ReportWire

Tag: copyrighted works

  • Apple faces lawsuit over alleged use of pirated books for AI training

    [ad_1]

    Two authors have filed a lawsuit against Apple, accusing the company of infringing on their copyright by using their books to train its artificial intelligence model without their consent. The plaintiffs, Grady Hendrix and Jennifer Roberson, claimed that Apple used a dataset of pirated copyrighted books that include their works for AI training. They said in their complaint that Applebot, the company’s scraper, can “reach ‘shadow libraries’” made up of unlicensed copyrighted books, including (on information) their own. The lawsuit is currently seeking class action status, due to the sheer number of books and authors found in shadow libraries.

    The main plaintiffs for the lawsuit are Grady Hendrix and Jennifer Roberson, both of whom have multiple books under their names. They said that Apple, one of the biggest companies in the world, did not attempt to pay them for “their contributions to [the] potentially lucrative venture.” Apple has “copied the copyrighted works” of the plaintiffs “to train AI models whose outputs compete with and dilute the market for those very works — works without which Apple Intelligence would have far less commercial value,” they wrote in their filing. “This conduct has deprived Plaintiffs and the Class of control over their work, undermined the economic value of their labor, and positioned Apple to achieve massive commercial success through unlawful means.”

    This is but one of the many lawsuits filed against companies developing generative AI technologies. OpenAI is facing a few, including lawsuits from The New York Times and the oldest nonprofit newsroom in the US. Notably, Anthropic, the AI company behind the Claude chatbot, recently agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a class action piracy complaint also brought by authors. Similar to this case, the writers also accused the company of taking pirated books from online libraries to train its AI technology. The 500,000 authors involved in the case will reportedly get $3,000 per work.

    [ad_2]

    Mariella Moon

    Source link

  • Anthropic will pay a record-breaking $1.5 billion to settle copyright lawsuit with authors

    [ad_1]

    Anthropic will pay a record-breaking $1.5 billion to settle a class action lawsuit piracy lawsuit brought by authors. The settlement is the largest-ever payout for a copyright case in the United States.

    The AI company behind the Claude chatbot reached a settlement in the case last week, but terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed at the time. Now, The New York Times that the 500,000 authors involved in the case will get $3,000 per work.

    The settlement is “is the first of its kind in the AI era,” Justin A. Nelson, the lawyer representing the authors, said in a statement. “This landmark settlement far surpasses any other known copyright recovery. It will provide meaningful compensation for each class work and sets a precedent requiring AI companies to pay copyright owners. This settlement sends a powerful message to AI companies and creators alike that taking copyrighted works from these pirate websites is wrong.”

    The case has been closely watched as top AI companies are increasingly facing legal scrutiny over their use of copyrighted works. In June, the judge in the case ruled that Anthropic’s use of copyrighted material for training its large language model was , in a significant victory for the company. He did, however, rule that the authors and publishers could pursue piracy claims against the company since the books were downloaded illegally from sites like Library Genesis (also known as “LibGen”).

    As part of the settlement, Anthropic has also agreed to delete everything that was downloaded illegally and “said that it did not use any pirated works to build A.I. technologies that were publicly released,” according to The New York Times. The company has not admitted wrongdoing.

    “In June, the District Court issued a landmark ruling on AI development and copyright law, finding that Anthropic’s approach to training AI models constitutes fair use,” Anthropic’s Deputy General Counsel Aparna Sridhar said in a statement. “Today’s settlement, if approved, will resolve the plaintiffs’ remaining legacy claims. We remain committed to developing safe AI systems that help people and organizations extend their capabilities, advance scientific discovery, and solve complex problems.”

    [ad_2]

    Karissa Bell

    Source link

  • Warner Bros. Discovery is suing Midjourney for copyright infringement

    [ad_1]

    Warner Bros. Discovery has filed a lawsuit against popular AI image generator Midjourney, accusing it of stealing and exploiting its intellectual properties. The complaint revolves around the AI tool’s ability to generate images and videos of Warner Bros.’ popular fictional characters, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Scooby Doo, Bugs Bunny and his friends from Looney Tunes. “Midjourney thinks it is above the law,” the company wrote in its lawsuit. It said that the image generator sells a commercial subscription service powered by AI technology that was illegally trained using its copyrighted works.

    The company argued that Midjourney has the technology to prevent users from generating images of the characters it owns. It apparently refused to generate videos based on Warner Bros.’ properties when it first launched its video model. But within the past couple of weeks, it allegedly removed those protections and told its users that they would encounter “fewer blocked jobs.” The ability to generate Warner Bros.’ characters are a clear draw for its subscription service that costs $10 to $120 a month, the media conglomerate said. “It is hard to imagine copyright infringement that is any more willful than what Midjourney is doing here,” the plaintiff added. “Midjourney has prioritized and sought to preserve the hundreds of millions of dollars it earns annually from its service by doubling down on its theft of copyrighted works.”

    In the complaint, the company gave several examples of Midjourney-generated images and video stills next to images and screencaps of its movies and shows. The image above, for instance, shows Midjourney’s output from the prompt “Batman, screencap from The Dark Knight.” next to actual promotional materials from the Christian Bale-led movie. Further, generic prompts like “classic comic book superhero battle” could lead to output with WB characters even if they’re not specifically mentioned.

    Midjourney is already facing a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by Disney and Universal Studios back in June. They accused the AI service of “help[ing] itself to countless” copyrighted works to train its models and for infringing on their copyright by allowing users to generate images of characters from Star Wars, Shrek, The Simpsons and Despicable Me, among other properties.

    Warner Bros. Discovery is now asking the court for statutory damages of “up to $150,000 per infringed work by virtue of Midjourney’s willful infringement.” We’ve reached out to Midjourney and will update this post when we hear back.

    [ad_2]

    Mariella Moon

    Source link