Leading web‑scraping companies say their bots only collect publicly available information, despite lawsuits from major platforms. Executives from Bright Data, ScrapingBee and Oxylabs stress compliance with open‑web principles and note legitimate uses such as cybersecurity and investigative journalism. The growing demand for AI‑trained data has spurred a new market, with over 40 firms offering bots for AI training and a nascent marketing approach called generative engine optimization. Industry leaders predict this trend will intensify through 2026, creating both opportunities and challenges for publishers and regulators. Leia mais →

A coalition of music publishers led by Concord Music Group and Universal Music Group has sued AI firm Anthropic, alleging that the company illegally downloaded more than 20,000 copyrighted songs—including sheet music, lyrics, and compositions—and used them to train its Claude chatbot. The publishers claim the unauthorized use could result in damages exceeding $3 billion, making the case one of the largest non‑class action copyright suits in U.S. history. The lawsuit references a prior case, Bartz v. Anthropic, which resulted in a $1.5 billion award for writers, and it highlights the legal distinction between lawful training and unlawful acquisition of copyrighted material. Leia mais →

OpenAI faces pressure to reveal why it removed two internal datasets built from a shadow library of pirated books. The move comes amid a class‑action lawsuit from authors who allege the company trained ChatGPT on their works without permission. While OpenAI initially said the datasets were deleted because they fell out of use, it later claimed that any reason for deletion is protected by attorney‑client privilege. A U.S. district judge has ordered the company to produce internal communications about the deletion, including references to the library source. Leia mais →

A German court has ruled that OpenAI’s ChatGPT breached national copyright law by training its language models on licensed musical works without permission. The lawsuit, filed by GEMA, the German music rights society, resulted in an order for OpenAI to pay undisclosed damages. OpenAI has expressed disagreement with the decision and is considering its next steps. GEMA hailed the ruling as a landmark precedent that reinforces authors' rights, while noting that OpenAI faces additional lawsuits from other creatives over similar concerns. Leia mais →

In a London courtroom, Justice Joanna Smith concluded that Stability AI, the maker of Stable Diffusion, did not violate copyright law when training its image models on Getty Images' content. The ruling emphasized that the AI system does not store or reproduce protected works. However, the judgment noted that Stability AI breached Getty's trademark rights by allowing users to generate images resembling Getty and iStock logos. The decision is narrowly scoped, offering a mixed outcome for both the AI developer and intellectual‑property owners. Leia mais →

Reddit has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against AI search developer Perplexity and three data‑scraping firms—Oxylabs UAB, AWMProxy and SerpApi—accusing them of illegally harvesting Reddit content and violating the platform’s copyright protections. The complaint alleges the firms bypassed technical barriers, accessed billions of search‑engine result pages, and traced the scraped data back to Perplexity, which had previously received a cease‑and‑desist letter. Reddit, which hosts over 110 million daily active users and more than 22 billion posts and comments, has previously licensed its data to OpenAI and Google and has taken legal action against other AI companies over similar concerns. Leia mais →

Reddit has filed a lawsuit against Perplexity and three data‑scraping service providers—SerpApi, Oxylabs and AWMProxy—accusing them of large‑scale, unlawful circumvention of the platform’s data protections. The complaint alleges that Perplexity, as a customer of at least one scraper, used stolen Reddit content to power its AI answer engine despite a cease‑and‑desist letter sent in May 2024. Reddit claims the defendants’ tactics amount to a data‑laundering operation that threatens the value of its user‑generated content, which the company has begun licensing to AI firms such as OpenAI and Google. Leia mais →

Anthropic agreed to a $1.5 billion settlement with a class of authors who claimed the company pirated their copyrighted books to train its Claude AI models. The deal, announced after a motion filed in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, would compensate authors roughly $3,000 per work, potentially covering at least 500,000 titles. The settlement follows a landmark district court ruling that found Anthropic’s training practices qualified as fair use, a decision that has shaped the emerging legal landscape for AI developers and content creators. Leia mais →

Warner Bros Discovery has filed a lawsuit against the AI art platform Midjourney, alleging that its generative technology creates images of the studio’s characters without permission. The suit claims Midjourney’s output reproduces copyrighted works such as Batman, Rick and Morty, and Superman, constituting blatant infringement. Warner Bros Discovery says the case aims to protect its content and investments. The dispute highlights broader questions about how AI systems are trained on publicly available data, the role of fair‑use defenses, and the potential impact on other generative AI services. Leia mais →

xAI has laid off at least 500 employees from its data annotation team, the company's largest workforce, after notifying them by email on September 12. Affected staff will receive salary until the end of their contracts on November 30, but their system access was revoked immediately. The company responded on X by announcing a ten‑fold increase in its specialist AI tutor team and a new hiring push across STEM fields. The specialist tutors will provide high‑quality inputs, labels, and annotations, including audio and video data. The layoffs follow recent high‑profile departures, including CFO Mike Liberatore, and come after the launch of Grok 4. Leia mais →

