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Internet Archive Loses Landmark E-Book Lending Copyright Appeal Against Publishers.
  • You are correct: the ruling simply affirms the plaintiff's claim against IA.

    Any out-of-copyright and non-copyright items, as well as items with permissive terms (e.g., Creative Commons licenses) will still be available on IA. Previously, the plaintiff Hachette offered a deal that IA rejected, in which IA would be allowed to make digital copies of Hachette texts that are either out-of-print titles, or titles for which digital copies have never been produced.

    Right now, it's up to Hachette and the other publishers affected in the case whether that offer is still available.

    edited: hyphens.

  • The Internet Archive just lost its appeal over ebook lending
  • I definitely don’t like the obnoxious copyright system in the USA, but what the IA did seems obviously wrong.

    The publisher-plaintiffs did not prove the "obvious wrong" in this case, however US-based courts have a curious standard when it comes to the application of Fair Use doctrine. This case ultimately rested on the fourth, most significantly-weighted Fair Use standard in US-based courts: whether IA's digital lending harmed publisher sales during the 3-month period of unlimited digital lending.

    Unfortunately, when it comes to this standard, the publisher-plaintiffs are not required to prove harm, rather only assert that harm has occurred. If they were required to prove harm they'd have to reveal sales figures for the 27 works under consideration--publishers will do anything to conceal this information and US-based courts defer to them. Therefore, IA was required to prove a negative claim--that digital lending did not hurt sales--without access to the empirical data (which in other legal contexts is shared during the discovery phase) required to prove this claim. IA offered the next best argument (see pp. 44-62 of the case document to check for yourself), but the data was deemed insufficient by the court.

    In other words, on the most important test of Fair Use doctrine, which this entire case ultimately pivoted upon, IA was expected to defend itself with one arm tied behind its back. That's not 'fair' and the publishers did not prove 'obvious' harm, but the US-based courts are increasingly uninterested in these things.

    edited: page numbers on linked court document.

  • F-22 stealth fighter aircraft above West Toronto
  • What an experience!

    The F-22 impressed us. In this photo, it is flying over the lake, which when compared to objects in the foreground shows how big it is. In the second photo, it flew vertically upward, was suspended for a moment to light off two flares, and briefly dropped line a stone before pulling out again. Dramatic stuff. These redditors have a bit more context on the significance of it flying here.

  • F-22 stealth fighter aircraft above West Toronto
    archive.org Future Ruins HWLN 04 031 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

    Future Ruins We all walk in mysteries. We are surrounded by an atmosphere of which we do not know what is stirring in it, or how it is connected with our own...

    Future Ruins HWLN 04 031 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-22_Raptor

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    Fallstreak hole cloud phenomenon over midtown Toronto
    archive.org Fallstreak Hole HWLI 04 024 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

    Fallstreak Hole On the sightless seas of ether, Rudderless, without a sail, Choirs of stars uplift their voices, Where the mist-waves rise and fail. Through...

    Fallstreak Hole HWLI 04 024 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallstreak_hole

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    Flower Moon (23 May 2024)
    archive.org Flower Moon HWBL 04 032 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

    Flower Moon After all it is no spring flower, but only a postscript to a hope (p. 28). Leopold, Aldo. A Sand County Almanac. 1949. Ballantine,...

    Flower Moon HWBL 04 032 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

    Check the link for a full-size version (3600 x 4800).

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    Unenforceable (collage on TPS notice)
    archive.org Unenforceable HWIM 04 005 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

    Unenforceable The story of the collapse of the Roman Republic is one in which these elements of the mos maiorum slowly crumble under the weight of the...

    Unenforceable HWIM 04 005 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

    This notice was found last summer (July 2023) on St. Clair W., after the Salsa on St. Clair festival.

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    Golden hour in the Yorkville neighbourhood (OC)
  • We were inspired by your recent photos. We'll post more.

  • Golden hour in the Yorkville neighbourhood (OC)
    archive.org Fortress to the East HWYL 04 005 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

    Fortress to the East Here stood a sacred forest. Here the messenger Wing-footed went, his touch upon the dumb glades leaving... Upon the site of cities, nor...

    Fortress to the East HWYL 04 005 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

    Photo taken from the west side in late December 2023.

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    Eye of Sauron public art in Toronto

    Made using discarded parking tickets, among other things. More images here: https://archive.org/details/lawful-evil-hwmb-03-009

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    Hundreds of water striders on a late-summer Ontario lake (3300 x 2200)

    There are so many local names for this insect: water strider, water skipper, water skimmer, water bug... got any more?

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    Art @lemmy.ca huiccewudu @lemmy.ca
    The Artisans: China's Van Goghs (short doc on artist's village)

    Short documentary focusing on a few of the artists living in Dafen, China. This village hosts both independent artist studios and fascimilie factories with various connections between the people working in them. The short documentary is subtitled in English (sometimes hard to read), but good production quality. Much of the conversation revolves around the tension between reproduction and originality, and the professional lives of working artists in the village.

