U.S. Copyright Office Announces Copyright Essentials: Copyright 101 Webinar; U.S. Copyright Office, June 23, 2026

U.S. Copyright Office; U.S. Copyright Office Announces Copyright Essentials: Copyright 101 Webinar

"The U.S. Copyright Office invites you to register to attend the upcoming online webinar, “Copyright Essentials: Copyright 101,” on Wednesday, July 15 at 1:00 p.m. eastern time. This event is the latest edition in our educational series designed to teach copyright basics and key concepts to creators within various disciplines. 

In this session, join us as the Copyright Office discusses the foundations of copyright law, the process of copyright registration, and Copyright Office programs supporting research, enforcement, and understanding copyright concepts like fair use. We will answer commonly asked questions; review educational resources and registration options, such as the Office’s Copyright Registration Toolkit; and share how the Copyright Office’s Public Information Office can assist along the way. 

Speakers: 

• Samantha Levin, Attorney-Advisor, Office of Public Information and Education 
• Taylor Schumacher, Attorney-Advisor, Office of Public Information and Education 

The Copyright Office strategic goal of Copyright for All means making the copyright system as understandable and accessible to as many members of the public as possible, through initiatives including education and outreach. Subscribe to stay updated about future webinars in this series. 

Watch the complete set of recordings on our Copyright Essentials event page."

AI in the Trenches and on the Bench; American Bar Association (ABA), April 8, 2026

Paulette Marie Rodriguez Lopez, Richard Platkin, Jeffrey Huang, Alina Lee, and Bradford Newman , American Bar Association (ABA); AI in the Trenches and on the Bench

"Ethical considerations require legal practitioners to balance innovation with professional responsibility across multiple dimensions. The duty of competence demands that lawyers understand the capabilities and limitations of AI tools they employ, while communication obligations require transparency with clients about AI use in their matters. Confidentiality concerns arise when sensitive client data is processed through third-party AI platforms, particularly when terms of service remain ambiguous about data retention and use. The duty of candor to tribunals has taken on new significance as courts grapple with AI-generated hallucinations, exemplified by high-profile sanctions in cases where lawyers submitted fabricated citations. Supervisory duties extend to ensuring that junior attorneys, paralegals, and staff use AI tools appropriately and in compliance with firm policies.

Courts have responded with divergent approaches: Some have issued standing orders prohibiting AI use in court filings entirely, with potential sanctions ranging from striking pleadings to contempt citations and case dismissal, while others have declined to adopt special AI rules, instead emphasizing that reliance on AI will not excuse otherwise sanctionable conduct. These varied judicial responses reflect ongoing uncertainty about how to balance technological advancement with the integrity of legal proceedings.

Despite these risks and varied judicial approaches, AI tools offer significant potential for enhancing legal practice when used responsibly. Use cases range from chambers research and case management to in-house contract review, legal research, document drafting, and litigation support at law firms of all sizes."

Navigating Today’s AI Landscape with an Ethical Polestar; American Bar Association (ABA), April 30, 2026

Afton Pavletic ,  American Bar Association (ABA); Navigating Today’s AI Landscape with an Ethical Polestar

"On November 30, 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT to the general public. The model, along with other generative AI (GenAI) technologies, flooded headlines and seized the spotlight. Less than six months later, the story of Mata v. Avianca, Inc.  —a case in which the plaintiff’s attorneys filed a brief featuring ChatGPT-hallucinated case citations—went viral and fired an emergency flare in the legal community. With a growing awareness of AI’s potential to transform the profession, the legal field responded with a cascade of AI guardrails, guidelines, and task forces. Judges targeted GenAI usage with standing orders, at times outright prohibiting the use of the technology   ; state bars and legal associations issued opinions and recommendations tailored to the Rules of Professional Conduct  ; law firms and government agencies crafted AI-use policies for their offices  ; and the list goes on.

