My weekly reading round-up
Little for the arts in the Budget, pro-Palestinian politics at the Queensland Music Awards, Trump charges Vance with removing improper ideology at the Smithsonian, and more.
≈ 4,089 words ⌇ Estimated reading time: 30 minutes
Hello from a hotel room in Berlin! This week’s round-up is a little later than usual because I am still in Europe where it is still Sunday!
The Budget 2025–26 just came out and it as left many arts peak bodies wonder WTF now?! because there is little new funding for arts and culture. APRA AMCOS, BlakDance, NAVA and TNA all made statements on the Budget.
The winner of the Jazz award at this year’s Queensland Music Awards, Kelle Green, has been critisised for her views on Palestine jepodising QMA funding and her job at an all girls private school in Brisbane’s west. Green joins Khaled Sabsabi and others who have had their reputations and professional opportunities put at stake for speaking out about their beliefs.
Trump’s attack on the arts continues with a decree that Vice President JD Vance stamp out “improper ideology” from the Smithsonian. Trump has also gutted the museums and libraries funding body, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
Also, there was pleny of talk about AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more →, including Australian literary industry push back on Meta’s use of LibGen to train their AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more → models, criticisms of OpenAI’s image generator update that has everyone rendering images in the style of Studio Ghibli and Wikimedia warns AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more → developers that without support Wikipedia may not be available as a source of AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more → training #h-a-bit-on-the-side data forever.
Also: Dua Lipa has been cleared of copyright infringement, Indigenous placenames are coming to Apple Maps and a new computer on the Apple Store is actually an ad for Apple TV.
And: a special thank you to a recent contributor to my Buy me a coffee. It all helps me keep producing free arts marketing content so a very heartfelt thank you!
What’s going on?
Here’s WTF happened this week:
Where is the arts in the Budget 2025–26?
The short answer is there is little new specific arts funding in this Budget.
There are few surprises in the pre-election Federal Budget we almost didn’t get because of Tropical Cyclone Alfred. There’s a big focus on cost-of-living relief – through things such as tax cuts and automatic energy bill rebates – and home ownership. Also in the 2025–26 Budget is a 20 percent reduction in HECS and HELP debts, a three day subsidised childcare guarantee and more bulk billing, among other things. Certainly any ease of cost-of-living pressures will benefit artists and arts workers given so many in our sector are low-income earners. Also worth noting is the government’s proposal to ban non-compete clauses in employment contracts – not that we see them too often in the arts.
While artists and arts workers will benefit from these whole-of-community initiatives, there is little new specifically for the arts in the Budget. The overarching theme from arts commentators is the lack of funding to address known ongoing issues, such as workforce and skills shortages and rising costs of creating and presenting art.
Within the Arts portfolio the ABC and SBS maintain their funding alongside further investment in public interest journalism. While Creative Australia’s budget is up by $11.4 million the funds are earmarked for pre-existing Revive commitments such as Writing Australia starting and the continuance of the Creative Futures Fund.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages Policy Partnership (LPP) saw $11 million funding over three-years added to extend the program. While this is welcome investment, other areas of First Nations arts have been left out. BlakDance, the self-determined national industry body for First Nations contemporary dancers and choreographers, supplied a statement to ArtsHub which says, “[the] budget falls short in addressing the specific needs of First Nations dance artists, companies, and communities.” BlakDance notes the continued investment in Creative Australia and the National Cultural Policy, Revive, but says, “The absence of new funding for First Nations dance in this budget highlights a missed opportunity to invest in the vital cultural and artistic practices that define our national identity.” They urge the government to do invest in First Nations dance, including through Indigneous-led infrastructure and by prioritising First Nations projects through the Creative Futures Fund.
Music is the only area that saw a specific funding bump in the 2025–26 Budget. Revive Live will get a one-year $8.6 million extension to support live music venues and festivals with funding designed to help ensure music businesses’ continue in the face of challenging times and to provide improved accessibility and inclusion at music venues and events. Music Australia will receive a pre-planned funding boost as part of ongoing Revive commitments.
