Copyright, Piracy & Counterfeit News

WMG and Crumbl Cookies Finalize Their Copyright Settlement

Warner Music Group and cookie chain Crumbl have settled a copyright infringement lawsuit stemming from Crumbl’s unauthorized use of music in social media marketing. This copyright settlement ends a long-standing battle that began in April 2025. More than 150 Recordings Illegally Used for Advertising WMG alleged Crumbl used at least 159 protected recordings — featuring […]

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Anthropic’s Copyright Lawsuit: Where Does It Stand?

Book Piracy, Copyright Infringement / May 22, 2026

At the start of the year, a class-action copyright lawsuit on behalf of almost 500,000 authors alleged that the AI company Anthropic pirated millions of copyrighted books to train its AI model, Claude. The case was first filed on August 19, 2024, by three authors—Andrea Bartz, Kirk Wallace Johnson, and Charles Graeber. A judge delivered

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Court Rules Against Anna’s Archive for Rampant Book Piracy

Book Piracy, Copyright Infringement / May 20, 2026

A coalition of thirteen major publishers, including Penguin Random House, Elsevier, and HarperCollins, has secured a $19.5 million default judgment against Anna’s Archive. The website is a sprawling shadow library that mirrors the catalogs of piracy havens Library Genesis and Sci-Hub. Anna’s Archive hosts roughly 99 million books and academic papers. The ruling was handed

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Meta Sued by Publishers for AI Copyright Infringement

A coalition of major publishing houses — including Cengage, Elsevier, McGraw-Hill, Macmillan, and Hachette — has filed a federal lawsuit against Meta in Manhattan. They accuse the tech giant of unlawfully harvesting millions of copyrighted works to train its Llama AI models. Author Scott Turow is also among the plaintiffs in the proposed class action.

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Congress Considers Anti-Piracy Site-Blocking Bill

A recent Supreme Court ruling in Cox Communications v. Sony Music has upended copyright enforcement in the U.S. The court decided that internet service providers cannot be held liable for customers who pirate content unless they actively encourage it. The decision effectively closed a major legal avenue for rights holders. This decision is prompting a

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Cox Not Contributorily Liable for Copyright Infringement

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that internet service provider Cox Communications is not contributorily liable for copyright infringement carried out by its subscribers. This unanimous landmark decision is a significant victory for ISPs nationwide. Copyright Infringement Claims Mostly Ignored Sony Music and other rights holders sued Cox after the ISP received over 163,000 infringement

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Copyright Infringement: The Dictionary Sues OpenAI

Joining an army of other plaintiffs suing OpenAI for alleged copyright infringement, the dictionary has now filed a complaint. Two of the world’s most recognized reference institutions, Encyclopedia Britannica and its subsidiary Merriam-Webster, have filed a federal copyright lawsuit against OpenAI in Manhattan. It alleges the unauthorized use of their human-researched, fact-checked content to train

OpenAI Sued by Gracenote for Copyright Infringement

Nielsen’s metadata subsidiary Gracenote has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI in the Southern District of New York. This marks a potentially groundbreaking case in the fight over copyrighted works between data providers and AI companies. Why is This Case Unique? Most AI copyright suits focused on written content. Gracenote’s complaint targets not just

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Copyright Infringement: Publishers Sue Anna’s Archive

Thirteen major book publishers, including Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, and Elsevier, have filed a federal lawsuit in New York against shadow library Anna’s Archive. The lawsuit is being coordinated by the Association of American Publishers (AAP). They allege massive copyright infringement on a scale they describe as “staggering.” What is Anna’s Archive? The notorious website,

Seedance 2.0 Debuts to Copyright Infringement Trouble

ByteDance’s newly released AI video generator Seedance 2.0 has ignited a firestorm of copyright controversy. This came after popular viral deepfake-style videos depicting Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. There were also deepfake riffs on Spider-Man, Titanic, and other protected franchises, all occurring within 24 hours of launch. The Motion Picture Association swiftly condemned the tool

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