AI industry horrified to face largest copyright class action ever certified

Ars Technica: AI industry groups are urging an appeals court to block what they say is the largest copyright class action ever certified. They've warned that a single lawsuit raised by three authors over Anthropic's AI training now threatens to "financially ruin" the entire AI industry if up to 7 million claimants end up joining the litigation and forcing a settlement.

Potential legal woes mount after ‘Rust’ shooting tragedy

PBS NewsHour: Alec Baldwin the actor, who pulled the trigger on a prop gun while filming “Rust” in New Mexico and unwittingly killed a cinematographer and injured a director, likely won’t be held criminally or civilly liable for the tragedy.

Drama At French Opera: Real-Life Sabotage Winds Up In Court

Worldcrunch: A near fatal act of sabotage at a French opera house wound up in a courtroom last week, after a feud between stage hands offered an unsuspecting audience a moment of true drama six years ago. Let's rewind back to January 28, 2015, at the Théâtre du Capitole, in the southern French city of Toulouse, where Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, a five-hour tale of fated lovers, was building toward a dramatic finale. But on this particular night, the audience had no idea just how dramatic the ending would be.

Led Zeppelin Win "Stairway to Heaven" Copyright Battle After Supreme Court Declines to Hear Case

Consequence of Sound: Led Zeppelin’s years-long copyright battle over “Stairway to Heaven” has finally reached its conclusion. Today, the US Supreme Court declined to hear the case, upholding a March 2020 appellate court decision that said the band’s classic hit did not infringe on Spirit’s song “Taurus”.

Agencies Seek to Hold Key Court Hearing Before WGA Elections

Variety: The four major agencies asked a court on Monday to expedite a key hearing in the Writers Guild of America lawsuit, as the agencies seek to have portions of the case thrown out before the WGA’s internal elections in September.

One Of The People Suing Fortnite Over 'Stolen' Dance Steps Gets His Dance Rejected By The US Copyright Office

Techdirt: A handful of semi-famous people rang in the New Year by bringing copyright infringement lawsuits against online gaming juggernaut, Fortnite. The plaintiffs all accused Fortnite's developers of swiping their dances to use as sellable "emotes" for players' avatars.

Hundreds of locked out stagehands rally at Toronto city hall

CBC News: About 200 unionized stagehands locked out of Exhibition Place rallied in the summer heat at Toronto's city hall on Tuesday to demand that the city return to the bargaining table.

Members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 58, which provides technical and staging expertise for venues at Exhibition Place, marched in a large circle in front of city hall for more than two hours, holding placards and chanting.

IATSE Leaders Face Criticism & Campaign To Kill Tentative Agreement

IndieWire: When news came July 26 that the producers (AMPTP) and West Coast crew (IATSE) reached a tentative labor agreement, Hollywood breathed a sigh of relief. By the weekend, of the 13 locals represented in the IATSE-AMPTP negotiations, 12 informed their memberships that they would recommend ratification. IATSE locals traditionally vote in accordance with leadership recommendations, but something else happened this weekend: Union members began a grassroots Get Out the Vote campaign, with an eye toward killing the deal.

Judge Dismisses ‘Shape of Water’ Copyright Suit

Variety: A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit alleging that the “The Shape of Water,” the winner of this year’s Oscar for best picture, borrowed heavily from a 1969 play about a dolphin held captive in a military lab.

IATSE Strike Negotiation: 5 Reasons a Work Stoppage Is Possible

IndieWire: With less than a week left before IATSE’s current contract expires, negotiations between the West Coast membership of IATSE and the AMPTP resumed Tuesday. On the surface, this shouldn’t be cause for concern: Hollywood shows few outward signs of bracing for a strike. TV shows aren’t discussing contingency plans, and AMPTP producers have confidence that the sticking points will be ironed out. Most of all, industry veterans dismiss the idea that IATSE, which represents the vast majority of production crew, would ever strike.

