Freelancer.com, iFixit, and others say Anthropic's crawler has aggressively scraped their websites, potentially breaching their terms of service (George Hammond/Financial Times)

Mediagazer: Freelancer.com, iFixit, and others say Anthropic's crawler has aggressively scraped their websites, potentially breaching their terms of service (George Hammond/Financial Times)

Top News:

Press Gazette:

Mail Online, The Independent, Daily Mirror, and Daily Express roll out “consent or pay” walls charging users £1.99 to £4 per month for cookie-less access— Mail Online, The Independent and the websites of the Daily Mirror and Daily Express have begun requiring readers …
Discussion: @paezha@mastodon.online

The Hollywood Reporter:

WBD sues the NBA over the league's “unjustified” decision to sell a package of media rights to Amazon, to which WBD claims to have a “contractual right”— The company had sought to match a proposal from Amazon Prime Video, but the league said that it “did not match the terms” of the deal.

Discussion:
Reuters, Puck, Mediaite, CNBC, CNN, Variety, The Wrap, Awful Announcing, The Streamable, Sports Media Watch, New York Post, StreamTV Insider, Sportico and Adweek

Discussion:

John Ourand /
Puck: How Zaz Lost the NBA

Ahmad Austin Jr /
Mediaite: TBS, Warner Bros. Discovery File Lawsuit Against NBA Over Media Rights Deal

Brian Steinberg /
Variety: Warner Bros. Discovery Sues NBA, Pushes Rights Showdown to Court

Lucas Manfredi /
The Wrap: Warner Bros. Discovery Sues Over NBA's ‘Unjustified’ Rejection of Matching Rights Proposal

David Satin /
The Streamable: The Ball Is in Your Court! Warner Bros. Discovery Files Lawsuit Against NBA Over Broadcast Rights

Jon Lewis /
Sports Media Watch: WBD files suit against NBA

Ryan Glasspiegel /
New York Post: Warner Bros. Discovery sues NBA over matching rights clause with league preferring Amazon to TNT

Bevin Fletcher /
StreamTV Insider: Warner Bros. Discovery cries foul in NBA rights deal

Michael McCann /
Sportico: NBA Blocking TNT's Media Rights Shot Could Force Legal Jump Ball

Financial Times:

Freelancer.com, iFixit, and others say Anthropic's crawler has aggressively scraped their websites, potentially breaching their terms of service— Web publishers say developer is swarming their sites, collecting content to train models and ignoring orders to stop

Discussion:
404 Media, The Verge, PC Gamer, @glenngabe, @jason_koebler, MSPoweruser, @matt_barrie, @barelylingual, @bobkitten, @kwiens, @ericholscher, @matt_barrie, @rahll, @readthedocs, @jordancmeyer, @dangoikhman, @dappierai, Read the Docs, @kwiens, Hacker News, Slashdot

Discussion:

Jess Weatherbed /
The Verge: Anthropic's crawler is ignoring websites' anti-AI scraping policies

Jacob Fox /
PC Gamer: iFixit CEO takes shots at Anthropic for ‘hitting our servers a million times in 24 hours’ and even the AI company's own chatbot disapproves

Glenn Gabe /
@glenngabe: ifixit wasn't blocking via robots.txt though. Now they are, so it *should* stop :) -> Anthropic's crawler is ignoring websites' anti-AI scraping policies “ClaudeBot, the web crawler that Anthropic uses to scrape training data for AI models like Claude, has hammered iFixit's [image]

Jason Koebler /
@jason_koebler: Anthropic's AI scraper bot hit iFixit's website a million times in a day in violation of its terms of service ... even if you specifically spell out that you don't want to have your stuff stolen it is often stolen anyway https://www.404media.co/...

Rafly Gilang /
MSPoweruser: Anthropic washes hands over claims that its AI scraper hits iFixit's site a million times daily @barelylingual: @kwiens @AnthropicAI We've had to block what we assume are ai companies spamming our APIs instead of downloading our freely available database dumps over here at Wikipedia @bobkitten: @kwiens @AnthropicAI Post a fake fixit for a fake device so you'll be able to track who misappropriated your data. Mapmakers insert fake towns and roads to detect copying, Trivial Pursuit had 2 fake Q&As out of 6k in the Genus Edition. “How to replace the battery in the Dipsogenic Hampoon...”

