Andres Guadamuz
@technollama.bsky.social
Law and technology academic. Posts about copyright law, internet regulation, AI, llamas, pandas, and cats. Rare dual Tico-British citizen.
https://www.technollama.co.uk/
Business
38%
Computer science
27%
This is more self-aggrandising than my normal outputs, but I’m feeling smug after a good week. Sue me.
Writing is weird. I keep seeing some of my ideas make their way into legal documents, not always attributed, but I don't mind. Yesterday I dropped a bomb, an idea so simple yet so devastating that I wondered if anyone would notice. And today someone picked it up. Now we see if it sticks.
The funny thing is that these people have given 0 thought to the legal implications. Training took place in the US, so if they sue in Japan they have 2 options: claim US law applies (currently fair use), or claim Japanese law applies (wide TDM exception). That's why they issued a letter, not sued.
Not enough people have given thought to the complexities of jurisdiction and choice of law in years to come.
But let's say an EU company gets sued in the US for training done in the EU, that is more likely to be contested, and I'd even argue that the AI developer could have a good case that this was legitimate under EU law.
The honest answer is "it depends". There's already been a suit against Chinese model trainers, and I think that this is likely to be decided in favour of the claimant because it will go uncontested. Enforcing that ruling in a Chinese court will be difficult though.
Getty Images v Stability AI: A landmark High Court ruling on AI, copyright, and trade marks
The much-awaited decision in the lawsuit between stock photography giant Getty Images and AI developer Stability AI has now been released, see: Getty Images v Stability AI EWHC 2863 (Ch). I've discussed this case before, but these are the facts as presented by Smith J in her introduction: Getty Images, an image company that licenses high-quality photographs, videos, illustrations and related metadata through various platforms.
www.technollama.co.uk
Getty Images v Stability AI: A landmark High Court ruling on AI, copyright, and trade marks
The much-awaited decision in the lawsuit between stock photography giant Getty Images and AI developer Stability AI has now been released, see: Getty Images v Stability AI EWHC 2863 (Ch). I've discussed…
The much-awaited decision in the lawsuit between stock photography giant Getty Images and AI developer Stability AI has now been released, see: Getty Images v Stability AI EWHC 2863 (Ch). I've discussed…
I've told you before, there are three rules of statutory interpretation and I won't be swayed.
These people tend to have a twisted and erroneous idea of the law. There's a big global jurisdiction, all legal systems fit with each other, a fault in one building block brings down the entire legal system, etc.
I'm sometimes copied in an email from a deranged person who claims to have found a fatal flaw in one piece of legislation which brings down the entire edifice of law. This type of thinking is also prevalent in "Freemen of the Land" and sovereign citizen circles, and I've always found it fascinating.
It's been 3 years, I predicted a 6 year war (10 if there's a SCOTUS case), but by then the technology will be so entrenched that we will get mostly settlements and licensing agreements. It's crazy how many people really believed that copyright would kill genAI.
Pretty frigging huge.
About to start reading it, but browsing the conclusions it appears to be mostly a victory for Stability AI.
Fresh off the press! Getty Images v Stability AI [2025] EWHC 2863 (Ch). drive.google.com/file/d/1vqcQ...
Rumour has it that Getty Images v Stability AI will be out later today. This case is about trade marks, database rights, and secondary infringement, the direct infringement side was dropped. Honestly, I'm not sure what to expect, but I would be surprised if the TM claims were successful.
Thanks! Today is the first day that I feel a bit back to normal minus the voice. Too late for the trip to Zagreb though.
Social media sucks, but what’s the alternative?
It would be fair to say that we're going through a period of realisation that social media may not have been such a good thing after all. The list of serious complaints continues to grow. Social media is making our children depressed and anxious. It's killing democracy. It's guilty of fostering the rise of fascism across the world. It's making us isolated.
www.technollama.co.uk
Social media sucks, but what’s the alternative?
It would be fair to say that we're going through a period of realisation that social media may not have been such a good thing after all. The list of serious complaints continues to grow. Social media is making our children depressed and anxious.…
It would be fair to say that we're going through a period of realisation that social media may not have been such a good thing after all. The list of serious complaints continues to grow. Social media is making our children depressed and anxious.…
Sigh, I was supposed to be flying today to Zagreb for a film festival to talk about AI and copyright, and then I was also supposed to give a paper at CODAIP following Ryan Abbott. Cancelled both. Damn this stupid illness.
My heart goes out to all the poor souls who will be suffering a heart attack every time I board a train looking all foreign and brown and all.
r/USdefaultism 😂
When I became British I thought that I understood the end of year holiday calendar.
Halloween: mid-October
Poppy season: November 1st
Christmas season: 3rd week of November
But it's all gone bonkers.
Halloween: October 1st
Poppies: October 20
Christmas: Nov 1st
Halloween: mid-October
Poppy season: November 1st
Christmas season: 3rd week of November
But it's all gone bonkers.
Halloween: October 1st
Poppies: October 20
Christmas: Nov 1st
Yes, they started yesterday with the footie. ffs indeed.
I'm surprised how far we've come in the last 3 years in the AI copyright space. The subject used to be discussed by a few nerds on Twitter, and it has now exploded into a full-on content environment with BREAKING alerts and so many authoritative sources, you can't miss a development.
Trying to think of the best software to mix slides with audio, you can choose an audio source with Panopto, or perhaps record the slides separately and add the audio track with a video editor.
This got me thinking... Could I still go ahead with the presentations if I train an AI using my voice? I have hours of lecture recordings and I have the slides prepared, so I would just need to adjust the script to do a voice-over, and maybe record it as a video.
My covid came with a laryngitis chaser, I can only speak very short sentences. I work with my voice, so I had to cancel classes and next week I had 3 presentations and a trip to Zagreb, which looks like I'll also have to cancel.