Cox Communications v. Sony: the Supreme Court Draws a Line Around Contributory Liability

With yesterday’s ruling, the Court has closed the door to further development of its own precedent, at least in this area of copyright. The Court held that the Sony and Grokster tests were the beginning and end of the common law of contributory infringement.

Scriptnotes, Episode 729: Endings Compendium, Part II, Transcript

The original post for this episode can be found here. John August: Hello, and welcome. My name is John August, and you are listening to Episode 729 of Scriptnotes. It’s a podcast about screenwriting and things that are interesting to screenwriters. This week, Craig and I are off on different adventures, so producer Drew Marquardt […]

The post Scriptnotes, Episode 729: Endings Compendium, Part II, Transcript first appeared on John August.

March 30: Upcoming Bartz v. Anthropic Deadline

A quick reminder that the MARCH 30 deadline to submit a claim form for the Bartz v. Anthropic settlement is fast approaching. If this is of interest to you, time is of the essence.

The settlement website remains the best place to find the most up-to-date information about the settlement. We have also distilled some of that information into this FAQ. (Note that we also have a more general AI FAQ that may be of interest).

Endings Compendium, Part II

In our first sequel compendium, John and Craig revisit four of their best segments dedicated to crafting a satisfying and emotional ending to your story. They look at rooting your ending in character, the function of the denouement, what makes a memorable farewell, how and why our endings can change, and how to bring everything […]

The post Endings Compendium, Part II first appeared on John August.

How I use Highland Fling

Fling is a brand new feature for Highland Pro that addresses a long-simmering frustration: getting feedback on what you’ve written. Whenever I finish a draft, I want to give it to some trusted people to read — both for comments and general proofreading. In the old days, that generally meant printing and handing it to […]

The post How I use Highland Fling first appeared on John August.

The World’s Most Prolific Public Domain Publisher (Sec. 105)

If the work of the state is owned by the people as work made for hire, then all of the work of the state is owned by the people—not just the laws, but reports, literary works, sound recordings, photographs, and even possibly academic research. The court understandably would have been reluctant to hand down an opinion that was so shattering to expectations. But it also would have been the best decision. Taxpayers, after all, foot the entire bill for their government.

Scriptnotes, Episode 728: Beats to Scenes with Drew Goddard, Transcript

The original post for this episode can be found here. John August: Hello and welcome. My name is John August, and you’re listening to Episode 728 of Scriptnotes. It’s a podcast about screenwriting and things that are interesting to screenwriters. What is the basic unit of story? In the outline and treatment phase, it’s probably […]

The post Scriptnotes, Episode 728: Beats to Scenes with Drew Goddard, Transcript first appeared on John August.

Beats to Scenes with Drew Goddard

John welcomes back Drew Goddard (Project Hail Mary, High Potential) to ask, how do you turn the beats of your story into full scenes? Using Drew’s script for The Martian, we look at how he translates moments in a book into scenes in a movie, the freedom Drew finds in a beat sheet, how beats […]

The post Beats to Scenes with Drew Goddard first appeared on John August.

Scriptnotes, Episode 727: Free Work, Transcript

The original post for this episode can be found here. John August: Hello, and welcome. My name is John August. Craig Mazin: My name is Craig Mazin. John: You are listening to episode 727 of Scriptnotes, a podcast about screenwriting and things that are interesting to screenwriters. Today on the show, what is work? What […]

The post Scriptnotes, Episode 727: Free Work, Transcript first appeared on John August.

Library and Archives 101: AI and the False Promise of Control

This is the first in a series of essays about the choices that knowledge institutions face as AI reshapes how their collections and resources are used. The people on various sides of these debates are, for the most part, deeply committed to access to knowledge — the disagreement is about means. Some believe that the best way to protect access to knowledge is to impose new conditions on how AI can use it and for what purposes. I think that approach is more likely to undermine access than to save it. This post in particular is about the risk of libraries and archives reimagining themselves as gatekeepers of AI-era access. To help contain these essays, we will be posting them as a series titled “AI & Access to Knowledge.”

The Incredible Shrinking Public Domain: Section 104A

This is the latest in our series of posts marking the 50th anniversary of the Copyright Act of 1976. To […]

How do bad movies get made? (Encore)

John and Craig revisit a favorite episode focused on a single topic: bad movies and how they happen. Using first-hand experience, they look at how bad ideas make it to the screen, how good ideas go wrong, and the range of patterns that end in terrible movies. We also make a list of our then-dream […]

The post How do bad movies get made? (Encore) first appeared on John August.