WEBVTT
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The Bogosity Podcast,
early and ad-free!
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Become a subscriber at Patreon,
SubscribeStar, or Discord.
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Use the links at donate.bogosity.tv.
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Welcome to the Bogosity Podcast
for the week of March 8 2026,
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the podcast that toads
the wet sprocket.
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This is your host, Shane Killian. Let's
Latinize the News of the Bogus.
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Yes, our first story is about age verification, which
I know you're tired of, but look at it this way:
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at least I'm sparing you from
more Iran war coverage!
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And it is a war! Don't get me started...
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But no, we're talking
about age verification,
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because not only is slippery
slope very much not a fallacy,
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in this case the slope has
been greased with lard!
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California has passed, and
Colorado is about to pass,
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legislation requiring all operating systems to have
age verification as part of their user profiles!
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They also have to pass that age verification information
along to any application or website they interact with.
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The privacy nightmare just
became a fever dream!
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And by the way, for those of you blaming the age verification
crap solely on Republicans, these are two very blue states.
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The prime sponsors of Colorado's SB26-051 are Matt
Ball, Amy Paschal, and Naquetta Ricks, all Democrats!
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As of this podcast prep, the Colorado
bill is still under consideration,
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but the California bill 1043 was signed into
law by Gavin Newsom back in October,
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to very little fanfare which
is why most of us missed it.
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But it will come into effect at the start of 2027, so
OS makers need to get their collective ass in gear.
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Sadly, it looks like the big OS makers, Microsoft,
Apple, and Google, are just going to roll over.
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But Linux distributions and other open source
platforms are going to be an interesting situation.
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Canonical, the makers of Ubuntu,
are headquartered in London,
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but they have offices in California and Colorado so the
law can absolutely be forced on to them with full penalty.
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The issue was brought onto the
Ubuntu development mailing list
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by a contributor with a really awesome
name: Aaron Rainbolt. He wrote:
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"We're currently looking into how to implement
an API that will comply with the laws
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while also not being
a privacy disaster."
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Tricky indeed!
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Quote: "At its core, the law seems
to require that an 'operating system'
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(I'm guessing this would correspond to a Linux
distribution, not an OS kernel or userland)
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request the user's age or date
of birth at 'account setup'.
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The OS is also expected to allow users to set
the user's age if they didn't already provide it
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(because the OS was installed before the law went
into effect), and it needs to provide an API somewhere
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so that app stores and application distribution websites
can ask the OS 'what age bracket does this user fall into?'
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A bunch of stuff is left unclear (how to
handle servers and other CLI-only installs,
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how to handle VMs, whether the law is even
applicable if the primary user is over 18
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since the law ridiculously defines a user as 'a child' while
also defining 'a child' as anyone under the age of 18, etc.),
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but that's what we're
given to deal with."
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He then goes into the technical details
of his proposal, which we won't go into,
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but it involves making a new
standard D-Bus interface.
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D-Bus handles messaging between all of the apps
and components of the system on the backend
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and generally runs as root.
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Amid discussion on whether or not they should store
the user's birth date or merely an age bracket,
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Christopher Warner posted:
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"I am also not a lawyer but the law
seems like it could easily be challenged
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and likely run afoul of
privacy laws here in the US.
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The technical ramifications and
enforcement of them can't be
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implemented in a way that wouldn't
run afoul of privacy related rights
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(yes, even children have privacy rights)
and also present a security quagmire.
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Further, it puts the onus all on the 'developer' or OS vendor
to essentially keep track and obey 'signals', or be fined.
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The spirit of the law's
existence is to protect children,
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but the implementation of this or a
path-forward almost seems farcical to discuss.
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It's very clear its drafting and implementation had
no one who understands how this works in the room,
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and if they were, they
were summarily ignored.
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Getting ahead of it as you are,
whatever solution, it won't matter,
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because every larger distro is likely to implement
their own way-to-do and same with every smaller one,
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and of course there will be
those that ignore this completely
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or stop distributing in California
and states that adopt such a law."
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That was very prescient, since right around that time
the makers of MidnightBSD did exactly that! They tweeted:
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"Until we have a better plan, we modified
our license to exclude residents of California
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from using MidnightBSD for desktop
use, effective January 1, 2027."
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Their license now includes, quote:
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"California residents are not authorized
to use MidnightBSD for desktop use
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in the state of California
effective January 1, 2027.