So where are we today? With avoiding ethical missteps as its compass, this article seeks to map out the current AI legal landscape. After launching from the shores of the Rules of Professional Conduct, it will discuss prevalent technologies in use by legal practitioners, the risks associated with the current wave of AI, how courts have responded to AI-related issues, and ways to steer your practice’s AI policy to avoid troubled waters."

Don’t quit this whole-brain workout; The Washington Post, June 23, 2026

Tom Zeller Jr. , The Washington Post; Don’t quit this whole-brain workout

"Last month, journalists discovered that “The Future of Truth,” a book about AI’s effect on knowledge, contained manufactured quotes and other inaccuracies that the author had apparently copied and pasted from a large language model. At around the same time, it appeared as if one of the prizewinning stories published in Granta, a prestigious British magazine, was written by a bot. This spring, Hachette announced it was canceling Mia Ballard’s novel “Shy Girl” in the U.S. over similar allegations.

All this — uncertain authorship, neutered prose, the disintegration of trust about who’s written what — has profound consequences. But the scandals raise a more unsettling question: What happens when we begin to outsource one of the brain’s most cognitively integrative activities?"

Doctors Thought It Was Asthma. A.I. Flagged a Serious Heart Problem.; The New York Times, June 22, 2026

Gina Kolata , The New York Times; Doctors Thought It Was Asthma. A.I. Flagged a Serious Heart Problem.

"Luckily for Mr. Quiros, that emergency room is part of NewYork-Presbyterian’s medical system. Researchers were analyzing all electrocardiograms done on patients in that medical system with an A.I. program, EchoNext, to see if it could find patterns in the scans indicating damage to the heart — patterns a human would not detect.

It’s part of a clinical trial evaluating the A.I. program, which was developed there by Dr. Pierre Elias, medical director of A.I. and cardiologist at NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and his colleagues. Dr. Elias says EchoNext reads an ECG less than 10 minutes after it is performed, and that they analyze nearly 500,000 ECGs a year. Dr. Elias has started a company, Pathway Labs, to market it...

The hope is not that A.I. will replace doctors, but that it could be a tool to augment their skills and flag overlooked medical issues."

Lost memoir of Hiroshima survivor found after decades in US archive; The Guardian, June 22, 2026

Dalya Alberge, The Guardian; Lost memoir of Hiroshima survivor found after decades in US archive

[Kip Currier: This is another testament to the vital roles and responsibilities of information professionals around the globe who preserve precious archival artifacts, like the late Kiyoshi Tanimoto's Hiroshima 8:15 memoir. The memoir was identified in Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Tanimoto's poignant work gives a first-hand account in the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan in 1945. Penguin Random House will publish this "lost memoir" on August 4, 2026. 

Other recent archival finds include: 

• a draft of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech discovered in papers housed at the Virginia Theological Seminary's Bishop Payne Library, and

• a 44-page notebook in the National Library of France containing "seven previously unknown compositions" for flute and harp by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.]

"The memoir of a man who survived the horrors of Hiroshima is to be published for the first time this summer after its discovery in a US archive.

The 230-page memoir was written almost 80 years ago by Kiyoshi Tanimoto, who witnessed the city’s destruction after the atomic bomb was dropped in 1945. He will now be portrayed in a feature film by Takehiro Hira, whose acclaimed roles include the detective in the Netflix Japanese-British drama Giri/Haji. Pre-production begins in November, ahead of the shoot in February 2027...

The memoir was found in the Beinecke rare book and manuscript library at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut, among the papers of John Hersey, the American Pulitzer prize-winning reporter who died in 1993."

Loophole in Patent Law Brings ‘Miracle Drug’ to Patients Who Can’t Afford It; The New York Times, June 22, 2026

 Stephanie Nolen, The New York Times; Loophole in Patent Law Brings ‘Miracle Drug’ to Patients Who Can’t Afford It

A generic version of a breakthrough cystic fibrosis drug, manufactured in Bangladesh for a fraction of the American price, may give some families around the world an unlikely lifeline. 

