The Illusion of More blog was started in 2012 based on three interrelated premises: 1) that disinformation is toxic to democracy; 2) that Big Tech’s assault on copyright rights was both a disinformation campaign itself and a catalyst for more disinformation; and 3) that technology should serve humans and not the other way around. The difficulties posed by tech-enabled disinformation ...
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) has prefaced a renewed interest in site-blocking legislation to combat piracy. Will things be different this time? When the internet industry killed the antipiracy bills SOPA and PIPA in January 2012, I was a newbie blogger but guessed at the time that those parties had totally blown their wad on that campaign. First, there was ...
On March 17, Rolling Stone published an article featuring a song called “Soul of the Machine.” Sounding like blues of the early 20th century, the “voice” sings the lyric, “I’m just a soul trapped inside this circuitry.” Naturally, the whole work—music, lyrics, guitar playing, and singing—was produced by artificial intelligence. As writer Brian Hiatt describes, a simple prompt, “solo acoustic ...
If it can be difficult to keep up with artists’ rights in the news, that goes double for music. Fortunately, there are some incredible artists who devote as much energy and passion to rights advocacy as they to do making music—and among those individuals is Blake Morgan. Singer/songwriter, recording artist, indie label owner, and producer, Blake epitomizes the hard-working, middle-class ...
Publishers File Brief in Response to Internet Archive Appeal On Friday, the publishers in Hachette, et al. v. Internet Archive filed their response brief opposing the archive’s appeal of its loss in district court. IA maintains that its practice of “Controlled Digital Lending” is not copyright infringement under the doctrine of fair use despite the lower court’s fast and resounding ...
