In 2015, I published a 99-cent e-book. That book helped me build a six-figure training business. For two consecutive years, the business generated enough revenue to match my professor’s salary. The biggest lesson? The money wasn’t in the 99-cent transaction. The opportunity was in the intellectual property and business I could build around my expertise. BOOK → BRAND → BUSINESS. Today, AI makes it easier than ever to create content. But creating content isn’t the same as building an asset you can own. That’s why I’m hosting a FREE live training: FROM COPYRIGHT TO CASH One Book. Multiple Income Streams. Saturday, October 17, 2026 11 AM Central | 12 PM Eastern Featuring insights from Coach Vikki Hawthorne, a participant in my Bestseller Overnight® Publisher Certification Program. Register free: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Um7jCpYsQ0iPAoxAY9s-HQ Your story deserves to be published, protected, and paid. Frederick D. Jones, Esq. IP & Trademark Attorney #IntellectualProperty #Copyright #BookBrandBusiness #AIBusiness

A group of YouTubers sued ByteDance, the company behind TikTok. They say ByteDance scraped millions of YouTube videos to train its AI video tool without permission. On October 2, a federal judge in California refused to throw the case out. The case moves forward. Here is the part that matters for you. ByteDance argued the videos were public, so taking them was fine. The judge said no. YouTube has safeguards against mass downloading, and the judge ruled those safeguards count as locked doors under copyright law. Breaking a locked door to get the work is its own violation, even if you could see the work through the window. What does this mean for creators? Courts keep drawing the same line. Your work has value. Taking it at scale to feed AI is not a gray area anymore. It is a lawsuit. The practical takeaway: before you create or build anything with AI, know what went into it. And for your own work, run the HOF Test (Human. Original. Fixed.). Did a human make the creative choices? Is it original to you? Is it fixed where people can see it? Then it can be owned. And owned work is work a court can protect. Question for you: if someone trained an AI on your videos or your book without asking, what would you want to happen next? Source: Bloomberg Law https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/bytedance-fails-to-escape-youtubers-ai-training-copyright-suit For education, not legal advice.

Fresh off today's Copyright Wake-Up Call, here is breaking news that proves the point. A federal judge this week refused to throw out a copyright case against Suno, the AI music company. Indie artists say Suno ripped their songs from YouTube to train its AI music generator. Three things that matter for you: 1. The judge said the artists do not have to name every infringing AI output to keep their case alive. Their 100 examples of Suno outputs imitating their songs were enough. 2. The artists' claim that Suno got around YouTube's protections also survived. 3. Cases like this are why registration matters. Registered work gives you stronger claims and stronger remedies in court. This is happening in real time while AI trains on creative work. Before you create or build your next book, song, course, or app, know what you own. Source: https://molawyersmedia.com/2026/09/28/us-district-court-denies-motion-to-dismiss-copyright-claims-suno/ Question for the room: if someone trained an AI on your book or your song without asking, what is the first proof you would show a judge?

An AI company just agreed to pay $1.5 billion to authors. Here is the part nobody is talking about. The money is real. About $3,000 per book. First checks go out by November 25. But there is a catch. And it is the whole story. Only authors who REGISTERED their copyright get paid. Let me say that again, slowly: - Your book had to be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. - It had to have an ISBN or ASIN. - If you skipped registration, you get nothing. Zero. Out of roughly 7 million books Anthropic downloaded, only about 500,000 qualified. More than 9 out of 10 books were left out, mostly because they were never registered. And it gets worse. Some authors DID write the book, but their publisher never registered it. Now the Authors Guild is fighting just to get those authors half of what they are owed, about $1,500 instead of $3,000. Somebody else's paperwork mistake is costing authors half their money. Here is the lesson, and it is the only lesson: YOUR COPYRIGHT EXISTS WHEN YOU WRITE IT. YOUR PAYCHECK EXISTS WHEN YOU REGISTER IT. Registration is the difference between owning your work and watching someone else cash in on it. You are already in the right place. This is exactly why this community exists. So here is your homework this week. Drop a comment below and answer honestly: is your book registered with the U.S. Copyright Office? Yes, or not yet. If your answer is "not yet," we are going to fix that together. Dr. Fred Jones P.S. Full breakdown of the settlement: https://www.infotoday.eu/Articles/Editorial/Featured-Articles/Anthropic-gets-ready-to-pay-the-15-billion-price-tag-for-copyright-violations-175967.aspx

Outkast just sued a rapper named Ovrkast. Yes, you read that right. Andre 3000 and Big Boi's company filed a 31-page federal lawsuit on September 16. They say his stage name is nearly identical to theirs and confuses fans. They want him to stop using it, pay damages, and destroy his merchandise. His album drops October 9. Three lessons for every creator: 1. Search your name before you build your brand. Ovrkast built his whole career on a name he may not get to keep. Before you pick a stage name, pen name, or business name, check that no one famous already owns something close. 2. Get it in writing. The two sides verbally agreed he would rebrand by July 15. He never signed the final papers. Now it is a federal case. A verbal agreement is worth the paper it is written on. 3. Your own words can be used against you. In a 2025 interview, Ovrkast admitted fans confuse his name with Outkast. That quote is now evidence in the lawsuit. Be careful what you say in public. Your name is your brand. Protect it before you build on it. For education, not legal advice. Which lesson hit you hardest? Tell me below.