Esquire – As the law fights to catch up to Big Tech, the future of books hangs in the balance. Are writers doomed by “the biggest rip-off in creative history” or could AI offer new ways of making a living? “I get hung up on the word scraping,” author R.O. Kwon says. “It sounds quite… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Digital Rights
National Information Standards Controlled Digital Lending Working Group Stalls
Library Futures: “…I am stepping down because I believe that publishers and their affiliated trade associations are more interested in undermining that mission and the NISO process than they are in finding a solution for CDL that respects the rights of libraries, authors, publishers, and readers. The Working Group’s proposed standard, which offers best practice… Continue Reading
Is DRM evil?
The Long Tail: “EFF organizer, BoingBoinger and Wired contributor Cory Doctorow, perhaps the best-informed person I know on the subject of Digital Rights Management, argues that Wired should be taking a more activist stance against it: Wired seems to be a little soft on DRM these days; the recent Wired spin-off, Wired Test, featured page… Continue Reading
The Race to Save Our Secrets From the Computers of the Future
The New York Times: Quantum technology could compromise our encryption systems. Can America replace them before it’s too late? [read free] “They call it Q-Day: the day when a quantum computer, one more powerful than any yet built, could shatter the world of privacy and security as we know it. It would happen through a… Continue Reading
Your Personal Information Is Probably Being Used to Train Generative AI Models
Scientific American: “Artists and writers are up in arms about generative artificial intelligence systems—understandably so. These machine learning models are only capable of pumping out images and text because they’ve been trained on mountains of real people’s creative work, much of it copyrighted. Major AI developers including OpenAI, Meta and Stability AI now face multiple… Continue Reading
The US library system, once the best in the world, faces death by a thousand cuts
Brewster Kahle – The Guardian: “The US library system, once the model for the world, is under assault from politicians, rightwing activists and corporate publishers. Book bans are at record levels, and libraries across the country are facing catastrophic budget cuts, a fate only narrowly avoided by New York City’s public libraries this summer. In… Continue Reading
Libro for audiobook
“Libro.fm is an employee-owned Social Purpose Corporation that shares profits from your audiobook purchases with your chosen bookstore, giving you the power to keep money within your local economy. Whether you are paying for monthly membership, giving an audiobook gift to a friend, or buying audiobooks for yourself or your organization, Libro.fm shares the profit… Continue Reading
Reclaiming Control: The Internet Archive Empowers People. Gatekeepers Keep Suing
Tech Dirt: “…About a year and a half later, the Internet Archive was sued for providing books in this manner to the public. The suit was triggered by a short-lived, well meaning program that made books available to students during a dark part of the pandemic by lifting certain restrictions on how many people at… Continue Reading
Zoom May Use Your Calls and Data to Train AI
Cyber Kendra: “…Recently, the popular video conferencing platform, Zoom, brought in a significant change to its terms of service which has sent ripples of worry across its vast user base. With this revision, Zoom has brought under its wing the permission to use users’ data to train Artificial Intelligence (AI). While this has undoubtedly sparked… Continue Reading
It’s Time to Rethink Digital Ownership
Wired: “In his quest to watch every Nicolas Cage movie in chronological order, law professor and author Aaron Perzanowski confirmed that he owns nothing—and that you probably don’t, either.” This is a podcast that includes a transcript…. Lauren Goode: “And do you own that music in the cloud? Gideon Lichfield: Well, that’s an interesting question… Continue Reading
Cory Doctorow is a Bestselling Author, but Audible Won’t Carry his Audiobooks
Editorial by Cory Doctorow: “Audible is a monopolist. The audiobook giant – a division of Amazon – controls more than 90 percent of the audiobook market in most commercially significant categories. Audible built that monopoly the old-fashioned way: by cheating. Audible is part of the Amazon conglomerate. Like all tech giants, Amazon’s growth strategy was… Continue Reading
How to Tell If an Image Is AI Generated
How to Geek: AI photos are getting better, but there are still ways to tell if you’re looking at the real thing — most of the time. An AI-generated photograph is any image that has been produced or manipulated with synthetic content using so-called artificial intelligence (AI) software based on machine learning. As the images cranked… Continue Reading
