On Thursday, music labels sought to add nearly 500 more sound recordings to a lawsuit accusing the Internet Archive (IA) of mass copyright infringement through its Great 78 Project, which seeks to digitize all 3 million three-minute recordings published on 78 revolutions-per-minute (RPM) records from about 1898 to the 1950s.
If the labels' proposed second amended complaint is accepted by the court, damages sought in the caseâwhich some already feared could financially ruin IA and shut it down for goodâcould increase to almost $700 million. (Initially, the labels sought about $400 million in damages.)
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The Great 78 lawsuit is clearly focused on sound recordings, with music publishers claiming IA's ambitions to preserve music history are a "smokescreen" to justify alleged infringement. They claimed that IA's project isn't fair use for educational purposes because the Great 78 Project's account on X (formerly Twitter) would announce recordings were available without sharing "historical facts associated with the recordings; it simply advertised that the recordings were freely available to download or stream and encouraged users to go and obtain them."
But David Seubert, who manages sound collections at the University of California, Santa Barbara library, told Ars that he frequently used the project as an archive and not just to listen to the recordings.
For Seubert, the videos that IA records of the 78 RPM albums capture more than audio of a certain era. Researchers like him want to look at the label, check out the copyright information, and note the catalogue numbers, he said.
"It has all this information there," Seubert said. "I don't even necessarily need to hear it," he continued, adding, "just seeing the physicality of it, it's like, 'Okay, now I know more about this record.'"
Censorship
Music labels will regret coming for the Internet Archive, sound historian says
in Ars TechnicaWashington Post opinion editor departs as Bezos pushes to promote âpersonal liberties and free marketsâ
in The GuardianShameless.
Jeff Bezos, the self-proclaimed âhands-offâ owner of the Washington Post, emailed staffers on Wednesday morning about a change he is applying to the paperâs opinion section that appears to align the newspaper more closely with the political right.
âIâm writing to let you know about a change coming to our opinion pages. We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets,â Bezos said.
âWeâll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others. There was a time when a newspaper, especially one that was a local monopoly, might have seen it as a service to bring to the readerâs doorstep every morning a broad-based opinion section that sought to cover all views. Today, the internet does that job.â
Transgender Health Data Wiped from CDC Records by Trump Order
in TransVitaeThe CDCâs move to comply with Trumpâs executive order is not just an attack on transgender inclusionâit is a fundamental assault on evidence-based policymaking. Public health data drives funding allocations, legislative protections, and medical advancements. Without accurate data on transgender individuals, lawmakers and health officials will be unable to craft policies that address the unique challenges faced by the trans community.
For transgender individuals, this erasure from federal data is more than an administrative slightâit is a direct threat to their health, safety, and survival. Without demographic representation, there will be fewer initiatives tailored to trans healthcare needs, fewer resources allocated for trans youth mental health programs, and fewer protections against discrimination in medical settings.
âThis is an attempt to legislate us out of existence,â said a transgender activist who wished to remain anonymous. âThey are trying to make it so that we donât âexistâ in public data, and if we donât exist in the data, we donât exist in policy. If we donât exist in policy, we donât get protections. And if we donât get protections, they are making us more vulnerable.â
Search Risk â How Google Almost Killed Proton Mail
for ProtonThe time it took me to go from "Oh, this is so much better than Alta Vista!" to "OMG! This is the Web's single point of failure!" was much longer than it should have been.
The short summary is that for nearly a year, Google was hiding Proton Mail from search results for queries such as âsecure emailâ and âencrypted emailâ. This was highly suspicious because Proton Mail has long been the worldâs largest encrypted email provider.
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In November 2015, we became aware of the problem and consulted a number of well known SEO experts. None of them could explain the issue, especially since Proton Mail has never used any blackhat SEO tactics, nor did we observe any used against us. Mysteriously, the issue was entirely limited to Google, as this anomaly was not seen on any other search engine. Below are the search rankings for Proton Mail for âsecure emailâ and âencrypted emailâ taken at the beginning of August 2016 across all major search engines. We rank on either page 1 or 2 everywhere except Google where we are not ranked at all.
