^This,
Yes, it's what you've done here that counts.
o7
Or what you will accomplish in the future.
AI-generated art can’t be copyrighted – US judge
AI entrepreneur Stephen Thaler sued the US Copyright Office after it denied an application from his Creativity Machine
Artwork created by artificial intelligence is not eligible for copyright protection, a US federal judge confirmed on Friday, rejecting a lawsuit by AI entrepreneur Stephen Thaler against the US Copyright Office.
"Human authorship is a bedrock requirement" for protection under the law, "at the core of copyright ability, even as that human creativity is channeled through new tools or into new media," US District Judge Beryl Howell wrote in her ruling rejecting Thaler’s judicial review petition.
While copyright law was "designed to adapt with the times," it had "never stretched so far" to "protect works generated by new forms of technology operating absent any guiding human hand," she continued.
Thaler, who runs the neural network company Imagination Engines, sued in response to the Copyright Office’s rejection of his 2018 application to protect artwork "created" by his AI system, the Creativity Machine. "A Recent Entrance to Paradise" was described in the submission as "autonomously created by a computer algorithm running on a machine."
While he had listed himself as the owner of the copyright on the application as if it had been produced as a work for hire, the office denied his application, arguing "the nexus between the human mind and creative expression" was critical to the idea of copyright protection.
Thaler had pushed back, arguing the AI should be eligible as an author "where it otherwise meets authorship criteria," with the system’s owner being the true owner of the copyright. The office’s refusal was "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion and not in accordance with the law," constituting a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, he claimed.
The Copyright Office has previously stated AI-generated works are not copyrightable, but in March clarified this policy to note that content created with the assistance of AI could be protected if a human had "selected or arranged" it in a "sufficiently creative way that the resulting work constitutes an original work of authorship."
AI’s role in artwork is at the center of a months-long Hollywood writers’ strike. Over 160,000 film, radio and television workers have walked off their jobs, forcing major productions to pause as union leaders negotiate with producers to guarantee AI cannot be used to undercut their pay or replace them entirely.
In January, a group of artists sued the makers of AI art generators Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and DreamUp, describing art-generating AI as "a parasite that, if allowed to proliferate, will cause irreparable harm to artists." Their class-action suit alleged that the tools violated millions of artists’ rights by slurping up their content for "training" purposes without consent or compensation, then turning a fat profit on the results.
https://www.rt.com/news/581563-ai-copyright-ruling-creativity-machine/
China Claims CIA Infiltrated ‘Critical Unit’ of a Communist Government Agency
The Chinese Ministry of State Security claimed in a social media post on Monday that it had identified an “official of a national ministry” who had provided the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with intelligence from a “critical unit” of the ministry in question.
The Ministry of State Security identified the CIA spy as a 39-year-old named “Hao” and claimed that the case “is under investigation” without specifying if Hao was in police custody, what ministry Hao allegedly helped the CIA infiltrate, or whether or not the Chinese Communist Party believed Hao was the only Chinese national involved in the alleged espionage. The Chinese state newspaper Global Times appeared to identify Hao as a man.
“Following the discovery of Hao’s espionage activities by one of China’s national security agencies, a lawful inquiry has been initiated into his actions in accordance with law, and the case is under investigation,” the Global Times reported.
“Hao” is the second person the Chinese Ministry of State Security has publicly identified this month as a Chinese national “flipped” by the CIA to be used as an American asset. On August 11, the ministry claimed to identify another person known as “Zeng” who similarly faced presumably criminal accusations of cooperating with the CIA.
The accusations follow the launch of a campaign by the Chinese Communist Party to pressure the general public to engage in “counter-espionage” activities. The Ministry of State Security debuted a page of the regime-controlled social media site WeChat in early August meant to make the law enforcement and anti-espionage agency a constant presence in the lives of ordinary Chinese people. The WeChat page also allows citizens to levy accusations against others they believe may be foreign spies.
