Just arrived home from Ottawa, 🇨🇦 - super trip. Canada is close to passing bill which will rebalance bargaining power between Google, Facebook and the local news media. As with similar code in Australia, both companies will try near everything to stop it. Here is my testimony: /1
I shared 5 points: 1) will help rebalance bargaining power 2) relies on market rather than govt for terms protecting news independence 3) applies only to situation of significant power imbalance (eg Google, Facebook) /2
4) it’s BS that it will harm the internet or act as a tax on links (more on that shortly) 5) pubs can collectively bargain which is what in Australia allowed small pubs to generate more $ per journalist than larger ones /3
I shouldn’t have been surprised but a witness, a MP and a twitter account simultaneously tried to introduce the idea the law requires payment for links contrary to my opening statement. Thankfully, I was allowed to respond. “Hogwash.” /4
I was also asked the importance of this legislation to stop the “hemorrhaging” of local news media at the hands of the dominant gatekeepers, Google and Facebook, and ensure funding of trusted local journalism for democracy. /5
Reminder, Facebook executed on a highly calculated plan to cause chaos in Australia with considerations for its global policy interests. One of the most unethical plans I've ever seen by major tech company in my 30yrs. Now it's Canada's turn. /6
Adding this to the end as someone was asking about any other reports available on Australia results. /8 jninstitute.org/wp-content/upl…
Suffice it to say, $329 million per year of additional funding to the news, their newsrooms and journalists would be a GAME CHANGER. #C18 ht @DCNorg /9 pressgazette.co.uk/canada-google-…
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Pretrial orders starting to give taste as to why WSJ reports Mark Zuckerberg is meeting Pres. Trump desperately trying to settle its FTC lawsuit 11 days from trial. Court just ordered Meta to release all internal discussions of "integrity" issues up until 2020. That's toxic. /1
Also included is evidence as to what appears to be Apple warning Facebook/Meta to address CSAM on WhatsApp chat groups. Remember, advertisers built this company investing hundreds of billions of dollars to support it. /2
On that note, we will also likely see the financials for WhatsApp which was acquired by Facebook for nearly $19B despite almost no revenues. The why this happened will be a key argument in the court room. /3
The American values of IP protection have been a cornerstone in the country’s innovative spirit and competitive edge over foreign adversaries. DCN focused on strong copyright protections in our comments filed for the AI Action Plan. Will share some thoughts here. /1
Weakening copyright protections, whether at home or abroad, threatens US economic growth and the global competitiveness. Importantly, this point is inclusive of content creators across all platforms. The invented "right to learn" by machines is BS spin from OpenAI and Google. /2
Simply put, AI firms must not use copyrighted content without consent or compensation, as this undermines fair competition and creator rights. And they should be required to disclose when they've used it without consent. /3
It's time to call it. AI is built on a house of cards of intellectual property violations starting with Facebook which is starting to look a lot like a crime scene as held back discovery documents begin to be compelled and unsealed in court. /1
"what is the probability of getting arrested for using Torrents in the USA?" /2
"Is this LibGen?"
"We suspect some of our competitors are using it" /3
Rare weekend filing in the NdCal lawsuit that now includes allegations and evidence Facebook used torrenting with a massive pirated dataset to train LLaMA and only now is disclosing another 18,000 documents it failed to produce (now after Zuckerberg depo). Watch this space. 1/4
The pirated dataset allegations matter because Facebook would not only be pulling in tens of millions of copyrighted works but also seeding them for others to download. Allegations are this went to the top. 2/4
And here is where Facebook's going to have problems. Plaintiffs are now noting to the Judge - the same one in Facebook's record $700+ million privacy lawsuit - a familiar pattern of discovery abuse, gaslighting and delays. Same thing happened in DC Superior Court, too. 3/4
Woah. Sheryl Sandberg, former COO of Facebook, just sanctioned by Delaware judge for deleting emails ahead of trial this spring. This is the state pension shareholder case alleging the company overpaid the FTC and SEC in $5B+ settlements in order to protect Zuckerberg. /1
Long after the books had been inspected and many lawsuits had played out, it was disclosed last year she had a personal Gmail account under a pseudonym that may have been used for relevant communications. /2
The Judge here calls her a "high sophisticated individual." He probably doesn't know about the 2018 NYT report on how she carved out these issues in her Senate Intel testimony or how their lawyers were sanctioned on related discovery in California. /3
wow. This AI lawsuit against Facebook keeps getting worse as they reluctantly unseal documents on Court orders.
Check out this allegation. Not only two hrs before discovery cut-off but the Friday before we now know Mark Zuckerberg was deposed... /1
Here is the bit from the newly filed and now unsealed third amended complaint. Allegations here Facebook used torrenting to download a pirated dataset to train LLaMA thereby also "seeding" pirated content globally. This is a BFD. /2 storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
In fact, it can be criminal so this count is in the third amended complaint and the state attorney general (hello, @AGRobBonta) should note these allegations here. As it relates to this case, it may also break their privilege claims since it alleged to further a crime. /3