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All throughout Spring 2016, we worked in earnest to get in touch with Google. We created two tickets on their web spam report form explaining the situation. We even contacted Googleâs President EMEA Strategic Relationships, but received no response nor improvement. Around this time, we also heard about the anti-trust action brought forward by the European Commission against Google(new window), accusing Google of abusing its search monopoly to lower the search rankings of Google competitors(new window). This was worrying news, because as an email service that puts user privacy first, we are the leading alternative to Gmail for those looking for better data privacy.
In August, with no other options, we turned to Twitter to press our case. This time though, we finally got a response(new window), thanks in large part to the hundreds of Proton Mail users who drew attention to the issue and made it impossible to ignore. After a few days, Google informed us that they had âfixed somethingâ without providing further details. The results could be immediately seen.
Risks vs. Harms: Youth & Social Media
Sorely tempted to just copy and paste the whole thing. As is usual with danah, every other sentence deserves to be on a t-shirt.
In short, âDoes social media harm teenagers?â is not the same question as âCan social media be risky for teenagers?â
The language of âharmâ in this question is causal in nature. It is also legalistic. Lawyers look for âharmsâ to place blame on or otherwise regulate actants. [âŠ]
Risk is a different matter. Getting out of bed introduces risks into your life. Risk is something to identify and manage. Some environments introduce more potential risks and some actions reduce the risks. Risk management is a skill to develop. And while regulation can be used to reduce certain risks, it cannot eliminate them. And it can also backfire and create more risks.
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In the United States, we have a bad habit of thinking that risks can be designed out of every system. I will never forget when I lived in Amsterdam in the 90s, and I remarked to a local about how odd I found it that there were no guardrails to prevent cars from falling into the canals when they were parking. His response was âyouâre so Americanâ which of course prompted me to say, âwhat does THAT mean?â He explained that, in the Netherlands, locals just learned not to drive their cars into the canals, but Americans expected there to be guardrails for everything so that they didnât have to learn not to be stupid. He then noted out that every time he hears about a car ending up in the canal, it is always an American who put it there. Stupid Americans. (I took umbrage at this until, a few weeks later, I read a news story about a drunk American driving a rental into the canal.)
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People certainly face risks when encountering any social environment, including social media. This then triggers the next question: Do some people experience harms through social media? Absolutely. But itâs important to acknowledge that most of these harms involve people using social media to harm others. Itâs reasonable that they should be held accountable. Itâs not reasonable to presume that you can design a system that allows people to interact in a manner where harms will never happen.
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I will admit that one thing that intrigues me is that many of those who propagate hate are especially interested in blocking children from technology for fear that allowing their children to be exposed to difference might make them more tolerant. (No, gender is not contagious, but developing a recognition that gender is socially and politically constructedâââand fighting for a more just worldâââsure is.)
Extremism Redefined: Caught in a Mouth Trap
for Open Rights Group (ORG)Last month, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove MP, announced a new and expanded definition of extremism as part of the Governmentâs Counter Terrorism Strategy.
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Extremism is now defined as: âthe promotion or advancement of an ideology based on violence, hatred or intolerance, that aims to:
- Negate or destroy the fundamental rights and freedoms of others; or
- Undermine, overturn or replace the UKâs system of liberal parliamentary democracy and democratic rights; or
- Intentionally create a permissive environment for others to achieve the results in (1) or (2).â
While to some this may seem like a reasonable measure to protect against threats to democracy, the imprecise language leaves too much room for interpretation and potential misuse. The third of these â aiming to âintentionally create a permissive environment for othersâ is especially subjective and problematic: merely stating that legitimate grievances or drivers of extremism need to be tackled could be interpreted as falling within this definition.
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The new guidance is non-statutory, meaning it will not be enshrined in law and will only affect parliamentarians and civil servants who will no longer be allowed to engage with groups that supposedly meet the new definition. The governmentâs independent reviewer of state threat legislation, Jonathan Hall KC, has warned that this defines people as extremists by âministerial decreeâ.