APRA AMCOS (Australasian Performing Right Association Limited and the Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society) praised those outcomes as evidence of “what’s possible when government works in partnership with the industry”, but said the measures aren’t enough. They call for all the political parties in the lead up to the Federal election in May to commit to a ‘Triple Lock Guarantee’ that would see more growth in Music Australia’s funding, the introduction of local content quotas on music streaming services and a tax rebate incentive for music venues, festivals and artists to stimulate and grow live music. The music collecting society also called on the government to introduce transparency requirements for AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more → (artificial intelligenceAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more →) platforms to disclose the use of copyright-protected material used to train AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more → models.
The National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) recognises efforts to ease cost-of living pressures but calls out the lack of visual arts-specific funding, noting that all other artforms except music will not receive any new funding. The visual arts peak body says that job precarity, low artist incomes, superannuation eligibility, workforce and skills shortages ⟨ which was also reported in the Creative Workforce Scoping Study Report I mentioned last week ⟩ underinvestment in visual arts infrastructure and other issues in the visual arts sector have been ignored in the Budget. NAVA Executive Director Penelope Benton said:
“This budget represents a missed opportunity to address the financial and workforce challenges facing the visual arts sector. Artists remain among the most precariously employed workers in the country. While NAVA welcomes continued support for live music and broader cost-of-living measures, we urge the government to deliver comprehensive, equitable support for all art forms in future budgets.
Structural issues that the ongoing Revive policy aims to address, including income insecurity, limited career progression, and lack of access to superannuation, remain unaddressed.”
While acknowledging the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LPP funding bump, NAVA expressed concern that there is continued lack of investment in First Nations visual arts workforce development, specifically citing the Indigenous Visual Arts Industry Support (IVAIS) program and stating it is under-resourced.
Theatre Network Australia (TNA) laments much the same issues as NAVA, adding that funding is needed to strengthen regional touring and development, improve access to the arts for children and young people and support more accessible arts experiences for communities across the country.
For a more complete list of arts peak body responses to the Budget, see the links below.
What’s worth reading on the arts in the Budget 2025–26:
Federal budget winners and losers
Jake Evans and Maani Truu – Tuesday 25 March 2025
ABC News, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
At a glance: the 2025 federal budget
Tuesday 25 March 2025
The Conversation
Federal Budget 2025-26: how does it benefit the arts?
Richard Watts – Wednesday 26 March 2025
ArtsHub
Budget backs Australian music – next Parliament must finish the job
Wednesday 26 March 2025
APRA AMCOS
Federal Budget 2025-26: Visual Arts overlooked
Penelope Benton and Leya Reid – Wednesday 26 March 2025
National Associaiton for the Visual Arts (NAVA)
Federal Budget 2025–26 – What It Means for the Arts
Tuesday 25 March 2025
Theatre Network Australia (TNA)
Budget continues rebuilding by Albanese government
Wednesday 26 March 2025
Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA)
Wednesday 26 March 2025
A New Approach (ANA)
More to read on the things mentioned in this listing:
AI (artificial intelligence) ⌇ Copyright court cases ⌇ Creative Australia ⌇ Creative workforce ⌇ Cultural policies ⌇ Dance ⌇ First Nations ⌇ Government arts funding ⌇ Live music ⌇ Music streaming ⌇ Performing arts ⌇ Regulating AI ⌇ Theatre ⌇ Visual arts ⌇ Working conditions in the arts ⌇ Writing & literature
Brisbane City Council pulled Queensland Music Awards funding over winner’s pro-Palestine position
The Brisbane City Council has withdrawn funding for the Queensland Music Awards claiming antisemitism and the awards have been “hijacked by extremists”.
Pianist Kellee Green won the Jazz Award at the Queensland Music Awards (QMAs) for a pro-Palestinian instrumental song ‘River To Sea’. In her acceptance speech Green reportedly encouraged protest and boycotts to draw attention to conflict in Gaza and the West Bank and call out the Australian government’s support of Israel.
