Advance Warnings About Consequences Of Australian Link Tax Problems. In advance of announcements by Facebook and Google this week related to the Australian Code Proposal, Jonathan Band and Sean Flynn warned about how the proposal would disrupt free expression rights and international law. While Public Knowledge also warned about the negative consequences for the public interest and potential for news blackouts: “France and Australia have created a structure that will both preserve the existing market power of dominant platforms and the market position of the largest news publishers by requiring negotiations between the two. Worse, by framing this as a negotiation to prevent unjust enrichment, the Australian and French regimes threaten to bring news blackouts to the internet…”
EFF On The State Of Copyright In 2021. A blog post by Electronic Frontier Foundation breaks down the current state of copyright. As Congress rushed to pass a massive spending bill at the end of 2020, two copyright bills, the Copyright Alternatives in Small-Claims Enforcement (CASE) Act and Protecting Lawful Streaming Act of 2020 were added to the package without having had proper hearings to discuss them. The blog concludes with a summary of the draft Digital Copyright Act of 2021 which they write “is very bad for anyone who uses the Internet” and “Worse, in many ways, than any other copyright proposal we’ve seen.”
LinkedIn Announces New Creator Program. LinkedIn’s creation of a content creator management program is the latest in a series of announcements that signals the economic importance of content creators. In a tweet announcing the program, the company’s editor-in-chief Dan Roth wrote: “Creators are the driving engine of LinkedIn . . . Creators are the ones who often get that ball rolling, creating original posts, stories, videos, articles, etc.; amplifying new people to follow; sharing news and links and explaining why they’re worth our time.”
YouTube Unveils New Tool For Creators To Monetize Content. YouTube announced it will be launching a new “applause” feature that will expand ways creators can earn money for their content. Similar to the existing super chat feature which enables creators to earn one-off payments during livestreams, the applause feature will enable creators to also receive payments for pre-recorded content.
Opera Singers Using Zoom To Help Covid-19 Patients Learn To Breathe. British opera singers are helping Covid-19 patients with long lasting cases recover through online classes prescribed by doctors. A story in The New York Times features the six-week program and also notes other ways opera houses are earning money while closed during the pandemic, including virtual courses and wardrobe departments making protective equipment for hospitals. Patient Wayne Cameron said of the program, “The program really does help, physically, mentally, in terms of anxiety.”