General_Effort
@General_Effort@lemmy.world
- Comment on Americium: How a small element could power the next century of space exploration 3 days ago:
Yes.
Shout-out for The Radioactive Boy Scout. (RIP)
- Comment on Americium: How a small element could power the next century of space exploration 3 days ago:
Yes. And also:
Its half-life is a staggering 432 years, five times longer than plutonium-238.
Cringe…
AI slop?
- Comment on German court: ChatGPT violated copyright law by ‘learning’ from song lyrics 1 week ago:
GEMA’s social media game is certainly top. Nice to see the money being put to good use.
If all seats are filled,
Sure. Everyone’s Taylor Swift. Let’s just assume that.
The actual truth is that if you do not play GEMA music, you have to provide evidence of that to GEMA. Young musicians who foolishly reason that they don’t have anything to do with GEMA will be dragged through court.
- Comment on Reddit mod jailed for sharing movie sex scenes in rare “moral rights” verdict 1 week ago:
Fair Use exists only in the US. I believe it is part of the reason why the US became so culturally dominant. It certainly is why the internet is US dominated. European copyright laws are stifling.
- Comment on German court: ChatGPT violated copyright law by ‘learning’ from song lyrics 1 week ago:
GEMA was created by the Nazis to take over pop culture. There’s a certain logic there.
Of course, under the Nazis you could be sent to camp if you belonged to the wrong subculture. So there is a difference. The rebels of the time listened to jazz, to swing. “Negro music” was the social media of that age, corrupting the youth.
- Comment on Montana Becomes First State to Enshrine ‘Right to Compute’ Into Law - Montana Newsroom 1 week ago:
- Comment on Montana Becomes First State to Enshrine ‘Right to Compute’ Into Law - Montana Newsroom 1 week ago:
It wouldn’t be so easy. Such restrictions would have to be limited to those demonstrably necessary and narrowly tailored to fulfill a compelling government interest.
- Comment on Montana Becomes First State to Enshrine ‘Right to Compute’ Into Law - Montana Newsroom 1 week ago:
Yes. I think the last time I heard of Montana was in The Hunt for Red October.
- Comment on Montana Becomes First State to Enshrine ‘Right to Compute’ Into Law - Montana Newsroom 1 week ago:
I wonder if this would make it illegal to cut off someone’s internet if they are accused of piracy. Probably that sort of thing still goes.
It might provide a protection against anti-circumvention laws and such; laws that make it criminal to mess with hardware DRM on your devices.
- Comment on Surprise EU rollback of 'GDPR' digital-rights rules prompts alarm 1 week ago:
Copyright is the bigger problem. The lack of a sensible Fair Use equivalent makes a lot of “tech” impossible. GDPR is a problem, too, but for AI it is the smaller problem. The media sees itself as benefitting from the broken copyright laws, while GDPR cuts into their profits. So that’s why the public discussion is completely skewed.
It’s a given that the EU’s reliance on foreign IT companies will increase. Europe is deeply committed to this copyright ideology, that demands limiting and controlling the sharing of information. It’s not just a legal but a cultural commitment, as can be seen in these discussions on Lemmy. Look for reforms to the Data Act. That’s the latest expansion of this anti-enlightenment nonsense and it really has the potential to turbocharge the damage to the existing industry.
- Comment on Authors Guild Asks Supreme Court to Hold Internet Providers Accountable for Copyright Theft 1 week ago:
Nice try. But this is explicitly the “Authors’ Guild” and others.
- Comment on Authors Guild Asks Supreme Court to Hold Internet Providers Accountable for Copyright Theft 2 weeks ago:
Interesting to see the reactions here; how they differ from other lawsuits that pit “authors” and “artists” against tech companies.
- Authors Guild Asks Supreme Court to Hold Internet Providers Accountable for Copyright Theftauthorsguild.org ↗Submitted 2 weeks ago to technology@lemmy.world | 45 comments
- Comment on The Authoritarian Stack 2 weeks ago:
We have our own local home grown cliques that capture gov contracts.
