Anthropic filed a supplemental brief in response to a question Judge Alsup apparently asked during the hearing on the motion of Bartz for class certification.
Question: Is there case law on the effect on Anthropic if one legal or beneficial owner of a copyright in a work is included in one of the proposed classes and another legal or beneficial owner outside of the class later sues Anthropic for the same activity?
Editor’s comment: Having more than one beneficial owner of the copyright interests to a work explains how Ed Sheeran faced 2 lawsuits for the same allegedly infringing work, “Thinking Out Loud.” Sheeran ultimately prevailed but he faced 2 different lawsuits in the Southern District of New York. One filed by the Townsend heirs, and the other filed by Structured Asset Sales. The former involved a trial in which Sheeran prevailed. The latter involved a grant of summary judgment in favor of Sheeran.
Anthropic Brief:
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