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    Live TTC Transit Control broadcast feed = alternative source of info on delays, etc.
    www.broadcastify.com Toronto Transit Control Live Audio Feed

    Toronto Transit Control Live Audio Feed on Broadcastify.com

    Toronto Transit Control Live Audio Feed

    If you ever want more info about a transit delay than what you get from official communications, or if you want a better sense of daily issues on trains and buses (most of which are never reported to the police/press), check out this unofficial feed: https://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/31629

    Here's a 1-minute video showing the Transit Control centre where many of these calls are received: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQoKVmNJlSs

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    Nova Scotia's population is suddenly booming. Can the province handle it?
  • "We have new people whose life experiences have been radically different than ours. And so for those of us who have been here for decades or a long time, it gives us an insight into how people lived in other parts of the world, and now they're with us and we want to learn about them. So we are one united community."

    This is such a positive take from someone in leadership re: new immigration to their community. It can be difficult to manage unexpected population growth and the federal/provincial governments offer poor support to growing communities across Canada. Mr. Morrison and his neighbours deserve lots of credit and respect for welcoming new neighbours who've been through a lot. They sound like good people.

  • Ontario is lowering its markups on pot, as cannabis companies struggle to stay afloat
  • Just a reminder that many former government staff, ex-elected officials, family members and acquaintances of current politicians, etc. are now lobbyists and/or investors in the commercial cannabis sector. For example, Smitherman (CEO of CCC) worked for 4 decades in Ontario politics before becoming a lobbyist. As the retailer quoted in this article says, these politically-connected producers are the intended beneficiaries of pricing changes, not the retailers or customers.

    Unfortunately, this is standard business practice in Canada: now that they have achieved market dominance over less-connected peers, they look to the government to help protect their profits, which they will use to purchase struggling competitors to further consolidate the industry and allow them to raise wholesale prices in the future. Once only 2-3 major producers remain in the country, they will have spent two decades lobbying the government and can look forward to protectionist government intervention, price collusion, and guaranteed profits, not unlike Rogers/Bell/Telus enjoy today.

  • What can we do to keep the web open?
  • Swiss technology company that focuses on privacy products. Initially funded by a Swiss startup capital firm and now uses a subscription model. ProtonMail is not open source or non-profit, but the product they offer is privacy. Switzerland also has strict privacy laws and resists state-based information requests. Best option is to run one's own email client server, but simple folks like me don't have the skills to do so. (FWIW, I use ProtonMail and think it works great.)

  • Where do you find your arts and culture news?
  • You are welcome at the https://lemmy.ca/c/art community. Currently, most submissions are people's artworks, but what you describe is also seems relevant to the community and I'd post content too if there's interest in it!

  • Pints on patios, but not in parks β€” why drinking alcohol in public spaces is still such a big deal
  • "In my view, a lot of the general associations we have with drinking in public are negative, like drunkenness in public, drinking and driving, like drunken hoodlums, all of these things β€” which make the news, but aren't necessarily the only way people consume alcohol in public."

    Dr. Malleck quoted here gets close to the source of the problem, which is classism.

    Most mayors, city councilors, etc. are doing well financially and they own their own houses (as well as cottages, investment properties, etc.), so the idea of going to a public park to drink outside with friends seems unusual to them. They view public parks as community spaces, but only within their personal perspectives as homeowners, and therefore what is allowed in parks is restricted to class-based moral sensibilities. It's easy for Councilor So-and-So to bring her laptop to her backyard garden patio for another Zoom meeting. The line worker who just wants to sit outside with her family after 12 hours inside sorting chicken meat for Councilor So-and-So's BBQ that weekend... she was an afterthought when it comes to these kinds of public space bylaws.

    This disconnect between how municipal leaders and many apartment/condo-dwelling constituents live also explains the conflicts during the pandemic when people wanted to leave the isolation of their apartments for fresh air, but homeowner leaders (with their backyards, cottage retreats, 'working' holidays, etc.) told them to go back inside and threatened them with fines.

    We do we have these bylaws? Ignorance rooted in class.

  • Art @lemmy.ca huiccewudu @lemmy.ca
    The New Whatever (collage, 6x6", 2023)

    How can it feel so dry and be so humid at the same time? These days, even the dryads need a better skincare product...

    The hand is made from coffee filter. The bottle and 'Dryad' logo are product packaging. The sun is yellow tissue paper, while the haze background is washi paper.

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    Mother of Thousands: urban adoption program

    Our most productive plant is K. laetivirens, an unusual succulent that yields many plantlets around the edges of its leaves. There are varieties: ours is bright green, resilient, and likes small pots.

    We grew a large one (to truly become a mother of thousands). We cultivate its many plantlets in glass pots and anonymously leave them for others in our neighbourhood in Toronto.

    More photos of adopted plantlets, etc.

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    Art @lemmy.ca huiccewudu @lemmy.ca
    Wood Thrush (collage, 16x20", 2023)

    Details here: https://archive.org/details/wood-thrush-hwbl-03-014

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