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California law CA AB1043 requires a complex age
verification system implemented for operating systems
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with no exceptions for small
open source projects."
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Apparently, that's it. No
method of enforcement,
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just wagging a finger at Californians who would have the
audacity to flout the law by installing and using their OS.
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Omarchy Linux simply rejected the
law in its entirety, stating simply:
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"Omarchy has no plans to do anything in
response to this retarded California law."
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Others have talked about having a "California
Edition," which would have age verification,
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and another edition for the rest of us.
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They could even restrict California IP addresses
from downloading the .iso file from their website.
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There's a problem, and it's not even the usual "VPNs
are a thing" we usually respond to this crap with.
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To cut down on bandwidth costs,
Linux distros like to use BitTorrent,
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since mostly it ends up being people using the
bandwidth of others, seeders in the torrent,
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to provide the file's
blocks to downloaders.
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And who wants to bet the swarm isn't going to do
anything at all to block California IP addresses?
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Even if the distro doesn't set up an official torrent, it
would only be a matter of seconds before other people did.
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Perfectly legally, I might add. These are
open source and freely distributable,
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and there's nothing at all
illegal about BitTorrent per se,
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as much as the MPA and the
RIAA might wish it were so.
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In other words, if there are any non-age
verification editions of any Linux distros,
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users in California and Colorado wouldn't need
to install a VPN or anything else of the kind.
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Just a BitTorrent client and grab the
torrent from anywhere in the world.
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So what happens if Ubuntu has
a non-age verification version
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and California users download that instead of
the official California or US version they offer?
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Is Canonical going to be held
accountable for all of that?
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Why doesn't Canonical instead join the fight?
Let's think about what that would mean.
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The California law specifies
a fine of $7500 per violation.
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Ubuntu has 200 million desktop users. We
don't know how many of those are in California,
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but if we estimate it just by share of
the world's computer-using population,
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that would be about 5 million users.
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A $7500 fine for all 5 million
users would total $37½ billion!
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Canonical's total assets are only $156
million, so this isn't a fight they can take on.
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And what about niche
OSes like FreeDOS?
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That's actually the underpinning of many different apps,
such as the hard drive maintenance program SpinRite,
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or many different motherboard manufacturers
to boot their firmware updates.
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As for direct users,
there's no exact number,
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but there are probably tens if not hundreds
of thousands of hobbyists who run it.
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And here's the thing: FreeDOS is
managed by a single guy, Jim Hall.
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Now, I have no idea where Hall lives,
but let's say he lives in California.
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Will he be on the hook for potentially thousands
of FreeDOS users who aren't using age verification?
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Each thousand users would
mean fines of $7½ million!
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I have no idea what his net worth is, but
there are few people that wouldn't bankrupt!
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Similar laws have been introduced in
New York and gone into effect in Brazil.
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It's just a matter of time before other states
and countries jump on the bandwagon.
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Especially the EU. They love
doing that anti-privacy crap!
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So it looks like we're in
for a fight on this one.
00:09:39.900 --> 00:09:43.900
Presenting: the greatest
game this side of Yuggoth!
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You are H.P. Lovecraft's
cat, and your name is Ni***
00:09:49.580 --> 00:09:52.300
...Right. We can't say
that on a podcast.
00:09:52.300 --> 00:09:55.580
Anyway, that's the point:
Your name is a joke.
00:09:55.580 --> 00:10:02.459
So now, you are out for revenge.
You become...the NecronomiCat!
00:10:02.460 --> 00:10:06.700
Using the Necronomicon, you come
to the present day to buy a gat.
00:10:06.700 --> 00:10:08.860
That's a gun. For a cat.
00:10:08.860 --> 00:10:10.620
It's a phat cat gat.
00:10:10.620 --> 00:10:15.500
But the Necronomicon is treacherous,
and it let in Lovecraft's monsters.
00:10:15.500 --> 00:10:19.180
Now, in a crumbling
world, you must fight!
00:10:19.180 --> 00:10:21.660
Build your team, buy guns and armor,
00:10:21.660 --> 00:10:26.220
buy items of dubious legality,
defeat the bosses of each level.
00:10:26.220 --> 00:10:29.580
Then take Lovecraft down!
00:10:29.580 --> 00:10:35.740
Play NecronomiCat! The
link is at cat.bogosity.tv.
00:10:35.740 --> 00:10:40.380
Yeah, we're doing cat.bogosity.tv,
not...that other one.
