It definitely not only used to be legal in parts of Western Europe, it even still is. According to Section 15 of the German Copyright Act (UrhG), for example, in general, only the author of a work has the right to reproduce their work, but private copies are literally excepted according to Section 53 UrhG. And private use specifically includes distributing private copies to friends or family members. This is even still valid for digital copies, but has been restricted insofar as circumventing digital copy protection has made a criminal offense.

When I was young or a young adult, both the young and the old were copying music and videos (reel-to-reel or cassette tapes, VHS cassettes) for personal use among friends and the wider family all day long. Actually, in many jurisdictions, like the one where I grew up right in the middle of capitalist Europe, it was perfectly legal, too. And what do you know – movies and music records and concerts kept coming in nonetheless. Because, by tendency, many of those who were the biggest sharers were also the biggest buyers. There also were sensible flat surcharges on tapes and cassettes and recording equipment which were distributed among artists.

Anyway, I also seriously question today's movie industry. Can any movie be worth hundreds of millions of dollars? Are hundreds of millions of dollars, the least of which, by the way, find their way to the ground personnel in such productions, well spent in making a movie, of all things? I, for one, don't think so.

Exactly.

I'd rather like to see a list of genres which haven't been entered by AI slop yet. Like, look for camera handbooks. The worst examples even show AI-generated fantasy shapes for the camera they're pretending to describe...

The problem with that "infighting" is not simply that it happens and all sides would be equally part of it. It happens and continues to do so because large parts of the populations see no problem in right-leaning policies, in lack of gender and ethnicity equality and awareness, and are actively opposing all attempts of improving things there, they don't want it to happen. Trying to formulate questions about "AI education" does not change this, and neither does asking research about how it is "going to fix this inequality / problem", when large parts of the populations either don't accept that the inequality or problem exists or doesn't want to see it solved or both. Unless and until that is successfully fought, progress will not happen, and governments will continue to be elected that will try to achieve the exact opposite.

For a state, yes. Munich is a city, not a state...

... but I don't believe an effective and sustainable solution can even be possible in a world under a global operating system the kernel of which is running on the principle of the maximization of exploitation of potentially everyone and everything to create monetary profit, the principle of all against all. A world in which only the richest are getting richer who are also the only ones with the means to further shape the world to their advantage, which tends to be hardly anyone else's advantage.

That's not how things work. I don't know the exact rules and regulations under which unions act in the US, but I'm pretty sure that no job (or gig) applicant will advertise their union membership (or were obliged to truthfully give such information).

Again, maybe true, but also again, what's that got to do with either NYC or Chengdu? You don't care about the subject of this thread, you just want to bash China. As much as it may deserve at least some of it, that and your presentation of it screams nationalism and jingoism very similar to the thread starters', just not quite as cheaply packaged.

LOL! I should have expected that one of the racist-fascist self-appointed super-Americans would immediately freak out and expose himself.

And of course, someone who disagrees with you has to be paid by the evil Chinese to do that... HAHAHA!

By the way, nothing you say has anything remotely to do with what was written in this thread. Perhaps learn your own great language before you post something publicly...

Maybe true, but what has that to do with either @backslashdot's post or my reply? I'd say it's a classic example of whataboutism.

Some of you US Americans are so full of yourselves with so little knowledge about the rest of the world, i.e. by far most of the world, and the hole that lack of knowledge leaves filled up with prejudice and dumb, unwarranted national pride. Which is why a least those of you who fall under that description also really deserve your current imbecile government. Chengdu has been one of the cultural centers of western and southwestern China for over 2,000 years, and not only has Chengdu developed into the economic center of western China alongside Chongqing, but in 2006, in China Daily, the city ranked fourth among China's most livable cities. Authoritarian/totalitarian socialism destroyed much, but cannot destroy everything.

Trump is as much for the 'proletariat' as Hitler was who hunted those who really were and had them executed. Trump's claim to act for normal people or the 'working class' is the same lie as Hitler's putting the term 'socialist' in the name of his party.

(Actually it's 1:140,000,000, but I guess the difference, in this case, is, despite significant, negligible ;-)

That's naive. Many if not most people know quite well how dim their chances are to win. In Europe, they're told before they can play what the probability for a class 1 win is, like 1:160,000,000 for the Eurojackpot lottery. But they also know that most lotteries spend a substantial amount of their earnings for good causes, so the money is not just lost (in Eurojackpot, I think it depends on which country someone's in, but it's things like sports, culture, humanitarian projects). And most of all, beside the actual playing fun like when teaming up with colleagues, it's the difference between a however dim chance and no chance at all to escape the reality of having to work a shit job until old age for too little money.