Um, uh, yeah.
Fair Use My Ass
“Fair use” is the right of the public to make reasonable use of copyrighted material in special circumstances without the Copyright Owner’s Permission. The United States Copyright Act recognizes that fair use of a copyrighted work may be used “for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research.”
Multiple artists and labels are suing AI music companies like Suno. Round Hill Music says:
“We are against the idea that you can build a business worth billions on top of other people’s creative work and pay the creators nothing.”
Jason Isbell filed a class-action suit. He compared Suno to The Borg from Star Trek: Next Generation, coldly assimilating everything unique in its path.
“People feel really good when they’re creative,” Suno’s chief executive, Mikey Shulman, said in an interview. “The company exists to let people feel those warm and fuzzy feelings of being creative.” More than 100 million people have created songs with the service, Suno says, and two million people have subscribed to an upgraded plan that includes commercial rights to the songs they’ve created.
Sony, Universal, and Warner all sued Suno for copyright infringement in 2024. Warner has settled with Suno, BMG has signed a licensing deal with them, and Sony and Universal have signed agreements with other A.I. music companies. Having gotten scorched by Napster and other disrupters (50% contraction estimated in the early oughts), the record companies are in “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” mode.
The legislative director of United Musicians and Allied Workers is treating this as a threat to anyone below the level of musical superstar:
“No one has explained why it’s a good idea to start making music without musicians being involved.”
I’m enjoying the fact that the fake number one song is a macho white guy grievance tune. Just perfect, somehow.
The Curse of Frankenstein 4K Restoration
Some dude bought Hammer Films a few years ago and is restoring the catalog in 4K – from the original negatives! I found the YouTube channel and watched a few trailers; these things are absolutely stunning.
Anyway, here’s an eight-minute video explaining the process. I understood some of it.
Guillermo Got His Teeth Fixed!
And I’m super-excited to see his take on Frankenstein, apparently something he’s wanted to do for years. Even if it sucks, it’ll be gorgeous. Available on Netflix November 7, you monstrous bastards!
Oh, and if you haven’t checked out his Cabinet of Curiosities from a few years ago (also on Netflix), you definitely should.
The Internet’s Inevitable Enshittification
How platforms decay, as explained by Cory Doctorow to NPR. Finally a name for what we may not consciously recognize but deep down know is going on.
… I think Facebook’s a good example. Facebook went through the whole lifecycle of platform decay. They started off by offering a really good deal to their end users. They said, “Hey, leave MySpace, come to Facebook. It’s just like MySpace, except we only show you the things that you asked to see, and we’ll never spy on you.”
And then once those users were locked in — because once you’re in a place with all of your friends, it’s really hard to leave — they started to take away some of that good stuff they gave them, and they handed it to advertisers and publishers.
To the advertisers, they said, “We were lying when we said we weren’t going to spy on these guys. We’re totally spying on them. Here’s all the data you need to target them for ads that we’re not going to charge you much money for.”
And to the publishers, they said, “We are also lying when we said we’d only show them the stuff they asked to see.”
And then once the publishers and the advertisers were locked in, well, they took away those surpluses. The ads got more expensive. Publishers had to put more and more of their content — not just to get recommended, but even to be shown to the people who subscribed them. And that’s the final stage, the stage where there’s just only the residual value left on the platform that the platform owner thinks will keep the users and the business customers they bring in stuck to the platform. And that’s when we’re at the beginning of the end.
Further reading.
Dumb Money
Looking forward to the Game Stop saga.
All Things Must Pass
I’m only about a third of the way through but I’m digging it so far. Man, I miss record stores …
Everyone thinks they know what killed Tower Records: The Internet. But that’s not the story. “All Things Must Pass” examines this iconic company’s explosive trajectory, tragic demise, and legacy forged by its rebellious founder Russ Solomon.
Oops
I just sold mine, but not because of this. Gretsch (Fender) has been lying about humbucker pickups in their short scale bass for a decade!
An Instrument Of The People
All I could think about while watching this was how much these guitars must be worth now.
In the fall of 2020, Gibson unearthed an unmarked reel while digging through vault archives. Intrigued by the discovery, Gibson TV producers took that reel and had it digitally remastered. The footage you are about to see was shot at Gibson’s Factory in 1967. It has never been seen until now.