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Final Rule on DMCA Grants Circumvention Exemptions

by Paul Devinsky | Oct 31, 2024 | Copyrights

On October 25, 2024, the Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden adopted a final rule granting exemptions to a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provision that prohibits circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works. The new final rule went into effect October 28, 2024.

In 1998, as part of the DMCA, Congress added § 1201 to the Copyright Laws (Title 17) to provide greater legal protection for copyright owners in the then-emerging digital environment. Section 1201 generally made it unlawful to “circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to” a copyrighted work. Since then, every three years, the Librarian of Congress (US Copyright Office), upon the recommendation of the Register of Copyrights, has been authorized to adopt temporary exemptions specific to classes of copyrighted works that will be in effect for the ensuing three‐year period.

Now, pursuant to § 1201 and based upon recommendation of the Register, the Copyright Office has renewed all but one of the existing exemptions, adopted a new exemption to vehicle operational data for computer programs, and expanded the existing exemptions to text and data mining of audiovisual and literary works and exemptions regarding computer programs for repair of commercial industrial equipment.

The Copyright Office recommended adopting or expanding exemptions for the following classes:

[For] Classes 3(a) and 3(b) [exemptions]: Expansion of the exemption for audiovisual and literary works, for the purpose of text and data mining for scholarly research and teaching by allowing researchers affiliated with other nonprofit institutions of higher education to access corpora for independent research and by modifying the provisions concerning security measures and viewing the contents of copyrighted works within a corpus.
[For] Class 5 [exemptions]: New exemption for computer programs that control retail-level commercial food preparation equipment for purposes of diagnosis, maintenance, and repair.
[For] Class 7 [exemptions]: New exemption for computer programs, for purposes of accessing, storing, and sharing operational data, including diagnostic and telematics data, of motorized land vehicles, marine vessels, and commercial and agricultural vehicles or vessels.

Regarding the Classes 3(a) and 3(b) exemptions, the final rule explains that institutions can “provide outside researchers with credentials for security and authentication to use a corpus that is hosted on its servers but cannot disseminate a copy of a corpus (or copyrighted works included therein) to outside researchers or give outside researchers the ability to download, make copies of, or distribute any copyrighted works.”

Regarding the Class 5 exemptions, the Register agreed that “proponents sufficiently showed . . . adverse effects on . . . proposed noninfringing uses” of computer programs “related to retail-level commercial food preparation” but otherwise declined to extend the exemption to software-enabled industrial devices.

Regarding the Class 7 exemption, the Register determined that “the prohibition on circumvention adversely affects the ability of lawful owners and lessees, or those acting on their behalf, to access, store, and share operational and telematics data, which are likely to be noninfringing.”

The Copyright Office declined to add “an exemption for the [...]

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If Provider Knew Product Would Be Used to Infringe, It Is a Contributor

by Lois D. Mermelstein | Oct 24, 2024 | Copyrights

In a case brought by a group of record labels against an internet service provider (ISP) for contributory copyright infringement of more than 1,400 songs, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the provider, which knew how its product would be used by subscribers, could be contributorily liable for its subscribers’ actions, but that because the record companies registered albums – not individual songs – with the US Copyright Office, statutory copyright damages were not available for each infringed song. UMG Recordings, Inc. et al. v. Grande Communications Networks, LLC, Case No. 23-50162 (5th Cir. Oct. 9, 2024) (Higginson, Higginbotham, Stewart, JJ.)

The plaintiffs are a group of major record labels, while the defendant, Grande Communications Network, is a large ISP. To combat copyright infringement among individuals using peer-to-peer file-sharing networks such as BitTorrent, the plaintiffs used a third-party company, Rightscorp, to identify infringing conduct by engaging with BitTorrent users, documenting that conduct, and using the information to notify ISPs of its findings so that the ISPs could take appropriate action. However, for nearly seven years Grande did not terminate subscribers for copyright infringement but merely notified them of a complaint. In the district court, a jury found Grande liable for contributory copyright infringement of more than 1,400 of the plaintiffs’ sound recordings. The jury found that the infringement was willful and awarded nearly $47 million in statutory damages. Grande appealed.

The Fifth Circuit explained that to prove direct infringement by Grande’s subscribers, the plaintiffs had to show “(1) that Plaintiffs own or have exclusive control over valid copyrights and (2) that those copyrights were directly infringed by Grande’s subscribers.” To meet the elements of secondary liability for subscribers’ conduct, “Plaintiffs had to demonstrate (3) that Grande had knowledge of its subscribers’ infringing activity and (4) that Grande induced, caused, or materially contributed to that activity.”