Eric Holscher /
@ericholscher: @kwiens @AnthropicAI Yea, they were hammering us over at @readthedocs as well. We were planning to write a blog post on it, since this behavior is definitely gonna get all AI crawlers blocked because of abuse, not even because of the copyright issues.

Matt Barrie /
@matt_barrie: @kwiens @AnthropicAI We have the same issue @AnthropicAI scrapers absolutely smashing our servers, feel like sending them a bill.

Reid Southen /
@rahll: Anthropic AI is ripping off @iFixit en masse against their ToS and tying up their resources. These thieving AI companies need to be held accountable, this shit is out of control. @readthedocs: AI crawlers have downloaded over 100 TB in the last couple months, partially from bugs and abusive behavior. We ask AI crawlers to include rate and bandwidth limits, and ask them to partner with us to mitigate impact and support our work. https://about.readthedocs.com/ ...

Jordan Meyer /
@jordancmeyer: A single scraper cost readthedocs over $5k in May by downloading 73TB of data. Most image, music, and video datasets for AI only contain links to the media files. Downloading them externalizes the network costs to the hosts... https://about.readthedocs.com/ ...

Dan G /
@dangoikhman: @kwiens @kwiens thanks for drawing attention to this issue! We're working on a solution @DappierAI would love to chat with you about it and get your feedback @dappierai: @kwiens We do want to have that conversation! 😁 The current state of AI data scraping is untenable for devs and content owners Our solve is a marketplace approach: turn your content into an AI-ready data model & RAG API, & ensure you get paid whenever your content is used to generate

Eric Holscher /
Read the Docs: AI crawlers need to be more respectful

Kyle Wiens /
@kwiens: Hey @AnthropicAI: I get you're hungry for data. Claude is really smart! But do you really need to hit our servers a million times in 24 hours? You're not only taking our content without paying, you're tying up our devops resources. Not cool.

Kyle Wiens /
@kwiens: @jrhunt @AnthropicAI Our TOS banned ML training before their crawl, afterwards we added them to robots.txt.

Kyle Wiens /
@kwiens: If any of those requests accessed our terms of service, they would have told you that use of our content expressly forbidden. But don't ask me, ask Claude! If you want to have a conversation about licensing our content for commercial use, we're right here. [image]

Bloomberg:

A look at Joe Rogan's comedy club in Austin, called The Mothership, and the network of comedians and podcast hosts he has supported and attracted to the city— The world's most controversial podcaster opened a comedy club there, snatched the stand-up title from Los Angeles and shook up an entire industry.

Discussion:

Alex Griffing /
Mediaite: Tucker Carlson Dethrones Joe Rogan From Atop The Coveted Spotify Podcast Rankings

Jenn Gidman /
Newser: Tucker Carlson Has a Surprise for Joe Rogan

Flipboard adds feeds for 60+ US-based local and regional publications to the fediverse, including Texas Monthly, Honolulu Civil Beat, and CalMatters— Has local news ever been more important? Journalists who live in the communities they serve don't just keep residents informed on everything …

Discussion:
@FlipboardMagazines …, @michellemanafy@journa.host, @mastodonmigration …, Annie Snodgrass Dennett on LinkedIn, Carl Sullivan on LinkedIn, @timothyjchambers@threads.net, @Andres4NY@social.ridetrans.it, @kevingamin@twit.social, @chris@mstdn.chrisalemany.ca, @mike@flipboard.social, @FlipboardMagazines … and @Flipboard@flipboard.social

Discussion:
@FlipboardMagazines@flipboard.social: If you call the American Southeast home, join us in welcoming these local news outlets to the fediverse! Follow these accounts to stay up on the latest local news and happenings in your area. — The Atlanta Journal, @ajcnews — AL.com, @AlcomNews — Carolina Public Press, @CPublicPress …

Michelle Manafy /
@michellemanafy@journa.host: Fliboard is bringing 64 U.S.-based local and regional publications to the fediverse. You can follow the publisher's profile to see everything they post, or you can follow their topically curated feeds — https://about.flipboard.com/ ... @Flipboard — #news @mastodonmigration@mastodon.online: Ok, this is pretty huge! — Open social media pioneer @Flipboard is bringing local news to the Fediverse! — Read all about it! — https://about.flipboard.com/ ... Great job Flipboard!