00:10:40.380 --> 00:10:42.880
What, you want me to get kicked
off the Internet or something?
00:10:48.220 --> 00:10:51.580
One company that seems to
fight the good fight is Anthropic.
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Not only were they the first to get an excellent
pro-fair use ruling in a major anti-AI case,
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now, famously—or infamously—they're fighting
the Pentagon to stand up for your privacy.
00:11:05.180 --> 00:11:09.913
Trump has been bragging about how the
US's dominance in AI has been instrumental
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in the first 24 hours of his attack
on Iran (which totally isn't a war!).
00:11:14.620 --> 00:11:18.286
As things heated up, Anthropic
earned the Trump Administration's ire
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by refusing to drop its guardrails for the US
military to prevent it from spying on US citizens.
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CEO Dario Amodei said in a statement:
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"Anthropic understands that the Department of War,
not private companies, makes military decisions.
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We have never raised objections
to particular military operations
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nor attempted to limit use of our
technology in an ad hoc manner.
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However, in a narrow set of cases, we believe AI can
undermine, rather than defend, democratic values.
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Some uses are also simply outside the bounds of
what today's technology can safely and reliably do.
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Two such use cases have never been included
in our contracts with the Department of War,
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and we believe they should
not be included now:
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Mass domestic surveillance and
fully autonomous weapons."
00:12:08.700 --> 00:12:13.020
Claude is one of the AI tools that's become
embedded throughout the military,
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suggesting targets, issuing precise locations,
and helping to prioritize those targets.
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They credit Claude (in concert
with another AI tool called Maven)
00:12:23.033 --> 00:12:28.140
into striking Iran in a way that gives
them little opportunity to counterstrike.
00:12:28.140 --> 00:12:31.900
Claude has also been used in
counterterrorism plots in the past,
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including the raid that captured
Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.
00:12:35.980 --> 00:12:40.700
Through it all, Claude has held
on to two guardrails for all of us:
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no mass surveillance, and
no autonomous weapons.
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And when the Trump Administration insisted that
they remove them, Anthropic refused. Quote:
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"We cannot in good conscience
accede to their request.
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It is the Department's prerogative to select
contractors most aligned with their vision.
00:12:58.620 --> 00:13:03.820
But given the substantial value that Anthropic's
technology provides to our armed forces,
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we hope they reconsider.
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Our strong preference is to continue to
serve the Department and our warfighters—
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with our two requested
safeguards in place.
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Should the Department
choose to offboard Anthropic,
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we will work to enable a smooth
transition to another provider,
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avoiding any disruption to ongoing military
planning, operations, or other critical missions.
00:13:25.660 --> 00:13:31.980
Our models will be available on the expansive
terms we have proposed for as long as required."
00:13:31.980 --> 00:13:34.540
So in the hours leading
up to the Iran attacks,
00:13:34.540 --> 00:13:39.900
Trump announced that he was banning agencies
from using any tool produced by Anthropic.
00:13:39.900 --> 00:13:42.620
They have six months to phase it out.
00:13:42.620 --> 00:13:46.140
In response, Anthropic has
sued the US government.
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Remember as we cover
what happened next:
00:13:48.380 --> 00:13:52.620
there were only two guardrails Anthropic
didn't want to compromise on—
00:13:52.620 --> 00:13:56.540
mass surveillance of Americans
and fully autonomous weapons.
00:13:56.540 --> 00:14:00.173
Makes you wonder, then, just how
OpenAI rewrote their contract
00:14:00.174 --> 00:14:03.420
to get the Pentagon's business
that Anthropic just gave up!
00:14:03.420 --> 00:14:08.300
According to an X post by Sam Altman,
their new contract agrees that, quote:
00:14:08.300 --> 00:14:14.220
"the AI system shall not be intentionally used for
domestic surveillance of U.S. persons and nationals.
00:14:14.220 --> 00:14:18.120
For the avoidance of doubt, the
Department understands this limitation
00:14:18.121 --> 00:14:23.487
to prohibit deliberate tracking, surveillance,
or monitoring of U.S. persons or nationals,
00:14:23.488 --> 00:14:29.500
including through the procurement or use of commercially
acquired personal or identifiable information."
00:14:29.500 --> 00:14:33.900
Yeah, long-time listeners will
understand why I find this to be naïve.
