Half of what passes for “news” is fake surprise. Propagandists love to attribute a permanent condition like weather or corruption to a “surprising” “unprecedented” action by Horrible Wrong Party.
Nice example. Wired warns us that Instagram has “suddenly” decided to chew up your photos in AI without permission.
Nonsense. This has ALWAYS been the basic rule in social media. I noticed it 15 years ago when I started using Facebook and similar platforms. The contract was loud and clear, not buried in the fine print of a thousand-page Terms and Conditions. When you post, Facebook (or Yahoo or whatever) owns the copyright. You are providing raw material for Facebook to use in whatever way it wants.
In the simplest sense it’s a reciprocal contract. You’re reading and looking without paying money for a subscription. Instead of money you’re paying with content.
Later thought, this fake surprise also rings up the common misunderstanding of copyrights and patents. The mistaken idea of creative authorship has long been dominant in artistic circles, and the 1996 Disney purchase of copyright law was aided by the mistake. Copyrights, patents and licenses are NOT meant to protect or encourage creation**. From the start they were only about COMMERCE. All of these mechanisms are intended for publishers and manufacturers who make MONEY from texts and products. When you understand how they work you’re less vulnerable to fakery.
** This is another of the blatant lies in the “constitution.”
Polistra's Mill 