Category: Susman Godfrey

OpenAI moves to strike paper “Generative AI floods and dilutes the market for books” by Prof. Tuhin Chakrabarty based on his webpage CV’s alleged disclosure of $100,000 funding by Susman Godfrey law firm representing Plaintiffs

Amidst a tsunami of media coverage of AI doomsday concerns, OpenAI just filed an explosive motion to strike that will return some attention back to the MDL copyright litigation against it. OpenAI seeks to strike the non-peer-reviewed AI research paper provocatively titled “Generative AI floods and dilutes the market for books,” as well as expert…
Read more: OpenAI moves to strike paper “Generative AI floods and dilutes the market for books” by Prof. Tuhin Chakrabarty based on his webpage CV’s alleged disclosure of $100,000 funding by Susman Godfrey law firm representing Plaintiffs
EVOX Productions, maker of car images, enlists 3rd law firm to files its 4th copyright suit v. AI training use. This one v. Midjourney.

EVOX Productions, the professional maker of car images, has just sued Midjourney for alleged infringement based on unauthorized use of their images contained without permission in the LAION dataset. This is the 130th copyright lawsuit against AI companies in the United States. This is EVOX Productions’ fourth such lawsuit. relying on 3 different firms. The…
Read more: EVOX Productions, maker of car images, enlists 3rd law firm to files its 4th copyright suit v. AI training use. This one v. Midjourney.
Adding to their largest settlement in US copyright history, Bartz book authors’ class announces another historic milestone: 91.3% participation of total works in class. Wow.

In an update provided to the court ahead of the final approval hearing, the Bartz Class Counsel announced a stunning participation rate of 91.3 percent — or 440,409 of 482,460 works in the class — have been claimed for distribution of the class settlement funds. 91.3 percent participation for a non-personal injury class action is…
Read more: Adding to their largest settlement in US copyright history, Bartz book authors’ class announces another historic milestone: 91.3% participation of total works in class. Wow.
In one of final orders, Judge Alsup rebukes Bartz Class Counsel for seeking attorneys’ fees for 3 law firms beyond the 2 firms appointed Class Counsel

In one of his final orders before his retirement from the bench in a few days, Judge William Alsup issued a strong rebuke of the Bartz Class Counsel’s motion for attorneys’ fees beyond the 2 firms appointed class counsel, Susman Godfrey LLP and Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP. The motion for attorneys’ fees will…
Read more: In one of final orders, Judge Alsup rebukes Bartz Class Counsel for seeking attorneys’ fees for 3 law firms beyond the 2 firms appointed Class Counsel
Bartz Class Counsel file motion for attorneys fees asking for 20% of nonreversionary class funds, or $300M plus $2M in costs

Bartz Class Counsel filed their motion for attorneys’ fees. The hearing is not until April 23, 2026 and will be before a different judge if Judge Alsup retires at the end of this year as he suggested. Class Counsel are seeking “20% of the non-reversionary Settlement Fund, consisting of $1.5 billion plus interest paid by…
Read more: Bartz Class Counsel file motion for attorneys fees asking for 20% of nonreversionary class funds, or $300M plus $2M in costs
List of Cases in which Authors adopt the Shadow Library Strategy v. AI companies.

UPDATED on Nov. 7, 2025: We posted an updated graphic compiling all the U.S. copyright lawsuits against AI companies in which the authors are advancing the Shadow Library Strategy against the AI companies. The Shadow Library Strategy is to raise a separate theory of infringement–apart from the training of AI models–based on the AI company’s…
Read more: List of Cases in which Authors adopt the Shadow Library Strategy v. AI companies.
Book authors declare victory as $1.5 billion settlement with Anthropic approved

Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber and Kirk Wallace Johnson were in the San Francisco courtroom to watch history: Judge Alsup approved the largest settlement in the history of US copryight law at $1.5 billion. Afterwards, the book authors issued a statement: We are grateful for the Court’s action today, which brings us one step closer to…
Read more: Book authors declare victory as $1.5 billion settlement with Anthropic approved
Magistrate Judge Wang issues ominous order asking for more briefing on whether OpenAI waived attorney-client privilege re: its destruction of Books1 and Books2 datasets.

Things may go from bad to worse from OpenAI in the MDL Litigation. Magistrate Judge Wang just ordered supplemental briefing on whether OpenAI waived its attorney-client privilege related to its destructions of Books1 and Books2 datasets used to train its earlier models. The parties are directed to file supplemental briefs not to exceed 1,500 words…
Read more: Magistrate Judge Wang issues ominous order asking for more briefing on whether OpenAI waived attorney-client privilege re: its destruction of Books1 and Books2 datasets.
Bartz book authors try again to get approval of proposed class settlement in suit v. Anthropic. Will Judge Alsup approve this week?

The Bartz book authors went back to address all the objections and concerns Judge Alsup raised, in court and in 33 questions posed in 2 orders. At the last hearing on Sept. 7, 2025, things didn’t go well as most of the 54 minutes were spent on all the things Judge Alsup found deficient in…
Read more: Bartz book authors try again to get approval of proposed class settlement in suit v. Anthropic. Will Judge Alsup approve this week?
With statutory damages, the Shadow Library Strategy offers the same potential amount of recovery to book authors. Winning on AI training adds $0.

This post is a follow up to yesterday’s analysis of the Susman Godfrey Playbook in lawsuits against AI companies. To recap, one of the strategies that Susman Godfrey lawyers successfully advanced in Bartz v. Anthropic is the separate treatment of Anthropic’s initial acquisition and library-building of copies from shadow libraries. What I call the Shadow…
Read more: With statutory damages, the Shadow Library Strategy offers the same potential amount of recovery to book authors. Winning on AI training adds $0.