00:14:33.900 --> 00:14:37.900
That was exactly what they said
before the Snowden revelations
00:14:37.901 --> 00:14:41.260
showed how they get around
exactly this sort of language!
00:14:41.260 --> 00:14:44.860
"Deliberate tracking" means
direct tracking of a person.
00:14:44.860 --> 00:14:48.860
Indirect tracking of basically
everyone just sort of happens,
00:14:48.860 --> 00:14:54.093
but then afterward they grab the information
they had recorded and use it however they want.
00:14:54.093 --> 00:14:58.060
Ditto with, quote: "The Department
also affirmed that our services
00:14:58.061 --> 00:15:03.126
will not be used by Department of War
intelligence agencies (for example, the NSA)."
00:15:03.126 --> 00:15:10.780
Yeah, but even when it's not the NSA using it, the
NSA still gets it from other agencies that are!
00:15:10.780 --> 00:15:15.020
And thanks to a Community Note,
X users were notified that Altman,
00:15:15.020 --> 00:15:19.500
in a meeting with OpenAI employees,
stressed the exact opposite:
00:15:19.500 --> 00:15:24.559
that none of them gets to choose how
the military uses their technology.
00:15:24.559 --> 00:15:29.559
Here's a question: How did
OpenAI win this contract so quickly
00:15:29.560 --> 00:15:33.892
unless they gave Trump and Pete
Hegseth everything they wanted?
00:15:33.892 --> 00:15:40.060
Also, consider: if they're not going to do mass domestic
surveillance or have completely autonomous weapons,
00:15:40.060 --> 00:15:43.180
what was their problem
with Anthropic's deal?
00:15:43.180 --> 00:15:48.492
A post on the OpenAI subreddit calling for people
to cancel their OpenAI contracts as a result
00:15:48.493 --> 00:15:52.460
was upvoted 34,000 times!
00:15:52.460 --> 00:15:59.260
A similar deal was struck with xAI. And it really seems
like Grok is way too deferential to the US government!
00:15:59.260 --> 00:16:05.660
Even after pressing, I couldn't get Grok to acknowledge
the horrible injustice against Edward Snowden.
00:16:05.660 --> 00:16:09.580
It continued to insist that the system
worked and there was accountability,
00:16:09.580 --> 00:16:12.827
no matter how much I showed
that Snowden was still in exile
00:16:12.828 --> 00:16:17.180
and not a single one of the
criminals he exposed was arrested!
00:16:17.180 --> 00:16:20.046
Guess I'm using Claude primarily now.
00:16:25.900 --> 00:16:30.060
I'm Brother Ezekiel, and I know
how naughty thou hast been!
00:16:30.060 --> 00:16:32.940
So naughty, thou needst a VPN!
00:16:32.940 --> 00:16:39.500
Hide thy iniquity from prying eyes, and make
sure the liturgical authorities remain ignorant.
00:16:39.500 --> 00:16:45.180
Take thy browser to
vpn.bogosity.tv to get BoxPN.
00:16:45.180 --> 00:16:49.820
At $6.36 a month, a price only
the most penurious would balk at,
00:16:49.820 --> 00:16:54.620
thou shalt have unlimited high-speed
connections to servers all over the globe.
00:16:54.620 --> 00:16:58.700
And they don't log connections.
Thy privacy is assured.
00:16:58.700 --> 00:17:00.380
That should please you sinners!
00:17:00.380 --> 00:17:02.940
Just remember: the Lord sees all!
00:17:02.940 --> 00:17:06.220
When travelling, make it
look like thou art still home.
00:17:06.220 --> 00:17:14.460
At home, ensure the elders at your ISP don't take out
their judgement with traffic-shaping and DMCA notices!
00:17:14.460 --> 00:17:20.212
Up to 5 devices can connect at once,
almost one for every deadly sin!
00:17:20.214 --> 00:17:26.080
Keep thy sins private.
Go to vpn.bogosity.tv.
00:17:31.740 --> 00:17:37.980
Okay, let's do one of our favorite things on the
lighter side of the news: stupid copyright tricks!
00:17:37.980 --> 00:17:42.540
A singer on Facebook performed
the Jireh Lim song "Buko".
00:17:42.540 --> 00:17:46.840
Jireh Lim is a 33-year-old Filipino
singer-songwriter and guitarist
00:17:46.840 --> 00:17:52.780
who worked without a label for years until 2015
when he signed with Warner Music Philippines.
00:17:52.780 --> 00:17:55.980
"Buko" was his breakout 2013 single.