Yes. If you scroll to the bottom, you find that the project is led by Prof. Francesca Bria.
Looking her up on Wikipedia, one has 2 thoughts: 1) She has a lot of hustle. 2) Why haven’t I heard about any of that?
This is just the Monorail Man doing the song. Except with disturbingly fascist overtones.
- Comment on Scientists Need a Positive Vision for AI 2 weeks ago:
I was just a little surprised to see the familiar name but I don’t quite remember why. Maybe because of the downvotes.
- Comment on Scientists Need a Positive Vision for AI 2 weeks ago:
Oh. By Bruce Schneier.
- Comment on Internet Archive’s legal fights are over, but its founder mourns what was lost - Ars Technica 2 weeks ago:
Yes, the archiving and republishing would be illegal in most countries, but not in the US. Fair Use
They didn’t face trouble over archiving the net, but over digitally lending e-books and audio.
- Comment on a16z-Backed Startup Sells Thousands of ‘Synthetic Influencers’ to Manipulate Social Media as a Service 3 weeks ago:
Maybe it’s time to have a little think about that word, “influencer”, and how that is a job with which people make money.
- Comment on Is there any way the average American can insulate themselves from the AI bubble bursting? 4 weeks ago:
It’s also funny how Lemmy is buying up this narrative.
The entire US economy is currently being propped up by growth in the AI/tech sector.
What’s happening is that Dementia Don is curb-stomping the US economy. AI investments, mainly in data centers, are the only thing that still seems promising. When you are on a trek and someone leads you through Death Valley, while pouring out all the water, you shouldn’t blame the last horse that still keeps going.
Putting the blame in the right place would certainly help, with a view toward the mid-terms.
Financially: Diversify. Make sure that you are not completely dependent on what happens in the US. But mind that Europe comes with its own imponderable risks (ie Putin). Same with China. Maybe some old leader dies and the new crew runs everything into the ground; they go to war with Taiwan, that sort of thing.
- Comment on Automattic CEO calls Tumblr his 'biggest failure' so far 4 weeks ago:
“so far”
- Comment on [deleted] 4 weeks ago:
Outage is ending.
Oct 20 2:27 AM PDT We are seeing significant signs of recovery. Most requests should now be succeeding. We continue to work through a backlog of queued requests. We will continue to provide additional information.
- Comment on [deleted] 4 weeks ago:
Could be that your region relies on different servers, could be that only the sign-in is down.
- Comment on On January 1st of 2026, Texas will be required to give ID to download apps from the app stores. It doesn't matter if it's NSFW or not. 4 weeks ago:
I don’t see what makes you so certain. The EU unambiguously wants computing devices to be more locked down. It wants responsible developers to be tracked.
If your argument holds, then that only means that there is a loophole allowing devs to distribute apps anonymously. That’s where the car analogy fails. There are exceptions for small enterprises and “open source stewards”. These exist so that small players and start-ups won’t be overwhelmed by bureaucracy. They are not supposed to protect dev privacy or user freedom.
I can only repeat that I find your argument valid. I just don’t believe it would stand up in court. If Google was pushing back on this, I would still back them up on such arguments. But they understandably don’t.
Unless there is a major change in attitudes in Europe, we are going to see much more mandated control and surveillance, anyway.
- Comment on On January 1st of 2026, Texas will be required to give ID to download apps from the app stores. It doesn't matter if it's NSFW or not. 4 weeks ago:
If it’s bundled with the OS, it probably does.
Components “placed on the market separately” are explicitly included a being part of the product.
