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Category Archives: Copyright

There’s More to Copyright Than Financial Incentives

ToreentFreak: “The Internet Archive is doubling down on its position that its digital lending library service operates under the bounds of fair use. Major publishers assert that digitizing books without appropriate licensing amounts to infringement but IA counters that the practice is in the public interest. It also fits copyright’s ultimate purpose; to promote the broad public availability of literature and other arts. The non-profit Internet Archive (IA) aims to preserve digital history for generations to come. The organization literally archives key parts of the Internet, copying older versions of websites to preserve them for future generations. This information becomes more and more valuable as time passes by. IA has plenty of other archive projects too. For example, it operates a library that offers a broad collection of digital media, including books, which patrons can borrow upon request. Thousands of libraries have digital lending services but IA’s approach is different. The organization doesn’t license authorized digital copies from publishers; instead, its books are scanned and digitized in-house. Each copy can only be loaned to one person at a time, to mimic the lending attributes of physical books…Both sides were supported by amicus briefs from interested parties, a clear indication of what’s at stake in this dispute. Before the court case moves forward, however, IA replied to the publishers’ Napster comments and other critiques…”

How to Stop Your Data From Being Used to Train AI

Wired: “If you’ve ever posted something to the internet—a pithy tweet, a 2009 blog post, a scornful review, or a selfie on Instagram—it has most likely been slurped up and used to help train the current wave of generative AI. Large language models, like ChatGPT, and image creators are powered by vast reams of our… Continue Reading

How Copyright May Destroy Our Access To The World’s Academic Knowledge

TechDirt – Glyn Moody: “The shift from analogue to digital has had a massive impact on most aspects of life. One area where that shift has the potential for huge benefits is in the world of academic publishing. Academic papers are costly to publish and distribute on paper, but in a digital format they can… Continue Reading

Librarians fear new penalties, even prison, as activists challenge books

AP: “…Across the country, book challenges and bans have soared to the highest levels in decades. Public and school-based libraries have been inundated with complaints from community members and conservative organizations such as as Moms for Liberty. Increasingly, lawmakers are considering new punishments — crippling lawsuits, hefty fines, and even imprisonment — for distributing books… Continue Reading

‘Law Firm’ of AI Generated Lawyers Is Sending Fake Threats as SEO Scam

404 Media: “Last week, Ernie Smith, the publisher of the website Tedium, got a “copyright infringement notice” from a law firm called Commonwealth Legal: “We’re reaching out on behalf of the Intellectual Property division of a notable entity, in relation to an image connected to our client,” it read.  I am familiar with these sorts… Continue Reading

The Intersection Of Human Creativity And AI

Above the Law: A Legal Renaissance – “AI’s foray into the creative domain, producing works that rival human creations, has sparked a debate on the future of creativity itself. In the labyrinth of modern advancements, artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping industries and redefining boundaries. Yet, as AI extends its reach into the world of creativity… Continue Reading

The Essential Guide To Using Images Legally Online

Search Engine Journal: “…Images are an essential component of online content – and it’s obvious why. Images aren’t just pretty—they’re powerful marketing tools that help you stand out. They pique your audience’s attention, enhance your messaging, and significantly enhance the appeal and effectiveness of your content. Whether you’re creating a social media post, a webpage,… Continue Reading

Caselaw Access Project

“The Caselaw Access Project (“CAP”) expands public access to U.S. law. Our goal is to make all published U.S. court decisions freely available to the public online, in a consistent format, digitized from the collection of the Harvard Law School Library. We created CAP’s initial collection by digitizing roughly 40 million pages of court decisions… Continue Reading

Axel Springer vs. Google

Fortune: “Axel Springer is at Google’s throat again. The German news-publishing giant (for which I worked in my days at Politico) has a long history of battling Google over the issue of so-called ancillary copyright fees—payments for carrying snippets of text and thumbnail images in search results. But now it’s waging war on another front:… Continue Reading

Generative AI Might Finally Bend Copyright Past the Breaking Point

The Atlantic [unpaywalled] – For more than 200 years, copyright law has promoted a creative society. The chatbots could change everything. “It took Ralph Ellison seven years to write Invisible Man. It took J. D. Salinger about 10 to write The Catcher in the Rye. J. K. Rowling spent at least five years on the… Continue Reading

Tumblr and WordPress to Sell Users’ Data to Train AI Tools

404Media: “Tumblr and WordPress.com are preparing to sell user data to Midjourney and OpenAI, according to a source with internal knowledge about the deals and internal documentation referring to the deals. The exact types of data from each platform going to each company are not spelled out in documentation we’ve reviewed, but internal communications reviewed… Continue Reading

Why The New York Times might win its copyright lawsuit against OpenAI

Ars Technica: “The day after The New York Times sued OpenAI for copyright infringement, the author and systems architect Daniel Jeffries wrote an essay-length tweet arguing that the Times “has a near zero probability of winning” its lawsuit. As we write this, it has been retweeted 288 times and received 885,000 views. “Trying to get… Continue Reading