AI Copyright Docket: Udio §1201 Survives; Meta Admits Torrents; Anthropic Attacks Harm Expert
McKool Smith’s April 20 update: Sony/Udio motion to dismiss on YouTube rolling-cipher §1201 denied pending expert record; Meta answers Kadrey admitting book torrenting while fighting fair-use conclusions; Anthropic moves to exclude Concord Music harm expert as speculative vs UMG investor ‘net positive’ AI remarks. Cases are deep into facts — not threshold wipeouts.
Corrected October 14, 2026: Clarified that case postures come from McKool Smith's April 20 tracker and that the underlying filings were not reviewed for this article. Reworded a line that referred to “this desk” as plain attribution.
The generative-AI copyright fight has left the pure motion-to-dismiss era. The April 20 snapshot’s trade: courts want technology and harm records, while defendants split strategies — admit messy facts and bet fair use (Meta), or attack the other side’s economics expert (Anthropic).
McKool Smith published AI Infringement Case Updates (April 20, 2026) covering procedural moves across major suits. This article summarizes that roundup, a law-firm litigation tracker, not original court reporting.
Headline cases#
Sony v. Uncharted Labs (Udio) — Motion to dismiss denied (for now). Plaintiffs allege stream-ripping / YouTube “rolling cipher” circumvention under 17 U.S.C. § 1201. Fight: access control vs copy control. Court: insufficient factual record; deny without prejudice; renew after expert discovery on how the cipher operates.
Kadrey et al. v. Meta — Meta answers fourth amended complaint. Admits torrenting books without permission; contests legal conclusions. Few facts appear disputed; fair use remains the core question. Contributory infringement claims tied to torrenting added by plaintiffs.
Concord Music Group et al. v. Anthropic — Anthropic moves to exclude plaintiffs’ expert Michael Smith on market harm: speculative, weakly supported, allegedly contradicted by UMG (parent of two plaintiffs) investor statements that revenue was not harmed by “AI royalty dilution” and AI would be “overwhelmingly net positive.” Judge Lee related BMG Rights Mgmt v. Anthropic; late-stage BMG likely sidelined pending summary judgment.
Other docket notes (McKool)#
- Reddit v. Anthropic: remanded to SF Superior; CMC May 20; joint “complex” petition.
- SDNY MDL: fact discovery closed; status conference May 12.
- UMG v. Suno: quiet; plaintiffs cite Sony/Udio §1201 denial as supplemental authority.
- Andersen v. Stability AI: deposition/source-code fights as discovery deadline nears.
- Disney/Universal/Warner v. Midjourney: no new word on Midjourney’s Disney in-house GenAI docs motion.
- Disney et al. v. MiniMax & Hailuo: MTD on jurisdiction / failure to state a claim.
- Hendrix v. Apple: Apple answers; admits training on copyrighted works; denies/recharacterizes much else.
Claims vs checks#
Case postures are from McKool Smith’s tracker (April 20, 2026 edition); the underlying court filings were not reviewed for this article. UMG investor-statement characterizations are Anthropic’s motion framing as reported; they have not been checked against SEC transcripts. No merits rulings on fair use or §1201 final liability in this update.
Limits#
- Secondary litigation digest — not a substitute for PACER.
- Outcomes still turn on expert records and fair-use/harm trials ahead.
- Parallel MDLs and related cases can reshuffle calendars quickly.