The awards were held on Tuesday 25 March 2025 and within two days LNP Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner announced that Brisbane City Council (BCC) was stripping its funding for the QMAs. Schrinner’s comments are telling:
“The decision to hand a major prize to an offensively titled anti-Jewish song raises serious questions about whether the awards have been hijacked by extremists.”
On Green’s speech, Schrinner said:
“The promotion of antisemitism at Tuesday night’s Queensland Music Awards was utterly shameful and divisive …
Allowing such vile hate speech to occur shows the awards seem to be no longer capable of achieving their own stated goal to ‘promote diversity and inclusion’.”
While it is not constitutionally enshrined, it is generally held that Australia recognises and respects individual’s right to freedom of information, opinion and expression. Artistic freedom is an extension of freedom of expression. It seems such freedoms are reserved for only certain types of commentators.
Worse still, BCC’s move has escalated the matter to such a point that, reportedly, Green has been asked to take leave from private girls school Brigidine College, where she is the director of arts. Under the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld), employees have the right to freedom of expression in their employment.
QMusic, who run the QMAs, put out a statement which explains some of the juding process and distances the organisation and the awards from politics – generally and in relation to the current and historical Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
“We acknowledge the sensitive nature of this moment and the impact it has had on some members of our community. We do not wish for the Queensland Music Awards to be a platform for political debate. The intention of the event is, and always has been, to celebrate the work of our state’s artists and industry.”
QMusic commits to “learning from this experience and ensuring the integrity and purpose of the awards are upheld” and maintaining “what the QMAs have always stood for: celebrating the depth, diversity and brilliance of Queensland music and the artists who help shape the cultural identity of our state.”
But what gets me is that music – like all art – can and often is political. Where was QMusic’s defence of artistic freedom? The organisation doesn’t have to agree with Green, but it should staunchly defend a musician’s right to freedom of expression.
This situation is another in a growing list of instances where politicians and arts organisations ‘playing it safe’ have left artists open to intimidation and harm for speaking out about their beliefs. Artistic freedom is a value our sector should fight for. Instead, for fear of ‘biting the hand that feeds’, arts organisations’ leadership largely opt for conciliatory messaging which throws the artists under the bus. The career destroying horrendous treatment of Khaled Sabsabi by Creative Australia and other actors since his unceremonial removal as Australia’s representation at the Venice Biennale 2026 is a recent example. So is criticisms of Fred Leone, who accompanied Electric Fields representing Australia at Eurovision, for painting iconography on his body in support of Palestine, the cancellation of Jayson Gillham’s Melbourne Symphony Orchestra performances and the cancellation by the State Library of Victoria of a Teen Writing Bootcamp featuring Omar Sakr, Jinghua Qian and Alison Evans.
What’s worth reading on the 2025 QMAs:
Brisbane City Council pulls funding for Queensland Music Awards over jazz award winner
Dan Condon – Thursday 27 March 2025
Double J and ABC News, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
A Statement from QMusic CEO Kris Stewart on the recent Queensland Music Awards
Thursday 27 March 2025
QMusic
More to read on the things mentioned in this listing:
Trump targets the Smithsonian
Trump’s next round of attacks on the arts and attempts to rewrite American history targets the Smithsonian.
Donald Trump has issued an executive order this week claiming that the Smithsonian has “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology” that “promote[s] narrative that portray American and Western values as inhernetly harmful and oppressive.” This so called ‘the revisionist movement’ is, according to Trump, trying to “rewrite [America’s] history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.” In the order, Trump specifically takes aim at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum.
