More Like Unfair Use
Thomson Reuters just won the first major US decision in an ongoing legal battle between copyright holders and generative AI companies, Wired reports.
The publishing and tech company sued generative AI startup Ross Intelligence in 2020, claiming the startup reproduced materials copyrighted by its legal research arm, Westlaw.
Generative AI companies typically defend scraping and repurposing copyrighted material under the fair use doctrine, which protects the creation of derivative works for the purposes of news reporting, satire or noncommercial research.
But US District Court judge Stephanos Bibas ruled against Ross’s fair use defense, writing in his summary judgment that “none of Ross’s possible defenses holds water.”
Notably, Bibas ruled that Ross “meant to compete with Westlaw by developing a market substitute.”
This precedent – that generative AI is competing with the information sources it scrapes – could spell disaster for generative AI agents and search products that take content from publisher sites without permission.
The court battle has already proven costly for Ross Intelligence. The firm shut down in 2021, citing legal costs. But the implications for larger companies with AI investments are clear.
The ruling, according to Cornell University law professor James Grimmelmann, suggests that the fair use defenses deployed by OpenAI and Google are now “irrelevant.”
There In A Snap
Snapchat has many convenient tailwinds, including defections from X and the will-they-won’t-they drama over a potential TikTok ban in the US. And is anyone even on Facebook anymore?
But last year, Snap reset its business focus on the SMB advertiser category, Digiday reports.
It’s a logical move. Small, local businesses – millions of them – are the backbone of Google and Meta and boost auction demand through sheer scale.
To catch up, Snap has invested in its own ad tech offerings, including a tracking pixel, as well as content-generation tools for non-pro marketers to easily set up campaigns.
The unnamed problem, though, is that Snapchat is, well, Snapchat. It’s almost compulsory by this point for every plumber, dentist, mechanic, laundromat owner, etc., to spend with Meta and Google platforms.
But is that – and can that – be true of Snapchat?
MMM, CTV!
Connected TV ad measurement remains a mess. Advertisers struggle to compare how their CTV ads perform across different streaming services and ad mediums.
The problem is worsening as increasingly stringent privacy laws spur signal loss that limits the data available for measurement and attribution. Although CTV doesn’t directly rely on third-party cookies, for example, marketers use them to determine whether a TV commercial deserves credit for online searches, sales or other conversions.
Which is why media mix modeling (MMM) is back in style, including for streaming.
“MMM is the bible” for nearly all of the larger advertisers that have TV and streaming in their marketing mix, said Goodway Group CEO Jay Friedman during a virtual event hosted by ID5 on Wednesday.
“The largest brands are still trying to create some sense of evenness between channels more than they are necessarily trying to extract the maximum value out of CTV or any other individual channel right now,” Friedman said.
To create that degree of evenness in measurement, Friedman advises that brands should test some of the many alternative identifiers on the market if they aren’t doing so already.
Now Showing: Ads
If you’re an ad-free Disney subscriber, you may start seeing ads in live programming.
The Mouse House notified subscribers this week about an update to its user agreement regarding ads, Adweek reports.
“Circumstances may require that certain titles and types of content include ads, even in our ‘no ads’ or ‘ad free’ subscription tiers,” the memo reads. In this case, “circumstances” refers to live programming.
Like other programmers, Disney+ is adding more live TV to its streaming apps. But unlike video on demand, live TV airs with commercial breaks built into the broadcast schedule.
Disney’s rationale is that incorporating ads into built-in breaks during live programming can help the network monetize inventory without further disrupting the user experience. Whether someone sees a placeholder “We’ll be back” slate or an actual commercial, the live TV viewing experience includes disruptions no matter what.
And Disney is far from the only programmer introducing ads to a growing slate of live programming. Paramount+ and Peacock have adopted a similar approach of showing ads during live sports, while Netflix plans to do the same for WWE Raw.
But Wait! There’s More
Amid uncertainty, ad tech mavens turn to startups. [Digiday]
Why we can’t have nice things: A little-known Lithuanian ad tech company called Eskimi is selling highly sensitive location data on US military members. [404 Media]
You’re Hired
Tubi hires Paul Gubbins as VP of sales and programmatic partnerships in the UK. [LinkedIn post]
Pixability names Leah Malone as its new CRO. [release]
Programmatic digital out-of-home marketplace VIOOH brings on Ludovic Menard as its chief product officer. [release]
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