The Chinese government claimed that the CIA successfully turned Hao into a spy when he was a student in Japan. An alleged CIA agent named “Ted” fostered a friendship with Hao in which “Ted” paid Hao to help him write papers, the government said. Ultimately, “Ted” allegedly introduced Hao to another CIA agent with whom Hao signed an agreement to enter a “critical unit of the Chinese national ministry” and regularly provide intelligence. Hao allegedly received “assessment and training from the U.S.”
https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2023/08/21/china-claims-cia-infiltrated-critical-unit-communist-government-agency/
Sanctuary City of Chicago Looks to Send Illegals to Neighboring Communities
The Sanctuary City of Chicago wants to share the pain.
Mayor Brandon Johnson is meeting with the mayors of neighboring communities to shift the chaos and expense, brought on by the influx illegals, to communities that do not embrace the sanctuary moniker.
Chicago has spent over $100M to care for the illegals arriving in the city thanks to Joe Biden’s broken border.
The Gateway Pundit reported in May that, while Chicago burns with rampant crime and violence, the City Council approved $51 million in aid for illegals.
And yet, despite pouring millions of taxpayer dollars into the crisis, Chicago residents remain concerned about the what is happening in the city which is so overwhelmed, migrants have been housed in police stations.
According to The Center Square, Mayor Johnson said last week, “We’ve had conversations with mayors across not just Cook County but the surrounding counties, and we have had tremendous feedback. We see some real support on the horizon.”
But not every community shares Johnson enthusiasm to move Chicago’s problems to their towns.
Keith Pekau, the Mayor of the Chicago suburb Orland Park, told The Center Square he is not on board with the idea of moving illegals to smaller communities saying, “None of us have the resources for this. We do not have health departments. We do not have that kind of stuff. [Gov. J.B. Pritzker] has called us a sanctuary state, right? Here’s the deal, at the state level, the state has been ripping all the municipalities off by the Local Government Distributive Fund since prior to Pritzker.”
“Municipalities have been getting screwed by the state of Illinois. Our residents are helping them [the state] pay for things off their own backs that they don’t even know about,” Pekau said. “Keep in mind how Pritzker attacks all the municipalities for property taxes and everything else but guess what? You are taking away money from them first.”
Pekau also criticized Johnson and President Joe Biden for what he said was a violation of U.S. law.
“I think, at a high level, it is very simple. Joe Biden is putting his nose in the air to our laws and is violating our laws at the border,” Pekau said. “Brandon Johnson and his city have supported this, and he and the Cook County Board want them to be a sanctuary city, and that violates our laws as well.”
Biden, Pritzker and Johnson all ignore our laws.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/08/sanctuary-city-chicago-looks-send-illegals-neighboring-communities/
Biden-Appointed Judge Blocks Georgia Law Banning Sex Change Hormones for Children
United States District Judge Sarah Geraghty, appointed by Joe Biden, has blocked part of a Georgia law that bans sex change hormones for minors.
The law bans most sex change-related surgeries and hormone replacement therapies for those under 18. The surgery prohibition remains in place.
Puberty blockers were not banned, and doctors who prescribed hormone replacements for minors before the law took effect were allowed to continue.
The Georgia General Assembly passed the law earlier this year, and it went into effect in July.
One month before the legislation became law, the parents of four children who claim to be transgender filed a lawsuit attempting to stop it.
The complaint argued that the law “violates the fundamental rights of parents to make medical decisions to ensure the health and well-being of their children” and “violates the guarantees of equal protection by denying transgender youth essential, and often lifesaving, medical treatment based on their sex and on their transgender status.”
The plaintiffs did not seek to have the portion of the law regarding surgeries halted.
In the judge’s temporary block, she wrote that the plaintiff’s lawsuit is likely to succeed.
“Plaintiffs have established that they will suffer irreparable harm in the absence of a preliminary injunction,” Geraghty wrote, including risks of depression, anxiety, disordered eating, self-harm and suicidal thoughts,” Geraghty wrote.
“Without an injunction, the middle-school age plaintiffs will be unable to obtain in Georgia a course of treatment that has been recommended by their health care providers in light of their individual diagnoses and mental health needs,” the ruling continued.
