huiccewudu

joined 1 year ago
[–] huiccewudu@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

You are correct: the ruling simply affirms the plaintiff's claim against IA.

Any out-of-copyright and non-copyright items, as well as items with permissive terms (e.g., Creative Commons licenses) will still be available on IA. Previously, the plaintiff Hachette offered a deal that IA rejected, in which IA would be allowed to make digital copies of Hachette texts that are either out-of-print titles, or titles for which digital copies have never been produced.

Right now, it's up to Hachette and the other publishers affected in the case whether that offer is still available.

edited: hyphens.

[–] huiccewudu@lemmy.ca 24 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I definitely don’t like the obnoxious copyright system in the USA, but what the IA did seems obviously wrong.

The publisher-plaintiffs did not prove the "obvious wrong" in this case, however US-based courts have a curious standard when it comes to the application of Fair Use doctrine. This case ultimately rested on the fourth, most significantly-weighted Fair Use standard in US-based courts: whether IA's digital lending harmed publisher sales during the 3-month period of unlimited digital lending.

Unfortunately, when it comes to this standard, the publisher-plaintiffs are not required to prove harm, rather only assert that harm has occurred. If they were required to prove harm they'd have to reveal sales figures for the 27 works under consideration--publishers will do anything to conceal this information and US-based courts defer to them. Therefore, IA was required to prove a negative claim--that digital lending did not hurt sales--without access to the empirical data (which in other legal contexts is shared during the discovery phase) required to prove this claim. IA offered the next best argument (see pp. 44-62 of the case document to check for yourself), but the data was deemed insufficient by the court.

In other words, on the most important test of Fair Use doctrine, which this entire case ultimately pivoted upon, IA was expected to defend itself with one arm tied behind its back. That's not 'fair' and the publishers did not prove 'obvious' harm, but the US-based courts are increasingly uninterested in these things.

edited: page numbers on linked court document.

 

Source: https://archive.org/details/she-sells-swell-spells-hwln-04-022

Full-size image (3800x3800): https://ia801506.us.archive.org/4/items/she-sells-swell-spells-hwln-04-022/HWLN-04-022.JPG

Medium: Watercolor and acrylic paint on watercolor paper (8"x 8")

5
submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by huiccewudu@lemmy.ca to c/toronto@lemmy.ca
 

Check the link for a full-size version (3600 x 4800).

 

There are so many local names for this insect: water strider, water skipper, water skimmer, water bug... got any more?

 

Short documentary focusing on a few of the artists living in Dafen, China. This village hosts both independent artist studios and fascimilie factories with various connections between the people working in them. The short documentary is subtitled in English (sometimes hard to read), but good production quality. Much of the conversation revolves around the tension between reproduction and originality, and the professional lives of working artists in the village.

1
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by huiccewudu@lemmy.ca to c/art@lemmy.ca
 

How can it feel so dry and be so humid at the same time? These days, even the dryads need a better skincare product...

The hand is made from coffee filter. The bottle and 'Dryad' logo are product packaging. The sun is yellow tissue paper, while the haze background is washi paper.

1
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by huiccewudu@lemmy.ca to c/art@lemmy.ca