In analyzing the fourth element, the Fifth Circuit noted that previous Supreme Court cases involving a single moment of sale (Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios (1984) and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios v. Grokster (2005)) did not control because the plaintiffs’ theory of liability was “not based on Grande’s knowledge about its subscribers’ likely future activities after the moment of sale, but rather on Grande’s knowledge of its subscribers’ actual infringements based on its ongoing relationship with those subscribers.” Further, unlike Twitter v. Taamneh (2023) (a case in which family members of an ISIS terrorist attack victim alleged that US social media companies aided and abetted ISIS by permitting the group’s members to use the platforms for ISIS’s purposes), here the “direct nexus between Grande’s conduct and the tort at issue permits an inference that Grande’s knowing provision of internet services to infringing subscribers was actionable.”

The district court’s jury instructions – that Grande could be contributorily liable if Grande could have “take[n] basic measures to prevent further damages to copyrighted works, yet intentionally continue[d] to provide access to infringing sound recordings,” were not erroneous, as Grande had access to [...]

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What a Croc! False Claim That Product Feature Is Patented Can Give Rise to Lanham Act Violation

by Karen Gover | Oct 17, 2024 | Trademarks

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed and remanded a grant of summary judgment on a false advertising claim, concluding that a cause of action under Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act can arise when a party falsely claims to hold a patent on a product feature and advertises that feature in a misleading way. Crocs, Inc. v. Effervescent, Inc., Case No. 2022-2160 (Fed. Cir. Oct. 3, 2024) (Reyna, Cunningham, JJ.; Albright, District J., sitting by designation).

Crocs, the well-known maker of molded foam footwear, sued several competitor shoe distributors for patent infringement in 2006. The case was stayed pending an action before the International Trade Commission but resumed in 2012 when Croc added competitor U.S.A. Dawgs as a defendant to the district court litigation. The case was stayed twice more, from 2012 to 2016 and 2018 to 2020. In between those stays, in May 2016, Dawgs filed a counterclaim against Crocs and 18 of its current and former officers and directors, alleging false advertising violations of Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act. 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a). The individual defendants were later dismissed from the action.

Dawgs claimed that Crocs deceived consumers and damaged its competitors by falsely describing its molded footwear material, which it calls “Croslite,” as “patented,” “proprietary,” and “exclusive.” Dawgs alleged that it was damaged by Crocs’ false advertisements and commercial misrepresentations because Crocs suggested that its competitors’ footwear material was inferior. Croslite is in fact not patented, as Crocs conceded.

Crocs argued in its motion for summary judgment that Dawgs failed as a matter of law to state a cause of action under Section 43(a) because the alleged advertising statements were directed to a false designation of authorship of the shoe products and not to their nature, characteristics, or qualities, as Section 43(a)(1)(B) requires. The district court agreed. Applying the Supreme Court’s 2003 decision in Dastar Corp. v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. and the Federal Circuit’s 2009 decision in Baden Sports, Inc. v. Molten USA, Inc., the district court granted summary judgment to Crocs. It reasoned that falsely claiming to have “patented” something is similar to a false claim of authorship or inventorship, not to the types of false advertising prohibited by the Lanham Act. Dawgs appealed.

Dawgs argued that the district court’s application of Dastar and Baden to the circumstances of its case was inapposite, and the Federal Circuit agreed. In Dastar, the petitioner copied a television series in the public domain, made minor changes, and sold it as a video set, passing it off as its own. The Supreme Court held that a false claim of authorship does not give rise to a cause of action under the Lanham Act. Similarly, in Baden, the Federal Circuit found that a basketball manufacturer’s false suggestion that it was the author of the “innovative” “dual-cushion technology” in its basketballs did not give rise to a false advertising claim under the Lanham Act.

In this case, however, the Federal Circuit reasoned that Croc’s false [...]

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Creative License: Fair Use Defense Paints Over Infringement Battle

by Kyle Sorenson, PhD | Oct 3, 2024 | Copyrights, Trademarks

Affirming the application of the fair use defense to copyright infringement, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit determined that a district court’s sua sponte invocation of a fair use defense to parallel trademark claims was harmless error. The Court also affirmed that the district court did not abuse its discretion in awarding attorneys’ fees based on the prevailing party standard for copyright claims. Keck v. Mix Creative Learning Ctr., L.L.C., Case No. 23-20188 (5th Cir. Sept. 18, 2024) (Jones, Smith, Ho, JJ.)