00:17:55.980 --> 00:17:58.940
So the Facebook singer
performed Buko with his band,
00:17:58.940 --> 00:18:04.380
and the Facebook post gained traction
as it got over 14,000 reactions.
00:18:04.380 --> 00:18:10.060
The singer then received a copyright strike from
Facebook and a message that reads, quote:
00:18:10.060 --> 00:18:14.060
"Your reel's earnings are being
claimed by music rights holders.
00:18:14.060 --> 00:18:21.379
Multiple rights owners requested changes to your video
because a large amount of their music was detected."
00:18:21.379 --> 00:18:28.060
Just one tiny problem: the singer
in question was Jirah Lim himself!
00:18:28.060 --> 00:18:33.260
He posted a reply in Tagalog that
according to Google Translate reads:
00:18:33.260 --> 00:18:42.620
"I want to reply, 'Bro, it's me oh! It's me! JIREH LIM!
JIREH LIM! The one who wrote that song himself. Hey."
00:18:42.620 --> 00:18:47.100
Now, those of you who were paying attention
might have noticed something weird.
00:18:47.100 --> 00:18:52.780
No matter what label you're signed with, you
always have the right to perform your own music.
00:18:52.780 --> 00:18:57.100
But sometimes, labels make mistakes
and they might not realize it's you.
00:18:57.100 --> 00:19:03.020
So it's understandable that they occasionally
make a mistake and strike an artist's own song.
00:19:03.020 --> 00:19:06.620
But those of you who are good at
basic counting would have realized
00:19:06.620 --> 00:19:12.220
that he released this song a full two
years before signing with Warner!
00:19:12.220 --> 00:19:18.460
As an independent artist, his music was spread
primarily through streaming on many different platforms.
00:19:18.460 --> 00:19:23.820
But as we've seen, record labels love
to act like they own the artist himself
00:19:23.820 --> 00:19:26.860
and not just the recordings
he makes with them!
00:19:26.860 --> 00:19:30.940
Warner is not only among the worst of
the worst when it comes to protectionism,
00:19:30.940 --> 00:19:37.260
but they have farms of bots that constantly
troll the Internet, especially social media sites,
00:19:37.260 --> 00:19:41.420
looking for anything remotely
resembling anything they own.
00:19:41.420 --> 00:19:43.980
But we don't actually
know if this was Warner.
00:19:43.980 --> 00:19:47.900
The message actually said
"multiple rights owners."
00:19:47.900 --> 00:19:51.580
So, were some of them streaming
sites from his previous deals?
00:19:51.580 --> 00:19:55.980
Is one of them Warner? Did
they purchase his back catalog?
00:19:55.980 --> 00:20:02.146
We don't know, but none of it changes the fact
that copyright is so completely insane and stupid
00:20:02.146 --> 00:20:06.540
that an artist can't even sing
his own song unmolested!
00:20:06.540 --> 00:20:11.340
Copyright is unethical, indefensible,
and completely moronic.
00:20:11.340 --> 00:20:14.306
It's good to have these
constant reminders!
00:20:20.540 --> 00:20:24.060
I want to tell you about the eyeglasses
I've been wearing for years.
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As people can see on my videos,
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which makes glasses more expensive,
especially when I need computer glasses,
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reading glasses,
prescription sunglasses,
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and most expensively, progressive
lenses for general everyday wear.
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To save money while still getting
quality glasses, I get them from Firmoo.
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In fact, I just got a pair of progressives
with high index aspherical lenses
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in a nice pair of frames my
wife loves, for just over $100.
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It would have been $500 to get
them through my eye doctor.
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Not only do they look good,
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Go to firmoo.bogosity.tv any time you
need quality glasses at a low price.
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Once again, that's
firmoo.bogosity.tv.
00:21:28.540 --> 00:21:33.020
And now it's time to misevaluate
this week's Biggest Bogon Emitter.
00:21:33.020 --> 00:21:36.907
As if it weren't clear already that there's
a backchannel propaganda group
00:21:36.908 --> 00:21:42.540
funneling anti-AI talking points to the
Twitterati so they can astroturf their agenda,
00:21:42.540 --> 00:21:46.220
we've got a particularly
obvious and heinous example.
00:21:46.220 --> 00:21:49.660
First of all, let's briefly
talk about the case itself.
00:21:49.660 --> 00:21:54.380
Stephen Thaler is the inventor of AI
systems including Creativity Machine.
