Joseph Fishman

Bartz

🚨BREAKING: Federal judge concludes that using copyrighted works to train generative A.I. is transformative and ultimately a fair use. (Nevertheless, Anthropic can’t beat the lawsuit because it pirated books for another purpose too.) First of kind ruling. www.documentcloud.org/documents/25...

Trump fires top U.S. copyright official Democrats are alleging foul play.

“no coincidence [Trump] acted less than a day after [Perlmutter] refused to rubber-stamp Elon Musk’s efforts to mine troves of copyrighted works to train AI models.” www.politico.com/news/2025/05...

I bet this list of law firms signing onto an amicus brief in support of Perkins Coie will be passed around by law students. They’ll note the absentees. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

12 copyright infringement actions vs. OpenAI and Microsoft will be consolidated to one court in Southern District of New York
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Music Law Summit - Vanderbilt Law School Vanderbilt Law is excited to host the 2025 Music law Summit: The Future of Music Rights and Enforcement on April 3, 2025.

Thrilled to be hosting the 2nd Annual Vanderbilt Music Law Summit tomorrow!

Featuring panels on streaming fraud and the future of PROs, a keynote from Concord CEO Bob Valentine, an update from the Copyright Office, and more.

⬇️ Check it out here:
law.vanderbilt.edu/music-law-su...

Extremely proud to be a Jenner alum

To state the obvious, Jenner is drawing a VERY sharp contrast with Paul Weiss and other Big Law firms capitulating to Trump. They're mounting a full-court press against the administration with the coordinated lawsuit and statement declaring their intent to fight this to the end and win. Refreshing!

CLAIMS FOR RELIEF COUNT I (Against All Defendants) Unconstitutional Retaliation in Violation of the First Amendment 140. Plaintiff repeats and realleges the allegations set forth in each of the preceding paragraphs as if fully set forth herein. 141. The First Amendment “prohibits government officials from subjecting individuals to ‘retaliatory actions’ after the fact for having engaged in” First Amendment-protected conduct. Hous. Cmty. Coll. Sys. v. Wilson, 595 U.S. 468, 474 (2022) (quoting Nieves v. Bartlett, 587 U.S. 391, 398 (2019)). 142. The Order and Fact Sheet unlawfully retaliate against Jenner & Block because they single out and punish Jenner & Block for its protected speech, reflected in its advocacy for clients challenging policies of the current Administration. 143. The Order and Fact Sheet also unlawfully retaliate against Jenner & Block in response to the speech of a former partner who has criticized and investigated the President, and in response to Jenner’s association with that former partner. 144. This is not just protected speech, but “core political speech” and association receiving the First Amendment’s highest protections. FEC v. Cruz, 596 U.S. 289, 313 (2022); see Legal Servs. Corp. v. Velazquez, 531 U.S. 533, 546, 548-49 (2001) (First Amendment violated by laws that attempt to “draw lines around” those arguments that the government “finds unacceptable but which by their nature are within the province of the courts to consider”). Indeed, the Order does not even attempt to hide that it has targeted Jenner & Block for its protected activity: Section 1 invokes Jenner & Block’s “partisan representations to achieve political ends,” Ex. 7 (Jenner Order), § 1—a phrase synonymous with “pure political expression absolutely protected by the First Amendment.”

Read Jenner & Block's lawsuit challenging Trump's unconstitutional assault on their firm.👇 Very glad to see Jenner fighting back. They're represented by Cooley, which is taking a risk here too.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Dara Horn returns to history — and literature — after Oct. 7 The writer, who was thrust into the world of antisemitism with ‘People Love Dead Jews,’ sees modern Jewish struggles reflected in her new Passover graphic novel

I have been looking forward to this Passover graphic novel for years, ever since I first heard the idea from Dara Horn. Can't wait to finally read it!

Did you ever get a response to this? I'm also curious.

At least some of the "writers" are just interpolation credits (e.g. Ray Charles), which aren't eligible for Grammy consideration. But I don't think that's a comprehensive answer.

Read the Resignation Letter From Hagan Scotten Hagan Scotten, an assistant U.S. attorney, wrote to Emil Bove, acting deputy attorney general, refusing to drop the case against Mayor Eric Adams.

The lead prosecutor on the Adams investigation - Hagan Scotten - resigns from SDNY.