In response to this imagined reality, Trump has ordered Vice President JD Vance – who is an ex officio member of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian by virtue of his office – in a section 2 of the executive order titled ‘Saving Our Smithsonian’ to “remove improper ideology” from “the Smithsonian Institution and its museums, education and research centers, and the National Zoo”. This includes ensuring that the American Women’s History Museum “do not recognize men as women in any respect in the Museum” and that Vance work with the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Senate Majority Leader “to seek the appointment of citizen members to the Smithsonian Board of Regents committed to advancing the policy of [the executive] order”.
Also part of that executive order is section 3 – titled ‘Restoring Truth in American history’ – which is a directive to the Secretary of the Interior to “restore Federal parks, monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties that have been improperly removed or changed in the last five years to perpetuate a false revision of history or improperly minimize or disparage certain historical figures or events.”
Just as Trump claims a rewriting of American history, some commentators have hit back saying the order is a “fascist move” designed to erase racism and sexism from the history of the United States of America and that it attempts to “downplay how race, racism and Black Americans themselves have shaped the [American] nation’s story”.
Relatedly, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), a grants body for museums and libraries within the US federal government, was included in another of Trump’s executive order; this one claiming to further reduce the federal bureaucracy. Also included in that list of federal agencies that must “reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law” is the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institution. Both continue Trump’s attack on federal arts and cultural institutions and arts policy in the US. This battle has also seen Trump forcely take control of the Kennedy Centre and push his policy agenda onto the National Endowment for the Arts.
What’s worth reading on Trump’s attack on the Smithsonian:
‘It reminds you of a fascist state’: Smithsonian Institution braces for Trump rewrite of US history
David Smith – Sunday 30 March 2025
The Guardian
Historians see Trump attacks on the ‘Black Smithsonian’ as an effort to sanitize racism
Sunday 30 March 2025
POLITICO
Trump’s order on museums sparks debate on truth-telling
Bianca Flowers, Andrew Hay and Julio-Cesar Chavez – Sunday 30 March 2025
The Sydney Morning Herald
Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History
Thursday 27 March 2025
The White House
Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Restores Truth and Sanity to American History
Thursday 27 March 2025
The White House
Continuing the reduction of the federal bureaucracy
Friday 14 March 2025
The White House
More to read on the things mentioned in this listing:
Arts & politics ⌇ Donald Trump ⌇ GLAM, cultural heritage & history ⌇ Trump’s assault on the US government
Australia’s literary peak bodies lash out over Meta’s use of LibGen
A trio of literary peak bodies have come out critising Meta’s use of the priate books and research papers library LibGen.
A number of Australia’s literary peak bodies have come out critising Meta for its use of the LibGen pirated library following the release of The Atlantic’s tool to search LibGen last week. Each of the Australian Society of Authors (ASA), the Australian Publishers Association (APA) and Copyright Agency have together (and separately) condemned Meta’s move and called on the Australian government to enact regulatory interventions on the training of AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more → models on copyright-protected material without permission. Because books are scraped in other territories where that practice may or may not be within the scope of a copyright exception the three peak bodies see government intervention as “[t]he most effective and immediate remedy for creators”.
The ASA’s statement is particularly colourful and alarmist but does make the important point that writers and illustrators are among the lowest paid creators, earning on average $18,200 annually from their creative practice. Writer’s incomes have been in decline for some time now, and AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more → is not soley to blame for that, so it is not surprising the ASA sees licensing for AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more → training as a potential revenue stream for their members. They include information about their advocacy in relation to AI, including guidelines for authors in relation to the inclusion of AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more → terms in publishing agreements. Authors can also still complete the ASA’s Google Form to let them know if their titles are included in LibGen.
Speaking of book publishing, the APA have also come out against Meta’s use of LibGen in a statement. They did a comparison of the TitlePage data and the LibGen database using The Atlantic search and found that an estimated 211, 956 ISBNs feature in both, of which 7,035 are Australian-registered ISBNs.They caution that the number of Australian titles in LibGen will likely be higher given some publishers in Australia don’t use Australian-registered ISBNs and LibGen includes titles that do not have an ISBNs.
