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Publications
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04.25.2024Does Copyright Law Preempt Contractual Provisions Imposing AI-Related Usage Restrictions on Content?BlogsThe explosive growth of generative AI has been accompanied by a corresponding growth of contractual provisions addressing generative AI issues.
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04.15.2024AI-Generated Deepfakes and the Emerging Legal LandscapeBlogsAs artificial intelligence (AI) technology becomes ubiquitous, news stories regarding the use (and abuse) of deepfakes—that is, AI-generated media used to impersonate real individuals—are increasingly common.
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02.20.2024Will the Infinite Loom Displace the Celestial Jukebox?BlogsIn his prescient 1994 book, Copyright’s Highway, Professor Paul Goldstein of Stanford Law School popularized the term “the celestial jukebox” for his prediction of a future where consumers could stream on-demand over the Internet any music, film, TV show, or other entertainment work. Professor Goldstein’s foresight anticipated the rise of massive cloud streaming platforms like Facebook, Netflix, Spotify, and YouTube, well before their inception.
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02.09.2024AI at Super Bowl Raises Contract, Copyright Issues for Pro SportsArticlesShirin Malkani and John Delaney authored an article for Bloomberg Law titled "AI at Super Bowl Raises Contract, Copyright Issues for Pro Sports" that assesses the legality and consequences of using AI on and off the playing field.
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12.06.20237 Critical Copyright And AI Questions Courts Need To AddressArticlesJohn Delaney and Sean West authored an article for Law360 regarding the seven copyright and AI questions courts need to address.
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11.02.2023Reface/Off? Animating the Right of Publicity in the Dawn of Generative AIBlogsWith all of the hubbub surrounding the growing wave of generative artificial intelligence (AI) lawsuits, a recent court decision involving a generative AI-powered app has received surprisingly little attention, despite addressing issues that will be relevant in other, higher profile AI litigation.
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10.23.2023Known Unknowns: Key Unanswered Copyright Questions Raised by Generative AIBlogsThe generative AI revolution has arrived. Will copyright law snuff it out?
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06.26.2023Notes From the Field: 2023 Annual Meeting of the Copyright Society of the USABlogsWe recently attended the Annual Meeting of the Copyright Society of the USA, a two-and-a-half day, in-person conference focused on emerging issues in copyright law (perhaps the country’s largest annual get-together of copyright nerds like us).
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06.01.2023Nice for What? AI Drake and Publicity Rights Limitations in Policing AI-Generated ContentBlogsA surprising, unannounced collaboration between Drake and The Weeknd—a song called “Heart on My Sleeve”—went viral on social media a few weeks ago.
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03.06.2023Hermès Wins Trademark Lawsuit Over “MetaBirkins” NFTsBlogsIn early February, following a six-day trial, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York found in favor of Hermès in its claims of trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and cybersquatting against artist Mason Rothschild, the creator of the “MetaBirkins” non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
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06.08.2020Challenge Mode: COVID-19’s Impact on the Video Game IndustryUpdatesCOVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the entertainment industry, creating massive disruptions across many industry sectors.
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05.19.2020Stormy Weather: The Coronavirus Pandemic’s Impact on the Music IndustryUpdatesThe COVID-19 pandemic is upending the entertainment industry, with music, film and television, and other industry sectors experiencing profound disruptions to the status quo.
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05.12.2020A River Runs Through It: The Pandemic’s Wave of Change to the Film and Television Industry (and Finding Potential Winners and Losers)UpdatesThe COVID-19 pandemic is rapidly cutting a wide swath of change in the entertainment industry.
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04.20.2020Open Access, Open Source, and the Battle to Defeat COVID-19UpdatesNo legal development over the past decades has had a greater impact on the free flow of information and technology than the rise of the open access and open source movements.
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04.03.2020How Are the World’s Most Disruptive Technologies Faring in the Fight Against the World’s Most Disruptive Virus?UpdatesWith the current coronavirus outbreak causing unprecedented social and economic upheaval and suffering, we take a look at the leading disruptive IT-related technologies to see what impact— positive, negative, or none at all—these technologies are having in our efforts to combat the effects of the coronavirus and what role these technologies could play in identifying and mitigating future pandemics.
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03.24.2020Practical Guidance on Interpreting Force Majeure Provisions in the Wake of the COVID-19 OutbreakUpdatesWith the escalating economic turmoil created by the coronavirus (COVID-19), companies are scrutinizing the force majeure provisions in their commercial agreements.
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10.2017Zazzle Fizzles: Website Operator Denied Copyright Safe Harbor Protection for Its Sale of Physical Products Featuring User-Generated ImagesArticles
The Licensing Journal
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11.2016Commercializing User-Generated Content: Five Risk Reduction StrategiesArticles
The Licensing Journal
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07.14.2016Opinion: Online Trolls are Ruining Social-Media MarketingArticlesEarlier this year I helped moderate a lively panel discussion on the social-media business and legal trends.