“I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion [to dismiss Adams charges]. But it was never going to me.”

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

For now, this decision is the primary data point to go on. And a lot of expectations will be formed in the meantime.

Ross at least cited it in the most recent round of SJ briefing, but didn't lean on it as much as it probably should have. It relied more on Google Books/ Hathitrust, which were equally absent from the court's factor 1 analysis.
💯 agree that future appeals will confront this. But that's years away.

...for instance, Thomson Reuters' opposition included an argument for why iParadigms didn't apply here. I would have expected the opinion to offer some discussion of whether Ross or Thomson has the better of that argument, but instead the court skipped over it. For me that's a head scratcher.

I'm not sure which 2d Cir appeal you're referring to (Ross is in the 3d Cir), though yes when the question is presented to them I'm sure they will. My point was that this opinion's value as a bellwether is lessened by its absence of analysis on those cases.

Is it surprising? Yes I think so... (1/2)

I'm nowhere near as confident as @bbutler.bsky.social that Google Books, iParadigms, etc. dictate a fair use holding in genAI cases. But I do agree with him that the Ross court ignored them. If those cases are indeed inapposite, it sure would have been helpful for the court to explain why.

I dunno maybe Ross should have cited those cases?

This tracks with everything I've covered for years. It's not in people's heads: America is getting more antisemitic, and that starts with the young. When people focus on antisemitic politicians, they need to grasp that in a democracy, those politicians are downstream from voters.

Man I wish I were Noone

Warner Music Announces New Deals With Spotify and Amazon as Part of Mixed Earnings Report Warner Music struck a new deal with Spotify ending the companies’ disputes over a 'bundling' subscription option, as part of a mixed earnings report.

Like Universal, Warner now also sidesteps Spotify's "bundled" payouts under the statutory mechanical license by entering into a direct deal with it.

variety.com/2025/digital...

This is a very good explanation of a very dense topic. Copyright folks, if you're not already following @wordsbykristin.bsky.social, you should be.

Rooting against the Lakers is free and available to all.

a basketball player with the number 22 on his jersey is giving a thumbs up ALT: a basketball player with the number 22 on his jersey is giving a thumbs up

Sorry @apublicgood.bsky.social but I won’t miss this gif

Following Chappell Roan's Grammy speech, I've seen a few people advocating for "fair wages" for recording artists, including proposals to make them employees. There's lots of ways record companies should be doing better, but I'd caution against recording artists being employees.

YouTube video by Bloomberg Law Marvin Gaye, Ed Sheeran & the 'Blurred Lines' of Music Copyright

I'm pleased to have contributed to this @bloomberglaw.com video explainer on music copyright disputes.

If you'd like a concise summary of the Ed Sheeran case (or just a palate cleanser from the rest of your timeline these days), check it out:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVPM...

Spotify's Court Win Exposes Gap in Streaming Royalty Debate Spotify USA Inc.’s victory over claims it contrived the premium subscription plan to reduce songwriter royalties creates a blueprint for other streaming services and leaves publishers scrambling for r...

Last week, a court dismissed the MLC's lawsuit against Spotify over its bundling of music+audiobooks. MLC called it a sham to reduce music royalties, but court ruled the governing reg clearly allowed it. Meanwhile, UMG sidesteps the issue via a direct deal.
news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/spoti...

Some artists have, sure. But she was directing her remarks to record labels, which are copyright portfolios.

I don’t follow this framing. She’s calling for changing how the pie is split, not changing the source of the pie. The increased wages that she’s calling for would be drawn from revenue that copyright generates.

Lawsuit Aims to Ground ‘Superman’ in Major International Markets The estate of superhero co-creator Joseph Shuster alleges overseas copyright infringement against Warner Bros. Discovery and DC Comics.

Superman's airspace restricted to the U.S.? www.wsj.com/business/med...

The Spotify/UMG Deal Signals Hope for Publishers — What Comes Next? Spotify's new direct deal with the Universal Music Group is good news for publishers and songwriters. Will other companies get to benefit as well?

Spotify + UMG made a deal which sources say helps pay UMPG + its songwriters better than b4. Good for them.

This opens the door for other big pubs + their writers to get similar deals. Also, good...but what about the indies? Do they get left behind?

My analysis:
www.billboard.com/pro/spotify-...