"Now a Bangladeshi company has reverse engineered Trikafta and is using a loophole in global patent law to sell its version, called Triko, for a fraction of Vertex’s price.

Last week, the Lotterings joined a small group of other cystic fibrosis patients and their families who traveled to Dhaka to buy the first boxes of Triko that rolled off the production line of Beximco Pharmaceuticals.

Heather Nichols, a spokeswoman for Vertex, said that Trikafta is available in 75 countries — through sales or donations — and that the company provides it free in 15 countries; more than 7,000 people have received it at no charge.

But there are thousands more patients not covered by those programs, who have tried a variety of strategies to get the drug, including taking Vertex to court and petitioning their governments to allow a generic version of the drug to be imported or made locally, under a process known as compulsory licensing."

California Bar Revises AI Ethics Proposals After Public Feedback; Bloomberg Law, June 22, 2026

Quinn Wilson, Bloomberg Law; California Bar Revises AI Ethics Proposals After Public Feedback

"The State Bar of California is revising its proposed artificial intelligence guidelines for lawyers, raising the threshold for confidentiality violations and broadening competence requirements after receiving public comments in May.

The amended proposals were approved by the State Bar’s Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct on June 12 after taking a May 4 public comment session into account, the Bar said in a press statement Monday. 

The amended proposals will be up for another public comment session on Aug. 6."

Congress wants artists to own their aesthetic; Politico, June 17, 2026

 AARON MAK, Politico; Congress wants artists to own their aesthetic

"Artificial intelligence has made it incredibly easy to replicate the work of artists, with users generating images reminiscent of Dungeons & Dragons or Studio Ghibli characters.

Congress is now looking to protect people from having their artwork aped by AI. A bipartisan group of lawmakers recently introduced the CREATOR Act, which would grant visual artists control over how AI mimics their creative styles.

Existing intellectual property law generally doesn’t provide people with a right to their artistic styles. The CREATOR Act would significantly expand the scope of IP, and raises a number of unsettled questions about what exactly makes an artists’ work distinctive in a legal sense.

“There’s a lot of ambiguity about what we mean when we say ‘style,’” Cornell tech law professor James Grimmelmann told DFD. “Some elements of artistic style are things that are common in a genre … on the other hand, sometimes when we talk about artistic style, we really are referring to characteristics of somebody’s creations that are recognizably by them.”

The CREATOR Act would allow visual artists to sue those who purposefully use AI to profit from their creative styles without permission, as well as AI platforms that knowingly allow such conduct to occur."

Data centers become the face of AI backlash; Axios, June 22, 2026

 Megan Morrone, Axios; Data centers become the face of AI backlash

"Only a small fraction of data center opponents actually live near one, according to new polling by a consulting firm that counsels leading AI labs and tech startups.

Why it matters: The findings by Milltown Partners, shared first with Axios, highlight how data centers have become a stand-in for broader anger at an AI future many Americans don't want but fear they'll have to pay for.

By the numbers: The public is still divided on data centers, with direct opposition not yet a majority view. But nearly half of respondents support a temporary construction ban, according to Milltown's findings."

A Ukrainian family built a community in Cleveland. Now, they face deportation; The Guardian, June 21, 2026

Stephen Starr , The Guardian; A Ukrainian family built a community in Cleveland. Now, they face deportation

"Tamila Vashchuk and her husband, Mykola, are minor celebrities in this corner of Ohio.

The Ukrainian couple have appeared on the cover of local magazines and been invited onto morning television shows. En route to building a successful pierogi food business, they’ve met with the governor. A recent law graduate from Cleveland State University, Mykola is hoping to do his bar exams someday. Most Sundays, they volunteer at the local church.

But now, the family faces an immigration court hearing they believe could see them deported back to Ukraine, where they would struggle to treat their son’s illness and where Russia’s ferocious assault has increased in recent weeks."