Michel Keck, a multimedia artist, sued Mix Creative Learning Center, a Texas-based art studio, for copyright and trademark infringement after Mix Creative sold art kits featuring Keck’s dog-themed artwork and a brief biography, intended for at-home learning during the pandemic. Keck had registered her Dog Art series (in the form of decorative works) with the US Copyright Office and her name as a trademark with the US Patent & Trademark Office. Keck claimed that Mix Creative’s art kits violated her rights. After receiving notice of the lawsuit, Mix Creative promptly ceased selling its kits.

Following discovery, both parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Mix Creative on Keck’s copyright claim, finding fair use, and also granted summary judgment on the trademark claim sua sponte, as both parties had agreed that the fair use defense applied to both claims. The district court further awarded Mix Creative more than $100,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs, although it declined to hold Keck’s attorneys jointly and severally liable.

Keck appealed, challenging the copyright fair use finding and the district court’s sua sponte application of the fair use defense to the trademark claim. Mix Creative challenged the district court’s refusal to hold Keck’s attorneys jointly and severally liable for fees.

The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court’s application of the fair use defense to Keck’s copyright claims. The Court focused on the first and fourth factors of the fair use defense (respectively, the purpose and character of the use and the effect of the use on the potential market for or value of the original work), noting that the courts typically give these two factors special attention.

On the first factor, the Fifth Circuit found Mix Creative’s use to be transformative. Although Mix Creative is a commercial enterprise, the art kits served an educational purpose, distinct from the decorative purpose of Keck’s original works. As a result, the likelihood of Mix Creative’s kits serving as a substitute for Keck’s original works in the market was low.

The fourth factor also favored Mix Creative, as the Fifth Circuit found no evidence that Mix Creative’s kits would harm the market value of Keck’s original decorative works. In fact, the Court suggested that the kits might enhance Keck’s reputation and sales by providing her with free advertising. Furthermore, Mix Creative operated in a different market (educational rather than decorative), and Keck had not demonstrated any history of selling derivative works for children’s art lessons. The [...]

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Even Free Libraries Come With a Cost

by Anisa Noorassa | Sep 12, 2024 | Copyrights

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a district court’s judgment of copyright infringement against an internet book archive, holding that its free-to-access library did not constitute fair use of the copyrighted books. Hachette Book Group Inc. v. Internet Archive, Case No. 23-1260 (2d Cir. Sept. 4, 2024) (Menashi, Robinson, Kahn, JJ.)

Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, John Wiley & Sons, and Penguin Random House (collectively, the publishers) brought suit against Internet Archive alleging that its “Free Digital Library,” which loans copies of the publishers’ books without charge, violated the publishers’ copyrights. Internet Archive argued that its use of the publishers’ copyrighted material fell under the fair use exception to the Copyright Act because Internet Archive acquired physical books and digitized them for borrowing (much like a traditional library) and maintained a 1:1 ratio of borrowed material to physical copies except for a brief period during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The district court reviewed the four statutory fair use factors set forth in § 107 of the Copyright Act:

The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes.
The nature of the copyrighted work.
The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.
The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

The district court found that Internet Archive’s use of the works was not covered by the fair use exception because its use was non-transformative, was commercial in nature due to its solicitation of donations, and was disruptive of the market for e-book licenses. Internet Archive appealed.

The Second Circuit affirmed, addressing each factor in turn.

The Second Circuit held that Internet Archive’s use of the copyrighted material was non-transformative because Internet Archive copied the works wholesale and the “transformation” of the material from a physical copy to a digital copy that could be loaned out was not sufficient to fundamentally alter the nature of the copyrighted material. The Court maintained that the “recasting of a novel as an e-book” is a “paradigmatic” example of a derivative work.

However, contrary to the district court, the Second Circuit found that Internet Archive’s use of the works was not commercial in nature despite its solicitation of donations, citing Internet Archive’s nonprofit status and free distribution of archived materials. The Court explained that the mere association with other platforms where users may buy print copies of the works combined with the existence of a “donate” button was insufficient to render the use commercial.

The Second Circuit held that the second fair use factor also weighed against Internet Archive, since both the fiction and nonfiction works digitized by Internet Archive were nonetheless original and creative. The Court held that the “greater leeway” that is allowed for fair use of “factual or informational” work was not sufficient to weigh in favor of Internet Archive since the nonfiction works nevertheless “represent the authors’ [...]

