Mediagazer: A look at LibGen, one of the largest online pirate libraries, with 7.5M+ books and 81M+ research papers, allegedly used by Meta and OpenAI to train AI models (Alex Reisner/The Atlantic)

10:45 AM ET, March 21, 2025

Top News:

Good Good Golf, which has 1.75M+ YouTube subscribers, raised $45M led by Creator Sports Capital, with Peyton Manning's Omaha Productions and 50+ others joining — The startup's YouTube channel has attracted more than 1.75 million subscribers — Retired quarterback Peyton Manning …

Discussion: TVNewsCheck, @goodgood_golf, @goodgood_golf, @h3cz, Jamie Horowitz on LinkedIn, NBCSports.com, @natolisnuggets, Marca, Sports Business Journal, Mirror US, Good Good Golf, Tubefilter, The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline

New York Times:

Sources: former WaPo executive editor Leonard Downie and ex-managing editor Bob Kaiser emailed Jeff Bezos in February, urging him to cut ties with Will Lewis — An emailed message underscores a divide between the chief executive, Will Lewis, and the people who helped build The Post into a force in American journalism.

Discussion: TVNewsCheck, @solomonmissouri.bsky.social, @katie_robertson, @davidfolkenflik, @senderowiczj, @ogmcduck.bsky.social, @williams_paige, @jpodhoretz, @bgrueskin.bsky.social, The Wrap and @benmullin.bsky.social

Katherine Hamilton / Wall Street Journal:

Activist investor David Hoffmann, who owns ~10% of Lee Enterprises after investing in October, proposes acquiring the company; $LEE rose ~18% on March 20 — Hoffmann says conversations between the companies have been ongoing since October; he declined to comment on an offer price

Discussion: TVNewsCheck, Tulsa World, @benmullin, Arizona Daily Star, InsideArbitrage and St. Louis Business Journal

Paris Martineau / The Information:

Source: US Senators Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham plan to introduce a bipartisan bill with wide support that would make Section 230 expire on January 1, 2027 — In June 1995, two young congressmen reached across the aisle to introduce legislation that would become the defining legal protection …

Discussion: @pat_hedger, @parismartineau, @abebrown716 and @paris.nyc, more at Techmeme »

Alex Reisner / The Atlantic:

A look at LibGen, one of the largest online pirate libraries, with 7.5M+ books and 81M+ research papers, allegedly used by Meta and OpenAI to train AI models — Meta pirated millions of books to train its AI. Search through them here. — When employees at meta started developing …

Discussion: The Atlantic, Timnit Gebru on LinkedIn, @bradthor, Music Ally, @ajwestauthor.bsky.social, @annafeatherstone.bsky.social, @kelliehailes.bsky.social, @around.com, @www.johnbleasdale.com, @pattymo.com, Fiona Moore on LinkedIn, @joachim123.bsky.social, @karin.kallmaker.com, @jwilker@wandering.shop, @conordougherty.bsky.social, @ipcopyright.bsky.social, @cigitalgem@sigmoid.social, @rr4idic@mastodon.online, @philnel@mastodon.green, Marcus on AI, Lou In Progress, @chrisbstringer.bsky.social, @ethanz@social.coop, @invicticide@mastodon …, @michael_w_busch …, @dorotheabaur.bsky.social, @garymarcus.bsky.social, @thecommongreen@mastodon.scot, @beep@follow.ethanmarcotte.com, @katienotopoulos.bsky.social, ARTnews, south downs founding father …, Music Technology Policy, Twisted Dreams, Ellipsus and The Daddy Complex, more at Techmeme »

Reuters:

UK's CMA fines Sky, BT, IMG, ITV, and the BBC a combined £4M+ after they admitted “to breaking the law” by “colluding” on pay rates for freelancers — Britain's competition regulator fined four sports broadcast and production companies about 4 million pounds …

Discussion: Advanced Television, Financial Times, The Guardian, BBC, Yahoo Finance, @bectu, Broadcast, GOV.UK, The Standard, Deadline, The Independent, @cmagovuk, CMA and RTÉ

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:

Bard College acquires Lapham's Quarterly at no cost from the American Agora Foundation, which had placed the print publication on hiatus in November 2023 — The beloved magazine started by Lewis Lapham, who died last year, is being acquired by Bard College.