Further, the APA urges the government to pick up the pace on AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more → regulation and encourages Australian publishers to take action themselves. They are hosting an online briefing on the use of LibGen by Meta on Tuesday 8 April 2025 for APA members.
Also worth noting is the statement put out by Magabala Books about the inclusion of First Nations stories in the LinGen collection Meta used. I’ve extracted part of it here:
Our books are not just books. Every story published by a First Nations creator is the culmination of thousands of generations of knowledge, care and experience.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which Australia has endorsed, outlines the right of First Nations people to maintain, control and protect our knowledge and cultural expression.
The actions of Meta undermine these rights.A white-owned company using Blak voices without compensation is nothing new, but it’s time this practice is called what it is – colonial theft.
We suggest Meta reads False Claims by Colonial Thieves, one of the few books they didn’t steal.
What’s worth reading on Australian literary peak bodies responding to Meta’s use of the LibGen database to train its AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more → models:
ASA, APA, Copyright Agency, NZSA statement on LibGen: What to do next?
Tuesday 25 March 2025
Books+Publising
Australian authors’ books included in AI training dataset
Tuesday 25 March 2025
Australian Society of Authors (ASA)
Latest AI book ingestion angers Australian publishers
Wednesday 26 March 2025
Australian Publishers Association (APA)
LibGen dataset of pirated books used for AI training
Thursday 27 March 2025
The White House
Thursday 27 March 2025
Magabala Books
More to read on the things mentioned in this listing:
Australian Punlishers Association ⌇ Australian Society of Authors ⌇ Books & publishing ⌇ Copyright & AI ⌇ Copyright Agency ⌇ Meta ⌇ Piracy & mass-scale copyright infringement ⌇ Regulating AI ⌇ Writing & literature
The Studio Ghibli-style photos exemplify why copyright struggles with AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more →
Love or lament them, the flood of Studio Ghibli-style photos being pumped out of Chat GPT will challenge copyright law significantly.
No doubt you have seen a flurry of Facebook profile photos taking memes or ordinary photos and turning it into a Studio Ghibli-style scene that could be straight out of My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle or any other of Hayao Miyazaki’s awe inspiring animated films. This trend has come about because OpenAI’s recent update to image generation using GPT-4o. In their words, “… the resulting model has surprising visual fluency, capable of generating images that are useful, consistent, and context-aware.” ⟨ I will come back to how realistic images generated by ChatGPT are with 4o and why that is concerning later ⟩
Not long after the feature was announced Open AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more → CEO Sam Altman posted on X that he had changed his profile photo. The new profile photo was a Studio Ghibli-style image of Altman standing in front of some graphics that look like equations.
Much discussion of the copyright and ethical considerations that come into play when an AI-generated image is ‘in the style of’ an artist have been had and OpenAI continues to use prompts requesting images in the style of a living artist as a trigger for refusal but would permit prompts using “broader studio styles”. Hence the flood of Ghibli-esque content.
Here’s my social media profile photo when I asked ChatGPT to create it in the style of Studio Ghibli and when I asked it to redo it more like Howl’s Moving Castle.
Images: (Left to right) Me at Drottningholms slott (Drottningholm Castle) in Stockholm. 
Trent Martin 2023. Me at Drottningholms slott in the style of Studio Ghibli generated using ChatGPT. Me at Drottningholms slott in the style of Studio Ghibli’s Howl’s Moving Castle generated using ChatGPT. View full credit information.
{ Prompts: [Responding to an upload copy of the first image] ‘Create this image in the style of Studio Ghibli’ and a follow-up prompt: ‘Redo it more like Howl’s Moving Castle’ }
I understand the appeal and the concern. The whimsy and charm of Ghibli’s visual style is magical; why wouldn’t you want to see yourself in Miyazaki’s films? But also, the easy at which Miyazaki’s iconic anime look can be emulated conjures up all kinds of copyright and ethics quandaries. Likewise, questions abound as to how GPT-4o is able to so accurately render images in the Ghibli style? Did they use any of Studio Ghibli’s content to train the AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more → model? If so, copyright issues may arise. If not, then what is being reproduced in many cases is content ‘in the style of’ which isn’t actually a copyright infringement.
