Stuff Worth Knowing for the Week of August 14, 2023
Federal judge upholds that AI art isn't copyrightable, X tries to block blocking, and Netflix starts testing out game streaming.
Welcome back to Stuff Worth Knowing! Each week, I'll round up news related to tech, video games, film, television, anime, and more.
There’s no essay this week! I’m going on a work trip for the entire week and this means the time I’d normally be writing an essay was taken up by travel planning. My work travel will also extend to next Monday, meaning there might not be a newsletter next week. We’ll see how much free time I have.
Tech ⌨️
Biden Admin Asks Supreme Court To Take Up Content Moderation Cases
President Biden’s Solicitor General, Elizabeth Prelogar, has asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on two cases involving social media and content moderation. The state of Florida and Texas have filed laws—Senate Bill 7072 and House Bill 20, respectively—aimed at preventing social media platforms from moderating or banning users, arguing that to do so is a form of censorship. Both laws are on hold at the moment, with the Supreme Court asking for the Biden administration's input back in January.
The Solicitor General has finally responded, asking the Supreme Court to look at both cases. She states that social media platforms have the right to moderate their platforms, due to the First Amendment. “The platforms’ content-moderation activities are protected by the First Amendment, and the content-moderation and individualized-explanation requirements impermissibly burden those protected activities,” she says in the brief.
Linus Tech Tips Takes a Knee Following Review Controversy
I generally dislike addressing internet drama, but the drama in this case has temporarily shut down one of the biggest tech-focused review channels on YouTube. Linus Tech Tips (LTT) has 15.4 million subscribers on YouTube and the channel funds an entire tech review operation. Following some comments made by LTT employees, Gamers Nexus put out a 45-minute video on the problems with the company’s current review model, citing numerous ethical breaches and poor accuracy in its reviews.
Founder Linus Sebastian responded, but that response didn’t aptly address the many issues within Gamers Nexus’ video. Following a period of extended anger from the tech community, Linus Tech Tips posted a video promising an overhaul to the company’s review process and other fixes. To investigate those issues, LTT’s operations will be temporarily shut down. (Following the release of the video, the company was also accused of sexual harassment and a toxic work environment.)
PayPal Chooses Its Next CEO as It Pivots Toward Crypto
According to reporting from CNBC this week, PayPal’s new CEO will be Alex Chriss, a former small business executive at Intuit. This followed current CEO Dan Schulman’s announcement that he was planning on retiring from the position by the end of 2023. Chriss will start on September 27, pushing forward PayPal’s plan to further support cryptocurrency with its upcoming stablecoin, PayPal USD. Cointelgraph reports that the company is also rolling out a Cryptocurrencies Hub to select users.
Threads Web App Launching This Week
This one flew it right under the wire. The Wall Street Journal reports that Meta’s Threads is launching a web version of its social media service this week. This was one of the major features missing with Meta’s Twitter competitor, though it still lacks features like a real search function, hashtags, a professional-level client, and direct messaging. We’ll see how quickly Meta can bring those features to the platform, which has lost users since its launch highs.
This Week In The Service Formerly Known as Twitter: Trying To Block Blocking
This week at X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, started off pretty light. TweetDeck, now called X Pro, finally moved under the Twitter Blue subscription service, now known as X Premium. This was a promised shift, removing the powerful app from veteran social media users (like myself) unless they subscribed to X Premium (which I did not).
Then on Wednesday, the Washington Post reported that X was throttling the access speed to certain online outlets and competing services, including the New York Times, Reuters, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and Substack. Basically, all links posted on Twitter use a link-shortening service, and by flagging certain URLs through this service, Musk could add delays and slowdowns to users accessing those links.
Finally, Musk ended the week by announcing that he was going to remove user blocking on X. Many responded with horror and dismay, increasing traffic to sites like Bluesky and Threads once again. Others noted that Apple and Google online store policies require some ability to block user-generated content. What will Musk do in response? Probably try to remove the feature and see if the storefronts will call his bluff. That’s really not that far outside of his current method of operation.
Video Games 🎮
Netflix Begins Testing Game Streaming
Following the appearance of a controller app last week, Netflix announced this week that it has begun to test streaming game releases on all platforms. Oxenfree and Molehew’s Mining Adventure are the games available through the current beta testing phase. Invited users can play either game on PC or Mac through Netflix.com, or on specific TVs using the new Netflix controller app. The app itself allows testers to use their smartphones as controllers for gaming on TVs. “This limited beta is meant to test our game streaming technology and controller, and to improve the member experience over time,” wrote Netflix VP of Games Mike Verdu.
Microsoft Closing Xbox 360 Store on July 2024
On Thursday, Microsoft announced that the Xbox 360 Marketplace would be closing forever on July 29, 2024. Users will no longer be able to purchase new games, downloadable content, or entertainment from the online store. That said, all previous purchases made through the Marketplace will continue to be available.