Mozart manuscript discovered at French National Library to be performed for the first time; Le Monde, June 19, 2026

 Marie-Aude Roux, Le Monde; Mozart manuscript discovered at French National Library to be performed for the first time

The music notebook, found in the archives, dates from the composer's final stay in Paris, in 1778. The seven short pieces for flute and harp it contains will be broadcast for the first time ever on June 22 on France Musique radio.

"The seven short pieces for flute and harp are part of an autograph manuscript by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, recently rediscovered in the music department of the French National Library (BNF). This is a major discovery, as the genius of the Austrian composer continues to shine at the heart of European culture."

Secret Vetting and Blocked Promotions: Inside Hegseth’s War on Diversity; The New York Times, June 19, 2026

Greg Jaffe and Kate Kelly, The New York Times ; Secret Vetting and Blocked Promotions: Inside Hegseth’s War on Diversity

A Black admiral fixed one of the Navy’s worst messes. Mr. Hegseth blocked his promotion anyway.

"In books and speeches, Mr. Hegseth has maintained that the Pentagon’s push over the past decade to build a more diverse force had elevated women and minority officers to senior jobs that they had not earned.

“When I think about my career in uniform, in almost every instance where there has been poor leadership or people in positions they’re not qualified for, it was based on either the reality or the perception of a ‘diversity hire,’” Mr. Hegseth, a former major in the Army National Guard, wrote in his 2024 book “The War on Warriors.”

As defense secretary, he has promised to install a new promotion system that will be “ruthlessly meritocratic” and “focused squarely” on “warfighting ability.”

In practice, though, his approach has made it harder for Black and female officers to get promoted to senior ranks, even when their records are exemplary."

Intellectual property supports the U.S. economy. It should be respected abroad.; The Washington Post, June 18, 2026

  

David Kappos

 and 

Jeffrey Gerrish

, The Washington Post; Intellectual property supports the U.S. economy. It should be respected abroad.

"Many countries proudly tout close economic ties to the United States — but when it comes to protecting the intellectual property rights that help make the American economy strong, those trading partners often prove unreliable. 

That failure comes at a steep cost. Intellectual-property-intensive industries support more than 62 million U.S. jobs and 41 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, according to a 2019 report from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. When other countries ignore — or actively attack — IP protections and allow their domestic companies to illicitly profit off American innovation, it hurts U.S. companies, workers and investors."

Millions of Copyrighted Songs Were Fed to AI Music Generators – Now There’s Proof; Gadget Review, June 16, 2026

 Al Landes , Gadget Review; Millions of Copyrighted Songs Were Fed to AI Music Generators – Now There’s Proof

Atlantic databases name 21 million tracks fed to Suno and rivals as Sony, UMG, and Warner seek $150,000 per song in damages

"Searchable databases verify roughly 21 million copyrighted songs trained AI music generators.

Sony, UMG, and Warner lawsuits seek up to $150,000 per song from Suno and Udio.

HarmonyCloak tool lets artists protect songs by adding inaudible AI-blocking audio perturbations.

Millions of copyrighted songs — including chart-topping hits — verifiably trained AI music generators, and now there are searchable databases to prove it. The Atlantic, through an investigation by staff writer Alex Reisner, published four catalogs documenting exactly which music fed these models:"

A bonanza for fans of the natural world: the digital library sharing 64m pages of scientific knowledge with everyone; The Guardian, June 18, 2026

 Donna Ferguson, The Guardian; A bonanza for fans of the natural world: the digital library sharing 64m pages of scientific knowledge with everyone

"Over the past 20 years, more than 64m pages have been made freely available through the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) – a digital treasure trove for fans of the natural world. More than 680 museums, universities, libraries and scientific institutions from China, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand to Europe, Africa, Mexico, Canada and the US, have contributed to the library.

This week, a report from Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG), Kew revealed the crucial role digitisation is playing in “transforming our ability to understand and respond to the climate and biodiversity crises”, but it was the creation of the BHL 20 years ago that first demonstrated how bringing centuries of scientific knowledge online can unlock transformative discoveries and insights about the natural world.

