Disruptive Library Technology Jester

Disruptive Library Technology Jester

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Peter E. Murray

Library technologist, open source advocate, striving to think globally while acting locally

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  • Issue 113: More on Copyright and Foundational AI Models

    In Thursday Threads this week: key legal cases and corporate actions on using copyrighted materials in AI training, emphasizing growing tensions between creators and tech companies as AI increasingly utilizes large licensed and some pirated datasets.

     Posted on  March 27, 2025
     and last updated March 29, 2025
     ·  12 minutes reading time
  • Digital versus Digitized: On the Hachette v. Internet Archive Appeal Oral Argument

    One thing that would dramatically clarify the controlled digital lending concept in general and the Hachette v. Internet Archive lawsuit in particular is having distinct terms for types of ebooks. I propose that we refer to them as digital and digitized. A digital book is one that is born digital …

     Posted on  July 06, 2024
     and last updated July 06, 2024
     ·  14 minutes reading time
  • Controlled Digital Lending…What's the Fuss?

    On March 16, 2023, I gave a presentation with this title to the code4lib conference in Princeton, New Jersey. The suggested links from the end of the presentation are listed below followed by a rough transcript of the talk.

    As I noted in the talk, the judge in the Hachette …

     Posted on  March 16, 2023
     and last updated March 18, 2023
     ·  18 minutes reading time
  • Issue 99: Copyright for Generative Artificial Intelligence (ChatGPT, DALL·E 2, and the like)

    Cecil Mae Feather, 1929–2023
    This issue is offered in honor of Cecil Mae Thornburg Feather, my mother-in-law. Cecil Mae was a wonderful person. I only knew her a short time as I married into the Feather family, and that time was filled with love and joy. She enjoyed playing …

     Posted on  March 02, 2023
     and last updated March 01, 2023
     ·  11 minutes reading time
  • Issue 87: Ukraine War, Artificial Intelligence Art

    We are one week into Russia's war against Ukraine. From here in America, it is hard to understand the reality of a country whose citizens seemed to be going about normal lives just a short time ago. I find it also hard to know what to say to people whose …

     Posted on  March 03, 2022
     and last updated March 02, 2022
     ·  4 minutes reading time
  • Thursday Threads: Mobile Device Encryption, Getty Images for Free

    Just a brief pair of threads this week. First is a look at what is happening with mobile device encryption as consumer electronics companies deal with data privacy in the post-Snowden era. There is also the predictable backlash from law enforcement organizations, and perhaps I just telegraphed how I feel …

     Posted on  October 02, 2014
     and last updated October 02, 2014
     ·  5 minutes reading time
  • Interesting Shibboleth Use Case: Enforcing Geographic Restrictions

    Last month's HathiTrust newsletter had an interesting technical tidbit at the top about access to out-of-print and brittle or missing items:

    One of the lawful uses of in-copyright works HathiTrust has been pursuing is to provide access on an institutional basis to works that fall under United States Copyright Law …

     Posted on  January 24, 2013
     and last updated January 25, 2013
     ·  4 minutes reading time
  • Thursday Threads: Open Source Advocates Twitch at Blackboard's Strategy and Effect of Copyright/DRM on Access

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    Thursday Threads has been a back-burner activity for quite a while now. Blame it on too many interesting things happening at home and at work (to say nothing of the early arrival of spring weather). This week will be …

     Posted on  April 05, 2012
     and last updated January 15, 2018
     ·  6 minutes reading time
  • AIME v UCal Decision Says Streaming Equivalent to Public Performance

    NOTE! The title of this post was updated (replacing "Display" with "Performance") a day after it was originally published. See the update at the bottom of the post for more details.


    Last week a federal district court in California decided in favor of the University of California defendants in a lawsuit …

     Posted on  October 10, 2011
     and last updated October 10, 2011
     ·  6 minutes reading time
  • Thursday Threads: Authors Guild Sues Hathi Trust, Libraries Learn from Blockbuster, Publisher's View of Self-Publishing

    Legal action against the digitization and limited distribution of orphan works unexpectedly hit the news again this week. This week's DLTJ Thursday Threads starts with an overview of the lawsuit filed by authors organizations and authors against Hathi Trust over plans to make digital versions of orphan works available to …

     Posted on  September 15, 2011
     and last updated September 15, 2011
     ·  6 minutes reading time
  • Thursday Threads: Google's Social Strategy, Big Data, Patriot Act outside U.S., Frightening Copyright Revisited

