Warner Chappell Music Inc. v. Nealy
The Copyright Act imposes a three-year period of limitations for copyright infringement claims. There has been a split in the circuits about whether this means that damages could be claimed only for infringement occurring during the three-year period or whether damages could be recovered for earlier acts of infringement so long as the claim is timely filed.
The issue arises in cases where a claimant invokes the discovery rule. The general rule is that a limitations period runs from the date of the act giving rise to the cause of action. The discovery rule, by contrast, measures the limitations period from the date the infringing act is discovered. Thus, for example, if an infringing act occurred in 2012 but the copyright owner did not learn about it until 2022, then under the traditional rule, the claim would be time-barred. Under the discovery rule, it would not be.
The Court’s holding means that if the discovery rule applies in the jurisdiction where suit is filed, and a claimant properly invokes it, then damages are not limited to the three years preceding suit. Rather, any damages incurred since the date of the infringint act are recoverable.
The Court did not rule on the validity of the discovery rule.
Warner Chappell Music Inc.. v. Nealy, 601 U.S. ____ (2024). Read more here.
Hachette Book Group Inc. v. Internet Archive
I wrote about this case back in 2022, when it was at the summary judgment stage in the district court for the Southern District of New York. The complaint, filed by book publishers, alleged that the Internet Archive made digital copies of over a million print books and then freely distributed the copies to members of the public, all without the permission of the copyright owners. In 2023, the district judge ruled in favor of the publishers, holding that the enterprise was not “fair use.” This year, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the decision.
To some, the decision might seem like a no-brainer. Copying other people’s books and giving them away for free, without the copyright owners’ permission, sounds like core copyright infringement, right? Yet, before the Warhol v. Goldsmith decision in 2023, courts had been applying such an expansive view of the “transformative use” branch of fair use that some people thought that making digital copies of a print book was categorically “transformative” and therefore fair use. This decision makes it clear that no, it isn’t.
The Internet Archive has said it will not appeal the decision to the United States Supreme Court.
Hachette Book Group Inc. et al. v. Internet Archive, No. 23-1260 (2nd Cir. 2024)
Griner v. King
U.S. Representative Steve King’s campaign committee used a copyright-protected photograph in his campaign without permission. King’s committee had argued fair use and that it had an “implied license” to use the image because it had been widely circulated as a meme on the Internet. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an Iowa jury’s verdict for the copyright owner.
Griner et al. v. King et al., No. 23-2117, (8th Cir. 2024)
The Intercept Media v. OpenAI
This isn’t really a momentous decision, in terms of precedential value, but it is the first major victory for Big AI in the plethora of AI-related lawsuits they are facing.
The Intercept Media, Inc. sued OpenAI and Microsoft Corporation for alleged Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) violations in connection with training the AI tool, ChatGPT. The defendants filed a motion to dismiss. On November 21, 2024 the New York court dismissed claims against Microsoft with prejudice. The court dismissed the 17 U.S.C. § 1202(b)(3) claim against OpenAI but allowed the claim under 17 U.S.C. §1202(b)(1) to proceed.
Section 1202(b)(1) prohibits unauthorized removal or alteration of copyright management information, including author information and the copyright notice.
The Intercept Media Inc. v. OpenAI Inc., No. 1:24-cv-01515, (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 21, 2024).
Stay tuned…
Many AI-related copyright lawsuits continued to proceed through the courts in 2024, with decisions expected in 2025 or later.
The post Top Copyright Cases of 2024 appeared first on Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas James.