*** BREAKING WAR: THOMSON REUTERS v (IBM) ROSS INTELLIGENCE LAWBOT - RULING ***
Ross' Lawbot is NOT Fair Use its Commercial
In the longstanding case, first shot fired in the WAR between CODE and LAW the case in Delaware of megaton global law publisher Thomson Reuters v Ross Intelligence (IBM) has now come to an end and the bot gets the swat.
In short the court held that Ross’ use of Thomson content was NOT FAIR USE.
From the top they say it was unquestionably COMMERCIAL IN NATURE. That is factor number one of the four factors of Fair Use and usually pretty persuasive over the rest of the analysis in copyright law fair use battles. Did they mean to make money or was it educational.
Recall the Ross bot was advertised as replacing a lawyer and even being hired by a top law firm BH — if the robot can do for them, surely it can do for you!
EARLIER POST LINK HERE - hey its just a year ago almost exactly!
Another key holding by Judge Bibas was that the use of TR’s headnotes content was “not transformative,” in effect throwing shine on the notion that creating content into a bot form does not change the ownership characterization of that content, with the practical effect that bots will be viewed even more suspiciously than they are presently.
What if anything will the damages be?
Very smart guy industry deep MICHAEL BOMMARITO speculates on X that it could be nominal, 0 or 1 dollar. It is hard to tell. Court says to be soundly saying no defense and copyright violation.
It could be very substantial indeed given Thomson Reuters near (a’hem) *monopoly* of this sort of information, legal reporting and legal guides statutes and cases.
I believe it would have to be into the thousands of individual counts of violation. In fact the case record notes some 2,000+ headnotes of TR that were nakedly (legally) made use of, as well as additional copyrighted sources, and TR has asserted rights over content Ross had alleged hre expired copyrights.
Courts have all discretion, and can use as a teaching moment for AI for Law, or can do (what TR may want) and lower the boom (a) for its potential losses and (b) as a threat to other participants in the market vis a vis its content.
THIS IS BIG LEGAL HISTORY AND GUIDANCE FOR AI AND LAW.
LAWBOTS MAY NOT TAKE/USE W/O EXPRESS PERMISSION/PAYMENT THE CONTENT OF ANOTHER AND SPIN INTO A NEW USE.
************************************************so come now (pretty please, dms are open) to Project gist, where we trade in original bespoke content only,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and do so in EDUCATIONAL FORMAT as wel…………………………………………………………………. THE FUTURE ai counsel saw yesterday…