Brandon Butler
bb.usefairuse.com
Brandon Butler
@bb.usefairuse.com
Copyright lawyer at Jaszi Butler PLLC, Exec Director @recreatecoalition.bsky.social, dad. Press inquiries: press@recreatecoalition.com.
Pinned
Our policy priorities for 2025! Read on for a thread with the high points, or follow the link for the full New Congress Letter, released today.
Reposted by Brandon Butler
Check out Executive Director @bb.usefairuse.com's recent blog about how Google Books shows that “memorization” and outputting training data are not fatal to fair use 👀 recreatecoalition.org/a-note-from-...
A note from Re:Create: Google Books Shows that “Memorization” and Outputting Training Data Are Not Fatal to Fair Use - Re:Create
Allow me to blow your mind: A database of unlicensed copies of copyrighted works, even millions of works, used to power a tool that outputs protected material from those works can still be fair use. I...
recreatecoalition.org
February 12, 2026 at 3:38 PM
YES
Let's be clear about the CLEAR Act: it's 1) premature at best, purposeless at worst; 2) certain to chill gen AI development; and 3) a new nuclear option © owners could use to literally block the release of a new gen AI model without proving any violation of the Copyright Act:🧵👀
February 11, 2026 at 9:56 PM
Love everything about this.
Charity fight between Mayor Jackson and Muhammed Ali.

“Those trunks he had saved him because he had them too high," Ali said. "He came with the trunks up to his breast, therefore I couldn’t hit him in the effective spots ‘cause he’s so big, he’s like a balloon, and if you hit him he’ll bust."
My favorite Atlanta photo ever
February 11, 2026 at 2:44 PM
Reposted by Brandon Butler
The CLEAR Act would stifle America’s competitive advantage in AI. Creating an overburdensome “disclosure” requirement for legal activity would:

🔎Chill academic and non-profit research
💡Drain resources from startups
📉Dismantle our innovation ecosystem
Read the full statement from @bb.usefairuse.com:
Re:Create Opposes the Introduction of the Copyright Labeling and Ethical AI Reporting (CLEAR) Act - Re:Create
Washington, D.C. – Today, following the introduction of the Copyright Labeling and Ethical AI Reporting (CLEAR) Act by U.S. Senators Adam Schiff (D-CA) and John Curtis (R-UT), Re:Create Executive Dire...
recreatecoalition.org
February 10, 2026 at 5:55 PM
I love @TaylorLorenz.bsky.social's combination of passion and erudition about Section 230 in this video. If you don't know the 230 story (or you just want a refresher), this series looks like a must-watch. Episode 1 is live here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eq...
They Are Trying To Kill The Internet
🚨 URGENT: Section 230 is under attack and it affects EVERY person who uses the internet. This is part 1 of my deep-dive series exposing the truth about the ...
www.youtube.com
February 10, 2026 at 1:40 PM
Reposted by Brandon Butler
Don't miss next week's Re:Create recap where Executive Director @bb.usefairuse.com breaks down the latest copyright policy developments. Sign up here: mailchi.mp/recreatecoal...
Re:Create Recap
mailchi.mp
February 9, 2026 at 6:30 PM
Reposted by Brandon Butler
Exact copies can be transformative, politician edition
I’m Analilia Mejia and I approve this message.
February 8, 2026 at 11:13 PM
Reposted by Brandon Butler
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is supporting The Heritage Foundation's tech policy agenda, boosting a proposed law by Lindsey Graham that would mass deplatform LGBTQ people and censor abortion content from the internet. And he's trying to frame it as progressive!
Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Capitol Hill Disaster
YouTube video by Taylor Lorenz Livestreams
www.youtube.com
February 8, 2026 at 5:19 AM
Of course the biggest shared cultural event of the year is also massively fueled by fair use! Happy #fairusefriday!
This year, some brands couldn’t wait for the Big Game (ahem) to drop their Big Ads, and everybody’s already talking about it — with fair use screenshots and clips galore. Check out this great example from @arstechnica.com: arstechnica.com/information-...
OpenAI is hoppin' mad about Anthropic's new Super Bowl TV ads
Sam Altman calls AI competitor "dishonest" and "authoritarian" in lengthy post on X.
arstechnica.com
February 6, 2026 at 5:00 PM
In the latest Re:Create Recap note, I explain how the work of computer science researchers tricking AI models into spitting out copies of training data doesn't have the dire legal consequences some commentators advertise. We know because the 2nd Circuit said so in Google Books.
February 4, 2026 at 3:49 PM
This is your biweekly reminder that if you're not signed up for the Re:Create ReCap, you should be! Commentary from me, copyright news and events, and every issue includes a recommended longread! This week's is Ed Lee on the Constitutional infirmity of "market dilution" theory.
Don’t miss insights from @bb.usefairuse.com in today’s Re:Create recap. Today’s edition includes:
📚The Google Book’s case AI application
❌Opposition to VACRA
📅The countdown to fair use week

