Victory Appeals Court Rejects Expansive New Copyright Claim
4 hours ago
- The Ninth Circuit rejected an attempt to expand DMCA Section 1202 into a new source of copyright liability.
- The court clarified that removing copyright management information (CMI) from a copyrighted work is different from creating a new work that never had CMI.
- Accepting the plaintiffs' theory would have created liability for otherwise lawful activities like remixes, teaching, reverse engineering, and search engines, harming small creators.
- The ruling is narrow: the absence of CMI in a new work does not itself prove illegal removal.
- Copyright law still protects against unlawful copying, and contract claims against AI companies remain possible.