeding at Issue

Judge Vince Chhabria of the Northern District of California 'reluctantly' granted a motion by lead plaintiff Richard Kadrey to file a fourth amended complaint against Meta, adding a contributory infringement claim related to Meta's use of BitTorrent to acquire approximately 81.7 terabytes of pirated books — over 7 million titles — from shadow libraries including LibGen and Z-Library. Because BitTorrent requires users to 'seed' (upload) data to others while downloading, the authors argue Meta contributed to third-party copyright infringement. The judge granted the motion to protect absent class members but sharply rebuked the plaintiffs' lawyers at Boies Schiller Flexner for a 'pattern' of blaming Meta for their own litigation failures.

ChatGPT Is Eating the World
MetaCopyrightBitTorrent
Courthouse steps with stacked novels and scales of justice — Anthropic $1.5B authors settlement
AI & Publishing

Anthropic Reaches $1.5B Settlement with Authors — The Largest AI Copyright Payout in History

Anthropic has agreed to a $1.5 billion settlement in the Bartz v. Anthropic class action, making it the largest AI copyright payout in history. Authors who are sole copyright owners receive approximately $3,000 per qualifying work; those sharing rights with publishers receive a 50/50 split of roughly $1,500. The settlement fund is paid in four instalments: $300M in October 2025, $300M post-approval, and $450M each in September 2026 and 2027. The claims deadline is March 30, 2026, with a Final Approval Hearing before Judge William Alsup on April 23. The case centred on Anthropic's use of books from shadow libraries LibGen and PiLiMi to train Claude.

The Authors Guild
AnthropicAI CopyrightSettlement
Annotated song lyrics on paper beside glowing AI server rack — music publishers sue Anthropic for copyright infringement
Legal & Policy

Music Publishers File for Summary Judgment Against Anthropic — 'Copyright Infringement on a Massive Scale'

Universal Music Group, Concord, and ABKCO have filed a motion for summary judgment in San Jose federal court, asking a judge to rule that Anthropic's use of copyrighted song lyrics to train its Claude AI model constitutes copyright infringement 'on a massive scale.' The filing argues that Claude produces AI-generated lyrics that serve as market-diluting derivatives of the originals, directly challenging the tech industry's standard fair use defence. The case involves lyrics from at least 500 songs by artists including the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, and Beyoncé. A separate lawsuit by BMG against Anthropic was filed one week earlier.

Reuters
AnthropicUMGCopyright
Judge's gavel on mahogany bench with Google logo on screen and newspaper front pages — antitrust lawsuit dismissed
Legal & Policy

Google Wins Dismissal of News Publishers' Antitrust Lawsuit

US District Court Judge Amit Mehta in Washington, D.C., has dismissed an antitrust lawsuit brought by newspaper publisher Helena World Chronicle LLC and community news publisher Emmerich Newspapers, which alleged that Google monopolised the US online news market and leveraged its dominance to exploit publishers' content. Mehta ruled that the plaintiffs had not plausibly established that Google has monopoly power in the online news market, finding their market share calculations — based on Semrush traffic data that included YouTube and Instagram visits — methodologically unreliable.

MediaPost / Reuters
GoogleAntitrustNews Publishers
Chicken Soup for the Soul books stacked beside a server room, gavel striking between them — AI Goes on Trial
Legal & Policy

Chicken Soup for the Soul Sues OpenAI and Seven AI Firms Over 'Single Act' Copyright Theory

Chicken Soup for the Soul has filed a copyright lawsuit in the Northern District of California against OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, xAI, Perplexity, Apple, and Nvidia, alleging that the entire generative AI industry was built on a foundation of pirated books traced to a single 2018 LibGen download by an OpenAI employee. Over 1,000 authors representing more than 5,000 works have joined the action.

Publishers Weekly
AICopyrightLawsuit
European Parliament chamber in Strasbourg with blue and gold EU flags, dramatic lighting from above
Legal & Policy

EU Parliament Resolution Signals Shift on AI Copyright Territoriality, Proposes 5–7% Global Turnover Levy

The European Parliament adopted a non-binding Resolution on Copyright and Generative Artificial Intelligence on March 10, 2026, proposing that EU copyright rules apply to any AI system offered in the EU regardless of where it was trained. The resolution also suggests a retroactive flat-rate licensing fee of 5–7% of global turnover to compensate the creative industry. While not legally binding, the resolution signals the legislative agenda for the European Commission and could affect AI developers worldwide, including US-based companies.

Potomac Law
AICopyrightEU
Westminster Palace reflected in the Thames at dusk, with a stack of books and a copyright symbol in the foreground
Legal & Policy

UK Government Scraps AI Copyright Exception, But Industry Warns Uncertainty Remains

The UK government's 125-page report on AI and copyright has officially dropped its preferred option of a broad copyright exception for AI training. Publishers Association CEO Dan Conway called it 'a step in the right direction,' but warned that 'potentially damaging avenues have not been closed down.' Society of Authors Chief Executive Anna Ganley called it 'a hard-won moment' while urging faster government action. Ed Newton-Rex of Fairly Trained cautioned that 'some form of copyright exception is still very much a possibility,' noting the report failed to explicitly state that training AI on copyrighted works without a licence is illegal.

Publishing Perspectives / The Bookseller
AICopyrightLegal & Policy