Dave Hansen

From the current consolidated Google AI Copyright class action lawsuit. Given that the case is likely to affect millions of people, the lack of transparency is ridiculous. Not just this suit either - others like it are the same.

Yesterday evening Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter filed suit against a number of individuals involved in both her attempted removal and replacement, including Todd Blanche and Paul Perkins. Read our examination on Perlmutter's legal arguments here: authorsalliance.org/2025/05/23/per…

The last few days have been quite dramatic for anyone paying attention to copyright law and policy. Here's our breakdown of the third and final Copyright Office report on copyright and AI, and the dismissal of the Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter: authorsalliance.org/2025/05/12/the…

Man: “Based on the revolutionary computanian law of probability this machine will tell us the precise location of the remaining golden tickets.” Machine: "I won't tell. That would be cheating." arstechnica.com/ai/2025/03/ai-…

Our office has two new full time job postings. The Licensing Specialist supports licensing review and processes for the Library’s electronic resources, and more. View more details and apply at careerspub.universityofcalifornia.edu/psc/ucb/EMPLOY… @UCBerkeleyLib

How we safeguard our digital history is the subject of Tuesday’s roundtable #booktalk, "VANISHING CULTURE: A Report on Our Fragile Cultural Record." 📅 Dec 3 🕙 10am PT / 1pm ET 📍 ONLINE 🎟️ eventbrite.com/e/book-talk-va… #VanishingCulture @InternetArchive #MemoryHole

I don't get why an academic journal would be so eager to adopt the role of "IP enforcement agent" for this software company

I have no knowledge about the underlying validity of the IP claims, but a full retraction of two papers b/c of unproven allegations of improper software licensing seems like a disproportionate result that is harmful to the advancement of science retractionwatch.com/2024/11/08/com…

From @dbamman (co-authored w/@rach_scholcomm) new paper today relying on #copyright exemption for decrypting DVDs to conduct #textdatamining. Using the exemption, authors built a collection of film to measure representation for gender and race/ethnicity pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn…

My new book, The Line: AI & the Future of Personhood, was published today by MIT Press. It is under a CC license so you can read it for free. scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewconten…

Exciting news! Read about our new collaboration with @SPARC_NA on legal pathways to open access for scholarly works: authorsalliance.substack.com/p/authors-alli…

NATHAN SCHNEIDER's book GOVERNABLE SPACES argues the internet fosters "implicit feudalism" towards autocratic norms. Join our upcoming #booktalk to learn how it could spark a democratic renaissance instead. 📅 Aug 22 ⏰ 10am PT/1pm ET 🎟️ eventbrite.com/e/book-talk-go… #Tech #Democracy

@cshperspectives @baym @BioRender PLoS is probably my favorite publisher ever, but I’ve never been able to understand their insistence on requiring a cc license on third party material. It certainly isn’t necessary from a legal standpoint, and it also undermines the value of fair use for reuse of figures

@baym @BioRender Not to defend BioRender but PLOS's insistence on CC BY is also problematic. This means, for example, you can't reproduce someone else's figure for review article you write if the original was published non-CC BY (millions of papers will fall in that category) 1/2

Truly sad that three months after promising to do better @BioRender is still interfering with both publication and preprinting

@bc_butler @jlamel @kfortney In the first two years, the CCB awarded $4,000 in damages in the contested cases, and another $54,150 in default cases. So $4.4m in gov't funding to award about $58k in damages. Maybe you're right--better to just give away the money?

@bc_butler @jlamel @kfortney The initial funding request was for $2.2 million per year. Ignoring inflationary adjustments, that means with 880 claims filed in the first two years, its about $5000 per claim ($4.4m/880).

The Copyright Claims Board recently turned two-years-old, and it has released a little infographic to represent what it's done so far. Can't help but notice something in this data. ccb.gov/CCB-Statistics…

@bc_butler @kfortney We have an update coming very soon that looks at yr 1 and 2 (mostly thanks to @kfortney )

I'm just adding up numbers. Deeper analysis on CCB data at the 1-year mark can be had from @DigLibCopyright and @kfortney - read their paper here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf… and check out Katie's aggregate CCB data here: bibliobaloney.github.io

@aj_boston Isn’t this, like…the whole point of peer review?

Maybe my perspective is skewed by reading law review articles with (no exaggeration) 600 footnotes, but I’d much rather have all the references. If you don’t want to read them, it’s easy to skip over. It’s not like there’s a shortage of available PDF space.

We're living through one of those moments when millions of people become suddenly and overwhelmingly interested in fair use, one of the subtlest and worst-understood aspects of copyright law. It's not a subject you can master by skimming a Wikipedia article! 1/

The #AIAct requires GPAI model developers to implement policies to comply with opt-outs under EU © law. This policy brief explores strategies and standards for making opt-outs effective & scalable so that they work for rightholders & model developers 🤖✍️ openfuture.eu/publication/co…