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And to you. My thoughts on the matter have not especially changed, except that I would add that very few people in AI discussion circles seem to appreciate (or care?) that copyright law questions are at the heart of future control over artificial intelligence. The political outcome, after all the judges and legislators have had their crack at it, of cases like NYT v. OpenAI should tell us a lot about who is going to have the power to siphon value from whom. This could potentially have been solved 25 years ago--alas.

I think a lot of people in AI circles cynically assume that copyright law questions will ultimately turn on how much legislators like and use AI. So focus on AI capabilities without worrying about copyright law questions is the correct move.

That makes sense. It looked like previous copyright questions turned on how much power Disney could amass with which to buy politicians.

I wonder if Disney's own power in that regard has waned as of late. I think there was a potential copyright expansion some time ago and it never came to fruition, almost as if Disney...just didn't care?

I wonder if Disney's own power in that regard has waned as of late.

It clearly has. People half-joked for ages about Disney lobbying for yet another Mickey Mouse copyright extension - a joke which, in itself, made the thing less likely. But as Mickey started to hit the public domain, not only was the public watching out for that kind of legislative abuse - Disney was itself in a precarious position, more entangled with the culture war than ever before. They no longer have many friends in high places, relative to how it once was; the Republicans hate the gays and the Democrats hate Americana.

I guess it makes sense, the De Santis vs. Disney episode of the Culture War had the right looking at copyright terms, and that probably made Disney flinch when it came to Steamboat Willy.