Looks like another AI startup is being coopted by the major labels via copyright lawsuit. What might have been a tool to make new music will become a walled garden/roach motel for playing with major label content, only in ways they approve.

Always think about equity stakes as a potential part of these confidential settlements. Bargaining in the shadow (or the throes!) of litigation... www.nytimes.com/2006/10/19/t...)

Happy #fairusefriday! Fair use isn’t just for big names like Ken Burns. Everyone has fair use rights, and you can use them to tell any story that matters to you. For fair use tactics the pros use, check out the Documentary Filmmakers Code of Best Practices in Fair Use: cmsimpact.org/code/documen....

Insane but true fact: making US roads as safe as Canadian, Australian, or European roads would save more lives than eliminating murder from the US.

BREAKING: WMG has settled with music AI developer Udio. Three giant companies - UMG, WMG, and Sony control the vast majority of commercial music copyrights, and they've all sued the two leading music AI startups, Suno and Udio. www.hollywoodreporter.com/music/music...

You may have noticed that every time generative AI or so-called "deepfakes" come up, a handful of legislators flog their preferred 'solution' - the NO FAKES Act. If you're wondering what the bill does, and why it's dangerous, @eff.org has you covered: www.eff.org/ja/document...

In last week's Re:Create Recap, @bb.usefairuse.com argued that the copyright cartels' attacks on the American Law Institute's Restatement of the Law, Copyright—designed to give judges guidance on interpreting complex copyright case law—are weak and misleading: recreatecoalition.org/a-note-from-...

It’s wild that you can just openly bribe the President of the United States with chunks of gold to get whatever you want, it’s fine, you don’t have to hide it, just say “I am bribing the President with gold,” zero consequences.

Never forget, Maxwell is like the father of modern commercial scholarly publishing. www.theguardian.com/science/2017...

"'People who care about the future of an independent U.S. higher-education system must take seriously the authoritarian aims of the federal government,' said Dominique Baker" This lady seems really concerned about govt overreach & credulous higher ed stakeholders www.chronicle.com/article/the-...

I lean into "this is happening / already happened" because there's no point discussing the aesthetics of airplanes with an audience that hates flight But my actual motive for being interested in language models is that "interactive, tunable libraries" is a dizzyingly attractive idea

Jim Ryan's letter is not just surreal and troubling; it provides a series of deeply sobering lessons—about the perils facing public universities today; about what it means to "work with" this Department of Justice; & about what leadership does (and doesn't) entail at this especially fraught moment.

Visual art has been a rich playing field for fair use, and this #fairusefriday we celebrate that impact. Artists who want to flex their rights should check out the CAA Code of Best Practices: www.collegeart.org/pdf/fair-use...

As the usual suspects seem intent on manufacturing a controversy over the ALI's Restatement of Copyright, I want to resurface a couple of threads I've written in response to past eruptions of pique from these folks.

It's a massive improvement, y'all. Much more readable, well-organized, up-to-date, and check out the gorgeous public domain illustrations!

There's a long-running communication breakdown between technologists on the one hand and commercial publishers and creators on the other. Technologists and digital researchers often see creative works as data, while publishers and creators see them as commercial art.

Gotta strongly disagree with Professor Tang that fair use is the wrong tool for sorting out copyright questions around AI. It's exactly the right tool. Her reasoning - that fair use is only for small cases, not big, industry-scale questions=just false. VCRs, search, doc film, rely on FU at scale.

Lots of interesting stuff at this Silicon Flatirons AI+copyright politics meeting, but what we just heard may be the most interesting to me, so far: the uncopyrightability of AI outputs was the most important factor in the writers' negotiations over AI.

Tuning in to the CU Boulder Silicon Flatirons event on AI and the Future of Copyright Politics today, with perhaps a little live-tweeting, so stay tuned! siliconflatirons.org/events/ai-a...

I want to highlight a client project, not because it's full of fair use (there's almost none; it's a verité film!), but just because it's full of humanity.

This was a fun conversation, and I want to reiterate that I love Nick from @publicknowledge.bsky.social's sweater! And also, I want to reiterate that libraries and librarians have many valid reasons for concern about AI, but unless we want to abandon a century of policy work, copyright ain't one.

Beshear: Let me be clear. The president has both the funding and the authority to fund snap during a shutdown. In fact, every other president in every other shutdown has done so. People going hungry in this instance is a choice that this president has made.