David Iggulden, who chairs the BHL executive committee alongside his job as head of data and digital, library and archives at RBG Kew, describes the library as an invaluable and “absolutely essential” resource for scientists in the field. But it is also used by scientific researchers, environmental historians, educators, art historians, artists, citizen scientists and members of the public who – like Iggulden – simply enjoy browsing its contents on a rainy weekend.

“I just get caught up in it sometimes, looking at the various collections,” he says. “I think it’s amazing that we can explore such a vast array of different collections from very different institutions.”

As well as published biodiversity literature and journals, there are letters, illustrations, climate records, field diaries, ecosystem profiles, distribution records and manuscripts containing the original collecting stories of a particular species or detailing voyages of discovery."

AI helped diagnose 18 children whose rare diseases had stumped doctors; NBC News, June 18, 2026

 Hallie Jackson, NBC News; AI helped diagnose 18 children whose rare diseases had stumped doctors

"New research from Boston Children's Hospital’s center for rare diseases and the AI company OpenAI reveals that off-the-shelf AI tools can help identify which errors in patients’ genomes might be causing the children’s diseases. NBC News' Jared Perlo discusses the findings of the research."

CBS SIGNS DEAL TO AVOID LEGAL TROUBLE FROM STEPHEN COLBERT PLAYING COPYRIGHTED ‘PEANUTS’ SONG; Billboard, June 16, 2026

 Bill Donahue, Billboard ; CBS SIGNS DEAL TO AVOID LEGAL TROUBLE FROM STEPHEN COLBERT PLAYING COPYRIGHTED ‘PEANUTS’ SONG

"A month after Stephen Colbert played copyrighted Peanuts music during the final taping of The Late Show in a joking effort to get CBS sued, the TV network has signed a licensing deal to avoid any legal issues from the incident.

Lee Mendelson Film Productions — the owner of the music to the Charlie Brown franchise that just launched a legal blitz over its rights — said Tuesday (June 16) it had reached a resolution with CBS over the episode, in which Colbert deadpanned: “I hope this doesn’t cost CBS any money!”

The agreement will see CBS take a license for “Linus and Lucy,” the unofficial Peanuts theme that Colbert’s band played on the air during the show. The proceeds from the deal will be donated to the charity World Central Kitchen, run by Chef José Andrés."

How Amanda Askell is teaching Claude to make ethical decisions; Fast Company, June 18, 2026

REBECCA HEILWEIL , Fast Company; How Amanda Askell is teaching Claude to make ethical decisions

"As AI models move into a more agentic era, shifting from chat to completing tasks, they’ll be making real and increasingly consequential decisions.

Whether they bring any sense of morality to those decisions is the kind of problem Amanda Askell is exploring. A philosophy PhD from New York University, Askell spent two years at OpenAI before joining Anthropic in 2021, where she sits at the center of the company’s effort to instill in Claude an instinct for ethics—a responsibility that grows as the system’s capabilities expand...

Today, Anthropic communicates those values through a written and evolving constitution—an effort led by Askell and formulated as instructions to Claude—that outlines principles such as safety and helpfulness, along with guidance for resolving conflicts between them."

Randy Maniloff

, Wall Street Journal; I Have a Dream—and a Copyright

Clarence Jones had the presence of mind to protect Martin Luther King’s speech.

"Clarence Jones, lawyer and speechwriter for Martin Luther King Jr., died last month at 95. King’s confidante is credited with helping the civil-rights leader draft the famous 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech."

Ethics and philosophy of A.I. with Dr. Alessandra Buccella; WAMC, Northeast Public Radio, June 17, 2026

WAMC, Northeast Public Radio; Ethics and philosophy of A.I. with Dr. Alessandra Buccella

"There have been many discussions about the technical underpinnings of Artificial Intelligence. Today we talk about the ethics and philosophy of AI with Dr. Alessandra Buccella, Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University at Albany. Ray Graf hosts. 