Moves to protect style need to be treated very cautiously. While a visual style of a particular artist may be more or less descernible, things gets trickier in other areas of artistic expression such as music or dance. The music industry and copyright commentators expressed concern that a court ruling a copyright infringement occurred in the Blurring Lines case hinged on “the bass line and sounds of a party atmosphere”. Of course, where a user intentionally prompts and/or refines an AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more → output to look similar to a scene out of an actual Studio Ghibli film then perhaps a copyright infringement will occur. This is a complex area that will need careful consideration of the potential impacts of any regulatory invervention.
On another note, it really is worth looking at the blog post OpenAI published about the 4o image generation update. The bevvy of new capabilities and more sophisticated outputs is genuinely astounding. When it comes to generating photorealistic images of people gone are the creepy multi-fingered distortions that are the stuff of nightmares we were seeing only a year or so ago. They have been replaced by frighteningly realisitic images that will make determining real from fake images increasingly difficult in the very near future. Take these three photos from the blog post, for example:
Image: A startled Karl Marx ladened with boutique shopping bags hurriedly leaving the carpark of the Mall of America in a papparazi-style ‘photo’. Maybe © OpenAI 2025. View full credit information.
Image: A ‘photo’ of a diverse group of 20-somethings hanging out in a dive bar. Maybe © OpenAI 2025. View full credit information.
Image: A ‘photo’ of a young Asian girl in a white t-shirt and blue denim overalls. Apparently the photo was taken on the 24th of June 2006. Maybe © OpenAI 2025. View full credit information.
Most of us can identify that it is apparently Karl Marx in the first image fleeing being photographed with bags of shopping as if an act of consumerism will undo his entire philosophy. But we know that this image is very likely fake given the identifiability of its subject-matter. For starters, Marx died in 1883, 113 years before the Mall of America opened.
The other two images are much more concerning. If I came across them in a Google Image search or scrolling my social media feeds I would not even stop to consider if they are real images given how realistically they are rendered. I know OpenAI has integrated metadata that complies with the C2PA standard and a reserve search to verify if content was generated by one of OpenAI’s models but I worry most users won’t even stop to question the content they are seeing.
Whether it is images ‘in the style of’ Studio Ghibli or hyper real renderings, the floodgates are now open.
What’s worth reading on the AI-generated Studio Ghibli-style images situation:
ChatGPT’s viral Studio Ghibli-style images highlight AI copyright concerns
Matt O’Brien and Sarah Parvini – Friday 28 March 2025
AP News, The Associated Press
The AI-Generated Studio Ghibli Trend, Explained
Dani Di Placido – Thursday 27 March 2025
Forbes
Introducing 4o Image Generation
Tuesday 25 March 2025
OpenAI
More to read on the things mentioned in this listing:
AI (artificial intelligence) ⌇ AI hate ⌇ AI sludge/slop/shit ⌇ Copyright & AI
Dua Lipa’s ‘Levitating’ is not a copyright infringement
Dua Lipa must be levitating after a US court finds that the track is not an infringement of two other tracks.
Following on from Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’ copyright win last week and keeping with the theme of protecting style under copyright, model turned pop singer Dua Lipa has had a copyright win in relation to her track ‘Levitating’. Songwriters L Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer brought a case against Dua Lipa claiming the song was an infringement of their 1979 disco track ‘Wiggle and Giggle All Night’ and their 1980s track ‘Don Diablo’.
The duo argued that “five groupings of repeated 16th notes descending on a B minor scale in Levitating but on a D major scale in Don Diablo“ followed by “one additional note” and “the “patter style” of singing, the “pop with a disco feel” musical style, tempo, and other characteristics made the combination protectable [under copyright law].” But Judge Katherine Polk Failla of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York didn’t concur, instead ruling that “the songs only had generic similarities, including non-copyrightable musical elements that had also previously been used by Mozart, Gilbert and Sullivan, and the Bee Gees in their song Stayin’ Alive.”