Wow it turns out the entire country is not permanently reactionary because Trump won an election by 1.5%

I just watched a @copyrightsoc panel on the state of play in AI litigation, and I'm gobsmacked. Three out of four panelists presented a hardcore maximalist position that is completely out of touch with fair use case law. They denigrated (and in one case misrepresented, imo) the

Great new piece from Ashley Belanger from @arstechnica.com about the @archive.org and the future of digital libraries in the aftermath of IA's big copyright settlements. I'm quoted re statutory damages and how they distort incentives for digital projects. arstechnica.com/tech-policy...

Lmao literally having a "we're rich" party while they cut SNAP is like cartoon level evil it's like the villain in a Dr. Seuss book

I spoke with video journalist/essayist Christophe Haubursin about the boundary between lawful and unlawful copying, and how that maps onto the wild array of videos he found were copying his own work online. Watch to the end—the conclusion is excellent! youtu.be/CFJIVBJYY9M...

Yesss! #fairusefriday #fewsmallbeers #onebattleafteranother #sensei

#fairusefriday (yeah yeah the book is public domain...I KNOW!)

Happy Halloween and Happy #Fairusefriday!! Already seeing some great ones on here! Share your fair use costume with us!!

Yesssss! #fairusefriday

Udio has settled with Universal, and you can look forward to "creations controlled within a walled garden and…fingerprinting, filtering, and other measures" (their words!) controlled entirely by biggest global record label ever. What could go wrong?!? www.universalmusic.com/universal-m...

ACCESSIBILITY ALLIES! A fresh addendum to the @arlpolicy Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries brings the 2012 document up to date, adding positive caselaw and statutory updates! www.arl.org/wp-content/... #a11y #fairuse

#fairuse of the day

"[H]olding ISPs liable [for user activity] could lead to innocent people losing internet access based on unfounded allegations, which would unfairly harm families, schools, and communities." Catch up on Cox v. Sony with @recreatecoalition.bsky.social. www.recreatecoalition.org/summarizing-...

The Journal of Controversial Ideas is a cautionary tale of what happens when academic freedom is conflated with free speech. Most journals would be too embarrassed to publish the exceptionally poor scholarship the JCI repeatedly platforms, but at the JCI “controversy” matters, not scientific merit

'This text and data mining thing is just a fad, surely, and it is best to opt our entire country out of it.' ministers.ag.gov.au/media-centr...

One day only THIS THURSDAY 10/30! @nickgarcia.bsky.social, @merbroussard.bsky.social, and @bb.usefairuse.com will be talking legal and ethical issues in AI for libraries and librarians! Register to attend (or get the recording and all the links)! nyu.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

This is why reasonable secondary liability rules are so important for competition, diversity, and creativity in AI development. If you want AI tools built by more than a few companies, then you need legal rules that more than a few can afford to follow.

FACTS

Some of us are old enough to remember when Reddit cared about the open web and recognized the DMCA shouldn’t be used as a hack around fair use. x.com/lehogg/statu...

GLORY, GLORY TO OLD GEORGIA! AND TO HELL WITH OLE MISS REBS!

C’est géniale d’être une Bulldog de Georgia!!

On December 4th I'll be in conversation with @hjoseph.bsky.social about my new book Publishing Beyond the Market. Part of the @authorsalliance.bsky.social and @archive.org book talk series. Register here: www.eventbrite.com/e/book-talk-...

#FairUseFriday 🤓 Fair use plays a critical role in advancing research and scholarship! Fair use has been key in building online databases, previewing research materials before purchasing, and gaining access to archival content. Re:Create member @arl.org has more: www.arl.org/know-your-co...

We're thrilled to welcome @nickgarcia.bsky.social arcia.bsky.social, @merbroussard.bsky.social, and @bb.usefairuse.com to the next in our fall webinar series! Register today for Legal and Ethical Issues in AI on 10/30! nyu.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Gotta do a little log-rolling, as I just found out our client Milisuthando Bongela's debut film, "Milisuthando," is available to stream on the Criterion Channel! It's a beautiful, poignant autobiographical meditation on life under and after Apartheid. www.criterionchannel.com/milisuthando

This #fairusefriday we are highlighting a threat to fair use: link taxes. The perversity of the link tax idea is hard to overstate, as the predatory hedge funds killing journalism will just take link tax revenue as a windfall right into their profit margins.

If you don't get our Re:Create ReCap newsletter, you're missing out on all this good stuff!! Check it out, sign up, and look forward to the next issue later this month!