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Creative Future

• Getting a Lesson in Filmmaking from Producer Richard Gladstein April 10, 2024
  From his early days producing direct-to-video slasher films, to being a major figure in the independent cinema movement of the 1990s, Richard Gladstein has built a reputation as a champion of filmmakers. His credits span across budgets and genres. You may know his collaborations with director Quentin Tarantino, dating all the way back to his... […]
• OffScript Is Back for an All-New Season! March 27, 2024
  Drop what you’re doing and prepare your eyes and ears for the return of everyone’s favorite copyright-adjacent podcast! OffScript w/ Ruth and Mitch is BACK for an all-new season. The podcast, co-hosted by our very own Ruth Vitale and Recording Industry Association of America Chairman and CEO Mitch Glazier, brings together members of the creative... […]
• SXSW® 2024: Highlights from the Film and TV Festival March 13, 2024
  South by Southwest® (SXSW®) began on March 8 and will continue until March 16. As usual, the program for the annual conference in Austin, Texas, appears comprehensive, omitting almost no topic of contemporary interest, especially in the areas of the arts and science or technology. In the Opening Session, U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón and... […]

Stephen Carlisle

• Why Should Artists Subsidize OpenAI’s Bad Business Model? April 12, 2024
  In a recent filing with the UK Parliament, OpenAI stated: “It would be impossible to train today’s leading AI models without using copyrighted materials. Limiting training data to public domain books and drawings created more than a century ago might yield an interesting experiment, but would not provide AI systems that meet the needs of […]
• AI Company to Pay Reddit $60 Million a Year to Scrape Data: Great! Where’s my Share? March 14, 2024
  News broke recently that an unnamed AI company was preparing to pay Reddit $60 million a year to be allowed to scrape the content off the popular website. The company, rumored to be Google, and the deal, according to Bloomberg Law is “…the first major public licensing deal between a US social media giant and […]
• “Lazy Appropriators” Beware: The “Warhol” Fair Use Standard Takes Hold February 29, 2024
  The Supreme Court’s decision in Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith was a breath of fresh air that provided much needed guidance on the issue of fair use. Moreover, it reigned in the overbroad standard of “transformativeness” that had plagued court decisions for years. Never has this been more apparent than a recent Appellate Case reversing […]

Hugh Stephens Blog

• Public Lending Right (PLR) Registration in Canada is Still Open: Enrol If You Are Eligible April 15, 2024
  Photo: Author If you know all about the Public Lending Right (PLR) program in Canada, you probably don’t need this reminder. However, if you don’t and are a Canadian (citizen or resident) writer, editor, translator, photographer, illustrator, or narrator who has published a printed, audio or e-book with an ISBN number in the last five […]
• A Cautionary Copyright Tale April 10, 2024
  My daughter’s (copyrighted) art, circa 1990, age 5 (Used with permission) It is rare that a copyright story makes the national news, in Canada or elsewhere, but this one had all the needed ingredients. A teacher exploiting students, irate parents, and a possibly negligent school board. What’s not to like? The Canadian Press reported that […]
• Would Anyone Copyright This Flag? (Not an April Fool’s Joke) April 1, 2024
  Image: Flags of the World (Used with permission) No, this flag is not an April Fool’s joke, although I am posting this on April 1. As a flag design, it’s a dog’s breakfast. Not that a registered design has to be aesthetically appealing, but it needs to be original. And this one is original, in […]

Gordon Firemark Podcasts

Content Café – Australia

• MPA push for Site Blocking in the US April 22, 2024
  MPA Chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin used his CinemaCon speech to announce the MPA’s plans to push for site blocking legislation in the US. He said that site blocking is […]
• Anime piracy crackdown sets global precedent March 27, 2024
  Japanese authorities this month shut down an anime pirate site operating in China. It’s the first time an international anime site has been shut down and sets an important global […]
• Millennials and Gen-Z want originals, streaming survey reveals March 27, 2024
  A new streaming insights survey conducted by streaming platform Tubi found that 74 percent of millennials and Gen Zers prefer to watch original content rather than franchises or remakes. Of […]