According to a report from WANE, “The state argued any preliminary injunction, if it were issued, should be narrowed only to the children who are currently part of the lawsuit.”
However, Geraghty ruled that a “narrowly focused injunction would be unworkable, both because of the practical difficulty in obtaining care under the law, and also because it might not even be possible to ‘fashion an injunction that would allow them to secure relief without compromising their anonymity.'”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/08/biden-appointed-judge-blocks-georgia-law-banning-sex/
“Climate Change” Crusher: HumanProgress.org Publishes Video Claiming 14% INCREASE in Green Vegetation. Mostly Due to Excess Carbon in Air
The Climate Cultists won’t like this video released by HumanProgress.org’s Twitter account yesterday: a 2016 paper published in Nature by 32 authors from 24 institutions in 8 countries has revealed that an analysis of satellite data shows that there has been a 14% increase in green vegetation over 30 years.
This analysis aligns with elementary school-level science as well as statements made by Green Peace co-founder and Director at co2coalition.org, Dr. Patrick Moore, during an interview:
“One of my missions is to turn on its head the idea that carbon dioxide is a pollutant and somehow dangerous, when in fact it is the most important nutrient for all life on Earth. And without it, this would be a dead planet.
I say not only is carbon dioxide good, it is essential. And it’s a good thing that we are putting some more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, because it was running low before we came along. If we had definitive proof that CO2 was causing serious problems and we could prove it, don’t you think they would write that down on a piece of paper somewhere so people could read it? They don’t have definitive proof.
HumanProgress.org published a video over the weekend that claims a 14% increase in green vegetation over the last 30 years. The video cites that 70% of this increase is attributed to CO2 in the air and that vegetation has increased every year from 1982 to 2009. The increase amounts to the equivalent of two landmasses the size of the United States in new green vegetation.
The “greening” is most impactful in arid regions where they have high temperatures and higher CO2 concentrations. This helps plants to retain more water during transpiration which will help during dry spells and make the plants less “water-stressed.” The increased CO2 results in higher crop yields, which equates to more food and a thriving wildlife. The video claims upwards of a $3 trillion increase in crop yields over the last 30 years.
In 2016 a paper was published by 32 authors from 24 institutions in 8 countries that analyzed satellite data and concluded that there had been a roughly 14% increase in green vegetation over 30 years.
This won’t stop the Leftist from their doomsday prophecies based on absurd logic. Earlier this month, Joe Biden announced plans to spend $1.2 billion on essentially a vacuum cleaner to suck carbon out of the air and store it deep underground. At the same time, socialist Bernie Sanders was asking the DOJ to prosecute people in the fossil fuel industry who dissent on their climate change narrative.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/08/climate-change-crusher-humanprogress-org-publishes-video-claiming/
India Announces Moon Landing on Wednesday as Russia’s Lander Crashes
The race between India and Russia to make the first landing near the Moon’s south pole took a dramatic turn on Sunday as Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft tumbled into an uncontrolled orbit and slammed into the lunar surface.
India, meanwhile, announced that its Chandrayaan-3 mission is on schedule for a controlled landing on Wednesday.
Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, was hoping to win the race to the lunar south pole by landing on Monday. The agency said it lost contact with Luna-25 on Saturday, 47 minutes after a thruster misfired during an orbital adjustment burn. The misfire created an “emergency situation” that Roscomos did not elaborate upon.
“The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the moon,” Roscomos said.
The Luna-25 mission, launched from Vostochny Cosmodrome on August 10, was Russia’s first moon shot since 1976. The original mission design had the lander carrying a small moon rover, but the rover was ditched to reduce the weight of the lander.
Roscosmos claimed that even with its disastrous conclusion, the mission proved Russia remains “a state capable of delivering a payload to the moon.”
On the other hand, international analysts said the Luna-25 mission was largely intended as a test of landing technology and the calamity occurred during what should have been a relatively safe phase of the lunar approach, so the disaster does not bode well for the state of the Russian space program.
