Monthly archives: March, 2025

The LibGen data set – what authors can do

Society of Authors: “Meta has used millions of pirated books to develop its AI programmes. Yesterday (20 March 2025), The Atlantic published a searchable database of over 7.5 million books and 81 million research papers. This data set, called Library Genesis or ‘LibGen’ for short, is full of pirated material, and all of it has …

Subjects: Copyright, Education, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries

Internal USAID 400 page list provides snapshot of Trump cuts

The Hill: “A nearly 400-page list provided to Congress may give rare insight into the scope of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which have already roiled the global humanitarian community and shut down programs around the world.  Some of the cuts on the list appear to …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Climate Change, Cybersecurity, Economy, Education, Energy, Financial System, Food and Nutrition, Health Care, Medicine

Google claims news is worthless to its ad business after test involving 1% of search results in eight EU markets

TechCrunch: “Google has reported the results of an experiment it ran which removed news from search results for 1% of users for 2.5 months in eight* markets in Europe — claiming the results show that news is essentially worthless to Google’s ad business. The search giant conducted the test because European copyright law requires it …

Subjects: AI, Copyright, E-Records, EU Data Protection, Internet, Knowledge Management

‘Will I Lose My Job?’ Federal Workers Flock to Reddit for Answers

The New York Times: “…For government workers, it has been a lifeline in recent months. With the Trump administration’s rapid downsizing of the federal bureaucracy, subreddits where government workers previously posted the occasional tale about a Zoom meeting mishap or health plan question have become crowded forums for fears, anxieties and tidbits of intra-agency observation. …

Subjects: Social Media

The Unbelievable Scale of AI’s Pirated-Books Problem

The Atlantic – no paywall: “…Meta and OpenAI have both argued in court that it’s “fair use” to train their generative-AI models on copyrighted work without a license, because LLMs “transform” the original material into new work. The defense raises thorny questions and is likely a long way from resolution. But the use of LibGen …

Subjects: AI, Copyright, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries

Complete List of Credit Reporting Agencies

Francis Mailman Soumilas, P.C.: “Many businesses contact credit reporting companies for pre-employment screening, loan and credit card approvals, rental agreements, insurance premiums, and more. With so many businesses making decisions about you and your finances based on the information in your credit report, it is extremely important that they are accurate. Credit reporting errors can …

Subjects: E-Records, Economy, Financial System, Health Care, Medicine

‘It’s a Heist’: Real Federal Auditors Are Horrified by DOGE

“WIRED [ublocked] talked to actual federal auditors about how government auditing works—and how DOGE is doing the opposite. Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has spent the first six weeks of the new Trump administration turning the federal government upside down. It has moved from agency to agency, accessing sensitive data and payment …

Subjects: Financial System, Government Documents, Legal Research

Privacy-Respecting European Tech Alternatives

Privacy Guide: “There is a growing sentiment that the US shouldn’t be relied upon for the technologies that many people and businesses use every day. Lately, the US has been unilaterally cutting off access to critical technologies to European countries, prompting calls for “radical action” to bolster European tech stacks from EU lawmakers. At Privacy …

Subjects: E-Mail, E-Records, Internet, Legal Research, Privacy