copyright

According to a publicly disclosed lawyer's letter, the entity behind Pump.fun, Bracket Company Inc., sent a cease-and-desist letter to Eliza Labs founder Shaw Walters (X account @shawmakesmagic) on October 29, 2026, through the law firm Brown Rudnick. Pump.fun accuses Walters of unauthorized copying, reverse engineering, and planning to publicly release its source code, violating U.S. copyright law and platform service terms.The lawyer's letter states that Walters posted a series of messages on the X platform between October 27 and 28, claiming to have reverse-engineered 97.6% of the source code of the Pump.fun contract set, with 80% matching the original contract byte for byte, and plans to add the front-end and back-end code to the code repository, offering project tokens $PMUP as a reward to contributors. Pump.fun demands that Walters immediately cease such activities, refrain from publicly releasing the source code, and clearly states that such reverse engineering constitutes illegal behavior.

Sources reveal that Microsoft (MSFT.O) and OpenAI are facing lawsuits again over AI copyright issues.

Market news shows that OpenAI and GitHub have won the copyright lawsuit regarding AI programming tools.

According to The Verge, Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music have filed a lawsuit against Anthropic in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, seeking damages for "tens of thousands" of copyrighted works. They accuse Anthropic of illegally downloading, scraping, and distributing copyrighted works on a large scale to develop and train the Claude series of AI models. The plaintiffs are seeking up to $150,000 in damages for each work and an additional claim of up to $25,000 for each instance of removing identifiable copyright data.In addition to suing Anthropic, the lawsuit also names co-founders Dario Amodei and Benjamin Mann as individual defendants. The lawsuit alleges that Mann used BitTorrent to download over 5 million pirated books, and that employees downloaded at least 2 million from Pirate Library Mirror. The complaint also claims that Anthropic scraped lyrics from websites such as MusixMatch and LyricFind. Recently, Anthropic reached a $1.5 billion settlement with the publishing industry over another lawsuit, while also facing multiple lawsuits from Universal Music Group, Concord, and ABKCO, as well as lawsuits filed by BMG and Round Hill Music.

The UK government has announced the abandonment of a previous proposal that allowed AI companies to use copyrighted content for model training by default under an "opt-out" premise. This proposal had sparked widespread opposition, including from Elton John, Dua Lipa, and the House of Lords.UK Secretary of State for Technology Liz Kendall stated that the government has listened to various opinions and will no longer pursue the proposal. A report released at the same time pointed out that there is still no consensus on how to balance the rights of creators with the development of the AI industry. Tom Kiehl, CEO of UK Music, called this a "major victory."However, the UK government has not yet proposed an alternative plan and stated that it will not adjust current copyright laws until it can confirm that reforms can achieve economic and social goals. The technology industry groups are concerned that the long-term lack of clear rules could weaken the UK's position in global competition.

According to IT Home citing The Information, two informed sources stated that TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance has suspended its global launch plan for the latest video generation model Seedance 2.0 after a series of copyright disputes with several major Hollywood studios and streaming platforms.The report stated that ByteDance originally planned to launch this new video model to global users in mid-March, but has now suspended the related plans. The report added that ByteDance's legal team is investigating and addressing potential legal issues, and engineers are also increasing protective mechanisms to prevent the model from generating content that may lead to further intellectual property infringements.

Story Protocol and OpenLedger announced a partnership to launch a new standard that enables AI systems to legally use creative works and automatically pay royalties to copyright holders.According to the agreement, intellectual property registered on Story Protocol can be licensed for AI training and AI-generated content. OpenLedger, as an AI-native blockchain, will execute these licenses within AI systems and handle payments. Both parties are building a shared on-chain standard to record ownership of works, usage methods, and payment recipients.This initiative comes against the backdrop of a continuous increase in AI-related lawsuits, with many cases in 2025 revolving around intellectual property. Data from the World Intellectual Property Organization indicates that the global IP market is valued at over $80 trillion. A representative from OpenLedger stated that the system will shift AI from a model of training first and litigating later to one that only uses content that can be proven to be authorized for use.

Fireverse is reshaping the business logic of the Web3 music track through "AI Co-creation." Since launching its music co-creation program in October, its content ecosystem has rapidly gained popularity across the internet, creating hit singles including the collaboration with Kay Tse titled "City Light Chasing Dreams," as well as "Go with the Wind," "Burn," and "Silent Dialogue." As of now, the total online play count of the co-created songs has exceeded 100 million, demonstrating a strong ability to monetize traffic.To further empower the community, Fireverse announced the official launch of the "Copyright Staking Pool" at the end of December. Unlike traditional governance token models, this pool introduces a Real Yield mechanism.According to official estimates, based on the current traffic growth rate, the total revenue from music copyrights on the platform is expected to exceed $30 million by 2026. Of this, 50% (expected to be over $15 million) will be directly injected into the staking pool for distribution to LP holders. This means that users are not only listeners but also direct sharers of copyright revenue. With more top-tier popular artists joining the Fireverse co-creation camp next year, there is still significant growth potential for this revenue pool.

ChainCatcher message, the copyright holder of the "Nai Long" anime IP, Seventh Impression Company, announced that recently, some illegal individuals have been using the "Nai Long" image to engage in Bitcoin issuance, false advertising, and illegal financial activities, seriously misleading the public and damaging the brand's reputation. Seventh Impression emphasized that since its establishment, the company has never engaged in or authorized any units or individuals to participate in virtual currency-related businesses and firmly opposes all illegal activities. The company has now initiated a legal review process and will hold the relevant parties accountable according to the law, and will report to the public security authorities if necessary.

