Editing News-June-22-2026

'''June 22, 2026''' — A California federal judge allowed adult-film producers' copyright claims against Meta to proceed, Getty Images announced an OpenAI display partnership for licensed visual content, UK legal-tech company Garfield AI reported its first successful court-trial outcome after receiving Solicitors Regulation Authority approval, and X asked the FTC to end a long-running Twitter/X data-handling consent order after corporate mergers involving xAI and SpaceX.<ref name="tf-meta-mtd">[https://torrentfreak.com/meta-must-face-adult-film-piracy-lawsuit-as-court-denies-dismissal/ TorrentFreak, "Meta Must Face Adult Film Piracy Lawsuit as Court Denies Dismissal" (June 22, 2026)]</ref><ref name="order">[https://torrentfreak.com/images/meta-strike-mtd.pdf Order Denying Meta Platforms, Inc.'s Motion to Dismiss, ''Strike 3 Holdings LLC v. Meta Platforms, Inc.'' (N.D. Cal.)]</ref><ref name="getty-openai">[https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/06/22/3315003/0/en/Getty-Images-Announces-Display-Partnership-with-OpenAI.html Getty Images, "Getty Images Announces Display Partnership with OpenAI" (June 22, 2026)]</ref><ref name="ftc-x-comment">[https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/06/ftc-seeks-comment-x-corp-petition-set-aside-or-modify-ftc-order-concerning-twitter Federal Trade Commission, "FTC Seeks Comment on X Corp. Petition to Set Aside or Modify FTC Order Concerning Twitter" (June 17, 2026)]</ref>

== Contents ==
# [[#Judge Lets Strike 3 Copyright Claims Against Meta Proceed|Judge Lets Strike 3 Copyright Claims Against Meta Proceed]]
# [[#Getty Images Announces Display Partnership with OpenAI|Getty Images Announces Display Partnership with OpenAI]]
# [[#Garfield AI Reports First UK Court-Trial Win After SRA Approval|Garfield AI Reports First UK Court-Trial Win After SRA Approval]]
# [[#Musk Asks FTC to End X Data-Handling Order After xAI and SpaceX Mergers|Musk Asks FTC to End X Data-Handling Order After xAI and SpaceX Mergers]]

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== Judge Lets Strike 3 Copyright Claims Against Meta Proceed ==
U.S. District Judge Eumi K. Lee denied Meta Platforms, Inc.'s motion to dismiss copyright claims brought by Strike 3 Holdings and Counterlife Media, allowing direct, contributory, and vicarious infringement theories to continue at the pleading stage.<ref name="tf-meta-mtd" /><ref name="order" /> The court held that the alleged BitTorrent copying itself could satisfy the infringement element even without proof at the pleading stage that the films were used to train a particular AI model.<ref name="order" /> The order also rejected Meta's argument that the complaint only described personal downloads by employees or visitors, finding that repeated patterns across corporate IP addresses plausibly supported a coordinated-download inference.<ref name="tf-meta-mtd" /><ref name="order" />

The ruling is significant for AI training-data litigation because it lets the plaintiffs proceed on a theory centered on alleged acquisition of copyrighted works through BitTorrent, rather than requiring the complaint to tie each work to a specific model-training run at the motion-to-dismiss stage.<ref name="tf-meta-mtd" /><ref name="order" /> The case remains at an early procedural stage, and the order does not decide whether Meta actually infringed the plaintiffs' copyrights or whether the plaintiffs can prove AI-training use in discovery.<ref name="order" />


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== Getty Images Announces Display Partnership with OpenAI ==
Getty Images announced a display partnership with OpenAI under which Getty visual content can appear in ChatGPT search and discovery features.<ref name="getty-openai" /> Getty described the arrangement as a step toward linking AI-assisted search with licensed visual content and said the partnership is intended to expand discovery of Getty Images' editorial and creative libraries.<ref name="getty-openai" /> The announcement is relevant to AI copyright and licensing policy because it shows a major image-rights holder choosing a licensing-and-display model with OpenAI while separate copyright litigation over AI training and image generation continues elsewhere.<ref name="getty-openai" />


