Copyright Alliance argues pirated sources sink AI fair use claims
The group says courts weighing fair use should also ask whether the copy used was authorized in the first place
Here's the piece of this fight worth watching even if you're not a lawyer. The Copyright Alliance is making the case that it shouldn't matter whether the book AI companies scraped was published or a bestseller — if it came from a pirate site, that taint should weigh against fair use on its own. No court has ruled on this specific point yet, which is exactly why it matters: this is the argument being built before the cases land.
Why it matters to you: If courts adopt this reasoning, the source of the copy — not just how it was used — becomes a strike against AI companies' fair use defense in the piracy-based training cases authors are watching.
This story ran in the Coral Wire edition of Sat, Sep 26 2026, when the Coral Index stood at 62/100 (Tailwinds building).
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