copyright holders

A French court has ordered hosting provider OVH to block access to two major piracy websites, following a complaint from rights holders. The ruling is seen as a notable move against online copyright infringement, raising questions about hosting platforms' responsibility for content they host and the reach of judicial blocking orders in France.

Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell have joined forces in a billion-dollar intellectual property lawsuit against AI company founders, with song lyrics — not recordings — at the center of the case. Industry observers note that AI companies are facing a fresh wave of legal attacks from rights holders. The suit signals that music publishers are now targeting AI systems trained on or generating copyrighted text.

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation has published a proposal calling on Congress to allow US courts to order the blocking of foreign websites that distribute pirated content. The blog post, titled 'Break the Pirates', argues that current enforcement tools are inadequate against offshore piracy operations. The proposal touches on long-running debates over internet regulation and free expression, and is likely to draw scrutiny from both copyright holders and digital rights advocates.

German tech news outlet heise+ examines the long-running legal dispute between Kraftwerk and producer Moses Pelham over a two-second sample, asking when sampling can qualify as a permitted 'pastiche' under copyright law without a licence. The piece explains that using others' recordings generally requires rights-holder permission, and outlines the narrow circumstances in which courts allow unlicensed use as parody-style pastiche.

A US appeals court has affirmed Thomson Reuters' victory over legal AI startup ROSS Intelligence, the first appellate ruling to address whether training AI on copyrighted material qualifies as fair use. The Third Circuit sided with Thomson Reuters, whose Westlaw headnotes were at the centre of the dispute. Legal observers say the reasoning could shape pending cases involving AI developers and copyright holders.

A discussion piece arguing that copyright law, as it stands, makes little sense is drawing attention. The argument critiques how intellectual property rules protect creators in theory but often serve large rights-holders instead, restricting reuse, remixing and access to culture. Commenters are debating whether copyright's current terms and enforcement do more harm than good, and what a saner system might look like.

MUBI's Notebook has published an essay titled 'Pirating the Pirates', examining film fans who make authentic digital copies of cinema releases despite copyright laws. The piece portrays these amateur preservationists working against clueless, underfunded or hamstrung rights holders to keep films accessible, spotlighting a gray zone where piracy overlaps with genuine film preservation efforts.