Libel isn't protected in the US so writing fiction about real people can and has got people sued. I don't see why pictures get stronger 1A protection than words.

Well, it isn't libel if you create it for your own personal collection/use...you can make pictures or write anything you want here to keep private.

And to a large extent, you can publish it too...as long as it isn't libelous.

Writing fiction, wouldn't necessarily be libelous....and for celebrities/public figures, they have less protections than normal folks...so, there's that too.

"The EU is doing what it always does. For them it is about stealing from America what they won't or can't create for themselves.
That's all they have done for the last almost twenty years now.

If you or anyone else actually wanted a phone that worked like a desktop, you would have gone and built it. But they won't."

This is, obviously, nothing to do with the capabilities of the phones. Its only to do with the policies Apple is following. There already is "a phone that works like a desktop" in that its a phone (many of them) that let you install whatever you want: all Android phones are like this. Use FDroid or side load. Google does not stop you. But this is irrelevant, the action is not about a new phone with a given capability, its about what users can do with the IPhone they already have.

It similarly isn't an answer to the EU policy to say, fine, just buy an android phone. No, this is not what they want. They don't want there to be phones with the ability to install whatever you want on them. There already are such phones, many of them.

What the EU wants (whether iPhone users want it, we will see) is for iPhone users to have this same capability, to buy apps and install them without having to pay a percentage cut to Apple. This is not about developing a different phone, its about not preventing the user from using the Iphone they already have in certain ways.

The EU is attacking Apple anti-competitive Apple policies. If it is stealing anything from America in this respect, what its stealing is old fashioned anti-trust law and practice. Its pursuing the same policies America has pursued on subjects like linked sales, right to repair, aftermarket tied sales. Its the same approach that is the reason why GM cannot prevent people using third party replacement parts.

"Can you or someone actually make a list out of things that users will gain from all of this...?"

As usual here, you don't understand where the EU Commission is coming from. For them it is always about economics, its about opening competition for some players in some segments under some conditions. In this case its about dismantling the walled garden. Its about giving vendors (not just developers, though that may be a first step) the ability to sell apps to iPhone users. It is about making the application market for smart phones work in a similar way to that for the desktop or laptop PC.

People, particularly Apple fans, may not like this, they may not want it for themselves, they may also be very happy with the walled garden and positively like that it exists for everyone, they may like it because they think its good for Apple, but all that is immaterial to the EU. The EU wants to see competition for the Apple app store, so its going to, step by step, ensure that other suppliers can sell apps to iPhone users.

It isn't at all interested in whether, right now, the iPhone users want this. Its not interested in users. Its interested in markets and company power in them.

It has almost unlimited powers to bring about what it wants. It can give itself whatever legal powers it wants, it can issue orders and assign financial penalties to them which will give even a company the size of Apple very serious problems. As you would have seen, had you been following the recent EU legislation on this.

What we will now see is efforts by Apple to implement the letter of the regulation, but in such a way as to try and make sure that the alternative suppliers get as little as possible share. The EU will progressively slap down every measure Apple takes to enforce this. In this contest between a government the size of the EU and a company, no matter how large, the smart money is on the government.

If you want to understand the EU, its Bismarck's Zollverein updated. It has its earlier roots in Colbert. Competition internally, tariff and regulatory barriers externally. Rigorous enforcement of the rules on foreign entrants, less so for local players. When, through some accident of technology or innovation, you find yourself with a foreign player with dominant share of an important market segment, you get to work. The whole apparatus then focuses on how to clip its wings.

You all never heard of the Zollverein, and when you look it up, cannot see what that has to do with anything.

No, I guess not.

Why does anyone use F-droid? Why does anyone use F-droid to install NewPipe?

Well, that answers none of my questions...

I have no idea what the fuck F-droid or NewPipe is....

It doesn't sound very iPhone-ish to me...?

and why do you need that?

Well, aside from "what does NEED have to do with anything....they are quite useful for protecting your hearing when you are out target shooting.

But seriously what the fuck does "need" have to do with getting a suppressor or a few of them?

I don't "need" a corvette or Porsche...but they are fun to own and drive.

Same in that suppressors are fun to have...it's nice to shoot without having to wear hearing protection, etc.

Hell, silencers/suppressors are MUCH easier to get in countries around the world that are VERY strict about firearms ownership, primarily due to hearing concerns.