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It’s All Grecco to Me: No “Sophisticated Plaintiff” Exception to Discovery Rule

by Katherine Pappas | Aug 29, 2024 | Copyrights

In a case of first impression, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that there is no “sophisticated plaintiff” exception to the Copyright Act’s discovery rule, which provides that a copyright claim only accrues upon the copyright owner’s discovery of the infringement or when the copyright owner (in the exercise of due diligence) should have discovered the infringement. Michael Grecco Productions, Inc. v. RADesign, Inc., Case No. 23-1078 (2d Cir. Aug. 16, 2024) (Wesley, Chin, Lee, JJ.)

Michael Grecco Productions (MGP) is a photography studio and business owned by commercial photographer Michael Grecco, who presents himself as an industry leader in copyright registration and enforcement. This case arose in the context of Grecco’s January 2017 photos of a model wearing shoes designed by Ruthie Davis. The photos were published in a magazine in August 2017. MGP claimed that Davis republished at least two of these photos on her brand’s website and social media platforms without a license. In its complaint, MGP alleged that Davis’s use of the photos began on August 16, 2017, but that MGP did not discover this infringement until February 8, 2021. On October 12, 2021 (more than four years after the infringement began but less than one year after its discovery), MGP filed suit against Davis alleging copyright infringement. MGP’s complaint also pled facts describing Grecco’s “efforts to educate photographers concerning the benefits of copyright registration” and how Grecco himself “spends time and money to actively search for hard-to-detect infringements, and how he enforces his rights under the Copyright Act.”

Davis moved to dismiss the suit as time-barred, arguing that the complaint was deficient on its face based on the Copyright Act’s three-year limitations period. Purporting to apply the governing “discovery rule,” the district court found that MGP’s “relative sophistication as an experienced litigator in identifying and bringing causes of action for unauthorized uses of Grecco’s copyrighted works leads to the conclusion that it should have discovered, with the exercise of due diligence,” the alleged infringement within the statute’s three-year limitations period. Based on this rationale, the district court granted Davis’s motion to dismiss. MGP appealed.

Reviewing the district court’s ruling de novo, the Second Circuit found that the district court erred as a matter of law in concluding that MGP’s complaint was barred by the three-year limitations period.

The Second Circuit explained that it (and 10 other circuit courts) had already held that in enacting the Copyright Act, Congress intended to employ “the discovery rule” as the measure of when a claim for infringement accrues. Under this rule, a claim for copyright infringement accrues when a diligent plaintiff discovers or should have discovered the infringement. This timing is in contrast to “the injury rule,” under which the claim would accrue when the infringement in-fact occurred. As the Court explained, the discovery rule is not an equitable tolling or estoppel doctrine available to some “worthy” plaintiffs but not others. Rather, it is the rule used to determine when a cognizable claim for copyright [...]

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Insuring Innovation: Software Code May Be Protected as an Arrangement

by Karen Gover | Aug 22, 2024 | Copyrights, Trade Secrets

The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit once again remanded a trade secret and copyright dispute involving software for generating life insurance quotes, finding that the district court erred by failing to consider the copyrightability of the source code’s arrangement. As to the trade secret claim, however, the Eleventh Circuit found that the district court did not err in finding that the defendants misappropriated the trade secrets at issue and could be held jointly and severally liable, despite varying levels of culpability. Compulife Software, Inc. v. Newman, Case No. 21-14074 (11th Cir. Aug. 1, 2024) (Jordan, Brasher, Abudu, JJ.)

Compulife’s software generates life insurance quotes using a proprietary database of insurance rates. The software produces a quote by using blocks of code, arranged in a particular manner, that correspond to different data points such as state, birth month, birthday, birth year, sex and smoking status. Compulife licenses its software to customers and offers an online version to the public.

David Rutstein is a former insurance agent who is permanently barred from the profession. Rutstein misled Compulife into giving him its software by pretending that he worked with someone who had a license to use it. Rutstein then created and registered several websites in his son’s name using Compulife’s software in connection with the sites. One of the websites was later owned by Aaron Levy. Rutstein and Levy directed an employee, Moses Newman, to launch a scraping attack on Compulife’s website to get millions of quotes, which they used for their own websites. Compulife’s sales declined as a result.

Compulife sued Rutstein, Rutstein’s son, Levy and Newman for copyright infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets, among other claims. After a bench trial, the parties appealed, and the Eleventh Circuit directed the district court to make more specific findings. After a second bench trial, the district court determined that the defendants did not infringe Compulife’s software by copying it and using it for their own website, but they did misappropriate Compulife’s trade secrets. The defendants were held jointly and severally liable despite differing degrees of culpability. All parties appealed.

