Everything is freeware

I think that with respect to content that’s already on the open web, the social contract of that content since the ‘90s has been that it is fair use. Anyone can copy it, recreate with it, reproduce with it. That has been “freeware,” if you like, that’s been the understanding.

Microsoft AI CEO—how many CEOs does Microsoft need?—Mustafa Suleyman sure has an interesting take on the web. I guess all the people sailing the high seas feel vindicated now. I mean, he said it: content that’s already on the open web is fair use if you want to copy it. I’m sure this is exactly what he meant and I’m definitely not misinterpreting what he’s saying. After all, all these companies are trying hard to follow both the literal and also the spirit of the laws so it’s only fair for me to try hard to not misinterpret their views am I right?

I also love that he used the term freeware and not free. Because the wiki definition of Freeware reads:

There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines freeware unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the freeware it offers. For instance, modification, redistribution by third parties, and reverse engineering are permitted by some publishers but prohibited by others.

So not only he spouted a bunch of garbage bullshit but he also used the perfectly wrong term. Hey, maybe he’s just running GPT in the background and he was just hallucinating. Always a possibility.