Newsletter Archives
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Things you can do in 2025 that you couldn’t do in 2024
LEGAL BRIEF
By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.
Rejoice! The new year brings a new batch of things that were once protected by copyright but are now public domain.
Let’s review my copyright primer. Under current US law, a copyright comes into existence as soon as an original work of authorship is fixed in a tangible medium. Originality is not a very high bar — the work needs only to be something created by the author rather than copied.
Tangible media include electronic storage, so websites qualify.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.12.0, 2025-03-24).
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Is this article plagiarism? Now you can find out.
ISSUE 21.36 • 2024-09-02 PUBLIC DEFENDER
By Brian Livingston
An epidemic of plagiarism — outright duplication of other people’s works — is raging through chatbots and other artificial-intelligence technologies.
One study shows that almost 60% of the outputs from some chatbots contain plagiarism. The good news? The latest detection software can be 100% accurate in separating AI-plagiarized text from original, human work.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.36.0, 2024-09-02).
This story also appears in our public Newsletter. -
A t-AI-l of two cities
ISSUE 20.35 • 2023-08-28 LEGAL BRIEF
By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.
Generative artificial intelligence is the latest of the “we’ve never seen anything like this before — something must be done” technologies.
Earlier examples are biotechnology, the personal computer, the video recorder, the record player, and probably fire — none of which caused the world to end.
Multiple players are deciding their opening moves in reacting to the sudden entry of this technology into the public consciousness. Not surprisingly, their approaches differ because their interests differ. That certainly applies to the Microsoft Services Agreement.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.35.0, 2023-08-28).
This story also appears in our public Newsletter.