Strike 3 Holdings, a producer of "high quality," "feminist," and "ethical" adult videos, has filed a federal lawsuit against Meta Platforms alleging that the company illegally torrented and distributed thousands of its copyrighted pornographic videos to train its artificial‑intelligence models. The complaint claims Meta used the BitTorrent protocol to obtain more than 2,396 videos, citing 47 distinct Meta‑affiliated IP addresses, and argues that this conduct gave Meta a competitive edge in developing its so‑called "superintelligence" AI. Meta has responded that it is reviewing the complaint and does not believe the claims are accurate. Leia mais →

Warner Bros Discovery has filed a lawsuit against the AI art platform Midjourney, alleging that its generative technology creates images of the studio’s characters without permission. The suit claims Midjourney’s output reproduces copyrighted works such as Batman, Rick and Morty, and Superman, constituting blatant infringement. Warner Bros Discovery says the case aims to protect its content and investments. The dispute highlights broader questions about how AI systems are trained on publicly available data, the role of fair‑use defenses, and the potential impact on other generative AI services. Leia mais →

Warner Bros Discovery has filed a lawsuit against the AI art platform Midjourney, alleging that its generative technology creates images of the studio’s characters without permission. The suit claims Midjourney’s output reproduces copyrighted works such as Batman, Rick and Morty, and Superman, constituting blatant infringement. Warner Bros Discovery says the case aims to protect its content and investments. The dispute highlights broader questions about how AI systems are trained on publicly available data, the role of fair‑use defenses, and the potential impact on other generative AI services. Leia mais →

Anthropic agreed to a $1.5 billion settlement with a class of authors who claimed the company pirated their copyrighted books to train its Claude AI models. The deal, announced after a motion filed in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, would compensate authors roughly $3,000 per work, potentially covering at least 500,000 titles. The settlement follows a landmark district court ruling that found Anthropic’s training practices qualified as fair use, a decision that has shaped the emerging legal landscape for AI developers and content creators. Leia mais →

Anthropic agreed to a $1.5 billion settlement with a class of authors who claimed the company pirated their copyrighted books to train its Claude AI models. The deal, announced after a motion filed in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, would compensate authors roughly $3,000 per work, potentially covering at least 500,000 titles. The settlement follows a landmark district court ruling that found Anthropic’s training practices qualified as fair use, a decision that has shaped the emerging legal landscape for AI developers and content creators. Leia mais →

xAI has laid off at least 500 employees from its data annotation team, the company's largest workforce, after notifying them by email on September 12. Affected staff will receive salary until the end of their contracts on November 30, but their system access was revoked immediately. The company responded on X by announcing a ten‑fold increase in its specialist AI tutor team and a new hiring push across STEM fields. The specialist tutors will provide high‑quality inputs, labels, and annotations, including audio and video data. The layoffs follow recent high‑profile departures, including CFO Mike Liberatore, and come after the launch of Grok 4. Leia mais →

xAI has laid off at least 500 employees from its data annotation team, the company's largest workforce, after notifying them by email on September 12. Affected staff will receive salary until the end of their contracts on November 30, but their system access was revoked immediately. The company responded on X by announcing a ten‑fold increase in its specialist AI tutor team and a new hiring push across STEM fields. The specialist tutors will provide high‑quality inputs, labels, and annotations, including audio and video data. The layoffs follow recent high‑profile departures, including CFO Mike Liberatore, and come after the launch of Grok 4. Leia mais →

Strike 3 Holdings, a producer of "high quality," "feminist," and "ethical" adult videos, has filed a federal lawsuit against Meta Platforms alleging that the company illegally torrented and distributed thousands of its copyrighted pornographic videos to train its artificial‑intelligence models. The complaint claims Meta used the BitTorrent protocol to obtain more than 2,396 videos, citing 47 distinct Meta‑affiliated IP addresses, and argues that this conduct gave Meta a competitive edge in developing its so‑called "superintelligence" AI. Meta has responded that it is reviewing the complaint and does not believe the claims are accurate. Leia mais →

Strike 3 Holdings, a producer of "high quality," "feminist," and "ethical" adult videos, has filed a federal lawsuit against Meta Platforms alleging that the company illegally torrented and distributed thousands of its copyrighted pornographic videos to train its artificial‑intelligence models. The complaint claims Meta used the BitTorrent protocol to obtain more than 2,396 videos, citing 47 distinct Meta‑affiliated IP addresses, and argues that this conduct gave Meta a competitive edge in developing its so‑called "superintelligence" AI. Meta has responded that it is reviewing the complaint and does not believe the claims are accurate. Leia mais →

Anthropic agreed to a $1.5 billion settlement with a class of authors who claimed the company pirated their copyrighted books to train its Claude AI models. The deal, announced after a motion filed in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, would compensate authors roughly $3,000 per work, potentially covering at least 500,000 titles. The settlement follows a landmark district court ruling that found Anthropic’s training practices qualified as fair use, a decision that has shaped the emerging legal landscape for AI developers and content creators. Leia mais →