00:21:54.380 --> 00:21:59.900
He used Creativity Machine to make an image
called "A Recent Entrance to Paradise."
00:21:59.900 --> 00:22:05.580
Now, unlike the AIs you might be familiar with,
there was no prompting or any other human direction.
00:22:05.580 --> 00:22:08.540
It was created completely
autonomously.
00:22:08.540 --> 00:22:14.060
On top of that, Thaler didn't even attempt to
register the copyright with himself as the owner.
00:22:14.060 --> 00:22:18.060
He identified Creativity
Machine as the author.
00:22:18.060 --> 00:22:24.380
The Copyright Office denied registration because
only a human-authored work can receive copyright.
00:22:24.380 --> 00:22:27.100
And he didn't even claim
this was human-authored!
00:22:27.100 --> 00:22:30.220
He sued and the district court
held for the government,
00:22:30.220 --> 00:22:35.260
saying that human creativity is the sine
qua non at the core of copyrightability.
00:22:35.260 --> 00:22:41.260
The appeals court confirmed. Authors are human
beings, they said, and machines are mere tools.
00:22:41.260 --> 00:22:44.093
Thaler appealed to the Supreme
Court, and on Monday,
00:22:44.094 --> 00:22:48.780
they denied certiorari without
comment, putting an end to the case.
00:22:48.780 --> 00:22:52.860
In their coverage of it, Reuters talked
about people prompting Midjourney
00:22:52.860 --> 00:22:56.700
as if that had anything at all
to do with the case. It doesn't.
00:22:56.700 --> 00:23:00.140
Then ToonHive posted
the story on X, writing:
00:23:00.140 --> 00:23:04.880
"AI-generated artwork officially is
ineligible for copyright protection
00:23:04.881 --> 00:23:08.300
as the US Supreme Court
declined to review a appeal case.
00:23:08.300 --> 00:23:13.340
The court rules that artwork needs to have
a human creator in order to be eligible."
00:23:13.340 --> 00:23:19.180
Even if you missed the post, you might have
seen any of the 46 thousand quote-tweets,
00:23:19.180 --> 00:23:25.100
mostly from the anti-AI neo-Luddites saying
that this proves that AI can never be art.
00:23:25.100 --> 00:23:27.100
Here's just a smattering:
00:23:27.100 --> 00:23:32.860
"Studios that replaced their art teams with AI just
found out none of their output is copyrightable.
00:23:32.860 --> 00:23:38.380
The 14-year-old on Roblox hand-drawing
UGC items owns more IP than they do."
00:23:38.380 --> 00:23:43.200
"Even they're saying 'You didn't make it if
you told AI to draw this and that for you'!"
00:23:43.200 --> 00:23:47.740
"BREAKING: SCOTUS just
finalized the AI copyright debate!"
00:23:47.740 --> 00:23:54.140
"LET'S FUCKING GOOOO AI 'artists'
just got told: no human = no copyright.
00:23:54.140 --> 00:24:00.860
All those Midjourney slop images? Public domain
now. Traditional artists eating good today."
00:24:00.860 --> 00:24:06.620
"Technically they stole human art which is
what all their generated art is based off of."
00:24:06.620 --> 00:24:11.500
"This will certainly get rid of most
of the AI slop, one and done."
00:24:11.500 --> 00:24:16.300
"HAHAHA, YOUR PROMPTS ARE MEANINGLESS,
YOU SLOP PRODUCING DEGENERATES!"
00:24:16.300 --> 00:24:22.700
"AI artists in shambles right now." (That was one of
many different phrases that were repeated verbatim.)
00:24:22.700 --> 00:24:25.740
"Supreme Court was like if you
need your work copyrighted,
00:24:25.740 --> 00:24:29.900
you need to make it yourself but
not through AI, and that's great."
00:24:29.900 --> 00:24:33.980
"That means that outputs generated by AI will continue
to be ineligible for copyright protection under US law.
00:24:33.980 --> 00:24:36.540
This is welcome news for musicians!"
00:24:36.540 --> 00:24:40.620
"AI-generated artwork is officially
ineligible for copyright protection
00:24:40.620 --> 00:24:43.866
after the US Supreme Court
declined to hear an appeal."
00:24:43.866 --> 00:24:49.499
"Good news: All AI generated
material is, by default, public domain."