It's a breeze to get a suppressor in much of Europe...that is if you can somehow get past the draconian gun laws.

That is making shareholders money. That is it. That is the goal.

How do you figure?

Disney stock has been tanking badly over the past few years, and I"m not talking about covid problems.

Only thing I can figure is, they are more beholden to Blackrock and Vanguard than they are their other stockholders.

YouTube used to be great early on. Lots of interesting people posting about interesting or genuinely funny stuff. These days it's just a bunch of influencers trying to sell you crap. They've turned YouTube into yet another marketing platform. Fuck them. I can't actually remember the last time I watched anything on YouTube anyway. It's not worth coming back to in the first place anyway.

You and a few others have made very similar statements.

I seem to always find something to watch on YouTube....but then again, I'm generally searching for specific subjects, or looking through subscriptions from people that speak to my specific subjects...examples being photography, cooking (specific styles or ethnic foods).

Anyway, the algo seems to have pretty accurately figured my interests and if I'm wanting to be passive in my looking for content, well, it seems to accurately suggest videos that are in my interests.

I dunno that I've ever seen a true "influencer" as many have stated.

How do you watch YouTube...is it only passive scrolling, or do you usually search for specific topics/subjects?

Can someone make an enumerated list of all things good this means for the user, that they could not have or do before this EU law took effect?

This isn't about making payroll. This about paying the shareholders for them sitting on their ass.

It doesn't even seem to be about THAT these days...seems some studios, at least, are more interested in pushing "the message" than making profits...ie "See Disney".

They're losing money hand over fist and don't seem to care....the agenda must be pushed.

Safety testing means it will not say things that are politically unpalatable. For example, it must not misgender anyone. It must not provide statistics that look bad for some race or other "protected" group, etc.

In other words....no fun to play with, and not really worth messing with....

Go for the truly open source models if you want something you can really "play" with and use to generate anything you wish.

You can buy a machine gun in the US but this software needs safety testing.

Well, you'd better have at least a bare minimum of about $40K or so, since citizens can ONLY own full auto weapons that were manufactured 1986 or earlier...so they're a bit rare (thanks Hughes amendment [rolls eyes]).

And once you find an old one that is legal to sell, then you have to get with the ATF and go through the enhanced background check, and you pay the tax stamp ($200 I believe), and then likely wait at least 6mos to a year to get it processed, and THEN, if all works, yes...you can then purchase and own a full auto machine gun.

AI safety testing is MUCH easier, cheaper and quicker.

They can obviously draft regulations and pass them into law. But is it really possible for the UK to affect AI use in its borders?

The servers may be anywhere in the world. Are they going to try and regulate access to them? If they are going to try and regulate the end product appearing in the UK, is it going to be provable that it resulted from a forbidden use? And then there is the difficulty of distinguishing in law the use of AI for some purpose which is unlawful, when to use just a non-AI model of some other variety is lawful.

Are they really going to get into regulatory detail about exactly how its legal for a model to use evolutionary adaptations? Some uses for some purposes count as illegal use of AI, others for other purposes are fine?

It reminds one of the last great ignorant IT mania in the UK, the demand that all children be taught how to do something called coding. This idea was promoted with fervor by people who had never seen a shell script, let alone written one, let alone ever written an application and had no clear idea what they were wanting taught. The idea seems to have died a natural death, just as well.

Something similar here, a sort of moral panic about something by liberal arts graduates who don't have the slightest real understanding of it. But who are confident they know it has to be regulated and are rolling up their sleeves to save civilization from its misuse.

This is one reason why I want to leave the US ... I want to live in a crowded, communal culture where neighbors tend to randomly drop by to chat or ask if you have a food item.

Err...I don't know where you got that this is not a thing where I live...?

I know and enjoy my neighbors, we talk while we're out walking our dogs, or riding bikes in the neighborhood, or go to the neighborhood pool.

We just don't share walls, we're all single family dwellings.

You don't have to share a wall to be neighborly...not sure where you got that from?

I find that NOT sharing a wall, helps you keep from actually hating your neighbor due to the noise their lives generates.

Pretty much all music genres except rap...

Well...I pretty much consider the terms "rap" and "music" to be mutually exclusive terms.

But for sure they contributed heavily to the loss of lyrics and dumbing down of modern music.

"Yo Yo Yo..."

Right, there, I just wrote half a new rap "song"...