Episode Player

Artists' Rights at Risk: From State Sovereign Immunity to Generative AI

Warfare of Art & Law Podcast

Chapters
0:00
Blackbeard Footage And State Takeover
1:24
CRCA And The 9-0 Loss
3:50
Fourth Circuit Maneuvers And En Banc
6:32
Why Sovereign Immunity Threatens Artists
8:29
Other Copyright Fights With States
10:18
Practical Steps To Protect Work
13:33
Europe’s AI Scraping Opt-Out Debate
16:42
Fair Use, Piracy, And Registration
20:12
VACRA And Policy Moves Abroad
24:39
The Hidden Cost Of Using AI
25:50
Getty, Stability, And Infringement Puzzles
28:30
GEMA, Memorization, And Direct Copying
31:48
Jurisdiction And Secondary Infringement
35:51
Machine-Made Works And Human Authorship
42:02
Rick Rejects AI And Market Value
43:27
Certified Non-AI Art And Trust
46:44
Ethical Data And A Cleaner Future
48:16
Links, Reviews, And Farewell
Warfare of Art & Law Podcast
Artists' Rights at Risk: From State Sovereign Immunity to Generative AI
May 25, 2026 Season 7 Episode 163
Stephanie Drawdy

Send us Fan Mail

Cover photo of Rick Allen - copyright Cindy Burnham, Lucky Shot Productions 

Show Note: 

0:00 Nautilus Productions' Co-Founder Rick Allen gives the history of Allen v. McCrory - suit against NC over Allen's footage of the Queen Anne's Revenge Shipwreck 

1:20 SCOTUS’ 9-0 decision in Allen v. Cooper that the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act of 1990 (CRCA) was unconstitutional 

2:00 NC’s technical arguments against Allen’s claims 

2:55 court's use of pendant jurisdiction to wipe out 5 years of Allen’s case

3:45 petition for rehearing en banc denied 

6:45 states’ use of sovereign immunity against creators

8:50 Jeff Sedlik’s suit over use of his photo of Miles Davis as a tattoo  

9:30 Michael J. Bynum’s suit over Texas A&M University’s unauthorized use of Bynum’s 12th Man book (complaint here; dismissal of copyright infringement claims against A&M employee discussed here)

11:00 Allen’s recommendations to artists to protect their work online

13:35 Emily Gould’s discussion of LAION case 

17:00 Bartz v. Anthropic - 23 June 2025 Order on Fair Use in N.D. Cal.

19:50 Allen on opt out policy

20:20 Visual Artists Copyright Reform Act (VACRA)

21:00 Gould on survey by DACS (the Design and Artist’s Copyright Society) 

23:00 response to UK government’s consultations 

24:00 UK House of Lord’s hearings

24:30 Allen on artists not understanding impact of generative AI

26:00 Gould on UK judgment from trial in Getty v. Stability 

28:50 Gould on judgment in GEMA v. Open AI

31:55 Lauren Stein on ChatGPT and law school's encouragement to use AI 

33:00 Getty v. Stability in UK – Getty’s drop of direct infringement claim and appeal of ruling on secondary infringement claim

35:50 UK’s Section 9(3) - copyright protection for original work created by a machine

39:20 Stein on copyrightability and Japan’s approach to sufficient human authorship

41:40 Gould on Beijing Internet Court's judgment in Li v. Liu

42:05 Allen’s position on AI

44:00 Gould on authenticity and human contribution

47:35 Ed Newton-Rex 

Please share your comments and/or questions at stephanie@warfareofartandlaw.com

Music by Toulme.

To hear more episodes, please visit Warfare of Art and Law podcast's website.

To leave questions or comments about this or other episodes of the podcast and/or for information about joining the 2ND Saturday discussion on art, culture and justice, please message me at stephanie@warfareofartandlaw.com. 

Thanks so much for listening!

This podcast and its content may not be used for training or developing AI systems without permission.


© Stephanie Drawdy [2026]