Dan Holloway

This author has written 873 articles
Social Media Lawsuits Grow

News Podcast: Social Media Lawsuits Grow; Supreme Court Ruling Shapes AI Copyright Debate

On this episode of the Self-Publishing with ALLi podcast, Dan Holloway reports on a major U.S. lawsuit awarding damages over social media addiction and a new UK trial restricting teen access to platforms. He also examines a key Supreme Court ruling in Sony vs. Cox that could influence AI copyright cases, and updates on the Anthropic settlement, where reduced legal fees may increase payouts for authors.
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ISPs Not Liable For User Infringement

News Summary: Supreme Court Rules ISPs Not Liable for User Infringement; Anthropic Settlement Fees Reduced

Court cases around AI and copyright are most definitely back in the news following a brief hiatus whilst the courts issued a pummeling to social media firms last week. First up this week we have a unanimous Supreme Court ruling in the US in the case of Sony against Cox. Sony was suing the internet service provider Cox for $1 billion, alleging that it was complicit in copyright infringement.
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OpenAI Shuts Down Sora

News Summary: OpenAI Shuts Down Sora Video Platform; Audible Partners with British Airways

I think I reported on the Sora app when it launched back in October. The app, which enables users to access OpenAI's Sora generative AI platform on their phones to create short video clips, hit the headlines back then for two reasons. In one of the starkest "there's good news and bad news" stories yet to come out of AI, the good news (for OpenAI anyway) was that the launch broke all kinds of records, reaching one million downloads in just five days. That's faster than ChatGPT. In "on the other hand" news, it kind of sucked that people started swamping social media with fake video clips of dead people, like the beloved Robin Williams. And of course, even at the launch the copyright radar was working overtime.
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Jane Friedman Publishes AI Law FAQ

News Summary: Jane Friedman Publishes AI Law FAQ; $3 Million Ruling against Meta Highlights Social Media Risks

Jane Friedman has a long history of publishing incredibly useful information for indie authors. And now she has added an extremely helpful compendium of AI law information. In the form of FAQs, it addresses many of the cases and points of law raised by them that will be of interest to writers. From questions of the disclosure of the use of AI to licensing rights, claims of fair use, and whether you can copyright AI-generated material, this is a handy summary of many of the topics you might want to know about.
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AI Editing

News Podcast: ‘Shy Girl’ Controversy Raises AI Editing Questions; Self-Publishing Surge Sparks Debate

On this episode of the Self-Publishing with ALLi podcast, Dan Holloway examines the fallout from the “Shy Girl” controversy, where allegations of AI-assisted writing led to a withdrawn book deal and raised new questions about author responsibility and editorial use of AI. He also highlights Jane Friedman’s new AI-in-publishing guide, reports on a surge in self-published titles linked to AI tools, and looks at the growing use of Substack as a platform for fiction.
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Substack Founder's Memoir

News Summary: Authors Equity to Publish Substack Founder’s Memoir; Patreon CEO Attacks AI Fair Use Claims

Some interesting news today from two of the largest platforms creatives, including many indie authors, use. The first of the three items features Substack, the newsletter platform. An interesting piece in Publishers Weekly highlights that Authors Equity is going to publish the memoir of Substack's founder, Hamish McKenzie. The pairing throws us, per the article, some interesting questions about the potential future relationship between traditional publishing companies and formats and subscription-based platforms more obviously targeted at creators looking to take things into their own hands. Among other things, the article looks at the use of Substack by some high-profile authors like Ottessa Moshfegh to self-publish fiction in serial form.
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Hachette Pulls Horror Novel

News Summary: Hachette Pulls Horror Novel over AI Allegations; Author Sues Publisher

Literary scandals have been with us since Christopher Marlowe got sassy in a sketchy pub, and no doubt for centuries before. And this week, one almighty scandal erupted into the mainstream media (I confess that before this week, I hadn't noticed it bubbling away). At the same time as another literary brouhaha released its latest chapter (in which it turns out the author of the allegedly less-than-accurate memoir "The Salt Path" had actually published beforehand under a different name and was therefore not entitled to the debut prize that launched the book), publishing giant Hachette pulled one of its books from shelves after AI claims.
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US Book Output

News Summary: US Book Output Tops 4 Million Driven by Self-Publishing; UK Retreats on AI Copyright Exception

How many books are published in a year? Is the number going up or down? How many copies are sold? We know these figures are, and have been for a long time, very controversial. Because there are so many books that do not count in these figures, especially self-published titles on places like Amazon that don't require an ISBN. Which makes calculations about the indie sector particularly tricky. Which is why the latest set of figures is so interesting. Hat tip to Jane Friedman for pointing me to this.
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Don’t Steal This Book

News Podcast: ‘Don’t Steal This Book’ Campaign Targets AI Policy; Grammarly Pulls Controversial Editing Tool

On this episode of the Self-Publishing with ALLi podcast, Dan Holloway reports on the “Don’t Steal This Book” campaign launched at London Book Fair, where thousands of authors call on governments to protect copyright in the age of AI. He also covers the backlash against Grammarly’s “Expert Review” feature, which prompted a lawsuit and its withdrawal, and looks at new BookTok charts and Audible’s expansion into eleven international markets.
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