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Category Archives: Intellectual Property

Why Tech Companies Are Not Your Friends

The New York Times – Lessons From Roku [unpaywalled]- “Roku recently changed its policy to make it even harder for customers to take legal action. It’s a reminder of how we need to protect ourselves….In reality, the tech products we buy can evolve to keep protecting those interests — and the hoops we have to jump through to gain some control are often impractical. Here’s a reminder of what to remember. We don’t really own our tech products. More than a decade ago, when we bought a TV it was just that — a big screen that let you plug into it whatever you wanted. Nowadays, the vast majority of TVs connect to the internet and run the manufacturer’s operating system and apps. Even though you bought the TV, the software component, a major part of what makes the product work, remains controlled by the company…Changes to the product’s software interface and data collection practices can happen at any moment. In extreme examples, a device can stop working. In 2020, for instance, Amazon deactivated the Echo Look, a camera that helped people organize their wardrobes. It issued a promotional credit for owners to buy a different Amazon gadget that lacked similar features.The less extreme, more common situation is when companies stop supporting older products because they need to sell new gadgets. Apple’s original Apple Watch from 2015, for example, no longer gets software updates and now barely works…”

A Friendly Reminder: A.I. Work Isn’t Yours

The New York Times: “Many organizations are grappling with how to manage A.I. in the workplace. The next time someone turns in work generated by A.I. without an appropriate acknowledgment, simply tell them that moving forward, they need to identify all A.I.-generated work. But it’s also important to take a more expansive approach instead of… Continue Reading

IP – Stronger Fraud Risk Management Could Improve the Integrity of Trademark System

Intellectual Property: Stronger Fraud Risk Management Could Improve the Integrity of the Trademark System. Published: Mar 14, 2024. Publicly Released: Mar 14, 2024. “…The Trademark Modernization Act of 2020 (TMA) established two new procedures—expungement and reexamination—that allow individuals and businesses to challenge a registered trademark on the basis that it was not used in commerce,… Continue Reading

Plagiarism doesn’t need AI to thrive online

Vox – A YouTuber’s deep dive on plagiarism tries to make viewers care when creators steal content: “Copying has always been a part of internet culture. Sometimes it’s ethical, sometimes not. It’s almost always incentivized: Once social media began reshaping online life, copying became a go-to tactic for getting views. When copying crosses an ethical… Continue Reading

Artists Lose First Round of Copyright Infringement Case Against AI Art Generators

Hollywood Reporter: “Artists suing generative artificial intelligence art generators have hit a stumbling block in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit over the uncompensated and unauthorized use of billions of images downloaded from the internet to train AI systems, with a federal judge’s dismissal of most claims. U.S. District Judge William Orrick on Monday found that copyright infringement… Continue Reading

Lessig on why AI and social media are causing a free speech crisis for the internet

The Verge: Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig – After 30 years teaching law, the internet policy legend is as worried as you’d think about AI and TikTok — and he has surprising thoughts about balancing free speech with protecting democracy. Nilay Patel: “…Larry and I talked about the current and recurring controversy around react videos on… Continue Reading

AI is learning from stolen intellectual property. It needs to stop.

Washington Post – William D. Cohan is a best-selling author and a founding partner of Puck News: “The other day someone sent me the searchable database published by The Atlantic that have been used to train the generative AI systems being developed by Meta, Bloomberg and others. It turns out that four of my seven… Continue Reading

These 183,000 Books Are Fueling the Biggest Fight in Publishing and Tech

The Atlantic – Editor’s note: This searchable database is part of The Atlantic’s series on Books3. You can read about the origins of the database here, and an analysis of what’s in it here. “This summer, I acquired a data set of more than 191,000 books that were used without permission to train generative-AI systems… Continue Reading

UK Guide on the use of Generative AI

UK Gov: Guide on the use of Generative AI – “Overview – Generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools offer many potential benefits to Government of Canada (GC) institutions. Federal institutions should explore potential uses of generative AI tools for supporting and improving their operations. However, because these tools are evolving, they should not be used in… Continue Reading

UK Proposed principles to guide competitive AI markets and protect consumers

Gov.UK – September 18, 2023: “The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has today published a report following its initial review of foundation models (FMs) and has proposed principles which aim to ensure consumer protection and healthy competition are at the heart of responsible development and use of FMs. FMs are artificial intelligence (AI) systems with… Continue Reading