Aaron Moss

Thaler Is Dead. Now for the AI Copyright Questions That Actually Matter. The Supreme Court buried the easy AI copyright case. Still left: what counts as authorship, how you prove it, and what can still get you sued.

Thaler is dead. Here are the AI copyright questions it leaves behind.

copyrightlately.com/thaler-is-de...

#ai #copyright #ip #law

Tracy Anderson Called Her Workout a "Method." The Ninth Circuit Agreed. A celebrity fitness guru sued a former trainer for copying her exercise routines. The Ninth Circuit said they aren't choreography.

Tracy Anderson sued a former trainer for copying her fitness routines. The Ninth Circuit said you can't copyright a workout—especially one you spent years marketing as a "method." Full story, up now on Copyright Lately:
copyrightlately.com/tracy-anders...

Meet Seedance 2.0, Hollywood’s Newest AI Copyright Headache The entertainment industry's AI copyright claims are strong, but Seedance 2.0 highlights the harder challenge: enforcing them across borders.

Seedance 2.0 drew cease and desist letters within days. One detail that no one's caught: Disney’s letter landed on the desk of a former Warner Bros. GC—now ByteDance’s top lawyer. If that sounds tangled, wait until you get to the enforcement challenge.
copyrightlately.com/meet-seedanc...

Mondrian Entered the Public Domain. The Estate Disagrees. The Mondrian Trust claims a 1930 painting is still protected—citing "dual copyrights," Spanish law, and a misreading of the Copyright Act.

The Art of Not Letting Go: The Mondrian Trust claims a 1930 painting is still protected—citing "dual copyrights," Spanish law, and the Uruguay Round Agreements Act.

Familiar playbook. None of it holds up.

Full story, up now on Copyright Lately:

copyrightlately.com/mondrian-pub...

Fifth Circuit Expands Copyright Termination Beyond U.S. Borders A sweeping new ruling holds that U.S. copyright termination and renewal reach worldwide, upending long-settled limits of territoriality.

Oh yeah.
copyrightlately.com/vetter-resni...

Fifth Circuit Expands Copyright Termination Beyond U.S. Borders A sweeping new ruling holds that U.S. copyright termination and renewal reach worldwide, upending long-settled limits of territoriality.

Attention, foreign nations: the U.S. is coming for your copyrights.

The Fifth Circuit just held in Vetter v. Resnik that copyright termination and renewal recapture ownership worldwide.

The court is wrong—and I explain why. Up now on Copyright Lately.

copyrightlately.com/vetter-resni...

Two New Top Gun Rulings Map Copyright’s Danger Zone Issued days apart on opposite coasts, the cases show copyright's outer limits—what’s protected, what isn’t, and the cost of crossing the line.

Top Gun: Maverick just notched two copyright wins, issued days apart on opposite coasts.

Together, they show where copyright stops helping you—and where it stops you cold.

Full story up now on Copyright Lately:

copyrightlately.com/two-new-top-...

That was Jay Maisel - but good reference - I hadn't made the connection even though I've been writing about the Kat Von D case for years. Something about Miles Davis photos I guess...

Will the Kat Von D Tattoo Case Kill “Total Concept and Feel”? The Ninth Circuit affirmed in Sedlik v. Von Drachenberg—but two judges called for scrapping the intrinsic test. En banc review may be next.

The Ninth Circuit just affirmed Kat Von D’s win in the Miles Davis tattoo case—but two judges questioned whether the court’s longstanding “total concept and feel” test should survive at all. Is en banc next?
Full story up now on Copyright Lately:
copyrightlately.com/kat-von-d-ta...

The 5 Worst Copyright Decisions of 2025 From novel legal theories to repeated mistakes, 2025 delivered no shortage of questionable copyright rulings. These five cases led the way.

Before you close the books on 2025, here’s one more year-end list: my annual countdown of the year’s worst copyright decisions.

Five cases. No spoilers.

Let the debates begin.

Up now on Copyright Lately:

copyrightlately.com/the-5-worst-...

Public Domain Day 2026 Is Coming: Here's What to Know On January 1, 2026, works from 1930—including Nancy Drew, early Betty Boop, and The Maltese Falcon—hit the U.S. public domain. Here’s what it all means.

Public Domain Day 2026 is almost here. On January 1, a new crop of works become free to use in the U.S.—ready to remix, recycle, or repurpose into B-grade horror films and ill-advised erotica. My annual roundup covers 150+ of them: copyrightlately.com/public-domai...

A bumper crop of soon-to-be-freely-available works: "Public Domain Day 2026 Is Coming: Here’s What to Know," from @copyrightlately.bsky.social (Plus- Winter Holidays with @jstordaily.bsky.social, Radiohead, and The Kinks)

Makin' a list: roughlydaily.com/2025/12/20/t...