Discussion: @rimaanabtawi.bsky.social, Lapham's Quarterly and @jeffjarvis.bsky.social

Paul Liu / The Keyword:

Google says its test removing European news content for 1% of users in eight EU countries found that there was no change to Search ad revenue due to the removal — Google ran an experiment to understand the value of European news content. The data shows people visited Google …

Discussion: TechCrunch, Benedict Evans on LinkedIn and @jason_kint

Reid Tatoris / The Cloudflare Blog:

Cloudflare announces AI Labyrinth, which uses AI-generated content to confuse and waste the resources of AI Crawlers and bots that ignore “no crawl” directives — Today, we're excited to announce AI Labyrinth, a new mitigation approach that uses AI-generated content to slow down …

Discussion: The Register, more at Techmeme »

Alban Kacher / Reuters:

French media regulator Arcom orders Eutelsat to stop broadcasting Russian channels STS and Channel 5, after finding the channels had ties to a sanctioned entity — French media regulator Arcom has ordered Eutelsat (ETL.PA) to cease broadcasting Russian channels STS and Channel 5 …

Discussion: The Desk and Euractiv

Jordan Teicher / Nieman Lab:

A profile of Jake Fischer, a rising NBA insider who operates independently on Substack rather than working for traditional media giants like ESPN — While insiders typically work for established media companies like ESPN, Jake Fischer operates out of his Brooklyn apartment and publishes scoops behind a paywall on Substack.

Discussion: @scottnover and @sarahscire.com

Variety:

CEO Phil Spencer says Microsoft Gaming is embracing trial and error as the company bets on a different kind of game-to-film adaption with A Minecraft Movie — The film is a bet by Warner Bros., Legendary and Microsoft on a different kind of adaptation — Throw a pickaxe in Hollywood today …

Discussion: USA Today, Kari Perez on LinkedIn, @knoebel.bsky.social, @bondsarahbond.bsky.social, WGB, Tubefilter, CNET, Comic Book, Business Insider, Adweek, TechRadar, Axios, Ad Age and Dexerto

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More News:

Meghnad Bose / Columbia Journalism Review:
How some news outlets are implementing policies to better protect immigrant sources, including helping them understand the implications of talking to the press

Discussion: American Press Institute and Meghnad Bose on LinkedIn

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
An interview with Daily Mail US Editor-in-Chief Katie Davies on rejoining the Mail in September 2024, launching Mail+ in the US and Canada, and more

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Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
As Spotify pushes its new video monetization program, sexually explicit videos have appeared on its top podcast charts, violating the company's terms of use

Discussion: Lefsetz Letter

Brian Steinberg / Variety:
MoffettNathanson: WBD is projected to lose $1.1B in TV advertising in 2026, largely due to the absence of the NBA on its networks for the first time since 1989

Discussion: Awful Announcing and @bristei.bsky.social

David Shepardson / Reuters:
Conservative advocacy groups ask the FCC to end its CBS probe, as “adverse ruling against CBS would constitute regulatory overreach” and set dangerous precedent

Discussion: @seth-stern.bsky.social and TVNewsCheck

Kyle Pfannenstiel / Idaho Capital Sun:
The Idaho House and Senate pass a bill that protects journalists from being compelled to disclose their confidential sources; the bill now heads to the governor

Discussion: KIFI-TV, @freedomofpress, @newswithkait, Salt Lake Tribune, Melissa Davlin on LinkedIn and Fortune

Earlier Picks:

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Disney shareholders overwhelmingly reject a proposal for Disney to cease participation in the Human Rights Campaign's annual LGBTQ Corporate Equality Index

Discussion: Fox Business, The Wrap, Yahoo Finance, C21Media, Reuters, Benzinga, @desert_starr_57, Eric Bloem on LinkedIn, PinkNews, Florida Politics, Fabrice C Houdart on LinkedIn, Quartz, @internethippo.bsky.social, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter and Business Insider

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Bluesky says it is now sending referral traffic through its “go” subdomain to make it easier for publishers to track the traffic coming from the social network

Discussion: @harterhillnetwork.com, @bsky.app, @nickienicole.bsky.social, @bsky.app, @bsky.app, @pqpolitics.bsky.social, @pnwnet.bsky.social, @loudmouthjulia, @bcbsara.bsky.social, @mcuban.bsky.social, @samuel.bsky.team, @biblionik.org, @aaronrosspowell.com, CNET and @emilyliu.me, more at Techmeme »

Hannah Miller / Bloomberg:
Antenna: Apple TV+ gained ~3M subscribers in January, when Severance Season 2 came out, up 8% from December and more than any other streamer except Paramount+

Harrison Smith / Washington Post:
Jeffrey Klein, who co-founded Mother Jones in 1976 and served as its editor-in-chief from 1992 to 1998, died on March 13 at age 77

Discussion: Mother Jones, MediaPost, @davidcorndc, New York Times and @ericalterman.bsky.social

Reuters:
X sues Narendra Modi's government in New Delhi, saying its IT ministry has unlawfully expanded censorship powers to allow the easier removal of online content

From Techmeme:

Joe Rivano Barros / Mission Local:
Waymo says it temporarily suspended its ride-hailing service in San Francisco during a citywide blackout, as downed traffic lights appeared to halt its vehicles

Mitchell Peters / Billboard:
Pirate activist group Anna's Archive says it scraped 86M music files and 256M rows of track metadata from Spotify, and releases them in ~300TB of torrent files

John Sakellariadis / Politico:
Sources: DHS is investigating whether 6 staffers misled CISA's acting director into taking a polygraph that he failed, compounding instability at the agency

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