ChainCatcher news, according to market software, today the TaleX governance token X on Binance Alpha has increased by over 130% in a single day, with a 24-hour trading volume reaching 15 million USD.It is reported that the official X account of TaleX has officially announced that all tokens belonging to the team, investors, ecosystem, and community have been locked using PinkLock, with locked tokens accounting for 85% of the total token issuance.TaleX is a protocol focused on bringing RWA assets such as content copyrights on-chain. It has already served hundreds of well-known writers and short film production teams, and is seeking to expand its service scope to other categories of real-world consumer goods.

ChainCatcher message, Gala announced today that GalaChain has gained access to the Trusted Copyright Chain (TCC) through a milestone partnership with Shrapnel. This breakthrough provides approximately 600 million players in the world's largest gaming market with a cross-border channel to non-fungible tokens (NFTs).This collaboration brings funding to Shrapnel, and in the future, every cross-chain transfer in the game will consume Gala tokens.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, Disney and Universal Pictures filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles court on June 12, accusing the artificial intelligence company Midjourney of using their well-known film IP content such as "Star Wars," "Marvel," and "Shrek" without authorization to train AI models and generate infringing images. This marks the first time a major Hollywood studio has filed a copyright lawsuit against an AI company.The complaint states that the Midjourney platform allows users to generate images containing characters copyrighted by Disney and Universal Pictures, and has not taken effective technical measures to prevent infringement. Disney has indicated that it previously requested Midjourney to establish copyright protection mechanisms but received no response. Currently, both companies have applied for a preliminary injunction to suspend Midjourney's image generation services.Recently, several AI companies have faced copyright lawsuits, including OpenAI and Microsoft, which have been accused of using unauthorized copyrighted content to train AI models.

ChainCatcher news, according to Be In Crypto, Yuga Labs co-founder Greg Solano denied rumors about the company planning to sell the copyrights of the CryptoPunks series. This speculation was initially raised by NFT researcher Wale Moca and sparked widespread discussion and controversy within the Web3 community.Solano explicitly stated on the X platform: "Many people have approached us, especially in the last few months, but that doesn't mean we are going to do anything. We will only consider it when we are sure it is a long-term and highly valuable deal for CryptoPunks."

ChainCatcher news, according to TechCrunch, OpenAI's new video generation AI model Sora has been found to allegedly use game content from titles such as Super Mario and Call of Duty, as well as Twitch streamer likenesses for training. Legal experts warn that this could involve multiple copyright disputes.Experts point out that game videos typically contain multiple layers of copyright, including the copyrights of game developers, unique content generated by players, and user-created maps. Unauthorized use of such content to train AI models may be considered infringement, and even if AI companies claim fair use, users who publish or use the generated copyrighted content may still face legal risks.Additionally, the output content involving trademark or right of publicity issues may also increase legal challenges.

ChainCatcher news, a member of the Abstract Chain team @0xCygaar pointed out on the X platform that the FBI is suspected of violating the MIT License when issuing the token NexFundAI.The staff member stated that the FBI directly copied several library files from OpenZeppelin in its smart contract but failed to attach the required license declaration in the code, constituting copyright infringement. According to the MIT License, all copies or substantial portions of the software must include the license declaration.Previous news, the FBI had previously created a token called NexFundAI on Ethereum to identify and combat these suspected fraudsters and bring them to justice.

ChainCatcher news, about two months after being acquired by NFT heavyweight Yuga Labs, Moonbirds announced a major shift. This NFT series will now enhance holders' rights to commercialize individual Moonbirds, as announced on the X platform."Starting today, Moonbirds will join Mythics, becoming a series with commercial rights," the post stated. "If you created something during the CC0 era, that's cool. But from now on, you need to own a Moonbird to continue doing so." In 2022, Moonbirds shocked some holders when it suddenly changed its copyright model. At that time, Moonbirds adopted the Creative Commons CC0 copyright code, meaning the artwork became part of the public domain and could be freely commercialized without the owner's consent. Meanwhile, Moonbirds was acquired by Yuga Labs in February, the powerful NFT studio that created Bored Ape Yacht Club and owns the rights to CryptoPunks.

ChainCatcher news, the on-chain copyright platform Trips announced the completion of a $2.5 million Pre-Seed funding round, with participation from Shima Capital, Animal Capital, Blackwood Ventures, Serafund, Calligraphy Digital, and the Avalanche ecosystem fund Blizzard.Trips is built on the Avalanche Evergreen subnet, helping content creators establish copyright on the blockchain, providing tools necessary for content protection, authentication, and monetization for each creator. Its services currently support the video streaming platform YouTube.

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, a culture, media, and sports committee composed of members from different political parties in the UK has called on the government to establish copyright infringement protections and guidelines for NFTs. The organization began its investigation into NFTs in November, expressing concerns that fan tokens issued by football clubs could lead to financial losses for fans and damage the reputation of the clubs. The committee also urged those promoting NFTs to take on the responsibility of protecting consumers.

ChainCatcher news, NFT marketplace Zora has launched a free minting feature for creators, allowing anyone to create for free on Zora, all through independently owned smart contracts. Creators can make their collectibles mintable on Zora without having to put them on-chain, while the first buyer ("initial minter") will pay the gas fees to publish the creator's copyrighted work.