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Documentary Makers Fear Being Turned Into Criminals By A Harsh New British Law

"We are being advised that the curtailing of Palestine Action could have a major knock-on effect for us as it could become not only illegal for others to voice support for them but also for us, as film-makers, to distribute this film.” - The Guardian (UK)

The Backlash Against Generated AI Is Gaining Steam

Why? "Unlike the dawn of the internet where democratized access to information empowered everyday people in unique, surprising ways, the generative AI era has been defined by half-baked software releases and threats of AI replacing human workers.” - Wired

The Artist Who Got Catfished By A Fake Lady Gaga

“Needless to say, this was not a situation Webster expected to encounter as an up and coming artist.” - The New York Times

How A Music Librarian Convinced Sondheim To Leave His Smoke-Singed Papers To The Nation

A personalized tour of the Library of Congress “included original manuscripts from composers Béla Bartók, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Igor Stravinsky and Johannes Brahms. … But it was American composer George Gershwin's manuscript for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess that moved Sondheim to tears." - CBC

There’s No One In Charge At The US Copyright Office

Thanks to Elon Musk and DOGE, of course - and no one knows when that might improve. - Wired

One Of The World’s First Gay Anthems Was Born 100 Years Ago In Chicago

The police bust of an all-women party she hosted in 1925 was the subject of Ma Rainey’s 1928 record “Prove It on Me Blues.” Rainey and her contralto voice were part of a wider lesbian blues counterculture that included Gladys Bentley, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters and Alberta Hunter. - BBC

There Are Dozens Of Nonprofits Concerned With Frank Lloyd Wright. Only One Helps Out People Who Live In Wright Houses.

“Owning a Wright original — the architecture buff’s equivalent of owning a Picasso — comes with headaches as manifold as they are esoteric. … To address these hurdles … the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy has created an ecosystem in which its 730 members can swap advice, trade stories and build community.” - The New York Times

Seattle’s Low-Income Artspace Seems To Be Falling Apart

“Artspace, the Minneapolis nonprofit that owns the lofts, sold the city on a vision: affordable housing that would help retain Seattle’s creative soul as redevelopment and rising costs were driving out artists. But the dream shattered.” - Seattle Times

Inside The Courthouse Reshaping The Future Of The Internet

“While the FTC’s lawyers were calling witnesses against Meta in one courtroom, a nearby room was hosting arguments about whether Trump could fire two of the agency’s own commissioners.” - The Verge

Authors Are Creating Time-Lapse Tik-Toks To Prove They Don’t Use AI

One young adult fantasy author “doesn't say a single word in the video, but her captions on the screen speak volumes. ‘Using GenAI to write a book doesn’t make you a writer, it makes you a thief,’ reads one.” - Wired

Oops, Sorry, Authors – TikTok Doesn’t Actually Want To Publish Books

The news "came as a shock to authors who were swayed by the possibility that 8th Note could help engineer best sellers with elaborate marketing campaigns on TikTok. Instead, 8th Note has started taking down digital editions of their books, effectively unpublishing them.” - The New York Times

Why Culture Desperately Needs Better Digital Infrastructure

When AI systems learn about Canadian culture, history, and events, they should be learning from trusted, structured, Canadian sources - not filtered scraps from engagement-driven platforms. - LinkedIn

This Administration Almost Sold The Freedom Rides Museum, And Other Civil Rights Monuments

“Many of the buildings on the original list were not ‘underutilized’ at all. They were simply being used for government work that the president didn’t like or by government officials whom the president wanted to punish.” - The New York Times

National History Day Has Turned Into A Deeply Competitive Performance Extravaganza For High School Students

But federal funding cuts are threatening national history: "A scramble for stopgap funding from donors and bake sales allowed all qualifying teams to attend the national finals this year. But what happens next is unclear.” - The New York Times

The Schomburg Center, At 100, Is Ready For Its Day In The Sun

“Artists, writers and community leaders have gone the center to be inspired, root their work in a deep understanding of the vastness of the African diaspora, and spread word of the global accomplishments of Black people” - Seattle Times (AP)

Space Artists At The Museum Of Natural History Discovered A Spiral At The Edge Of Our Solar System

As the artists worked on a video, “We’re flying away from the Oort cloud and out pops this spiral, a spiral shape to the outside of our solar system. … A huge structure, millions and millions of particles.” - Fast Company (Internet Archive)

Disney And Universal’s Battle With Midjourney May Reshape Copyright

“The only thing that can stop AI companies doing what they’re doing is the law. ... If these lawsuits are successful, that is what will hopefully stop AI companies from exploiting people’s life’s work.” - Time

Pussy Riot Founder’s Performance Art ‘Police State’ In LA Got Shut Down By The Police State

"Tolokonnikova, 35, whose political art has left her as a wanted criminal in Russia, chose to continue her performance inside the empty museum.” Normal country. Nothing to see here. - The Guardian (UK)

Where The Last Decade Of Andy Goldsworthy’s Life Has Gone

He’s been doing physically demanding, “totally grim work” on nine farmhouses, restored and turned into art, across six miles in a valley in Yorkshire. And the artist says he’ll never do anything like it again. - The New York Times

Brian Wilson, Creative Mastermind Of The Beach Boys, Is Dead At 82

“There was an abiding pathos in his best records — not merely the idealized scenes the songs depicted, but also that they were created by a depressed, socially awkward, partially-deaf young man who never surfed or much liked the beach and spent his time alone in his room.” - The Washington Post (MSN)
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