AI Copyright Case ‘Litmus Test’ for Future Cases
Tom Magnani, head of the firm’s Technology Transactions practice and co-chair of the Technology, Media, & Telecommunications industry group, was featured in the Legaltech News article, “Inside Judge Orrick's AI Copyright Order: Is LAION a Copycat?” The article discusses how a California federal court’s recent decision to dismiss claims filed by three artists against several AI platforms raises questions about AI copyright suits, specifically regarding how the judiciary views copyright infringement for AI generators.
The artists accused the AI companies of taking training images from public websites and using copyrighted images to create and train their AI systems. Magnani told Legaltech News that the judge’s dismissal was predictable, as the artists’ arguments were surprising. “We’ve never heard a plaintiff argue that something was, by definition, infringing, even when it was not substantially similar to a copyrighted work,” he said.
