@jasonkoebler

"This type of low quality, #AI generated content, is what we... have come to call AI slop. Librarians... have been dealing with similar problems in the publishing industry for years, and have a different name for it: vendor slurry...

Several #librarians pointed me to IRB Media, a #publisher with hundreds of books on #Hoopla, all of which are seemingly AI-generated summaries of other books."
https://www.404media.co/ai-generated-slop-is-already-in-your-public-library-3/

@cstross @davecb @glynmoody

[Company, business, people] won't relinquish anything [read: asset that we have that has value] they no longer need—ever.

Only forward thinkers, lawyers making companies discard legal liabilities, and declutters get rid of "assets" unless forced. It's why patents and copyrights at one time had relatively short lifespans: to give creators a chance to benefit—and then the public.

Current law changed that. It is criminal that it's now legal to horde.

I can see the reasoning behind the wrong-thinking backlash to burn the system down, which a priori makes creators' labor worthless in order to get that narcotic hit of making all extant knowledge free. End of progressive creativity in that line of thinking.

I don't think the end run by AI companies to copy and reproduce that knowledge is much better. It will simply cause creativity to be devalued over a longer time until most people choose never to create as an avocation. Our world will become progressively greyer; guilds will return in the form of corporations, where processes are guarded and lost and never shared.

The problem is copyright and patent duration extensions. Copyrights went from 14 years plus 14 years if extended by the author themself. 50 years after the death of the author violates the original concept of good for the creator and good for society.

AI companies stealing protected knowledge is a side-effect, but even if copyrights were reasonable, I trust they'd steal and illegally plagiarize from the material anyway. There is no way their business model affords paying for source data, and royalties if creator's style is duplicated devaluing their works. Some non-AI tech companies do train ethically or use ethically trained (e.g. IBM), but using their LLMs is expensive. It makes those of the All Knowledge is Free religion sick with envy. (They will pay for food but never knowledge.) It makes them deranged and mentally ready to fight the war that kills their enemy regardless of the collateral damage, like the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Self publishing is the sun streaming through a hole in the rain clouds onto the green knoll in the distance, but I worry that it won't last under the influence of big money and censorship via litigation. Another subject for another day, and a road I expect I'll be traveling with an umbrella. As @cstross pointed out, that little royalty in exchange for marketing, book construction, and distribution (not to mention the curation of publishers only wanting to buy stories they think they can sell) which might translate to big sales numbers still feels like a promised land.

#BoostingIsSharing

surprisingly there is no straightforward information how to close your account in the profile page(s). you have to search internet or through FAQ on the service website in order to find the freaking form that needs to be filled. unfotunately this is true for most #academic accounts I've been deleting so far. #academia #journal #publisher are among the worst here, like you were not expected to close your account, change your e-mail or delete your information...
#privacy

@stephie_hamburg Do you really expect #AxelSpringer to have any #integrity?

• They obviously haven't and their constant shitshow of #hatespeech and #disinfo is the worst in #Germany.

Seriously, removing #Springer and any other #Nazi aides' #ban from acting as a #publisher in 1952 is in my eyes one of the most vital mistakes the #Adenauer Administration did.

#Affinity はいいぞ！

#3D と #生成AI と縦書きを除いて #Adobe の DTP 御用達アプリ（#Illustrator #Photoshop #InDesign）でできることはだいたいできる
その 3 アプリのファイルフォーマットは実質共通（#Illustrator #Photoshop #InDesign がそれぞれのファイルをどのアプリでも非破壊で編集保存できることを想像してほしい）
#Adobe よりも動作が軽い！（自分比だけど、他の人からもよく聞く話
#Designer と #Photo を購入済みだと、#Publusher のアプリの中で機能や UI を #Designer と #Photo に切り替えて作業ができる（#Publisher が実質 3 アプリを統合したソフトにパワーアップする）
縦書きや日本語のオープンタイプフォントの機能は使えない（フォントの字詰め有効化とか）けど、擬似的に縦書きを有効にする文字を回転したフォントや、日本語の文字機能を #Affinity で使えるように改変したフォントを有志の方が提供してくれている（このあとのスレッドを参照）

しかもいまなら #Affinity の 3 つのアプリを #macOS #iOS Windows のすべての環境でしかもサブスクではなく買い切りでずっと使えるユニバーサルライセンスがブラックフライデーセールで通常の半額の 7,900 円で買える。

しかも、そもそも #AffinityDesigner には Anatolli Babii という人がつくったシンプルアイコンイラストみたいなデータがアプリ内蔵のアセットとして始めから収録されてて、このアイコンデザインを別のサイト（例えば下記）とかで買うと、普通に一万円を超えてくる。

https://www.iconfinder.com/families/simply-flat

セール前から、「アイコンデータ個別に買うより、ただでさえ #Affinity Designer （単体）を購入したほうが安い」という良くわからない状態だったのに、今のセール期間なら「有料のアイコンアセットが安く買える上に、3デバイスで3アプリをずっと使えるライセンスがついてくる」という価格設定のバグみたいな事が起きている

So I guess what should happen here is not that some game maker (or just a random guy like me) makes a visual novel of a public domain text, but rather that a publisher should make their books into visual novels. Either books they've already translated/published, or even new translations of classical literature. Since they are public domain, no publishing house has any monopoly on them and can stop any publisher who wants from making a new translation or a visual novel.

@technicat thanks for reminding me to never ever sign up with any #Publisher aka. #ValueRemoving #RentSeeker!