Dr. Buccella's main areas of expertise are the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of artificial intelligence.  Her current research develops along two main 'tracks'. The first track focuses on the ethical and social implications of AI technologies: how extensive use of AI impacts humans' ability to develop the critical thinking skills and emotional resilience needed to live a good life, and how the mere availability of powerful AI technologies affect people's conception of moral, social, and political responsibility. 

The second track is centered on the relationship between advanced AI systems like Large Language Models and the human brain: one of her ongoing research projects investigates whether we can really figure out how these machines 'think' and whether looking at the internal functioning of LLMs can provide any meaningful insight into how the human brain works."

Skill games are unlawful, Pennsylvania Supreme Court finds; Pennsylvania Capital-Star, June 15, 2026

 PETER HALL, Pennsylvania Capital-Star; Skill games are unlawful, Pennsylvania Supreme Court finds

"State Attorney General Dave Sunday issued a statement calling the decision a “significant victory for consumers, taxpayers and the rule of law in Pennsylvania.”

“The Supreme Court recognized what our office has argued from the beginning – these machines operate as gambling devices and cannot legally exist without the same oversight, regulation and accountability as other forms of legalized gaming in the Commonwealth. Pennsylvanians deserve protections that ensure games are fair, transparent and operated within the bounds of the law,” Sunday said."

11 Questions: Sarah Lamdan: Meet the director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom; American Libraries, June 16, 2026

American Libraries; 11 Questions: Sarah Lamdan

Meet the director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom

"Earlier this year, Sarah Lamdan was promoted to executive director of the American Library Association’s (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) after joining the Association in 2024 as OIF deputy director.

Prior to joining ALA, Lamdan was a librarian and law professor at City University of New York School of Law, where her research focused on information access, privacy, and other legal issues related to librarianship. She is author of two books, most recently Data Cartels (Stanford University Press, 2022), which looks at privacy and access as they relate to data analytics companies and platforms.

Lamdan answered our 11 Questions to introduce herself to ALA members...

Best career advice you’ve ever received?

The best advice I’ve ever received is to be honest and transparent about what you know and what you don’t know. When you work with a team, everything goes better when nobody’s left in the dark. (I’ll make an exception for surprise parties!) It’s also okay not to know everything. Often, the best response is “I’m not sure, but I can find out.” There are so many things to know, and there’s no way you know them all!

What drew you to librarianship and ALA?

I decided to become a librarian after I started law school. A professor at University of Kansas sent me to the campus archives to transcribe some letters by Susan B. Anthony. The archivists and librarians were so helpful, and the letters were so neat. I wanted to do more work like that. The librarians at my law school took me under their wings as I pursued an MLIS and a law degree. At Emporia (Kans.) State University’s School of Library and Information Management, I was drawn to intellectual freedom topics. Working at ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) was a dream job! I feel so lucky to do this work."

Little Queer Libraries offer banned books across the Pittsburgh region; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 16, 2026

SONO MOTOYAMA, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ; Little Queer Libraries offer banned books across the Pittsburgh region

The Pittsburgh Equality Center has stocked free libraries at community spaces in Pittsburgh and three counties

"Inspired by those colorful outdoor boxes that invite you to take books or small objects for free, the Pittsburgh Equality Center has launched a network of Little Queer Libraries in time for Pride Month.

“I saw all these little free libraries out there in people’s lawns and throughout neighborhoods, and I thought, well, we could put LGBTQ+ literature in those,” said Ray Sidney-Smith, president and board chair of the Pittsburgh Equality Center.

In keeping with the nonprofit’s mission to advocate and support the LGBTQ+ community, it is supplying a selection of adult, young adult and children’s literature in accessible sites around the region. Borrowers can take the books and then return them when they’re done.

Community members can also donate books by placing them inside the libraries or by contacting the center.   

The center has made a point of stocking the boxes with titles on the list of books banned by public schools and libraries compiled by the writers organization PEN America.