Judge Failla went on to say “More fundamentally, the Court finds that a musical style, defined by Plaintiffs as ‘pop with a disco feel,’ and a musical function, defined by Plaintiffs to include ‘entertainment and dancing,’ cannot possibly be protectable — alone or in tandem — because to hold otherwise would be to completely foreclose the further development of music in that genre or for that purpose.”
Dua Lipa must be levitating!
What’s worth reading on Dua Lipa’s copyright win:
Dua Lipa wins copyright case over Levitating
Mark Savage – Friday 28 March 2025
BBC
Dua Lipa wins copyright lawsuit over hit song Levitating (with a little help from Ed Sheeran)
Tim Ingham – Thursday 27 March 2025
Music Business Worldwide
More to read on the things mentioned in this listing:
A bit on the side
WTF else happen this week:
- Indigenous placenames comes to Apple Maps Apple Maps is adding the names of Traditional Owners for regions and more than 250 dual placenames for locations across Australia. The project was developed in consultation with Indigenous cartographers, language groups, traditional owners and intellectual property experts over four years.
More on this: Apple Maps ⌇ First Nations ⌇ Maps & mapping - Lumon Terminal Pro now available on the Apple Store Also on Apple, the company recently had a new item for sale on their website: the Lumon Terminal Pro. The device, which is from the Apple TV series Severance, is not actually for sale. Rather it is a clever ad for the show streaming on Apple TV+. It is just one of many marketing pushes Apple has going to promote the show.
More on this: Apple Store ⌇ Apple TV ⌇ Video streaming - The AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more → bots keep coming for Wikipedia In a piece by the Observer two senior roles in the Wikimedia Foundation discuss the complexities the Foundation finds itself in these days, including Wikipedia as a major source of data for training AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more → models. While traffic to Wikipedia does not appear to be in decline with the advent of AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more → and the introduction of AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more → search summaries on some search engines, there is concern that if AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more → keeps ingesting Wikipedia content without attribution that the pipeline for attrating new contributors will shrink, reducing new content for further AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more → training. It’s an interesting paradox.
More on this: AI (artificial intelligence) ⌇ Wikimedia Foundation ⌇ Wikipedia
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Disclosure
Conflict of interest
I am an arts marketing consultant. I am currently engaged on a consultancy project with BlakDance.
I am the President of Wikimedia Australia (WMAU). The views expressed in this blog post are my own and do not express the views of WMAU.
AI use
This blog post was drafted using Google Docs. No part of the text of this blog post was generated using AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more →. The original text was not modified or improved using AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more →. No text suggested by AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more → was incorporated. If spelling or grammar corrections were suggested by AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more → they were accepted or rejected based on my discretion (however, sometimes spelling, grammar and corrections of typos may have occurred automatically in Google Docs).
The icon in the banner image (i.e. the first image at the top of the blog post) was generated by AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more → using Text to Vector Graphic (BetaBeta is an early release of software or some other product or service to see how users use it to inform further development of it…. Learn more →) in AdobeSoz! @elliottbledsoe hasn’t gotten to this term yet!
Learn more → Illustrator. { Prompt: ‘An outlined question mark and exclamation mark’ }
Credits
Image: A photo of Elliott Bledsoe at the Karamellan Café & Restaurang vid Drottningholm at Drottningholms slott (Drottningholm Castle). © Copyright Trent Martin 2023. Available for reuse under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence
Image: An image rendered in the style of Studio Ghibli using a photo of Elliott Bledsoe at the Karamellan Café & Restaurang vid Drottningholm at Drottningholms slott (Drottningholm Castle). The image was generated using image generation in ChatGPT using GPT-4o. It is a derivative of ‘Elliott Bledsoe at the Karamellan Café & Restaurang vid Drottningholm at Drottningholms slott (Drottningholm Castle)’, Trent Martin 2023.