Read more: mailchi.mp/recreatecoal...
ReCreate Recap February 3, 2026
mailchi.mp
February 4, 2026 at 2:38 PM
Reposted by Brandon Butler
Journalists don’t just report from the web anymore—they report on it 🕵️‍♀️

Learn 9 Ways Web Archives Are Used In Digital Investigations on how reporters track deleted pages, uncover hidden connections, document edits & follow what vanishes,

Read FOLLOW THE CHANGES ➡️ blog.archive.org/2026/02/02/f...
February 3, 2026 at 3:02 PM
Reposted by Brandon Butler
Don’t miss insights from @bb.usefairuse.com in today’s Re:Create recap. Today’s edition includes:
📚The Google Book’s case AI application
❌Opposition to VACRA
📅The countdown to fair use week

Read more: mailchi.mp/recreatecoal...
ReCreate Recap February 3, 2026
mailchi.mp
February 3, 2026 at 8:47 PM
It's no accident that when lobbyists for online advertisers (Big Pop Up?) write their dream bill to turn the internet into a wholly monetized hellscape where they decide how you browse, the first thing they do is kill fair use. It's One Weird Trick to turn the Web into that scene
February 3, 2026 at 5:05 PM
Reposted by Brandon Butler
#FairUseFriday Fair use plays an essential role in preserving art forms from one generation to the next.
January 30, 2026 at 3:42 PM
Reposted by Brandon Butler
"Two iconic U.S. newsrooms slash reporting and stress opinion writing even as Minnesota proves the need for factual journalism," writes columnist Will Bunch.
CBS, Post blind themselves when America needs eyes on the ground |Will Bunch
CBS, The Washington Post blind themselves when America needs eyes on the ground | Bunch
www.inquirer.com
January 29, 2026 at 11:25 PM
Someone at the @washingtonpost dialed back the inflammatory "destroy millions of books" headline on @WillOremus' piece. Appreciate that. Is it the same for everyone? I've seen three different headlines on this story since it was first published.
January 29, 2026 at 1:39 PM
Reposted by Brandon Butler
This is why we fund scientists to study things like oyster slobber even if you don’t think it sounds important
⚠️ Chinese researchers have invented bone glue that mimics how oysters stick to surfaces underwater.

The adhesive can reportedly repair orthopedic fractures in 2-3 minutes, even in blood-rich environments, and is bioabsorbable.

interestingengineering.com/science/chin...
China's oyster-inspired 'bone glue' bonds fractures in minutes
A new oyster-inspired Bone-02 adhesive can revolutionize bone repair without metal fasteners.
interestingengineering.com
September 30, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Reposted by Brandon Butler
I feel once again compelled to emphasis the digitizing in the literal scanning sense is fairly unimportant if it is not accompanied with metadata providing context for discovery. Both humans and AI will make things up when they don't know what they are looking at.
December 22, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Since “theft” and “destruction” are the lingua franca of AI-copyright discourse, let me put fair use into those terms so folks can understand. Not everything in a copyrighted work is private property. Copyrighted works contain facts, ideas, and raw materials
January 28, 2026 at 5:07 PM
The latest AI training scandal is that Anthropic…spent hundreds of millions of dollars legally buying books! The horror. The "lengths these companies will go to" for their dastardly plan of [checks notes] avoiding even the appearance of impropriety.
January 27, 2026 at 10:33 PM
Reposted by Brandon Butler
📨 Today, Re:Create sent a letter to U.S. Sen. Blackburn's office sharing concerns about the recently introduced, Visual Artists Copyright Reform Act of 2025 (VACRA).
Re:Create Raises Concerns with Sen. Blackburn's VACRA - Re:Create
recreatecoalition.org
January 27, 2026 at 6:31 PM
EU watchers, if you want a breakdown of the good, bad, and ugly in the new EU Parliament report on AI training, @communia.bsky.social has you covered. A new, bespoke press publishers right, overbroad transparency obligations, it's... not great. communia-association.org/2026/01/26/...
INI on copyright and generative AI: Final assessment and recommendation
The INI on copyright and generative AI will be put to a Committee vote this week. Although framed as a response to legitimate questions around AI and copyright, the proposal suffers from serious shortcomings, most notably its disregard for the existing legal framework.
communia-association.org
January 26, 2026 at 6:04 PM
What’s up with Geese. Like, they’re not good, but people act like they are. It’s weird.
January 25, 2026 at 5:16 AM