This essentially means that you have just under a year to make your last digital Xbox 360 purchases. It’s worth noting that backward-compatible Xbox 360 games will still be purchasable on Xbox online storefronts. This is largely affecting those games which aren’t backward-compatible, a total of 1,522 Xbox 360 games.
G/O Media Fires Kotaku Editor-In-Chief Patricia Hernandez
It was a bit of a surprise when Kotaku editor-in-chief Patricia Hernandez announced her final day as editor-in-chief at Kotaku. A day later, former Launcher journalist Shannon Liao revealed that Hernandez was fired by G/O Media. There were no further details about Hernandez’ firing, outside of it being a “personnel disagreement”. "When leadership is, say, getting frustrated at you for writing about Tears of the Kingdom after its release, I do think there's a limit to how much things can flourish," she told Liao.
Film, Television, and Streaming 🎞️
WGA and SAG-AFTRA Strikes: WGA and AMPTP Meet Multiple Times This Week
Last week, The Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) came back to the bargaining table. This week, representatives from both organizations met multiple times to hammer out a brand-new deal, with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos and Disney CEO Bob Iger reportedly pushing the AMPTP to find a compromise with writers. Negotiations are continuing into next week. Picket lines were paused this weekend, as the Los Angeles area was scheduled to get hit with Hurricane Hilary.
As the strikes stretch on, studios are using them as an excuse to cancel shows that were already renewed. Amazon Studios canceled the renewals for A League of Their Own and The Peripheral. The studio had previously ordered a second concluding season for A League of Their Own and second season for The Peripheral, but it’s now using the work stoppages from the strikes as a reason to reverse course.
Paramount Global Decides Not To Sell BET
Paramount Global has been trying to sell BET Media Group since March of this year, but apparently the company believes that the sale is no longer worth it. Investors including Black talent like Tyler Perry, Byron Allen, Shaquille O’Neal, and Sean “Diddy” Combs had bid on the division, with Perry apparently offering $2 billion. According to the Wall Street Journal, Paramount called off any potential deal this week, after deciding that the sale wouldn’t result in a meaningful reduction of debt. (Perry retains a minority stake in BET Media Group.)
Broadcast and Cable Slipping To Streaming, Notes Nielsen
In its latest Insights report, television analysis service Nielsen notes that streaming has reached an all-time high in July, with broadcast and cable seeing stronger declines. Combined streaming viewership percentage rose to 38.7% of total television viewing, driven primarily by acquired shows like Suits on Netflix and Bluey on Disney+. Broadcast fell to 20% despite the Women’s World Cup providing a boost, and Cable dropped 12.5% year-over-year to land at 29.6%. The “Other” category, which includes video game console usage, contracted a bit with 11.6%, versus 12.5% of the total in July of last year.
AI 🤖
Federal Judge Upholds That AI-Generated Art Isn’t Copyrightable
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell agreed with a ruling from the U.S. Copyright Office, stating that a piece of art created by AI cannot receive copyright protection. Dr. Stephen Thaler, founder and chief engineer of Imagination Engines, previously applied for copyright on a work (above) created by his AI model, the Creativity Machine. The Copyright Office denied the application, citing that human authorship was key.
Howell agreed. “On the record designed by plaintiff from the outset of his application for copyright registration, this case presents only the question of whether a work generated autonomously by a computer system is eligible for copyright. In the absence of any human involvement in the creation of the work, the clear and straightforward answer is the one given by the Register: No,” she wrote.
Note, this only applies to work with no human involvement, though. Howell did acknowledge that there will be “challenging questions regarding how much human input is necessary to qualify the user of an AI system as an ‘author’ of a generated work”. The U.S. Copyright Office has already weighed in there as well though: back in February, it rescinded copyright on the art in the comic Zarya of the Dawn. The comic was written by Kris Kashtanova, but the art was created by Midjourney via Kashtanova’s prompting. The author retained the written copyright.
Iowa School District Bans Books Using ChatGPT
An Iowa law signed last month, Senate File 496, is forcing state libraries to remove books that are deemed inappropriate for children. The problem is, the libraries don’t necessarily know which books fit the criteria. Instead of reading them all, one school district turned to ChatGPT. Local newspaper The Gazette noted that the district said it was using “AI software” to determine if a book included sexual acts. Popular Science followed up, obtaining confirmation that ChatGPT was used.
“Frankly, we have more important things to do than spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to protect kids from books,” Mason City’s Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Bridgette Exman told PopSci. “At the same time, we do have a legal and ethical obligation to comply with the law. Our goal here really is a defensible process.”
A total of 19 books were removed, with a list available in the Gazette article. There’s seemingly no acknowledgement of ChatGPT’s propensity for just making things up. Wild.