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05.19.2016Opinion: The Frightening Future of The Internet: More Ads, Less ContentArticlesThe internet contains more than 4.6 billion Web pages, most of which are accessible for free, making content we used to have to pay for — news, videos, games — available without having to hand over a credit card.
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11.23.2015Terms And Conditions For Your App: 6 Key ConsiderationsArticles
Law360
For corporations, the mobile app is today’s website.
Back in the late 1990s, no self-respecting company, no matter how stodgy and old-fashioned, wanted to be without a website.
Presentations
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06.22.2022Intellectual Property Considerations Raised by NFTsSpeaking EngagementsNFT.NYC / New York City, NY
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05.05.2021Behind the Boom: What Media and Entertainment Companies Need to Know About NFTsWebinarsJoin us for a webinar as we provide the primer on NFTs.
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02.17.2021An Overview of Social Media Law and Best Practices: What Every Company Needs to KnowSpeaking Engagements
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09.23.2020Unauthorized Use of Trademarks and Copyrights in Social Media and User-Generated Content: Where Are the Boundaries and Who’s Responsible?Speaking EngagementsPanelist
USC Gould School of Law’s 2020 IP Institute / Santa Monica, CA -
05.07.2020How Are the World’s Most Disruptive Technologies Faring in the Fight Against the World’s Most Disruptive Coronavirus?WebinarsIn recent years, cutting-edge digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, cloud computing, robotics, autonomous vehicles, virtual reality, and augmented reality have been transforming our world. With the coronavirus pandemic inflicting unprecedented social and economic upheaval and suffering, what impact—positive, negative, or none at all—are these disruptive technologies having on efforts to combat the coronavirus, and what role could these technologies play in identifying, tracking, and mitigating future pandemics?
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12.12.2019Copyright Through the Lens of Artificial IntelligenceSpeaking EngagementsCopyright Society of the USA / New York, NY
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2015Tagging and Tweeting: Social Media OverviewSpeaking EngagementsPLI - Social Media 2015: Addressing Corporate Risks
Age of Disruption Blog
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Does Copyright Law Preempt Contractual Provisions Imposing AI-Related Usage Restrictions on Content?
The explosive growth of generative AI has been accompanied by a corresponding growth of contractual provisions addressing generative AI issues. Website operators in particular are increasingly seeking to use their online terms of service to prohibit the use of content and information hosted on their sites to train AI systems. Disney, for example, recently updated its online Subscriber Agreement for its Disney+ service to clarify that content from the service may not be accessed, copied, or extracted “for the purposes of creating or developing any AI Tool.” Further, at least some generative AI tool providers are seeking to impose contractual... Continue Reading
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AI-Generated Deepfakes and the Emerging Legal Landscape
As artificial intelligence (AI) technology becomes ubiquitous, news stories regarding the use (and abuse) of deepfakes—that is, AI-generated media used to impersonate real individuals—are increasingly common. For example, in January, sexually explicit deepfakes of Taylor Swift proliferated on social media, prompting X (formerly Twitter) to temporarily lock all searches for the singer’s name on its platform to prevent user access to such deepfakes. A high school in Westfield, New Jersey, recently found itself in the middle of a deepfake porn scandal when a student used AI to paste the faces of 30 female students onto pornographic images and then uploaded... Continue Reading
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Will the Infinite Loom Displace the Celestial Jukebox?
In his prescient 1994 book, Copyright’s Highway, Professor Paul Goldstein of Stanford Law School popularized the term “the celestial jukebox” for his prediction of a future where consumers could stream on-demand over the Internet any music, film, TV show, or other entertainment work. Professor Goldstein’s foresight anticipated the rise of massive cloud streaming platforms like Facebook, Netflix, Spotify, and YouTube, well before their inception. The celestial jukebox has been the governing metaphor for the media landscape’s transformation over two decades. However, with the recent explosive advances in generative AI technologies, we are on the cusp of a new era. It’s... Continue Reading
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Reface/Off? Animating the Right of Publicity in the Dawn of Generative AI
With all of the hubbub surrounding the growing wave of generative artificial intelligence (AI) lawsuits, a recent court decision involving a generative AI-powered app has received surprisingly little attention, despite addressing issues that will be relevant in other, higher profile AI litigation. The case, Kyland Young v. NeoCortext, Inc., involved a photo-editing app, called Reface, that uses generative AI technology to allow users to manipulate photos and videos, including to swap faces with celebrities within photos and videos. A celebrity sued, and, in rejecting the app developer’s motion to dismiss, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California... Continue Reading