Annie Snodgrass Dennett /
Annie Snodgrass Dennett on LinkedIn: I am excited to share that the Flipboard team has federated 64 local news publications! Local news is as important as ever but feeling pressure from many fronts. …

Carl Sullivan /
Carl Sullivan on LinkedIn: Local news is so incredibly important for our communities and our democracy. Sadly, many local media organizations have gone out of business or been forced to cut staff. …

Tim Chambers /
@timothyjchambers@threads.net: The incredibly important open social web work by @flipboard continues, and once @threads fully supports the Fediverse all of these accounts will be available here too. fediverse threads https://about.flipboard.com/ ... @Andres4NY@social.ridetrans.it: @chris @mike @SunSentinel @Gothamist @AustinMonitor Nice! I'd been following a scraping bot for Gothamist, but it only syncs once/day.

Kevin Gamin /
@kevingamin@twit.social: @mike Just added the Cleveland.com feed. Thank you for providing this service!

Chris Alemany /
@chris@mstdn.chrisalemany.ca: @mike @SunSentinel @Gothamist @AustinMonitor this is so important! Congrats.

Mike McCue /
@mike@flipboard.social: Hello fediverse. Today we federated 63 awesome local publications like @SunSentinel, @Gothamist and @AustinMonitor. — Local news is critical to the communities we live in and so we're excited and grateful to help bring some of the best local publications to the fediverse. — You can learn more here: …

@FlipboardMagazines@flipboard.social:
If you live in the Northeast, join us in welcoming these local news outlets to the fediverse! Follow these accounts to stay up on local news and happenings in your area. — Gothamist, @Gothamist — Hidden City Philadelphia, @HiddenCityPhila — Investigative Post, @Investigati39q0 … @Flipboard@flipboard.social: Local news matters, now more than ever. So a few weeks ago, we asked you for your thoughts on federating local papers in the USA — where you're located, and the specific publications you'd like to see. You responded, with ideas, suggestions, and an education on American geography. …

CBC News:

Canada's Postmedia plans to buy the SaltWire newspaper chain, which has been under protection from creditors since March, and hopes to close the deal in August— SaltWire would remain committed to local journalism, Postmedia says — Postmedia has entered an agreement to purchase SaltWire …

Discussion:
Canadian Press and Postmedia

The Guardian:

Journalists strike at outlets owned by Australia's Nine; ~20 of the company's journalists who traveled to Paris to cover the Olympics are among those striking— Age reporter questions expense of flying TV personality to Europe while up to 90 staff are cut from newsrooms. Plus: Murdoch's real-life succession drama

Discussion:
Al Jazeera, @niltiac, @kishor_nr, @niltiac and Mumbrella

Discussion:
@niltiac: They say this is about revenue decline because of the loss of Meta money and the slump in ad revenue. It could also be about the Nine share price, which has tanked in part because of the revelations of sexual misconduct and bullying in the TV division, which we've reported on.

@niltiac:
I feel for my colleagues on strike, who'll lose pay over this. I feel for my colleagues in exempt positions struggling to put out the news. I feel for my colleagues in Paris longing to bring you the best Olympics coverage, bar none. This is not fun. We decided it was necessary.

Kishor /
@kishor_nr: My colleagues and I are striking because Nine won't offer us fair wages. Meanwhile the CEO is living his best life at the Olympics and refuses to answer questions about the terrible optics of this [image]

@niltiac:
Nine Publishing, the newspaper division of Nine that publishes the former Fairfax papers like SMH, is a “really profitable business” according to our execs. They've said without the 70-90 job cuts it would still be profitable, just not quite as profitable.

The Guardian:

Keir Starmer says reviving the second part of the Leveson inquiry into the relationship between UK media and police is not among his government's priorities— Press regulation campaigners accuse prime minister of lacking courage to stand up to newspaper owners

Discussion:
@CarolineLucas@respublicae.eu and @therightarticle@mas.to

Discussion:

Caroline Lucas /
@CarolineLucas@respublicae.eu: RT by @CarolineLucas: The lack of courage from the PM on Leveson 2 is grim. — “Labour and News UK have declined to comment on claims that he reached an understanding before the election with the Murdoch family's News UK, owner of the Times and the Sun” https://www.theguardian.com/ ... …

The Hollywood Reporter:

Charter lost 393K residential pay TV subscribers in Q2, compared to a loss of 189K in Q2 2023; overall video customers were 13.3M, down 9.5% YoY— The cable giant, led by CEO Chris Winfrey, also shed 154,000 broadband customers after the end of government subsidies.

