And film and TV directors in the UK are calling on streaming platforms to join the royalty scheme for directors for repeat showings and sales of their programmes and sci-fi is increasingly being self-published.
#RetransmissionRoyalties #SciFi #SelfPublishing
And Indonesia has blocked Wikimedia users from logging into Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata and the other wiki platforms.
#Wikipedia #Wikimedia
Also, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner's request the Age Assurance Technology Trial (AATT) not overstate privacy claims related to age assurance technologies being assessed for suitability to enforce the social media minimum age (SMMA) were ignored
#Privacy
Here's WTF happened this week:
A funding gap sees the future of 2SER at risk, Live Nation Concerts was declared a monopolist in the US and indie venues in the UK calling for transparency from the music collecting society PRS for Music.
#CommunityRadio #2SER #Music #LiveNation #MusicRoyalties
In fact it commenced on 2 April, Andrew. Users can now use orphan works where they have done a reasonably diligent search and we're unable to find the copyright owner of the material.
And civil rights organisations write to Zuckerberg about facial recognition in Meta’s smartglasses.
Click through to the website for the full round-up.
#Copyright #Music #MusicRoyalties #InternetArchive #WaybackMachine #FacialRecognition #Smartglasses
News organisations blocking archiving by the Wayback Machine threaten the historical record and 1,000s of film and TV people are concerns about the proposed Paramount–Warner Bros. merger.
#InternetArchive #WaybackMachine #FacialRecognition #Smartglasses
I was pretty flatout with WikiCon Australia 2026 Canberra but here's what happened this week:
An Australian musician is raising awareness about the opacity of the international music royalty system.
#Copyright #Music #MusicRoyalties @wmau.bsky.social
A skylight with a platypus and a blue border.
WikiCon Australia Day Two.
#WikimediaAustralia #Wikimedia #Wikipedia @wmau.bsky.social
The front of the National Film and Sound Archive building in Canberra.
Day one of WikiCon Australia 2026 Canberra today, bringing together the Wikimedia Australia and the Australian wiki community. It's great to hold the conference at the NFSA this year.
#WikimediaAustralia #Wikimedia #Wikipedia @wmau.bsky.social
For those interested in knowing more about the orphan works scheme, I wrote a blog post about it, elliottbledsoe.wtf/a-new-orphan...
I also have a detailed briefing [paywalled], elliottbledsoe.wtf/briefing-orp...
Signup up for a free trial and you can read it.
Plus John Deere settled its right to repair class action and USB sticks to help people install ChromeOS Flex on older PCs and Macs sold out quicker than ChromeOS loads!
elliottbledsoe.wtf/wtf-now-29/
#RightToRepair #Chrome #ChromeOS #ChromeOSFlex
Also this week: Warner Music is acquiring independent music distributor Revelator and a US investment company has offered $64.3 billion for Universal Music Group.
elliottbledsoe.wtf/wtf-now-29/
#Music #WarnerMusic #UniversalMusic
Anthropic released research on how Australians are using Claude and the results are surprising. And they also released research on the emotions behind how Claude reacts to things and why that may be important to AI safety.
elliottbledsoe.wtf/wtf-now-29/
#Anthropic #Claude #SafeAI
Amodei being in Australia reignited the copyright and AI debate locally, with Anthropic and the content organisations each hosting opposing ‘future forums’ at Parliament House.
elliottbledsoe.wtf/wtf-now-29/
#Anthropic #Claude #CopyrightAndAI
They also unintentionally exposed some of Claude Code’s source code, which they tried to pull down using copyright takedown notices (just another reminder of the hypocrisy of AI).
elliottbledsoe.wtf/wtf-now-29/
#Anthropic #Claude #Takedowns
This week was all about Anthropic:
Their CEO Dario Amodei was in Australia to sign an MOU with the Australian Government.
elliottbledsoe.wtf/wtf-now-29/
#Anthropic #Claude #SafeAI
A colourful graphic with numerous black, orange, blue and green blobs on a gradient background in light blues, purples, oranges and greens.
My next weekly round-up about WTF is happening in AI, the arts, technology, marketing, copyright and open knowledge comes out this afternoon.
Sign up for free now and you'll get it in your inbox soon.
elliottbledsoe.wtf/signup/
See recent round-ups here: elliottbledsoe.wtf/wtf-now/
Okay, it turns out the Magabala Books news was an April Fool's joke! I was here for a second bookstore!
As the addictiveness of social media and the extent to which their makers make them that way has been under fire in two significant US court cases and further regulatory activity here in Australia.
#SocialMedia #SocialMediaAddiction
The State Library of Queensland has handed off the Queensland Literary Awards to Brisbane Writers Festival and handed black&write! back to Creative Australia because of independent reviews and reconciling with the ‘expectations of the Crisafulli Government’.
#LiteraryAwards #ArtsAndPolitics
Here's WTF happened this week:
No, it is not an April Fool's joke, Australian copyright law will finally address the problem of orphan works (where the copyright owner is unknown).
#Copyright #OrphanWorks #CopyrightLawReform
In such situations a court cannot grant relief against the user that consists of damages or an account of profits, additional damages or other monetary relief. Although a court can require the user of the orphan work to make reasonable payment to the copyright owner for the use.
The scheme requires that:
the search took place within a reasonable period before the use,
reasonably prominent notice that the user was unable to identify or locate the copyright owner was made and
a record of the search was maintained for a reasonable period.
No, there are no requirements like that, Renee. A user must do a reasonably diligent search and not be able to identify and locate the copyright owner.
I will include a summary in my weekly round-up later today. If you sign up for free (elliottbledsoe.wtf/blog/wtf-now/) you'll get it by email.
This has been a long time coming so it is amazing to see it pass!
A screenshot of the Australian Parliament website showing the Copyright Amendment Bill 2026 has passed both houses of Parliament.
Woah, the Copyright Amendment Bill 2026 passed the Senate today meaning Australia will very soon have a scheme limiting remedies available when users use orphan works.
www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentar...
#Copyright #OrphanWorks #CopyrightLawReform
Welcome to the new #SoundsOfAustralia, including the 'Succulent Chinese Meal' quote, the pedestrian crossing sound, the ABC Kimberley Noonkanbah Station native title determination broadcast, the Reading Writing Hotline jingle and more.
www.nfsa.gov.au/sounds-of-au...
#NFSA #Sound #Archives
Brisbane Multicultural Arts Centre (BEMAC) is now based at the Thomas Dixson Centre. Late last month they ceased operation of the Queensland Multicultural Centre (QMC) which they operated for 13 years.
bemac.org.au/bemacs-new-h...
bemac.org.au/many-stages-...
#MulticulturalArts #PerformingArts