Design or manufacturing defects in the thruster seemed a likely explanation for the crash, although some foreign analysts suspected human error, possibly because the mission controllers were in a hurry to land before the Indian spacecraft.
Post-Soviet Russia has experienced a string of failed missions, including a disastrous attempt to launch a Mars probe in 2011 that did not make it out of Earth’s orbit. The catastrophic failure of the Phobos-Grunt mission in 2011 was attributed by investigators to shortcuts taken in design and testing to save money.
Russian state media tried to manage the embarrassment of failure by claiming the mission still managed to deliver “invaluable information about the surface of the moon,” as one TV news broadcast put it.
India, meanwhile, announced on Monday that its Chandrayaan-3 lander will touch down around 6:00 p.m. on August 23. Sunday’s successful orbital maneuvers brought the spacecraft down to its lowest orbit before the lander could be deployed.
The lander sent back some images of the lunar south pole region as it scouted for a safe landing spot:
https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2023/08/21/india-announces-moon-landing-on-wednesday-as-russias-lander-crashes/
MAJOR THREAT TO AMERICA: Communist Dictator of Nicaragua Authorizes Installation of Russian Military Bases and Cruise Missiles in Country
Nicaragua’s Communist dictator, Daniel Ortega, has authorized the installation of Russian military bases on his territory. The decree is reported to have been signed on Monday, August 21, according to the Russian state news site “Avia.Pro”.
Avia.Pro reports:
The President of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, signed a decree according to which the deployment of Russian military bases and deployment of cruise missiles will be allowed in the country. This decision could become an important factor in the geopolitical balance of the region, especially given its close proximity to the United States.
The Russian news site also highlights the distance between Nicaragua and the US capital, Washington: 3000 km.
“With such proximity, missiles stationed in Nicaragua can reach the US capital in no time” – the Russian website warns.
Daniel Ortega’s decree has not yet been made public, which makes it difficult to gather more details for a complete verification of the information regarding Nicaragua’s partnership with Russia.
However, a recent statement by Alba Azucena Torres Mejia, Nicaragua’s ambassador to Russia, provided indications of the military partnership between Daniel Ortega and Vladimir Putin, the president of the Russian Federation.
On August 13, the TASS agency reported Torres Mejia’s remarks about the military partnership between the two countries:
“This year, we are marking the 79th anniversary of diplomatic relations. Over this time, we have proved that we will always be with Russia. We are friends with it, we love and respect this incredible country. I think that Nicaragua will try to develop relations with Russia in all spheres.”
There is currently no information on how the White House intends to respond to Russia in this event, which resembles the crisis over the missiles installed in communist Cuba in 1962.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/08/major-threat-america-communist-dictator-nicaragua-authorizes-installation/
It's like a movie I've seen somewhere.
Baghdad Shuts Down Advertising Screens After Hacker Posts Porno
Officials in Baghdad shut down all of the city’s LED advertising screens on Saturday evening after a hacker posted a pornographic video on one of them.
The hacked screen was highly visible in a major traffic area of the city, so social media was quickly flooded with clips of the “immoral scenes” on display.
The electronic billboard in Baghdad’s Uqba bin Nafia Square “showed a pornographic film for several minutes before we cut the power cable,” according to a security official who spoke with Agence France-Presse (AFP).
AFP’s source said city officials decided to “turn off all advertising screens in Baghdad.” Many of them were still turned off on Sunday morning.
The alleged hacker was arrested about nine hours after the incident and identified as “a technician who had financial issues with the company that runs the advertising screens,” according to the BBC.
Before the suspect was arrested, there was some speculation on social media that the hacker was protesting government crackdowns on services such as YouTube and TikTok for allowing “indecent content.”
Kurdish news service Rudaw on Monday quoted Iraqi civil society activists and Baghdad residents who were horrified by the porn video, especially because it was probably seen by children.
“We call on the Iraqi government to protect Iraqi society, especially teenagers, because this will have a negative impact on teenagers,” Baghdad driver Salam Jabbar told Rudaw.
https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2023/08/21/baghdad-shuts-down-advertising-screens-after-hacker-posts-porno/