Discussion:
The Desk, StreamTV Insider, MediaPost, Charter Communications, Media Play News, Next TV, Reuters and TVNewsCheck

Discussion:

Matthew Keys /
The Desk: Charter lost 393,000 Spectrum TV customers during Q2

Wayne Friedman /
MediaPost: Charter Sees Steeper Q2 Video Subscriber Declines, Broadband Fares Better

Erik Gruenwedel /
Media Play News: Charter Loses 393,000 Video, 154,000 Internet Q2 Subscribers

Jon Lafayette /
Next TV: Internet, Video Losses Continue for Charter

Harshita Mary Varghese /
Reuters: Charter Communications posts fewer broadband subscriber loss, profit beat

Etan Vlessing /
TVNewsCheck: Charter Loses 393,000 Video Subs In Second Quarter

Bloomberg:

How TikTok is trying to fend off a potential US ban, including through ad campaigns, lobbying, and funding lawsuits by creators— - Lobbying, lawsuits and ad campaign are deployed to fight law — Popular app seeks to avoid US ban over its Chinese ownership

Discussion:
CNBC and The Desk, more at Techmeme »

Discussion:

Jonathan Vanian /
CNBC: Kamala Harris debuts official TikTok account as presidential campaign picks up

The Hollywood Reporter:

A US judge rules Disney must face Gina Carano's wrongful termination lawsuit, denying Disney's claim of a 1A right to employ actors to promote certain values— Carano sued Disney earlier this year over her termination from the Disney+ series, with Elon Musk backing the effort.

Discussion:
Deadline, Bloomberg Law, Forbes, Screen Rant, Gizmodo, AV Club, Rolling Stone, World of Reel, Reclaim The Net, Fox News, TVNewsCheck and HuffPost

Discussion:

Dominic Patten /
Deadline: Gina Carano Beats Disney's Move To Kill ‘Mandalorian’ Firing Suit; Now Trial Looms

Maia Spoto /
Bloomberg Law: A US judge rules Disney must face Gina Carano's wrongful termination lawsuit as it failed to establish that it employs actors to promote values like inclusion

Thomas Bacon /
Screen Rant: Gina Carano's Mandalorian Lawsuit Looks Like It's Headed To Court After All

Gordon Jackson /
Gizmodo: Gina Carano's Mandalorian Lawsuit Is Probably Heading to Trial

William Hughes /
AV Club: Judge slaps down Disney efforts to toss out Gina Carano's Mandalorian lawsuit

Daniel Kreps /
Rolling Stone: Judge Denies Disney's Bid to Dismiss Gina Carano's Wrongful Termination Lawsuit

Cindy Harper /
Reclaim The Net: Court Allows Gina Carano's Free Speech Lawsuit Against Disney To Proceed Fox News: Ex-'Mandalorian' star Gina Carano's lawsuit against Disney to proceed after judge denies motion to dismiss

Variety:

Amazon MGM Studios signs a deal with Netflix's ex-head of film Scott Stuber to release movies from his new production company under the United Artists label— Amazon MGM Studios has entered into a multi-year film partnership with Scott Stuber, the former head of film at Netflix.

Discussion:
The Wrap, Reuters, Ain't It Cool, World of Reel, The Hollywood Reporter, IndieWire, The Playlist, Deadline and Awards Radar

Discussion:

Adam Chitwood /
The Wrap: Amazon MGM Studios Sets Deal With Scott Stuber, Will Relaunch United Artists

Jordan Ruimy /
World of Reel: United Artists is Back! To Be Headed by Scott Stuber.

Brian Welk /
IndieWire: United Artists Is Back: Former Netflix Chief Scott Stuber to Head Label Under Amazon MGM

Gregory Ellwood /
The Playlist: United Artists Lives Yet Again Powered By Producer Scott Stuber

Mike Fleming Jr /
Deadline: Scott Stuber Closes Deal To Revive United Artists

Maxance Vincent /