3 Count: Walking Out

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1: AI Copyright Row Deepens: Stability VP Quits in Protest Over ‘Fair Use’ Excuse

First off today, Katyanna Quach at The Register reports that Ed Newton-Rex, the form vice president of audio at Stability AI, has resigned his position saying that he disagrees with the company’s view on copyright when it comes to training AI systems.

Newton-Rex was the head of the audio team at Stability AI. In recent comments to the US Copyright Office, the company said that they felt the training of AI systems on copyright-protected works was a fair use and not an infringement.

However, Newton-Rex disagrees with that position and has resigned in protest. He points out in his post on social media, that Stability AI’s audio generative AI system has, up to this point, been trained on licensed work. However, following the comments from the company and his inability to change the minds of executives, Newton-Rex opted to resign his position at the company.

2: Microsoft Extends Generative AI Copyright Protections to More Customers

Next up today, Kyle Wiggers at TechCrunch reports that Microsoft is expanding its policy to provide legal protection to AI customers, offering the indemnification to more users, although with some significant restrictions.

The announcement came at Ignite, where Microsoft announced that those licensing Azure OpenAI Service will have assurances that, should they be sued for using AI systems, Microsoft will cover costs and damages.

However, that protection comes with a caveat, namely that customers must implement technical measure to prevent misuse. It is unclear what those specific protections are as Microsoft has not specified them at this time.

3: ‘South Park’ Streaming Rights Standoff: Judge Rules Against Warners on Some Claims in Licensing Battle

Finally today, Winston Cho at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that a New York judge has tossed some of Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) claims against Paramount, saying that no harm was done to consumers and that the case is simply a dispute over a licensing deal.

WBD filed the lawsuit in February 2023 alleging that Paramount and others breached a 2019 licensing deal that would give WBR and their Max streaming platform exclusive rights to the TV show South Park. However, they allege that Paramount conspired to keep several specials and episodes of the show from being streamed on Max to bolster their Paramount+ streaming service.

The judge in the case is allowing the core licensing dispute to move forward, but tossed claims related to customer treatment, saying that any alleged deception by Paramount did not harm consumers, only WBD.

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