3 Count: Not Astounding

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1: Court Denies Grande’s Challenge of $47 Million Music Piracy Verdict

First off today, Ernesto Van der Sar at Torrentfreak writes that a Texas judge has upheld a jury verdict in a lawsuit against the internet service provider Grande Communications as they vow to continue their fight against the major music labels.

The case deals with whether Grande did enough to prevent or reduce piracy on its network. That case went before a jury recently, with the jury awarding the labels some $47 million in damages. However, Grande hoped to have the judge overturn the verdict saying, either by finding in their favor or awarding a new trial, due to several perceived issues in the case.

However, that request has been denied. On one of the major issues, whether the alleged infringers were even Grande members or just unauthorized Wi-Fi users, Grande shot itself in the foot by acknowledging that its subscribers are responsible for whatever their connection is used for. That said, Grande has promised to file an appeal if this motion is denied, setting the stage for a likely appeal to the Fifth Circuit.

2: Fair Use Defense by Richard Prince Fails to Sway Judge on Instagram Prints

Next up today, Josh Russell at Courthouse News Service reports that artist Richard Prince has failed to get a pair of lawsuits against him dismissed, putting the cases on track for a full trial.

Judge Sidney Stein signed the consolidated ruling, which looks at two separate cases where Prince is being sued for alleged copyright infringement. Prince, well known as an appropriation artist, recently released a series entitled New Portraits that featured images lifted from Instagram with new text added below as comments. However, this drew the ire and litigation from some of the original photographers.

Prince had moved for summary judgement in both cases, hoping that the judge would find the series a fair use. However, the judge denied that motion, that there is enough dispute here for a jury to make the decision, noting that Prince “tested the boundary between appropriation art and copyright infringement.”

3: GitHub, Microsoft, OpenAI Fail to Wriggle Out of Copilot Copyright Lawsuit

Finally today, Thomas Claburn at The Register reports that the judge in the case against GitHub, Microsoft and OpenAI has trimmed the case but allowed much of it to continue.

The lawsuit was filed by a group of coders who claim that their work was improperly used to create OpenAI’s Codex machine learning model and GitHub’s CoPilot tool. They filed the lawsuit against the three parties, seeking damages and an injunction.

The defendants filed for a motion to dismiss and, though the judge has dismissed some of the allegations, they have allowed most of them to continue. This includes allegations of infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and a breach of the software licensing terms on ingested code.

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