Reading a document has me going like this.

Writing is weird. I keep seeing some of my ideas make their way into legal documents, not always attributed, but I don't mind. Yesterday I dropped a bomb, an idea so simple yet so devastating that I wondered if anyone would notice. And today someone picked it up. Now we see if it sticks.

Getty Images v Stability AI: A landmark High Court ruling on AI, copyright, and trade marks The much-awaited decision in the lawsuit between stock photography giant Getty Images and AI developer Stability AI has now been released, see: Getty Images v Stability AI EWHC 2863 (Ch). I've discussed…

I'm sometimes copied in an email from a deranged person who claims to have found a fatal flaw in one piece of legislation which brings down the entire edifice of law. This type of thinking is also prevalent in "Freemen of the Land" and sovereign citizen circles, and I've always found it fascinating.

RIP my notifications today.

Fresh off the press! Getty Images v Stability AI [2025] EWHC 2863 (Ch). drive.google.com/file/d/1vqcQ...

Rumour has it that Getty Images v Stability AI will be out later today. This case is about trade marks, database rights, and secondary infringement, the direct infringement side was dropped. Honestly, I'm not sure what to expect, but I would be surprised if the TM claims were successful.

Social media sucks, but what’s the alternative? It would be fair to say that we're going through a period of realisation that social media may not have been such a good thing after all. The list of serious complaints continues to grow. Social media is making our children depressed and anxious.…

Sigh, I was supposed to be flying today to Zagreb for a film festival to talk about AI and copyright, and then I was also supposed to give a paper at CODAIP following Ryan Abbott. Cancelled both. Damn this stupid illness.

When I became British I thought that I understood the end of year holiday calendar. Halloween: mid-October Poppy season: November 1st Christmas season: 3rd week of November But it's all gone bonkers. Halloween: October 1st Poppies: October 20 Christmas: Nov 1st

I'm surprised how far we've come in the last 3 years in the AI copyright space. The subject used to be discussed by a few nerds on Twitter, and it has now exploded into a full-on content environment with BREAKING alerts and so many authoritative sources, you can't miss a development.

My covid came with a laryngitis chaser, I can only speak very short sentences. I work with my voice, so I had to cancel classes and next week I had 3 presentations and a trip to Zagreb, which looks like I'll also have to cancel.

Conan, what is best in life?

One of the strangest features of Bluesky, people still believe that copyright is going to somehow destroy generative AI.

invitations have been flying left and right, and while I still say no to a lot of things, I've been attending more stuff. Covid permitting I'll be at a film festival next week!

When I cough it sounds like a xenomorph is about to burst out of my chest.

People keep putting too much faith in whatever they think will be the next “silver bullet” to kill AI development. Copyright once filled that role, and when that didn’t pan out, they pinned their hopes on the “AI bubble” narrative mostly pushed by a handful of influencers.

The use of 'Zarya of the Dawn' in AI and copyright presentations is starting to become as outdated as using 'The Next Rembrandt'.

Oh joy, covid again. If my count is correct, this is my 9th.

AI slop is a skill issue.

The UK has a messed-up funding culture, and don't get me started on the REF.

ID cards is one of those subjects that I am mostly at odds with colleagues and friends in the UK. As someone who has had an ID card all his adult life in Costa Rica, I find them extremely useful in all sorts of situations, I think that many Europeans feel the same.

I know what to wear on my next trip to Paris.

Beware narwhals bearing cease-and-desist letters.

Gave evidence at the House of Lords today on AI and copyright, almost exactly 3 years after the first time. Policy moves slowly, I reminded their Lordships that the previous time I was there ChatGPT hadn't been launched yet and here we are again.

I just heard a distinct "Yes" coming out of my Sonos speakers unprompted, and now I'm freaking out. Yes what, Sonos?

New blog post: From broadcast to self-cast: The future of AI-made entertainment www.technollama.co.uk/from-broadca...

Social media has become completely disjointed after most academics left Twitter. The audience there disappeared, but I still use it mostly to consume AI-related research. Bluesky has a healthy academic audience, but I find that discoverability is very hit-and-miss, even if following the right lists.

The struggle is real.

Waiting for Getty v StabilityAI to drop.

An interesting perspective on this from a journal editor. We have an AI screening service and recently we've noticed a large number of articles submitted to us have been written with AI assistance. Our policy is not to reject outright, but to treat each paper as if it was written by a human.

I'm sort of surprised by the strength of the reaction here to the OpenAI porn announcement, I do find the idea of digital onanism slightly ridiculous and in bad taste, but I can't muster any outrage. Whatever floats people's boats, I won't be judgemental.

My To Do list.

I'm baffled that Myers-Briggs remains popular. Everyone knows that the only real personality test is DnD alignment. I'm Chaotic Good btw.

I am the son and the heir, Of a shyness that is criminally vulgar.

"I never thought the jaguars would eat me!" cries priest who voted for the "Jaguars Eating Priests Party".

Next week I'll be speaking at the Oxford Generative AI summit, if you're there say hi. www.oxgensummit.org

Three years into the AI Wars and not a single company has been brought down by copyright litigation. By this time into the P2P Wars, Napster had already been obliterated. When will the people who were assured that copyright would destroy AI realise they were lied to?

Is there a better high than giving a great lecture to a packed auditorium and see it land as it should?

I should have known that a legal consultancy firm that booked me for a talk wasn’t reliable when I saw the AI slop they were using to advertise their events.

On second thought, let's not go to Camelot. 'Tis a silly place.

My "Teaching prep" playlist is getting its first outing of the year. open.spotify.com/playlist/3SB...

After having fallen through several Bluesky rabbit holes over the weekend, I have come to the conclusion that this is not a very nice place at the moment.

I'm bored by most of the machine slur discourse, but it's baffling that people haven't made the connection between having fun with made-up slurs for machines, and the reality of using those slurs to associate with real people who use machines. I've already seen unironic uses of "clanker-lover".

I'm spending my Sunday falling down Bluesky rabbit holes instead of writing. I guess it beats cleaning the flat.

I don't spend a lot of time here, so I am often left feeling entirely baffled by Bluesky-specific discourse that floats past in one of my feeds. I have no idea what most of you are talking about half of the time.

I just read something I wrote over 3 years ago and before AI, and I swear that it reads like AI. Hi, it's me, I'm the problem, it's me.

Sora 2 and the end of copyright as we know it Something remarkable is happening online, and I don’t quite know how to explain it, but I’ll try. OpenAI has released Sora 2, the latest version of its video-generating tool, and it has landed with a bang. Before launch, Sam Altman made headlines by…

Tempted again. Quetzalcoatl, give me strength.

I tried the Gemini professional headshot prompt. Nailed it.