Compulife argued that the district court erred in concluding that the defendants did not infringe its copyright. The Eleventh Circuit agreed in part, finding that the district court incorrectly applied the abstraction-filtration-comparison test used in software copyright infringement analyses. Compulife claimed that the arrangement of its various source code elements (e.g., state, birth month, birthday, birth year and sex) was a creative and therefore protectable form of expression. The Court agreed that the arrangement was potentially protectable, similar to its holding in another case that the arrangement of yacht listings in a boat guide could be protectable. BUC Int’l v. Int’l Yacht Council (11th Cir. 2007). The Court remanded the copyright infringement analysis to the district court, finding that it erred in the abstraction step because it “never identified the entire arrangement of these variables in the code as a constituent component of the code.” The Eleventh Circuit disagreed, however, with [...]

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Digital Rights, Digital Wrongs: The DMCA Lives On

by Keval Amin | Aug 15, 2024 | Copyrights

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia affirmed that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA) laws against bypassing digital locks and distributing circumvention tools are designed to prevent piracy and are not unconstitutionally broad. Matthew D. Green, et al. v. United States Department of Justice, et al., Case No. 23-5159 (D.C. Cir. Aug. 2, 2024) (Pillard, Henderson, Millett, JJ.)

As technology has advanced, access to copyrighted content has expanded dramatically, with billions of people now able to stream or download content instantly. In response to this digital revolution, Congress enacted the DMCA 26 years ago to address the growing threat of digital piracy and unauthorized access to copyrighted materials online. The DMCA reinforces the use of technological protection measures, or “digital walls,” to secure copyrighted works from unauthorized access. The DMCA’s anticircumvention provision prohibits bypassing these technological protections, treating such acts as akin to digital trespassing.

Matthew Green, a computer science professor at Johns Hopkins University, and Andrew Huang, a tech inventor, challenged the constitutionality of key sections of the DMCA. They argued that the DMCA’s anticircumvention and antitrafficking provisions, which prohibit the circumvention of technological protections on copyrighted works and the distribution of circumvention tools, violated their First Amendment rights. They claimed that these provisions excessively restricted their ability to engage in lawful speech, particularly in the context of fair use.

While the DMCA leaves the fair use defense intact, Green and Huang argued that the DMCA unduly restricts fair use, particularly when the DMCA prohibits activities that would otherwise be considered lawful under copyright law. The district court dismissed Green and Huang’s facial First Amendment challenges, finding that they had not demonstrated that § 1201 of the DMCA overwhelmingly restricted protected speech to the extent that it warranted facial invalidation. Green and Huang appealed.

The DC Circuit explained that the DMCA’s anticircumvention provisions primarily target conduct – specifically, the act of bypassing digital protections – rather than expression. The Court noted that such conduct is not inherently expressive and does not typically implicate the First Amendment. The Court also found that the DMCA’s anticircumvention provisions serve a legitimate and extensive purpose in preventing piracy. While Green and Huang cited examples of potential overreach, such as a teacher circumventing a DVD’s encryption for classroom use, the Court explained that these examples did not convincingly demonstrate that the statute’s unconstitutional applications outweighed its lawful ones. The Court further explained that existing exemptions, such as those allowing circumvention for educational purposes, reduce the burden on free speech.

Green and Huang also argued that § 1201(a) imposes an unconstitutional prior restraint on speech by requiring fair users to obtain exemptions from the Librarian of Congress before circumventing technological protections. They likened this process to a speech-licensing regime, claiming that it invites content and viewpoint discrimination without sufficient judicial oversight. However, the DC Circuit rejected this claim, ruling that the DMCA’s exemption process is not a prior restraint on speech. The Court reiterated and emphasized that § 1201(a) regulates conduct, [...]

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Go Home: No “Prevailing Party” Status After Voluntary Dismissal Without Prejudice

by Kavya Rallabhandi | Aug 15, 2024 | Copyrights

The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed a district court’s ruling that a copyright holder’s voluntary dismissal of its claims did not render the defendant a prevailing party entitled to attorneys’ fees under the Copyright Act. Affordable Aerial Photography, Inc. v. Prop. Matters USA, LLC, Case No. 23-12563 (11th Cir. July 30, 2024) (Wilson, Grant, Lagoa, JJ.)

