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A Bunch Of Authors Sue OpenAI Claiming Copyright Infringement, Because They Don’t Understand Copyright

2 years ago
You may have seen some headlines recently about some authors filing lawsuits against OpenAI. The lawsuits (plural, though I’m confused why it’s separate attempts at filing a class action lawsuit, rather than a single one) began last week, when authors Paul Tremblay and Mona Awad sued OpenAI and various subsidiaries, claiming copyright infringement in how […]
Mike Masnick

Germany’s New Copyright Exception For Pastiche Applied For First Time

2 years ago
Although overall the EU Copyright Directive is bad news for the digital world because of things like its need for the use of automated upload filters, it does contain a few glimmers of good sense. For example, it rectifies a failing of the previous EU legislation in this area, the 2001 Infosec Directive. The 2001 law allowed Member States […]
Mike Masnick

Reddit Tells Protesting Mods It Will Remove Them If They Don’t Stop, As Reddit’s Subreddit For The Blind Can No Longer Be Moderated By Blind Users

2 years ago
As you’ll recall, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman whined about what he called the “landed gentry” among moderators of subreddits that were protesting his ridiculous extractive API changes. He insisted that perhaps things should be more democratic. In response, many subreddits took a vote on how subscribers to those subreddits wanted the mods to handle things, […]
Mike Masnick

Daily Deal: WonderCube Pro All-In-One Mobile Keyring

2 years ago
End the frustration of carrying tangled cables and the bulkiness of multiple accessories forever with this WonderCube Pro. This is the smallest all-in-one mobile solution that carries 8 smartphone essentials right at your fingertips. This device features a 1″ foldout flexible USB cord that measures 3″ when extended. It has a built-in gold-plated connector that […]
Gretchen Heckmann

DC Circuit Says FOSTA Is Perfectly Constitutional, Nothing To See Here

2 years ago
Back in January there was some hope that the panel of judges hearing the latest version of the challenge to FOSTA’s constitutionality had recognized the problems with the law. That’s because during oral arguments they seemed to express skepticism about its constitutionality, noting that it appeared to criminalize any efforts to legalize prostitution. But as […]
Mike Masnick

Congress May Not Renew Low-Income Broadband Program Birthed During COVID

2 years ago
During peak pandemic, the FCC launched the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB program), giving lower income Americans a $50 ($75 for those in tribal lands) discount off of their broadband bill. Under the program, the government gave money to ISPs, which then doled out discounts to users if they qualified. But (and I’m sure this will […]
Karl Bode

Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

2 years ago
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Cdevon2 with a response to the notion that it’s somehow ironic for people who wanted to leave Twitter to be complaining about not being able to read tweets: You assume that the same people who are actively leaving the site are the ones complaining […]
Leigh Beadon

This Week In Techdirt History: July 2nd – 8th

2 years ago
Five Years Ago This week in 2018, the latest text of the EU Copyright Directive showed it to be even more disastrous than expected. Thus, its defenders and apologists were busy responding variously with substance-free denial, vague defenses lacking any understanding of the issues, accidental revelations of the true scope of their internet-destroying goals, and […]
Leigh Beadon

NetChoice Challenges Yet Another Ridiculously Bad State Internet Law

2 years ago
NetChoice has been quite busy the last few years suing to stop a wide variety of terrible state laws designed to mess up parts of the internet. It took on Florida’s social media content moderation law and won (twice). It took on Texas’ social media content moderation law and won at the district court, and […]
Mike Masnick

Copyright As Harassment: The DMCA Attack On IPFS Gateways

2 years ago
The Internet is amazing, but it’s not perfect. There are many aspects that are unsatisfactory – its protocols are inefficient, and it is far from resilient. The InterPlanetary File System, created in 2014, aims to address some of these deficiencies. On its main site it is described as: A peer-to-peer hypermedia protocol designed to preserve and grow humanity’s […]
Mike Masnick

Senator Josh Hawley’s Public Records Law Violations Just Cost His Constituents $242,000

2 years ago
Late last year, Senator Josh Hawley — the fist-pumping supporter of Trump-approved insurrection — generated the last bit of his Missouri state government legacy. Having been successfully sued for violating state public records laws while acting as the state attorney general, Hawley was ordered to pay $12,000 by Judge Jon Beetem. The total bill included […]
Tim Cushing

Daily Deal: Scrivener 3

2 years ago
Scrivener is the go-to app for writers of all kinds, used every day by best-selling novelists, screenwriters, non-fiction writers, students, academics, lawyers, journalists, translators, and more. Scrivener won’t tell you how to write—it simply provides everything you need to start writing and keep writing. Scrivener makes it easy to structure ideas, write a first draft, […]
Gretchen Heckmann