00:24:49.500 --> 00:24:54.860
A particularly large brickbat needs to be
thrown at The Moonlight Warrior, who tweeted:
00:24:54.860 --> 00:25:01.020
"I don't think people understand just how
massive of a win this is in the fight against AI.
00:25:01.020 --> 00:25:06.060
Without a copyright protection,
the art itself is worthless."
00:25:06.060 --> 00:25:12.220
So, I guess the Mona Lisa is worthless, because
copyrights didn't exist in Da Vinci's day???
00:25:12.220 --> 00:25:16.540
And yes, we saw almost exactly
the same thing over on Bluesky.
00:25:16.540 --> 00:25:20.700
In fact, I saw one argument
on Bluesky I didn't see on X:
00:25:20.700 --> 00:25:24.300
"Just a reminder that source
code is also subject to copyright,
00:25:24.300 --> 00:25:32.220
so alllll that AI-generated code being made is
also, by extension, not eligible for copyright."
00:25:32.220 --> 00:25:34.780
Nope, nothing to do with code.
00:25:34.780 --> 00:25:37.113
They're all doing victory
laps over a decision
00:25:37.114 --> 00:25:42.060
that has absolutely nothing to do with
the kind of AI they're complaining about.
00:25:42.060 --> 00:25:46.780
There was no prompting. There
was no claim of human creativity.
00:25:46.780 --> 00:25:51.340
The circuit court said that a machine
cannot be an author of a work.
00:25:51.340 --> 00:25:56.540
And the Supreme Court declined
to take up the case. That's it.
00:25:56.540 --> 00:26:03.660
And the worst part is that it exposes exactly
what copyrights do to the entire concept of art.
00:26:03.660 --> 00:26:08.860
Da Vinci didn't need copyright. Neither
did Shakespeare. Neither did Beethoven.
00:26:08.860 --> 00:26:13.340
Oh, but without copyrights, how
would Disney ruin Star Wars?
00:26:13.340 --> 00:26:18.040
So all of that makes these anti-AI activists
this week's Biggest Bogon Emitter.
00:26:30.940 --> 00:26:39.206
And now let's hyperventriloquaciousnessesate
this week's Idiot Extraordinaire.
00:26:41.673 --> 00:26:44.380
And here's another one
we see every few years.
00:26:44.380 --> 00:26:49.906
There's a lot of money in mailing letters,
parcels, and doing deliveries. FedEx, UPS,
00:26:49.906 --> 00:26:55.260
Amazon, UberEats, DoorDash, all sorts of
companies make good money doing this.
00:26:55.260 --> 00:26:59.100
So why does the Post
Office suck so hard???
00:26:59.100 --> 00:27:06.220
If you ever needed the quintessential example
of why government fails at its core, this is it!
00:27:06.220 --> 00:27:11.420
The United States Postal Service just never
seems to be able to operate in the black,
00:27:11.420 --> 00:27:15.420
even with all of the subsidies and
free buildings from the government.
00:27:15.420 --> 00:27:18.700
Not even monopoly power is working!
00:27:18.700 --> 00:27:22.620
They were shown to be fairly
pathetic back in 1844 when,
00:27:22.620 --> 00:27:27.580
in response to complaints about slow deliveries
and high stamp prices of the post office,
00:27:27.580 --> 00:27:32.140
Lysander Spooner founded the American
Letter Mail Company to compete.
00:27:32.140 --> 00:27:39.180
At the time, postage was 18¾¢,
over $8 in today's money!
00:27:39.180 --> 00:27:45.499
Over the next several years, competition with
Spooner ended up getting stamps down to just 3¢.
00:27:45.500 --> 00:27:50.700
There were other innovations: Stamps could be
purchased at any office and attached to letters,
00:27:50.700 --> 00:27:53.806
which could then be sent
to any of its other offices.
00:27:53.806 --> 00:28:00.140
Another innovation: Letters were delivered directly
to the addressee. They didn't have to go pick them up.
00:28:00.140 --> 00:28:02.940
All things we take for granted today!
00:28:02.940 --> 00:28:10.220
So what did the Post Office do? They went whining to the
government to have postal service declared a monopoly.
00:28:10.220 --> 00:28:16.220
Spooner pointed out that, while the Constitution gave
the federal government the power to run a post office,
00:28:16.220 --> 00:28:20.540
it didn't give it the power to stop
anyone else from running a post office.