It is important to ask why the government have renewed their focus on extremism since 7 October, without proposing legislative changes and therefore denying parliamentary scrutiny. This may be because a previous attempt to redefine extremism by the Cameron government, failed to find a âlegally robustâ definition. However, regardless of how the new definition of extremism is applied, there will, no doubt, be a wider chilling effect on free speech.
The Internet Archive Loses Its Appeal of a Major Copyright Case
in WiredIn a statement, Internet Archive director of library services Chris Freeland expressed disappointment âin todayâs opinion about the Internet Archiveâs digital lending of books that are available electronically elsewhere. We are reviewing the courtâs opinion and will continue to defend the rights of libraries to own, lend, and preserve books.â
Dave Hansen, executive director of the Authorâs Alliance, a nonprofit that often advocates for expanded digital access to books, also came out against the ruling. âAuthors are researchers. Authors are readers,â he says. âIAâs digital library helps those authors create new works and supports their interests in seeing their works be read. This ruling may benefit the bottom line of the largest publishers and most prominent authors, but for most it will end up harming more than it will help.â
The Internet Archiveâs legal woes are not over. In 2023, a group of music labels, including Universal Music Group and Sony, sued the archive in a copyright infringement case over a music digitization project. That case is still making its way through the courts. The damages could be up to $400 million, an amount that could pose an existential threat to the nonprofit.
Mitt Romney Reveals Twisted Reason Why Congress Moved to Ban TikTok
in The New RepublicSpeaking at the McCain Institute on Friday alongside Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Romney lamented Israelâs inability to control the flow of information out of and about Gaza, despite its best efforts to restrict press access.
âI mean, typically the Israelis are good at P.R. Whatâs happened here? How have theyâhow have they, and we, been so ineffective at communicating the realities there and our point of view?â Romney asked Blinken, seemingly in disbelief that images of Israelâs indiscriminate bombing of Gaza have prompted outrage in the United States.
Then Romney explained that the TikTok ban overwhelmingly passed both chambers of Congress because of the widespread Palestinian advocacy on the app.
âSome wonder why there was such overwhelming support for us to shut down potentially TikTok or other entities of that nature. If you look at the postings on TikTok and the number of mentions of Palestinians relative to other social media sites, itâs overwhelmingly so among TikTok broadcasts. So Iâd note thatâs of real interest, and the President will get the chance to make action in that regard,â Romney said.
The Crucifixion of Julian Assange
The goals in this Dickensian nightmare remain unchanged. Erase Julian from the public consciousness. Demonize him. Criminalize those who expose government crimes. Use Julianâs slow motion crucifixion to warn journalists that no matter their nationality, no matter where they live, they can be kidnapped and extradited to the U.S. Drag out the judicial lynching for years until Julian, already in a precarious physical and mental condition, disintegrates.
The State Library of Victoria is in crisis. Is it time to rethink how libraries are governed?
in The ConversationThe dispute began with the decision to cancel or postpone (both verbs are contested) a program of âTeen Bootcampâ workshops â funded by the Serp Hills Foundation and the JTM Foundation â for young writers. The library had engaged six authors, including Jinghua Qian, Omar Sakr, Alison Evans and Ariel Slamet Ries, to conduct the workshops.
On social media and elsewhere, the writers had voiced their support for the Palestinian people in the face of Israelâs full-scale invasion of Gaza.
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In response to the criticism, library management defended the workshop decision as âapoliticalâ. Meanjin editor Esther Anatolitis tweeted in reply, âThere is no such thing as an apolitical cultural institutionâ.
A boycott, open letters, petitions, resignations: these are definitive evidence something has gone wrong with the library.
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A paradox of neoliberalism over the past three or four decades is that, when commercial-style governance is applied in traditionally less commercial spheres â such as libraries, universities, publishing and the public sector â it is often applied more rigidly and narrowly than in genuinely corporate sectors, such as banking and professional services.
But libraries are not just another type of corporation, and a library CEO is not the same as the head of a commercial corporation.