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== Garfield AI Reports First UK Court-Trial Win After SRA Approval ==
Garfield AI, an AI-powered legal-services provider authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, reported that it helped freelancer Tamires Camal Taquidir recover £7,000 in unpaid HR-service fees at Wandsworth County Court.<ref name="cityam-garfield">[https://www.cityam.com/landmark-moment-ai-law-firm-wins-its-first-ever-court-battle/ City A.M., "‘Landmark moment’ - AI law firm wins its first-ever court battle" (June 22, 2026)]</ref><ref name="lawyer-monthly-garfield">[https://www.lawyer-monthly.com/2026/06/garfield-ai-uk-court-trial-sra-approval/ Lawyer Monthly, "Garfield AI Wins UK Court Trial After SRA Approval" (June 22, 2026)]</ref> The platform prepared pre-action correspondence, issued the claim, and generated trial materials, while junior barrister Dominic Li of One Essex Court handled the in-court advocacy.<ref name="cityam-garfield" /><ref name="lawyer-monthly-garfield" /> City A.M. reported that the matter followed a three-hour May trial and that the court ruled for the claimant while dismissing the defendant's counterclaim.<ref name="cityam-garfield" />

The development is relevant to AI law and legal-services regulation because it shows a regulated AI-led workflow being used for small-claims litigation support rather than merely as an internal law-firm tool.<ref name="lawyer-monthly-garfield" /> Lawyer Monthly characterized the matter as a test of how SRA-approved AI legal services may affect solicitor accountability, routine debt claims, and access-to-justice economics.<ref name="lawyer-monthly-garfield" />


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== Musk Asks FTC to End X Data-Handling Order After xAI and SpaceX Mergers ==
The Federal Trade Commission opened a public-comment period on X Corp.'s petition to set aside or modify the FTC's privacy and data-security order concerning Twitter/X, with comments due July 2, 2026.<ref name="ftc-x-comment" /> Ars Technica reported that the order stems from Twitter's 2022 settlement over using phone numbers and email addresses provided for two-factor authentication for targeted advertising, and that the order requires independent audits and FTC access to compliance information through 2042.<ref name="ars-x-ftc">[https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/06/elon-musk-tries-again-to-escape-ftc-audits-of-x-data-handling/ Ars Technica, "Elon Musk tries again to escape FTC audits of X data handling" (June 22, 2026)]</ref>

X's petition argues that the order should be ended because Twitter no longer exists as a separate company after X was merged into xAI and xAI was later folded into SpaceX.<ref name="x-petition">[https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/X-Corp-petition-to-set-aside-FTC-consent-decree-5-15-26.pdf X Corp., "Petition to Set Aside or Modify Order" (May 15, 2026)]</ref> The petition also invokes the Trump administration's AI Action Plan, arguing that X and xAI are part of a corporate family at the center of U.S. AI ambitions and that continued compliance obligations divert engineering resources from innovation to paperwork.<ref name="x-petition" />

The development is significant for AI law because it links legacy platform-privacy enforcement to AI corporate integration and training-data governance after X's data assets became part of the xAI/SpaceX corporate structure.<ref name="ars-x-ftc" /> Public comments already filed in the FTC docket include concerns that the combined entity may have incentives to train AI systems on user data, making continued FTC oversight more important rather than less important.<ref name="reg-comment">[https://www.regulations.gov/comment/FTC-2026-0727-0010 Regulations.gov, Comment on FTC-2026-0727 concerning X Corp. petition (June 2026)]</ref>

== References ==
<references />

[[Category:Copyright Litigation]]
[[Category:Cases Against Meta]]
[[Category:Northern District of California]]
[[Category:DMCA]]
[[Category:Copyright Law]]
[[Category:International]]
[[Category:United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Sector-Specific Regulation]]
[[Category:Federal Regulation]]
[[Category:FTC]]
[[Category:Data Privacy]]
[[Category:Executive Branch]]