Microsoft (MSFT.O) must pay patent owner IPA Technologies $242 million, a federal jury in Delaware said on Friday after determining that Microsoft’s Cortana virtual-assistant software infringed an IPA patent. The jury agreed with IPA after a week-long trial that Microsoft’s voice-recognition technology violates IPA’s patent rights in computer-communications software. IPA is a subsidiary of patent-licensing Read more about Patent troll hits Microsoft with $242 million US verdict in Cortana lawsuit[…]

Nintendo sent a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice for over 8,000 GitHub repositories hosting code from the Yuzu Switch emulator, which the Zelda maker previously described as enabling “piracy at a colossal scale.” The sweeping takedown comes two months after Yuzu’s creators quickly settled a lawsuit with Nintendo and its notoriously trigger-happy legal team Read more about Nintendo blitzes GitHub with over 8,000 emulator-related DMCA takedowns[…]

Tropic Haze, the popular Yuzu Nintendo Switch emulator developer, appears to have agreed to settle Nintendo’s lawsuit against it. Less than a week after Nintendo filed the legal action, accusing the emulator’s creators of “piracy at a colossal scale,” a joint final judgment and permanent injunction filed Tuesday says Tropic Haze has agreed to pay Read more about Makers of Switch emulator Yuzu crushed quickly by Nintendo[…]

As Walled Culture has often noted, the process of framing new copyright laws is tilted against the public in multiple ways. And on the rare occasions when a government makes some mild concession to anyone outside the copyright industry, the latter invariably rolls out its highly-effective lobbying machine to fight against such measures. It’s happening again in Read more about The UK Government Should Not Let Copyright Stifle AI Innovation[…]

A few weeks ago, publishing giant Penguin Random House (and, yes, I’m still confused why they didn’t call it Random Penguin House after the merger) announced that it was filing a lawsuit (along with many others) against the state of Iowa for its attempt to ban books in school libraries. In its announcement, Penguin Random Read more about Internet Archive Files Opening Brief In Its Appeal Of Book Publishers’ wanton destruction of it[…]

In 1999 Los Angeles Times reporter Michael Hiltzik co-authored a Pulitzer Prize-winning story. Now a business columnist for the Times, he writes that a Southern California maker of pornographic films named Strike 3 Holdings is also “a copyright troll,” according to U.S. Judge Royce C. Lamberth: Lamberth cwrote in 2018, “Armed with hundreds of cut-and-pasted Read more about Copyright Troll Porn Company Makes Millions By Shaming Potential Porn Consumers[…]

[…] Robotic artists have been involved in various types of creative works for a long time. Since the 1970s computers have been producing crude works of art, and these efforts continue today. Most of these computer-generated works of art relied heavily on the creative input of the programmer; the machine was at most an instrument Read more about Artificial intelligence and copyright – WIPO[…]

When Epic went after both Apple and Google a few years ago with antitrust claims regarding the need to go through their app stores to get on phones, we noted that it seemed more like negotiation-by-lawsuit. Both Apple and Google have cut some deals with larger companies to lower the 30% cut the companies take Read more about Things That Make No Sense: Epic Lost Its Fight Over Apple’s Closed iOS Platform, But Won It Over Google’s More Open Android Platform[…]

There’s been this weird idea lately, even among people who used to recognize that copyright only empowers the largest gatekeepers, that in the AI world we have to magically flip the script on copyright and use it as a tool to get AI companies to pay for the material they train on. But, as we’ve Read more about If Creators Suing AI Companies Over Copyright Insanley Win, It Will Further Entrench Big Tech[…]

Google Play has reversed its latest ban on a web browser that keeps getting targeted by vague Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notices. Downloader, an Android TV app that combines a browser with a file manager, was restored to Google Play last night. Downloader, made by app developer Elias Saba, was suspended on Sunday after Read more about Web browser suspended because it can browse the web is back on Google Play after being taken down by incomplete DMCA[…]

Given that the overwhelming majority of DMCA takedown notices are generated by copyright bots that are only moderately good at their job, at best, perhaps it’s not terribly surprising that these bots keep finding new and interesting ways to cause collateral damage unintentionally. […] a Tumblr site, called “Mapping La Sirena.” If you’re a fan Read more about Copyright Bot Can’t Tell The Difference Between Star Trek Ship And Adult Film Actress[…]

Two men who allegedly used 65 Google accounts to bombard Google with fraudulent DMCA takedown notices targeting up to 620,000 URLs, have been named in a Google lawsuit filed in California on Monday. Google says the men weaponized copyright law’s notice-and-takedown system to sabotage competitors’ trade, while damaging the search engine’s business and those of Read more about Google Sues Men Who Weaponized DMCA Notices to Crush Competition[…]

[…] Many courts have already dealt with these lawsuits-come-lately filed by opportunistic people who failed to capitalize on their own pop culture cache but thought it was worth throwing a few hundred dollars in filing fees towards a federal court in hopes that the eventual payoff would be millions. Most of these efforts have failed. Read more about 9th Circuit Advances Lawsuit Over Fortnite ‘Emotes;’ Says Dance Moves Are As Protected As Songs[…]