This is an expanded version of a post that first appeared on Scott Graham’s Skilled in the Art IP briefing.

We had the Rumble in the Copyright Jungle this morning in U.S. Magistrate Judge Alex Tse’s Northern District courtroom. Stanford Law School professor Mark Lemley and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe partner Annette Hurst debated whether Amazon.com’s software algorithms are evolved to the point that they exercise the human-like volition necessary for copyright liability when they choose photographs to appear on product pages.