Good morning, welcome to another week. Thanks for sharing your Monday morning with us. Let’s see what happened over the weekend.
1. Internet Archive sued over copyright
Starting with Rolling Stone this morning and it’s reporting a handful of record labels have filed a copyright lawsuit against Internet Archive, as well as its founder Brewster Kahle, over the organisation’s “Great 78 Project.” Per the report, the lawsuit accuses the org of behaving as an “illegal record store”. The suit lists 2,749 pre-1972 musical works available via Internet Archive by late artists, including Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald. The “Great 78 Project” was launched by Internet Archive as a community project for “the preservation, research, and discovery of 78rpm records”, but the suit alleges it has violated copyright laws, as: “transferring copies of those files to members of the public, Internet Archive has reproduced and distributed without authorisation”.
2. Kids on the internet to be compensated in Illinois
Heading to the U.S. state of Illinois for a moment and it’s passed a monumental law that hopes to ensure child “”””social media influencers”””” (read: kids that are exploited on the internet) are compensated for their work. Per the AP, the law covers children under the age of 16 featured in monetised online platforms, including vlogs. I’m sure I’m not alone in saying the exploitation of kids for ‘Gram cred is awful, so at least this will make sure the parents don’t get all the cash.
3. Musk takes a stab at the ABC
Over to something we missed last week and Elon Musk accused the ABC of embracing censorship after the public broadcaster drastically reduced its presence on Twitter cum X. I mean… Twitter isn’t exactly a traffic driver, but Musk hates when people aren’t playing with the toys he’s bought. Anyway, brought to our attention by The Guardian, this is what Musk had to say on the matter (side note, monitoring this man’s tweets is a job in and of itself, ho-boy):
4. An Apple Watch X, but not until next year
With Apple’s iPhone 15 launch pencilled in for September 14, rumours are heating up. But this morning, there’s talk about a product Apple is gearing up to launch next year: the Apple Watch X. Per Bloomberg and its Apple oracle Mark Gurman, the company’s next line of smartwatches is expected to be only a minor upgrade, but the ones after that, including potentially the “Watch X”, could be a big leap forward.
5. Zuck calls Musk’s bluff
And lastly, Mark Zuckerberg says it’s time to move on from the pathetic rhetoric that there will be a cage fight match between him and Elon Musk. He posted on Threads: “I think we can all agree Elon isn’t serious and it’s time to move on. I offered a real date. Dana White offered to make this a legit competition for charity. Elon won’t confirm a date, then says he needs surgery, and now asks to do a practice round in my backyard instead. If Elon ever gets serious about a real date and official event, he knows how to reach me. Otherwise, time to move on. I’m going to focus on competing with people who take the sport seriously.”
BONUS ITEM: They are certainly words.
Enjoy your day and make good choices!