00:28:20.540 --> 00:28:27.139
But the fix was in with the courts, so Spooner was
arrested and the American Letter Mail Company shut down.
00:28:27.139 --> 00:28:32.220
Today, postage for letters
up to an ounce is 78¢.
00:28:32.220 --> 00:28:36.140
By the way, current oil
price is $93 a barrel,
00:28:36.140 --> 00:28:41.527
which means it's forty times cheaper
to send oil halfway across the world
00:28:41.528 --> 00:28:44.460
than it is to mail a
letter across the street!
00:28:44.460 --> 00:28:52.300
So again I ask, how can they suck so hard as
to still not be making money after all that???
00:28:52.300 --> 00:28:57.326
Postmaster General David Steiner says that
they'll run out of cash in less than a year
00:28:57.326 --> 00:29:03.340
unless Congress lifts a cap saying they can
borrow no more than $15 billion a year.
00:29:03.340 --> 00:29:08.540
He also wants authority to
raise postage prices to 95¢.
00:29:08.540 --> 00:29:11.580
He bemoaned the fact that
people are mailing fewer letters,
00:29:11.580 --> 00:29:17.580
to the point where they've "lost"
$86 billion in postage. He whined:
00:29:17.580 --> 00:29:23.420
"If either FedEx or UPS lost $86 billion of
revenue, they would have no revenue."
00:29:23.420 --> 00:29:28.140
Yeah, well, the difference is, if they don't
make money, they go out of business.
00:29:28.140 --> 00:29:31.660
So they have the incentive
to run their businesses well.
00:29:31.660 --> 00:29:37.500
Let's give them the opportunity to compete with
you in mail delivery and see how well they do!
00:29:37.500 --> 00:29:42.460
The Postal Service ran at
a loss of $9 billion in 2024,
00:29:42.460 --> 00:29:48.060
despite an increase of 1.2% from its
Ground Advantage shipping. He said:
00:29:48.060 --> 00:29:51.180
"We have to have a conversation
with the American public.
00:29:51.180 --> 00:29:55.900
If you want us to deliver everywhere,
every day, we'll do it. That's not a problem.
00:29:55.900 --> 00:29:58.060
But who is going to pay for it?"
00:29:58.060 --> 00:30:02.380
You know, Amazon somehow
manages to deliver six days a week.
00:30:02.380 --> 00:30:10.940
One big problem is unions. 90% of USPS's
640,000 workers are represented by four unions,
00:30:10.940 --> 00:30:18.860
and labor costs are 78% of expenses. But cuts are
completely off the table with these union deals.
00:30:18.860 --> 00:30:24.860
The pensions also make things hard,
with $120 billion in unfunded liabilities.
00:30:24.860 --> 00:30:31.420
A lot of that was in low-yield Treasury bonds,
which lost money during the recent inflation spikes.
00:30:31.420 --> 00:30:36.540
But it's very simple. What happens when private
companies are faced with such a problem?
00:30:36.540 --> 00:30:41.500
They have two options: figure
it out, or go out of business.
00:30:41.500 --> 00:30:49.260
Maybe it's finally time to repeal the post office's
monopoly and let the modern-day Spooners take a crack at it.
00:30:49.260 --> 00:30:57.233
So all of that makes the US Postal
Service this week's Idiot Extraordinaire.
00:31:02.940 --> 00:31:08.780
Well, that wraps up this "It might get rough again unless
we can climb on top" edition of the Bogosity Podcast.
00:31:08.780 --> 00:31:13.500
I hope you enjoyed it; if you did, please go to
donate.bogosity.tv for several ways to support,
00:31:13.500 --> 00:31:16.780
and discord.bogosity.tv
to join the discussion.
00:31:16.780 --> 00:31:21.980
Subscribe at the Discord, Patreon, or
SubscribeStar and you can listen early and ad-free.
00:31:21.980 --> 00:31:25.980
Thank you for listening. Until next time,
here's a quote from Lysander Spooner:
00:31:25.980 --> 00:31:32.940
"The present expensive, dilatory and exclusive
system of mails is a great national nuisance—
00:31:32.940 --> 00:31:36.060
commercially,
morally, and socially.
00:31:36.060 --> 00:31:44.700
Its immense patronage and power, used, as they always will
be, corruptly, make it also a very great political evil."
00:31:44.700 --> 00:31:48.780
The Bogosity Podcast is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
00:31:48.780 --> 00:31:50.873
4.0 International license.