From the law firm's statement. “For over 100 years, New York law has prohibited companies from using a person’s name for commercial purposes without their consent. The law does not provide an exception for technology companies or AI.”

From the editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Chris Quinn, who is apparently a cousin. This is a sharp piece of writing and a timely political statement I certainly endorse. Francis Lowder is my second great-grandfather, and the picture includes my grandfather and uncle. I have Francis's GAR medal.

Highest recommendation for Raymond Biesinger's 2025 book, 9 Times My Work Has Been Ripped Off. It's a chatty, narrative-based primer for artists and writers on the various ways your work can be stolen and options for responding. The emphasis on creative community is especially welcome right now.

⚔️Ah, the long conversation between S&S fiction and gaming!🎲 Read James Lowder's fascinating history, illustrated by @morelockarts.bsky.social, in issue five of New Edge Sword & Sorcery: newedgeswordandsorcery.com/product-cate...

The Reich-suppressed 60 Minutes segment on CECOT aired in Canada. Watch it here:

Betty Boop, Nancy Drew, The Maltese Falcon, Eliot's "Ash Wednesday," L'Age d'Or, Animal Crackers, Der blaue Engel, several Gershwin compositions, "The St. Louis Blues" as recorded by Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong--all these and more entering the Public Domain in the US January 1, 2026.

My 16th annual Games to Gift segment ran this morning on the Public Radio show "Lake Effect" here in Milwaukee. Link to the segment archive, which includes my PDF notes. Over the years I've covered 200 to 300 tabletop games in the segments, with well over 50,000 words of associated text in my notes.

The GOP Reich knows their base.

Never trust what should be a public good to the market.

There is no bottom to this hole.

"The platform admits it is fighting against a ceaseless torrent of AI slop. Spotify says it has removed 75 million 'spammy' tracks from the platform just in the past year."

Also-- Writers, unite! You do not need to be SFWA to be eligible for a lawsuit under the LibGen & PiLiMi Pirated Books Class - but you do need to act soon! Deadline: September 1, 2025. Read more about it here, and spread the word widely: www.lieffcabraser.com/anthropic-au...

Generative AI--the thief that keeps on stealing.

"Everybody who uses AI is going to get exponentially stupider, and the stupider they get, the more they’ll need to use AI to be able to do stuff that they were previously able to do with their minds."

The Reich can't have the USPTO getting in the way of the AI company intellectual property smash and grab.

Well, so far the only tabletop gaming professional I've seen defending the tariffs is someone whose most notable accomplishment in the industry is being the subject of a Rascal News article where their former employees and clients accused them of various predatory abuses. That scans.

The techbro smash and grab AI campaign continues, with the latest push a tacit admission they have been stealing work all along.

The Reich and its supporters cannot tolerate empathy. It gets in the way of their aspirations for atrocities.

WELCOME JAMES LOWDER! @jameslowder.bsky.social will have a brand new article in one of this year's issues. See other contributors, cool art, exclusives and more: www.backerkit.com/c/projects/b...

Of course they are.

If you're putting together your Gary Con schedule, I'll be presenting An Insider History of D&D Fiction on Saturday at 3. It's a free event. Tickets here: tabletop.events/conventions/...

The "fair use" AI scraping defense takes a hit.

Another US ruling confirming you have no claim to copyright protection for your work if you use generative AI. If you're publishing your work or licensing your IP to an outfit feeding their releases into AI, they are potentially undermining your legal protection through the output text or art.

GAMA Expo panelist update. Good stuff! Tuesday, 5–6 pm: Building a Long-Term Creative Career in Tabletop Panelists: Mike Elliott, Bruno Faidutti, Marissa Kelly Wednesday, noon–1 pm: Licensing and Transmedia Essentials for the Tabletop Market Panelists: Nicole Lindroos, Mike Pondsmith, Elisa Teague

TSR/Wizards of the Coast fiction authors, double-check your latest Hasbro royalty statements. Three books for which I should be paid are missing from my audiobook section, another anthology included in error. Royalties for one print/ebook also tallied incorrectly. Mistakes go back several reports.

Bundle of Holding featuring Shannon Appelcline's essential TTRPG history series Designers & Dragons, along with a terrific Gen Con history from Robin Laws and both Hobby Games: The 100 Best and Family Games: The 100 Best. If you missed the bundle the other times it's been offered, now's your chance.

Nice NYT article about fantasy cartographer Karen Wynn Fonstad. I had the opportunity to work with her at TSR as editorial support on The Forgotten Realms Atlas. Very happy to see her and her work getting this well-deserved attention.

Essential reading. Netflix is a case study in tech bros remaking an entire creative market to eliminate both quality as a goal and the possibility of longterm shared success for the people doing the work. Their hyper-predatory Trickle Up vision for the economy doesn't end with media, of course.

In anticipation of Public Domain Day 2025, a good piece on what's entering the public domain and why—including, yes, Buck Rogers! (That pained groan you just heard is the reaction from all the post-1984 TSR alum to the mere utterance of the name.)

The 2024 edition of my Games to Gift segment ran on Milwaukee Public Radio yesterday. (Fifteenth year, somehow.) Games covered include Adventure Party, Forgery, Life in Reterra, Wyrmspan, Hard Rock: 1977, Devil's Dandy Dogs, and more. The archive page includes my full PDF write-up.

If you're putting together your potential schedule for Gary Con, I'll be presenting "An Insider History of D&D Fiction" on Saturday afternoon. Details here:

Privatizing the USPS would be especially damaging to creators and indie publishers, as well as anyone working or living in rural areas. www.alternet.org/trump-privat...

So this just went public …

@benriggs.bsky.social and I chat about DCC and Appendix N, and the interplay of fiction and TTRPG rules, on the latest episode of Reading D&D Aloud.

Funny how these publishing "disruptors" operate from the same exploitive mindset as the most cliched vanity press. The moment anyone deprofessionalizes your work as a creator, no matter your motivation to create or your level of experience, it's time to find a better publishing partner.

New Legislation Impacts Games Sales to the European Union www.rascal.news/new-legislat...

Dig your own economic grave with unreliable generative plagiarism bots built upon the stolen work of others! Sign up today! (In case anyone is missing the feel of Facebook over here.)

Creators who allegedly got stiffed by Action Lab suffered a setback in court this month. Also they can't get the rights back to their work since the books are still "in print" from Comixology. www.comicsbeat.com/class-action...

If you're a creator (designer, editor, artist), will be at GAMA Expo in 2025, and might be interested in participating in a panel, drop me a note. As the chair of the GAMA professional development subcommittee, I'm helping the team put the creator track offerings together.

I was a recent guest on the Ghost Show, talking about horror musicals and Shock Treatment, the underrated dystopian follow-up to Rocky Horror. It's more timely today as media and political commentary than when it was released in 1981, right down to the baseball caps. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AKz...