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US Copyright Office

U.S. federal agency that administers copyright registration and policy, operating within the Library of Congress.

Known aliases

  • Copyright Office
  • United States Copyright Office
  • USCO
  • US Copyright Office

Current stories

leadershipOne report1 publisher

Roblox game owners sue French agency to test whether an AI-made meme character has an owner

Steal a Brainrot's owners are suing Mementum, saying it has no rights to Tung Tung Tung Sahur, an OpenAI-made meme with hundreds of millions of views. The case asks a federal court whether prompting an AI image tool can make someone the author of a character about to appear in Fortnite.

Publishers:theguardian.com

Reality

Evidence55
Adoption60
Hype gap+20
Incentives70
Confidence55
investConfirmed3 publishers

Thomson Reuters keeps its win over ROSS in the first appellate test of AI-training fair use

Thomson Reuters kept its copyright win over ROSS Intelligence on appeal, the first US appellate ruling on fair use in AI training. ROSS had been refused a Westlaw licence as a rival, so the ruling lets owners of training data set a price or decline to sell.

Perspective Coverage

3 publishers
Builder
Builder 19%
Operator
Operator 38%
Investor
Investor 43%

Reality

Evidence55
Adoption30
Hype gap+25
Incentives55
Confidence60
investConfirmed4 publishers

DOJ's 20-page brief backs OpenAI, argues AI training on copyrighted work is fair use

A filing with no binding force still moves the cost of walking away, and every publisher currently quoting a number to a lab is quoting it to a counterparty whose government has said in court that permission may not be required.

Perspective Coverage

5 publishers
Builder
Builder 26%
Operator
Operator 40%
Investor
Investor 34%

Reality

Evidence72
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+20
Incentives65
Confidence68
investOne report1 publisher

OpenAI's 550+ Publisher Coalition Grows as Fair-Use Summary Judgment Looms

The coalition suing OpenAI and Microsoft passed 550 publishers this week, and the cost of training data will be settled either by Judge Sidney Stein's fair-use ruling or by private deals struck before it lands.

Reality

Evidence32
Adoption35
Hype gap+32
Incentives68
Confidence40
leadershipOne report1 publisher

Generative AI reached 72% of organizations before copyright law settled who owns the output

Adoption became routine before anyone settled who owns what the model produces. A BeyondTrust executive's column argues that a provider's licence leaves both the ownership question and a third party's claim wide open.

Publishers:forbes.com

Reality

Evidence58
Adoption74
Hype gap+12
Incentives62
Confidence54
buildOne report1 publisher

Human editing carries the only registrable copyright in an AI-assisted asset

The rule the US Copyright Office set out in January 2025 survived the D.C. Circuit and then a 2026 cert denial, which leaves your defensible ownership in the editing, selection and arrangement you can actually point to.

Publishers:dev.to

Reality

Evidence52
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+12
Incentives28
Confidence50
investOne report1 publisher

Perlmutter's survival puts the Copyright Office's unpublished AI training report back in play

The Supreme Court's June 30 refusal to stay the order keeping her in office leaves Part 3 publishable, a document that binds no court but that plaintiffs appealing the 9th Circuit's fair-use holdings would cite in every brief.

Publishers:lowenstein.com

Reality

Evidence45
Adoption10
Hype gap+12
Incentives60
Confidence45
productOne report1 publisher

Insilico credits its AI with a drug discovery. The patent credits five humans.

Only people can be inventors under US law, so the file on an AI-derived molecule has to show human contribution. Teams that do not document it are building patents someone can challenge.

Reality

Evidence56
Adoption44
Hype gap+22
Incentives66
Confidence58
leadershipOne report1 publisher

What an AI filmmaker actually owns is the show bible, not the footage

Kavan Cardoza lost a Batman fan film to a Warner Bros. claim. His own series is registered script by script and design by design, while the finished episodes are still pending.

Publishers:forbes.com

Reality

Evidence38
Adoption30
Hype gap+22
Incentives74
Confidence42