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- 🧩 Artists v. artificial intelligence
🧩 Artists v. artificial intelligence
PLUS: Newest FIFA bribery trial kicking off
Lookzy: all your daily legal news in 0.1 billable hours. Litigation, deals, lateral moves and industry news; we cover it all.
Welcome to Lookzy. In today's Lookzy:
Artists sue AI over copyright claims
Newest FIFA bribery trial kicking off
Disgraced, on-the-run crypto hedge fund founders' new biz
Davis Polk opens a Brussels office
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ARTISTS v. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Legal storms are brewing for the makers of AI-generated images.
Companies like Stability AI, Midjourney and OpenAI have all created software which allows a user to type in any text prompt, which artificial intelligence models then output as an newly-created image. For example, the prompt “a portrait of a well-dressed giraffe reading from a scroll, high renaissance style”, outputs the image in today's Boilerplate section at the end of the newsletter.
In order to train the AI models used to generate such images, the makers of this software processed billions of images from the web. Now, owners of those images and the artists who created them are pushing back on the unlicensed use of their work for this AI training, where in many cases the AI-generated outputs use portions of the artists' initial works.
Getty Images today announced a suit it filed in London against Stability AI, the maker of Stable Diffusion, claiming Stability AI infringed on Getty's IP rights when Stability AI unlawfully copied and processed millions of its images protected by copyright without a license.
In a separate high profile suit, three artists have filed a suit against Stability AI, Midjourney and DeviantArt, claiming the companies infringed the rights of “millions of artists” by training their AI tools on five billion images scraped from the web “without the consent of the original artists.”
All such suits are in early stages, but more are likely to come. The same firm representing the artists suing the trio of AI companies is also suing Microsoft, GitHub and OpenAI related to the use of scrapping to create AI-generated coding assistance.
ECON SNAPSHOT
The difference between special bonuses and layoffs
THE VERDICT
Arguing today's litigation news
Facebook scrapping. Meta Platforms Inc., Facebook's parent, sued AI company Voyager Labs Ltd. in California federal court, alleging that Voyager has been scrapping Facebook users' data and selling it to its clients, including the LA Police Department, in violation of Facebooks terms of service.
FIFA corruption. Five years following an initial set of FIFA corruption convictions, jury selection and opening statements are kicking off as soon as today in the EDNY trial of two former 21st Century Fox executives and a South American sports marketing company. Prosecutors allege that the defendants bribed FIFA soccer officials to secure media and marketing rights to various soccer tournaments. The defendants pleaded not guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering charges.
Suing the lawyers. Aaron Goodwin, a well-known NBA sports agent for stars including LeBron James, filed a lawsuit against law firm Gordon Rees for $92 million in damages regarding an alleged fraud scheme over the sale of his sports management company in which the suit claims Goodwin and his brother were not invited to the deal's closing, had their signatures forged and were ultimately not paid, among other concealments.
Pool counsel. As US authorities continue to investigate the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, Covington partner Arlo Devlin-Brown has begun acting as "pool counsel" representing current FTX employees dealing with questions from investigators.
Elon litigation. A California federal judge rejected Elon Musk's request to move consolidated securities litigation regarding Musk's "funding secured" tweet to Texas, despite the few "radioactive" jury candidates who had extremely negative views of Musk. At the Second Circuit, Musk argued that the SEC has a "long history of mandating constitutionally suspect concessions in settlements" in the context of the SEC's position that he doesn't have a constitutional right to tweet about Tesla without the company's authorization.
THE DEAL
Wheelin' and dealin' today's corporate news
Strategic review. National Instruments Corp., a public hardware and software data analytics company, announced that it is undertaking a review of "strategic options", including potentially a sale of the company, in an effort to maximize shareholder value. The company also announced that some potential acquirers have already approached the company and that it adopted a limited duration shareholder rights plan. Wachtell is representing the company.
No longer hungry. Following favorable Q4 2022 financial results at Wendy's, activist investor Nelson Peltz of Trian Fund Management, Wendy's largest shareholder, is no longer pursuing a takeover of the restaurant chain. Peltz is now focused on a potential proxy fight at Disney.
To the moon. Space exploration and tourism company World View agreed to merge with Leo Holdings Corp. II, a SPAC, in an effort to list publicly at an estimated valuation of $350 million. Cooley is representing World View and Kirkland is representing Leo Holdings.
IPO'd. Skyward Speciality Insurance Group started trading Friday as 2023's first notable IPO, in which the company raised $134 million in an upsized offering. DLA represented Skyward and Latham represented the underwriters.
'G'TX follows 'F'TX. The disgraced founders of Three Arrows Capital, a crypto hedge fund which blew up in 2022, are reportedly raising $25 million for a new crypto exchange called "GTX", which is seeking to capitalize on FTX's collapse by allowing depositors the ability to transfer their FTX claims to GTX and receive immediate credit in a token called USDG. The name "GTX" is a play on FTX, "because G comes after F", according to one of the pitch decks. The Three Arrows Capital founders are reportedly on the run, with liquidators resorting to subpoenaing them via Twitter, where they remain active.
BUSINESS OF THE FIRM
Lateral Moves:
Davis Polk announced it is opening a Brussels office to focus on EU antitrust issues and hired partners Jürgen Schindler and Frances Dethmers from Allen & Overy to lead it.
Hogan Lovells hired Washington DC Attorney General Karl Racine to lead a new state attorney general practice.
Fenwick & West hired partner Robert Slack from Kelley, Drye & Warren.
Winston & Strawn hired partner Rafael Aguilar from Shutts & Bowen in order to help launch a new real estate practice from its new Miami office.
The SEC named Erik Gerding its new Director of the Division of Corporation Finance following Renee Jones departure. Gerding previously worked at Cleary.
Industry News:
Despite lower demand for legal services in 2022, AmLaw 100 firms raised their rates an average of 6.3% last year, AmLaw 200 firms raised their rates an average of 4.8% and midsize firms raised their rates an average of 3.8%.
Still waiting on your bonus? Check out the Lookzy Reverse Bonus Tracker to see who else is left to announce.
BOILERPLATE
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