MTI Counters Theaterpalooza's Responses to Lawsuit

www.broadwayworld.com: Music Theatre International filed a federal copyright infringement complaint against Theaterpalooza Community Theater Productions, Inc. on June 1, 2018. Recently, press reports about the lawsuit have appeared. Some of the reports include statements from Teresa Walker, the owner of Theaterpalooza, that contain false or misleading information about the lawsuit. In response to Ms. Walker's comments, MTI has released the below statements:

Music Modernization Act Faces Potential Road Block

Variety: It’s so far been smooth sailing for the Music Modernization Act (MMA), which in June was approved unanimously by the Senate Judiciary Committee following its passage, also by unanimous vote, in the House of Representatives in May. The legislation aims to improve royalty payments to songwriters, artists and creatives in the digital era. Its next and final step before heading to President Trump for signature is a full Senate vote to consider the act.

West Coast IATSE Talks Resume as Contract Expiration Looms

Variety: The West Coast members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees — Hollywood’s key below-the-line union — are returning to the bargaining table on Tuesday, only a week prior to the current contract’s expiration.

Mandalay Bay owner sues victims of Las Vegas mass shooting, claims it has “no liability of any kind”

Salon.com: The corporate owners of Mandalay Bay and the Route 91 Harvest festival venue have filed federal lawsuits against the victims of last year's mass shooting at a country music concert in Las Vegas, claiming that MGM Resorts International has zero liability in the deadly Oct. 1 incident.

Appeals Court Won't Rehear "Blurred Lines" Case

Hollywood Reporter: In what very well could be the end of the line for Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has voted to deny a rehearing of the controversial "Blurred Lines" case. As a result, a jury's 2015 verdict that found the popular song was an infringement of Marvin Gaye's "Got to Give It Up" stands.

U.S. Court of Appeals Rules WHO'S HOLIDAY as Parody; Broadway Run Planned for 2018!

www.broadwayworld.com: A U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of playwright Matthew Lombardo last Friday, affirming that his play WHO'S HOLIDAY! is indeed a parody, transformative in nature, and therefore considered fair use.

Music Industry's Nonsense 'Myth Busting' About EU's Censorship Machines Is Basically Saying 'Nuh-uh' Repeatedly

echdirt: A few weeks back we busted the bogus myth busting by the big EU publishers who were trying to fight back against people explaining why the proposed EU Copyright Directive's Article 11 "link tax" was so damaging. That myth buster was so full of nonsense that it was easy to take apart.

Artificial intelligence may soon have more rights than animals in the U.S.

slate.com: What do Suda the elephant and e-David the robot have in common? Both are capable of creating beautiful paintings, free(ish) of human intervention—one uses its trunk to clutch the brush, the other a mechanical arm (though whether Suda is truly “free” when she paints is a matter of serious contention). Each can even sign their work. The quality of their paintings does vary slightly, though of course, beauty is in the visual sensor of the beholder. Suda, who lives in a Thai elephant camp, paints self-portraits, simple outlines of elephants and trees, while e-David, a German robot, paints portraits of others with detailed shading, strokes tailored even down to the choice of brush. Despite their artistic differences, e-David and Suda have another thing in common: dubious rights to legal authorship of the fruits of their labor. Neither is able to hold copyright under current U.S. law.

High School Production of "The Lion King" Cancelled Mid-Run Due to Copyright Issue

OnStage Blog: Once again, when it comes to licensing permissions, it appears as though educators have failed their students as a high school production has been canceled due to copyrights not being secured.

Over the weekend, students at Nansemond River High School in Suffolk, VA were told that their production of Disney's The Lion King would not continue because rights to the show had not been obtained. The worst part is, they had already begun performances.

A Mass of Copyrighted Works Will Soon Enter the Public Domain

The Atlantic: The Great American Novel enters the public domain on January 1, 2019—quite literally. Not the concept, but the book by William Carlos Williams. It will be joined by hundreds of thousands of other books, musical scores, and films first published in the United States during 1923. It’s the first time since 1998 for a mass shift to the public domain of material protected under copyright. It’s also the beginning of a new annual tradition: For several decades from 2019 onward, each New Year’s Day will unleash a full year’s worth of works published 95 years earlier.