Image: An image rendered in the style of Studio Ghibli’s Howl’s Moving Castle using a photo of Elliott Bledsoe at the Karamellan Café & Restaurang vid Drottningholm at Drottningholms slott (Drottningholm Castle). The image was generated using image generation in ChatGPT using GPT-4o. It is a derivative of ‘Elliott Bledsoe at the Karamellan Café & Restaurang vid Drottningholm at Drottningholms slott (Drottningholm Castle)’, Trent Martin 2023.
Image: An AI-generated image in the style of a paparazzi photo depicts philosopher Karl Marx startled by the photograph being taken. He is ladened with boutique shopping bags hurriedly leaving the carpark of the Mall of America. Cars and a Mall of America sign are blurry but visible in the background. Presumably his hasty exit is to avoid being photographed engaging in materialistic consumerism. Source: OpenAI. Maybe © Copyright OpenAI 2025.
Whether AI-generated outputs are protected by copyright remains contested. To the extent that copyright exists, if at all, in this image I consider the use a fair dealing for the purpose of reporting news by means of a communication.
Image: An AI-generated image designed to look like a candid photo of four 20-somethings hanging out and having fun on a night out in a dive bar. Source: OpenAI. Maybe © Copyright OpenAI 2025.
Whether AI-generated outputs are protected by copyright remains contested. To the extent that copyright exists, if at all, in this image I consider the use a fair dealing for the purpose of reporting news by means of a communication.
Image: An AI-generated image designed to look like a family photo of a young Asian girl in a white t-shirt and blue denim overalls. She is drinking a pink smoothie at a farmers market. Behind her other market goers can be seen but are blurry. In the bottom right-hand corner a string of orange numbers are shown indicating the photo was taken on the 24th of June 2006. Of course it was not actually taken on that date. Source: OpenAI. Maybe © Copyright OpenAI 2025.
Whether AI-generated outputs are protected by copyright remains contested. To the extent that copyright exists, if at all, in this image I consider the use a fair dealing for the purpose of reporting news by means of a communication.
Image: A colourful icon of a question mark and exclamation mark. The question mark is in two shades of orange and a large exclamation mark is in two shades of green. Both sit on a lanvender purple background. The icon is an adaptation of an vector graphic generated by Elliott Bledsoe using the AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more → tool Text to Vector Graphic (BetaBeta is an early release of software or some other product or service to see how users use it to inform further development of it…. Learn more →) in AdobeSoz! @elliottbledsoe hasn’t gotten to this term yet!
Learn more → Illustrator.
Provenance
This blog post was produced by Elliott Bledsoe from Agentry, an arts marketing micro-consultancy. It was first published on Sunday 30 March 2025. It has not been updated. This is version 1.0. Questions, comments and corrections are welcome – get in touch any time.
Reuse
Good ideas shouldn’t be kept to yourself. I believe in the power of open access to information and creativity and a thriving commons of shared knowledge and culture. That’s why this blog post is licensed for reuse under a Creative Commons licence.
Unless otherwise stated or indicated, this blog post – WTF now?!: Monday 24–Sunday 30 March 2025 – is licensed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0). Please attribute Elliott Bledsoe as the original creator. View the full copyright licensing information for clarification.
Under the licence, you are free to copy, share and adapt this resource, or any modified version you create from it, even commercially, as long as you give credit to Elliott Bledsoe as the original creator of it. So please make use of this resource as you see fit.
Please note: Whether AI-generated outputs are protected by copyright remains contested. To the extent that copyright exists, if at all, in the icon I generated using AIAI is tech and marketing speak for a range of technology that imitates human intellect. Learn more → or the banner image I compiled using that icon for this blog post (i.e. the first image at the top of the blog post), I also license it for reuse under the terms of the Creative Commons licence (CC BY 4.0).
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