“We are saddened that our rights are under attack in a lot of ways, and the LGBTQ+ community deserves the ability to access books [that reflect] all of our identities readily and accessibly,” Sidney-Smith said...

The first five libraries — out of projected 10 — are at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg; Penn Hills Library; Garfield’s Soft Spot Café; SoulLumination, a Canonsburg spiritual and wellness center; and Proud Haven, a North Side organization serving LGBTQIA+ youth.

Each library holds 10-20 books and the first five were designed and painted by volunteers."

Dr. Philipp Mels, orka: "The biggest battle in the 21st century will be AI versus Copyright"; Leaders League, June 15, 2026

Leaders League; Dr. Philipp Mels, orka: "The biggest battle in the 21st century will be AI versus Copyright"

"Dr. Philipp Mels, Managing Partner at orka, comments on the use of AI in the context of intellectual property rights, trade secrets, and data protection.

LEADERS LEAGUE: In addition to the AI Act, which areas of law require particular attention when developing, operating, and using AI?

Philipp Mels: In addition to the AI Act, the most important areas of law regarding the use of AI are clearly intellectual property rights, trade secret protection, and data protection...

Why is the use of trade secrets in AI systems so legally risky?

In practice, the most relevant risk for companies is not so much the violation of third-party trade secrets, but rather the fact that employees may enter trade secrets into the AI system. This can be seen as evidence that the company, as the owner of the trade secret, has failed to take the necessary and appropriate measures to ensure confidentiality. As a result, the company loses the protection afforded to those trade secrets.

How significant is the conflict between AI providers and operators on the one hand, and creators or copyright holders on the other?

You may be surprised by my choice of words. The biggest battle that providers and operators of AI systems must fight in the 21st century is against copyright holders, who understandably want to take action against the infringement of their copyrights."

Why We Changed Our Code of Ethics to Address Prediction Markets; ProPublica, June 15, 2026

Diego Sorbara, ProPublica; Why We Changed Our Code of Ethics to Address Prediction Markets

In an era when people can bet on news events, we want readers to know we’re not willing to gamble with their trust.

"What would you think of me, the ProPublica editor responsible for newsroom standards, if I placed a bet on the baseball game I’m currently listening to on the radio? Probably that I’m doing something plenty of others do, and that my wallet will be lighter in a few innings.

What would you think of me if I stood to make a tidy sum based on the outcome of a news event ProPublica has been covering? You’d probably think that’s downright shady, because isn’t the job of a journalist to report the news and not make money off it?

Lest you think I’m an ethically compromised editor, you can rest easy. According to a recent update to ProPublica’s code of ethics, “no employee should wager on the outcome of news events on the prediction markets — regardless of whether or not they are involved in coverage of said event.”

ProPublica has always prohibited employees from profiting off inside information, so you may wonder why we amended our code of ethics to specifically single out prediction markets. We have not encountered any instances of this happening on our staff, but it has become harder and harder to deny the influence and reach of prediction markets beyond sports. In fact, deals between prediction markets and news organizations abound, such as Kalshi with CNN, Fox News and The Associated Press, and Polymarket with Dow Jones. 

But there have also been worrying examples of these markets at play."

Publishers Sue WeLib for Copyright Infringement; Publishers Weekly, June 16, 2026

  Jim Milliot , Publishers Weekly; Publishers Sue WeLib for Copyright Infringement

"Fresh off of last month’s victory against pirate web site Anna’s Archive, 13 publishers across all segments of the industry have allied to sue yet another pirate site, WeLib, for copyright infringement.

The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, charges that the operators of WeLib “ copied the source code and most of the contents of” Anna's Archive."

The plaintiffs include the Big Five, Cengage, Elsevier, McGraw Hill, Pearson, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley.

“Defendants boast that they have reproduced ‘an endless collection of literature, research papers, and education materials,’ none of which they own or have licensed,” the complaint alleges. 