Affordable Aerial Photography (AAP) filed suit against Property Matters and Home Junction over alleged copyright infringement of a 2010 photograph titled “Presidential Place Front Aerial 2010 AAP,” which provides an aerial view of a residential condominium complex. AAP owns all real estate photos and related products (slide shows, virtual tours, stock photography) of Robert Stevens and licenses them for limited use by customers, such as luxury real estate companies. Property Matters is a real estate brokerage, and Home Junction is a real estate marketing solutions and services provider that designed and maintained Property Matters’ website.

The work was posted with copyright management information and registered with the Copyright Office in April 2018. During or before April 2017, the work appeared on Property Matters’ website without authorization, but AAP did not discover the alleged infringement until February 2022. After AAP filed suit, Property Matters filed a motion to dismiss arguing (in relevant part) that 17 U.S.C. § 507(b) sets a three-year statute of limitations from when the claim accrued (i.e., April 2017) to bring civil action and, therefore, AAP’s suit was untimely by more than two years. The district court denied the motion without prejudice. AAP then filed a notice of voluntary dismissal without prejudice under Rule 41(a)(1)(A)(i) with respect to its action against Property Matters and filed a joint notice of settlement with Home Junction soon after, which closed the case.

Property Matters then moved for attorneys’ fees under 17 U.S.C. § 505, asserting that “the court may also award a reasonable attorney’s fee to the prevailing party as part of the costs.” AAP argued that Property Matters was not the prevailing party because the voluntary dismissal was without prejudice and the limitations period had not yet expired. The district court found that the voluntary dismissal did not materially alter the legal relationship between the parties. The district court applied the “discovery rule” to conclude that AAP’s copyright infringement claim did not accrue until it discovered the alleged infringement in February 2022 and therefore AAP was not time-barred from raising its copyright infringement claim in a separate suit against Property Matters through February 2025. Property Matters appealed.

Reviewing the legal question on appeal de novo, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed. The Court reasoned that a defendant is not the prevailing party when a plaintiff’s action is voluntarily dismissed without prejudice under Rule 41(a)(1)(A)(i). This is true regardless of whether a statute of limitations has expired. The Court explained that a defendant does not attain prevailing party status merely because, as a practical matter, a plaintiff is unlikely or unable to refile its claims. Instead, the district court itself must act to reject [...]

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NO FAKES Act Would Create Individual Property Right to Control Digital Replicas

by Sarah Bro | Aug 8, 2024 | Technology

On July 31, 2024, a bipartisan group of US senators introduced the Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe (NO FAKES) Act of 2024 to protect the voice and visual likeness rights of individuals from unauthorized use in the form of digital replicas, including digital replicas created by generative artificial intelligence (AI). The bill was introduced by Senators Chris Coons (D-DE), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) and follows a discussion draft released in October 2023. The press release from Senator Coons’ office makes note of the many organizations that support the proposed legislation and includes quotes from representatives of SAG-AFTRA, the Recording Industry Association of America, the Motion Picture Association, OpenAI, IBM and Creative Artists Agency.

Designed to protect all individuals (not just celebrities), the bill defines a digital replica as a newly created, computer-generated, highly realistic electronic representation that is readily identifiable as the voice or visual likeness of an individual and that is embodied in a sound recording, image, audiovisual work or transmission in which the actual individual did not perform or appear, or a version of such work in which the fundamental character of the performance or appearance has been materially altered. The bill would grant each individual or right holder the right to authorize the use of their voice or visual likeness in a digital replica, which the bill states is a property right. The bill also would establish the characteristics, requirements and duration of the license rights that can be granted in a digital replica. The right to authorize the use of an individual’s voice or visual likeness in a digital replica would not expire upon the death of the individual and would be transferable and licensable (subject to certain time limitations on the post-mortem right and registration requirements with the Register of Copyrights).

The bill would create a civil cause of action for a rights holder against any person that produces or makes available to the public an unauthorized digital replica and would provide for injunctive relief, actual or statutory damages, punitive damages and attorneys’ fees. There would be a limitations period, however, and any civil action would have to be commenced no later than three years after the date on which a rights holder discovered – or with due diligence should have discovered – the violation at issue. The bill provides certain exceptions and safe harbors for the production or use of digital replicas in news, public affairs, sports, documentaries, commentary, criticism, scholarship, satire or parody, or for online services that remove or disable access to unauthorized digital replicas upon receiving a notification from the rights holder.

The bill would preempt any cause of action under state law for the protection of voice and visual likeness rights in connection with a digital replica in an expressive work, except for certain existing state statutes or common law or state statutes regulating sexually explicit or election-related digital replicas.

On August 5, 2024, the US Patent & Trademark Office hosted [...]

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