Let me try to gather this together:
The manufacturer, the authorised representative, the importer, the distributor, or other natural or legal person shall, on request, provide the market surveillance authorities with the name and address of any economic operator who has supplied them with a software product, including software or hardware components being placed on the market separately;
Economic operators shall, on request, provide the market surveillance authorities with the following information: (a) the name and address of any economic operator who has supplied them with a product with digital elements;
‘economic operator’ means the manufacturer, the authorised representative, the importer, the distributor, or other natural or legal person who is subject to obligations in relation to the manufacture of products with digital elements or to the making available of products with digital elements on the market in accordance with this Regulation;
‘product with digital elements’ means a software or hardware product and its remote data processing solutions, including software or hardware components being placed on the market separately;
- Comment on On January 1st of 2026, Texas will be required to give ID to download apps from the app stores. It doesn't matter if it's NSFW or not. 4 weeks ago:
The verification demand is for Google certified Android.
‘electronic information system’ means a system, including electrical or electronic equipment, capable of processing, storing or transmitting digital data;
The OS or a phone both fit that definition.
‘component’ means software or hardware intended for integration into an electronic information system;
An app fits the definition of a component.
Maybe you would have to argue that an app is not actually a component. But if it’s a stand-alone thing, then why does it rely on an OS?
I think you can make a good argument that a phone without an OS is not a system. It’s not capable of much. Maybe custom roms will remain an option.
Anyway, Google is not abusing that loophole. So, no problem. F-Droid encourages users to complain to EU lawmakers about Google being a meanie. Maybe the EU will close it anyway as part of future tech regulation.
- Comment on On January 1st of 2026, Texas will be required to give ID to download apps from the app stores. It doesn't matter if it's NSFW or not. 4 weeks ago:
Here’s a definition:
‘product with digital elements’ means a software or hardware product and its remote data processing solutions, including software or hardware components being placed on the market separately;
I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that such apps are components “placed on the market separately”. In fact, I think it’s exactly within the meaning. In any case, even if not, such loopholes are usually plugged by some of the vague, general obligations.
I don’t think ADB installation is a loophole. Once you poke around in the insides of a device, you’re generally on your own. I expect that devices are going to become more locked down before these regulations enter into force but only as far as absolutely necessary. Google doesn’t want to lock out the next generation of devs. Unless or until there is some fuss about people doing something bad and this is declared a loophole.
- Comment on On January 1st of 2026, Texas will be required to give ID to download apps from the app stores. It doesn't matter if it's NSFW or not. 5 weeks ago:
You’re arguing that a dev shouldn’t be seen as supplying to Google just because their apps run on a Google system. I agree, that could be a valid argument, but I am not too sure if it would work in court.
Google is certainly following the spirit of the law. Maybe there is a tiny loophole here but imagine Google leaves that open. A few people install some shady app store full of malware and scams. Would a court find that Google had fulfilled all its legal obligations to protect its users?
- Comment on On January 1st of 2026, Texas will be required to give ID to download apps from the app stores. It doesn't matter if it's NSFW or not. 5 weeks ago:
That says when Google distributes an app via the Play Store, Google must be able to name the developer.
You’re thinking of the DSA (Article 30), in force since last year. The CRA is on top (or beside) of that, starting in 2027. Some are also pointing the finger at the RED (Article 3 3.). That’s the one that made Apple do USB chargers.
I expect phones are going to become a lot more locked down, especially in the EU.
It does not say that when I distribute an app via my website, Google has any obligations whatsoever.
Yes. Google is only demanding verification for certified phones.
- Comment on On January 1st of 2026, Texas will be required to give ID to download apps from the app stores. It doesn't matter if it's NSFW or not. 5 weeks ago:
collect certain information from developers
Yes. Like a copy of their identity papers.
Consult Article 23 (“Identification of economic operators”) of the CRA. The entry into force fits Google’s timeline.
- Comment on On January 1st of 2026, Texas will be required to give ID to download apps from the app stores. It doesn't matter if it's NSFW or not. 5 weeks ago:
I think Google is mainly aiming to comply with EU law. But Brussels effect…
It should give Europeans pause that their tech regulation is red state style. Explains why their tech industry is on a red state level.