    It might have been the week of the annual American Library Association meeting with all the news and announcements and programming that came from it -- as well as getting into the dog days of summer -- but interesting news at the intersection of technology and libraries did not take a pause …

     Posted on  June 30, 2011
     and last updated June 30, 2011
     ·  7 minutes reading time
  • Thursday Threads: RDA Test Results, Author's Rights Denied, Future Copyright Scenario

    This week we got the long-awaited report from the group testing RDA to see if its use would be approved for the major U.S. national libraries. And the answer? An unsatisfying, if predictable, maybe-but-not-yet. This week also brought new examples of the tensions between authors and publishers and libraries …

     Posted on  June 16, 2011
     and last updated June 17, 2011
     ·  5 minutes reading time
  • Thursday Threads: HarperCollins, Google Book Search Settlement, DPLA, Juggling Robots

    It is another e-books issue of DLTJ Thursday Threads with updates on three significant efforts: HarperCollins, Google Book Search Settlement, Digital Public Library of America. And, just for fun and to keep this from turning into purely a legal and blue-sky policy blog, we have a video of juggling robots …

     Posted on  March 31, 2011
     and last updated March 28, 2022
     ·  7 minutes reading time
  • Google Book Search Settlement Rejected

    Google Book Search Ruling Wordle

    Wordle of the Opinion Rejecting the Google Book Search Settlement Agreement
    This afternoon, Judge Denny Chin released the opinion of the court rejecting the proposed settlement agreement between authors/publishers and Google in the Google Book Search settlement. ARL's Public Policy Twitter account seems to have been the first to …

     Posted on  March 22, 2011
     and last updated March 22, 2011
     ·  3 minutes reading time
  • Thursday Threads: Free Music Scores, Hiring for Attitude, National Broadband Map

    Hickory, with true-to-life parting attitude (left) and Mittens
    This week's Thursday Threads is delayed, but for good reason. If you will indulge me with a personal note, this week saw the passing of our 20-year-old cat, Hickory, and the addition of a 6-month-old kitten, Mittens, to our family. Needless to …

     Posted on  February 24, 2011
     and last updated February 25, 2011
     ·  7 minutes reading time
  • Thursday Threads: Website Accessibility Reporting Service and Remixes in Film

    This week's DLTJ Thursday Threads has just two pointers. First, a new volunteer web service to report problems with websites, which may be useful for not only our own sites but for the sites our patrons visit. Second, a nine-minute video that illustrates the reuse of themes and ideas in …

     Posted on  February 10, 2011
     and last updated February 10, 2011
     ·  2 minutes reading time
  • Thursday Threads: Ebooks in Libraries, Prognostications for the Year, Open Source Adoption, Public Domain Day

    The turn of the year brings commentary on the past 12 months and thoughts on the future. This edition of DLTJ Thursday Threads looks at the relationship between libraries and electronic books with an offer by Sony to explain e-reader hardware to libraries and an opinion piece that libraries need …

     Posted on  January 06, 2011
     and last updated January 06, 2011
     ·  10 minutes reading time
  • Thursday Threads: Digital Reference Librarians, First Sale Danger, Open Access, Data Modeling

    When I say "<blank> is a question answering system. A question can be posed in natural language and ... <blank> can come up with a very precise answer to that question" -- what comes to mind to fill in the <blank>? If you guessed a system developed by IBM to appear alongside …

     Posted on  December 23, 2010
     and last updated December 23, 2010
     ·  7 minutes reading time
  • Thursday Threads: OCLC Moves to Dismiss SkyOCLC, UCLA Sued For Streaming, Paving Cow Paths, Origins of #

    This week's Thursday Threads highlights includes two legal cases that bear watching. The first is the case of SkyRiver/Innovative Interfaces versus OCLC (covered on DLTJ previously); now that the case has been moved to OCLC's home court (the federal district court located in Columbus, OH), it is asking for …

     Posted on  December 16, 2010
     and last updated December 16, 2010
     ·  8 minutes reading time
  • Thursday Threads: Refining Data, Ebook Costs, Open Bibliographic Data, Copyright Infringement

    It has been a long week, so for many of you this edition of DLTJ Thursday Threads will actually be read on Friday. The spirit was willing, the topics were certainly out there in the past seven days, but the necessary distractions were numerous. Please enjoy this edition whenever you …

     Posted on  November 11, 2010
     and last updated November 12, 2010
     ·  4 minutes reading time