According to its website and repeated in the lawsuit, WeLib hosts over 43 million books and 98 million papers, and its stolen collection of literary works has purportedly attracted over 80,000 active monthly users. According to the website, WeLib’s users have illegally accessed over 51 million books in the last month alone, or an average of over 1.7 million books per day."

What does AI reveal about creation and vocation?; The Christian Century, June 10, 2026

Uriah Kim , The Christian Century; What does AI reveal about creation and vocation?

"How are new technologies shaping human identity, responsibility, and the common good? Increasingly, such questions are being raised by religious leaders and theologians, most notably by Pope Leo in Magnifica humanitas, his recent encyclical on artificial intelligence and human dignity. Secular critics as well have rightly described this moment as shaped by a form of digital empire.

In this context, artificial intelligence has emerged as a new arena in which long-standing patterns of power and extraction are reasserting themselves. AI systems are developed by powerful institutions, trained on uneven datasets, and deployed in ways that often reinforce existing inequalities. What is being drawn into these systems today is not only labor or natural resources but knowledge itself—including its patterns as to whose stories are preserved, whose perspectives are made to appear objective, and whose ways of knowing are quietly marginalized. This dynamic is not unprecedented. It reflects a familiar imperial pattern now appearing in digital form.

Yet critique alone, however necessary, is no longer sufficient. If religious communities and educational institutions stop at denunciation or rejection of AI, they risk leaving formation to the very systems they distrust. Artificial intelligence will continue to shape how people think, decide, and understand themselves—whether or not we engage it constructively. In reality, AI is already embedded in our everyday infrastructure: search engines, recommendation systems, navigation tools, and even familiar digital platforms such as Microsoft 365 and Zoom, which have quietly integrated AI assistants and other automated features into tools millions of people use every day. Avoiding a particular chatbot does not place us outside this ecosystem; it simply obscures the extent to which intelligent systems are already influencing how we gather information, weigh evidence, and form judgments.

The question, then, is not whether AI should be resisted or embraced, but whether communities of faith will assume responsibility for how human judgment, spirituality, moral imagination, and meaning-making are formed in its presence."

6 Reasons Libraries Should Look Beyond the M.L.S.; Inside Higher Ed, June 16, 2026

Bryn Geffert, Inside Higher Ed ; 6 Reasons Libraries Should Look Beyond the M.L.S.

New research bolsters the growing case for alternative credentialing in academic libraries.

"No question is more likely than the following to provoke a donnybrook among academic librarians: Should every or even most librarians possess a master of library and information science (M.L.I.S. or M.L.S.) degree? Pose the question, step back and watch the fireworks.

A recent survey I conducted of every R-1 and R-2 university library in the United States (with responses from the top library official at 167 universities) identified tremendous dissatisfaction with the profession’s traditional treatment of this degree as the sole or even best credential for academic librarians. A significant and especially vociferous minority of administrators (31 percent) still insist that the M.L.S. serve as a mandatory, bedrock qualification for practitioners, asserting that those without said degree should never hold the title “librarian.” But a strong majority are now willing to consider alternative credentials.

I side with that burgeoning majority. In light of developments over the last few decades, those who contend we should treat the degree as optional rather than mandatory have the stronger case. Herewith, I present six observations in favor of recognizing alternative credentials for those the academy hires as librarians."

Build an angel, not a demigod; The Washington Post, June 16, 2026

Bill Drexel, The Washington Post ; Build an angel, not a demigod

Religious commitment is good at shaping behavior. That should interest AI labs.

"Recent attention from religious authorities toward AI, such as Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical, is a welcome development for the trajectory of this technology. But the more necessary step is for the engineers to return the favor — to be more honest about the religious shape of their own anxieties, not least to themselves, and the advantages that religious inspiration might provide to address their fears.

Were they more open to it, these labs might even recognize that theology offers them a better goal: developing an angel, superior to humans in intelligence and power but sent to serve them. Instead of raising a demigod, might they not try to engineer a Gabriel?"