Public Domain Day 2026 Is Coming: Here's What to Know On January 1, 2026, works from 1930—including Nancy Drew, Betty Boop, and The Maltese Falcon—hit the U.S. public domain. Here’s what it all means.

Public Domain Day 2026 is almost here. On January 1, works from 1930—including Miss Marple, Animal Crackers, and The Little Engine That Could—enter the U.S. public domain. Expect celebration, confusion, and at least one Betty Boop slasher film. Sorry in advance.
copyrightlately.com/public-domai...

A Five-Course Feast of Thanksgiving-Themed Copyright Cases If you like your turkey with a side of copyright infringement, you've come to the right place.

As NBC used to say when advertising 'Friends' reruns back in the 90s:
If you haven't seen it, it's new to you!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
copyrightlately.com/a-five-cours...

Oof.

Court Rules AI News Summaries May Infringe Copyright News publishers just cleared a key hurdle against Cohere in a copyright fight over AI-generated "substitutive summaries" of their reporting.

SDNY just held that AI “substitutive summaries” — non-verbatim outputs that mirror a story’s expressive structure and journalistic choices — may plausibly infringe copyright. Big case for AI + news. Full story on Copyright Lately:
copyrightlately.com/court-rules-...

Can the Reagan Foundation Sue Ontario for Copyright Infringement over Tariff Ad? Thanks to international copyright treaties, Reagan's public domain speech may be protected in Canada—even as Canada gets tariffed for using it here.

President Trump just raised tariffs on Canada over a Reagan ad quoting Reagan's anti-tariff views.

Is there a copyright issue?

The answer may depend which side of the border you're on.

Full story up now on Copyright Lately:

copyrightlately.com/reagan-found...

well, they did appeal already. The argument may be waived at this point.

What an incredibly odd case. You'd think someone in SIX YEARS of litigation would have picked up on the fact that a form SR can be (and, to my eyes, was) used to register both the sound recording and the composition when they're authored and owned by the same person.

How French Montana Won on a Copyright Technicality 7th Circuit: register the right copyright or risk losing even when tracks sound identical. But what if the artist did—and nobody noticed?

French Montana just won a six-year lawsuit because a teenage producer supposedly registered only a sound recording copyright—not the underlying composition.

But what if his registration covered both—and nobody realized it?

Full story on Copyright Lately⬇️

copyrightlately.com/how-french-m...

FWIW, it looks like they're actually going EXTRA restrictive at the moment. Example: I just asked Sora 2 to "Show me a funny video of a yellow cartoon dad that likes beer and donuts" and I got back "This content may violate our guardrails concerning similarity to third-party content."

Sora, Not Sorry: OpenAI Backtracks on Opt-Out Copyright Policy OpenAI, facing backlash, will now let rightsholders decide whether their characters appear in Sora 2, with revenue sharing for those who opt in.

Facing backlash, OpenAI reverses course: rightsholders will decide whether their characters can appear in Sora 2, with revenue sharing for those who opt in. But will copyright owners hand over their IP to be freely manipulated for a slice of ad revenue? copyrightlately.com/openai-backt...

Sora, Not Sorry: OpenAI Backtracks on Opt-Out Copyright Policy OpenAI, facing backlash, will now let rightsholders decide whether their characters appear in Sora 2, with revenue sharing for those who opt in.

But that’s a massive if. There’s a world of difference between studios collecting YouTube ad revenue on video clips they produce and control, and handing over their characters for anyone to freely manipulate.
Full story up now on Copyright Lately: copyrightlately.com/openai-backt...

It would be a big win for OpenAI, assuming content owners play along.

If studios become partners rather than adversaries, OpenAI can potentially offset costs while buying legal cover not only for the outputs, but maybe even retroactive blessing for the unauthorized training as well.

Users are generating far more videos than expected, using massive compute resources on content that's often being generated for very small audiences (it is, after all, a social media app).

The reversal came with no apology—just Sam Altman chalking it up to "taking feedback." Meanwhile, he admitted the real issue:

Testing the app this week revealed the strategy: Launch without guardrails. Let Family Guy, South Park and Pikachu videos drive engagement and media coverage. Hit #1 on the App Store (for an invite only app). Then implement restrictions once you've captured the market.

Late Friday, the company announced it will move to an opt-in model requiring permission before copyrighted characters can appear in Sora 2 videos.

What a wild week in AI and copyright. Just three days after launching its new Sora 2 AI video app with a brazen policy that let users create videos featuring copyrighted characters unless rightsholders explicitly opted out, OpenAI has slammed the brakes.