Exec Director of @recreateco. Copyright lawyer, fair use fan, former clinical law prof, music obsessive, runner. Press inquiries: [email protected].
Charlottesville, VA
Joined July 2013
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I’ve been settling in behind the scenes, but today we’re announcing it broadly: I’m thrilled to say I’m the new Executive Director of the ReCreate Coalition! This is my dream job, and there’s never been a more important time to defend balanced copyright and fair use.
Re:Create Coalition is excited to announce that @bc_butler has joined as the new Executive Director! With Brandon’s expertise as a copyright lawyer Re:Create is eager to continue advocate for policies that support innovators, consumers & creators recreatecoalition.org/press_…
SO, we might need to expand the court so that it can...hear copyright cases??
So, you may have heard of this hot new platform called...Substack? We may be a little late to the party, but we're coming out swinging with thoughts on how maybe the boring-est part of the '76 Copyright Act is maybe having some big consequences in the AI age.
Read the full post at the link below, and subscribe!!!
Hello World! PLUS: the 1976 Copyright Act, Formalities, AI, and ZOMBIES. recreateideas.substack.com/p…
Brandon Butler retweeted
This is not a fantastic policy. Not only is it practically unenforceable such that it will end up being an inaccurate and misleading proxy for human authorship, but if enforceable it would make any AI-generated knowledge unpublishable (eg AI-generated mathematical proofs), as well as even (especially) books that are accurately labeled as AI-generated. It’s anti-knowledge, anti-competitive, practically *anti*-AI disclosure, and anti-free expression. I want to protect human authorship too but not by paternalistically suppressing publication’s that use AI, especially when it won’t even work and will simply dissuade people from disclosing their AI use. Who the hell is the ISBN-issuing office to tell me what I can’t buy in a bookstore, anyway?
No ISBNs in Canada for AI writing.
This is a fantastic policy, and every country should do the same.
canada.ca/en/library-archive…
h/t @max_spero_
Anonymous bots and AI-powered bots are a fact of life on the web. Like all tech, sometimes they are abused, but for years they have also been a crucial tool for journalism and scholarship. New bot regulations shouldn't move unless they protect beneficial bots.
Journalists have used web scraping for 20+ years to expose corruption, track lobbyist influence, and reveal discrimination.
Broad crawler bans such as the Stealth Bot Prohibition Act risk cutting off the exact tools newsrooms use to hold power accountable.
Our new infographic explains why ➡️ recreatecoalition.org/infogr…
YES.
Here’s a useful test for any AI bill:
Could a university lab or two-person startup actually comply with it?
If the answer is “only if they have the legal budget of the biggest AI companies in the world,” you’re not making AI safer.
You’re entrenching the biggest labs.
@neil_chilson
This cringe was posted by the lady who likes to joke that “fair use is a fairly useful way to steal my creation,” and whose NO FAKES bill would chill ordinary people from using AI to make actually good videos. And yet here she is, using other people’s music and choreography to make a lame ad.
Here’s Sen. Blackburn barely a year ago saying that what Candidate Marsha posted yesterday should be illegal (and not just because it’s godawful cringey trash): youtu.be/sZiXm5CqnKI?t=68&si…
Brandon Butler retweeted
I wrote about deepfakes, elections, and defamation this week.
There are many open questions about how existing law will handle AI use, but people using it to create content remains relatively straightforward.
Defamation is still defamation, regardless of the tool used.
Brandon Butler retweeted
Re:Create Executive Director @BC_Butler on the Third Circuit's Ross opinion: “Plenty of fair uses compete with the works they use.”
Competition is not the same as substitution, and the court conflated the two.
Read his full take on why the ruling should be reversed 👇
recreatecoalition.org/a-note…
Brandon Butler retweeted
What is open source software and what does it do for you?
You're using it right now.
Everything you use online every day stands on open source.
98% of web pages viewed worldwide are shown by a browser built on an open-source engine: Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox, and others.
Brandon Butler retweeted
Busy week in copyright! The latest Re:Create Recap breaks it all down with analysis from Executive Director @BC_Butler:
⚖️The ROSS appellate opinion
🎁 Big Content's site-blocking wish list
💡 The latest AI & copyright lawsuit updates
And more! Read here: mailchi.mp/recreatecoalition…
Lol - my favorite part is that two of the three things they list in their "mountain of evidence" of market harm are just speculation by OpenAI and MSFT staff based on...no evidence. The third: "empirical studies of the explosion of AI books" - but I guess not this one? 🙄
'Nothing to see here" says @SusmanGodfrey's response to @OpenAI's 9/23 allegation they funded a paper purporting to show harm from dilution without disclosure. Rather than argue over it before the Judge, they've just agreed to the relief @OpenAI asked for:
xitter.cf/AdamEisgrau/status/210…
Brandon Butler retweeted
Massive Attack “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” (Bauhaus cover)
San Diego, California 2019
Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins joins them for this dark masterpiece.
Brandon Butler retweeted
There is power in a union
Apple said no to voluntarily recognizing its VFX workers’ union.
The workers said yes anyway, voting 12-0 to unionize with IATSE.
Now, more than two years later, they’ve secured their first collective bargaining agreement.
cartoonbrew.com/artist-right…
