How the meandering legal definition of 'fair use' cost us Napster but gave us Spotify

The internet's "enshittification," as veteran journalist and privacy advocate Cory Doctorow describes it, began decades before TikTok made the scene. Elder millennials remember the good old days of Napster — followed by the much worse old days of Napster being sued into oblivion along with Grokster and the rest of the P2P sharing ecosystem, until we were left with a handful of label-approved, catalog-sterilized streaming platforms like Pandora and Spotify. Three cheers for corporate copyright litigation. In his new book The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation, Doctorow examines the modern social media landscape, cataloging and illustrating the myriad failings and short-sighted business decisions of the Big Tech companies operating the services that promised us the future but just gave us more Nazis. We have both an obligation and responsibility to dismantle these systems, Doctorow argues, and a means to do so with greater interoperability. In this week's Hitting the Books excerpt, Doctorow examines the aftermath of the lawsuits against P2P sharing services, as well as the role that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's "notice-and-takedown" reporting system and YouTube's "ContentID" scheme play on modern streaming sites. Verso Publishing Excerpted from by The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation by Cory Doctorow. Published by Verso. Copyright © 2023 by Cory Doctorow. All rights reserved. Seize the Means of... Continue reading at 'Engadget'

[ Engadget | 2023-11-05 15:30:18 UTC ]
News tagged with: #false positives #ad revenue #entertainment companies #copyright law

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Looking Behind the French Vanity Fair Announcement

Condé Nast's decision to start a French edition of Vanity Fair has some media executives questioning why the American publisher insisted on announcing the news now, amid a stubborn economic crisis. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2012-09-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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NZ guest of honour at Frankfurt book fair

New Zealand is taking centre stage at the world's largest book and content fair in Frankfurt as this year's guest of honour. Continue reading at Stuff

[ Stuff | 2012-09-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bluemoose 'Christian Grey' title abandoned following legal warning

Bluemoose Books publisher Kevin Duffy has decided to abandon plans to publish The Secret Life of... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-08-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #christian grey #legal warning #abandon plans #secret life


Gloucestershire campaigners: 'no further legal action'

The campaign group Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries has decided to step back from further... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-08-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #legal action #gloucestershire libraries #step back


St. Mark's Bookshop crowdsources moving costs

The embattled St. Mark's Bookshop has a new defender. Lucky Ant, a year-old, hyper-local crowd-funding platform, is helping the 35-year-old East Village literary landmark raise the money it needs to move to a cheaper location. The online campaign, at Luckyant.com, launched Wednesday at midnight,... Continue reading at Crains New York

[ Crains New York | 2012-07-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #funds raised #creative projects


Frankfurt Book Fair features Kiwi authors

Kiwi authors such as Patricia Grace and Lloyd Jones are seeing increased interest in their books being translated into German ahead of this year's Frankfurt Book Fair. Continue reading at Stuff

[ Stuff | 2012-05-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #kiwi authors #patricia grace #increased interest


Is Amazon morally wrong but legally right?

Amazon's policies may be unkind to many in the book industry, but that doesn't make them illegal. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-04-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #book industry


Northcliffe Reports 6% Revenue Fall and 13% Cost Reduction

Regional newspaper publisher Northcliffe Media has reported a further six per cent year-on-year decline in like-for-like revenue over the past six months. Parent company Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) said in a trading update today that althou ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-04-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Media Equation: Amazon Low Prices Disguise a High Cost

An antitrust suit may provide short-term price reductions on ebooks, but once the competition is flattened, Amazon is likely to resume its monopolistic ways. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2012-04-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Consumer Group: E-book Price Fixing Costs Big Bucks

E-book price fixing will cost consumers more than US$200 million this year, and U.S. antitrust authorities should take action against Apple and a group of... Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2012-04-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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London Book Fair: Row over China

The London Book Fair is criticised by a leading Chinese dissident for inviting only writers approved by the Chinese communist authorities. Continue reading at BBC News

[ BBC News | 2012-03-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Technology at The Forefront of Upbeat Toy Fair

The approximately 30 publishers exhibiting at the 2012 New York International Toy Fair, held at the Javits Center, February 11–15, saw full aisles and strong orders for the first time in several years. The Toy Industry Association’s preliminary figures estimated attendance was up 4%, to 34,000.... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-02-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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News Corp hit by $87m NotW costs

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation has reported a 43% hit on its publishing arm, which includes its UK national newspapers, reducing the unit's operating income to $218m (£138m) as it was hit by multimillion-pound costs relating to the phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World. Continue reading at Media Week

[ Media Week | 2012-02-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Stora Enso Restructures to Drop $63.6 Million in Costs

Stora Enso has announced a restructuring plan that aims to cut costs in its annual magazine paper operation by about $63.6 million by third quarter 2013, with the goal of improving efficiency and productivity. Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2012-02-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Why e-Textbooks Could Cost Students

Will Apple's recent attempt to break into the textbook market, and other rapidly evolving ebook distribution models, help to moderate soaring textbook prices? From what I've seen so far, it could do just the opposite. Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2012-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Fnac making 510 redundant to cut costs

Fnac, the leading French cultural products chain, will lay off 510 of its 17,000 staff and may... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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UK to be focus country at Abu Dhabi fair

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 03/11/2011 - 09:45 The UK will be the country focus at the 2012 Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, which will run from 28th March to 2nd April next year at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre. The ADIBF will work with the Publishers... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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How AMI Cut Production Costs by 50 Percent

American Media, Inc. (AMI) and Michael Esposito, Senior Vice President of Operations and Digital Production, think they've hit upon a recipe that could work across the magazine industry for rationalizing print publishing costs and scaling up on digital platforms. Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2011-11-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Small Demons Makes Big Splash at Frankfurt Book Fair

In his closing remarks, Frankfurt Book Fair director Juergen Boos said that 2011 was a strong year for startups at the fair. Among those startups, perhaps none had a better reception than Small Demons, in Los Angeles. “We couldn’t have asked for a better first Frankfurt Book Fair,” Small Demons... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-10-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Frankfurt Book Fair in upbeat mood

Written By: Philip Jones and Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 13/10/2011 - 16:10 The quadruple threat of air traffic control strikes, economic slow-down, creaking Blackberry servers and digital disruption failed to dim spirits as the 63rd Frankfurt Book Fair continued this week. read... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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