It’s been one of those weeks where it feels like we’re being buried under a mass of breaking news updates, hot takes, and general opinion pieces about…well, pretty much everything. I haven’t been able to sift through all of that, but I do have some updates on major news stories affecting libraries, specifically copyright lawsuits, IMLS updates, and a series of swatting calls targeting university libraries. Let’s jump in.

AI and Copyright Lawsuits

AI company Anthropic agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle its copyright lawsuit, specifically that it illegally downloaded copyrighted works from pirate databases. (The judge in the case ruled that Anthropic’s overall LLM training on authors’ works was fair use, but I’ll save my thoughts on that for another time.) The settlement represents the “largest publicly reported payout in the history of US copyright litigation” and sets a significant precedent requiring AI companies to pay copyright owners. However, the judge has postponed approval of the proposed settlement, saying that there are a number of legal questions remaining about how the settlement will be paid out. And while we wait for this case to be completed, Apple may be next on the copyright lawsuit timeline.

Universities Targeted By Swatters

At the beginning of the school year, colleges and universities faced an alarming increase in active shooter swatting calls, which are intended to trigger a large police response and are incalculably cruel and dangerous. At least 19 colleges received false reports of active shooters on campus since August 19th, and many of the reports said that the shooting was happening in the campus library. The Center for Internet Security says that it’s very likely that members of an online swatting group called “Purgatory” are behind the hoaxes.

IMLS Updates

Some cautiously good news regarding The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS): the First Circuit Court “denied the Trump administration a stay pending their appeal of the District Court’s preliminary injunction.” In layman’s terms, this means that the First Circuit Court told Trump, “Hey, I know you’re waiting on an appeal decision in a lower court, but you still can’t keep trying to dismantle IMLS while you wait.” This is what we’ve been hoping for, but as Kelly Jensen points out, “When the Trump administration has not found favor in either the District or Circuit Court, they’ve appealed to the Supreme Court. There, the administration has been offered those stays pending appeal.” But for now, we’re calling this a win.

In other IMLS news, the proposed $291,800,000 IMLS budget has passed through the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. This is far from a finalized budget, but the fact that it’s cleared both of the Appropriations Committees is a significant legislative hurdle.