Let’s embrace the open web: you know it makes sense

The CEO of Microsoft AI, Mustafa Suleyman, has set the cat among the pigeons after he told Andrew Ross Sorkin in an interview at the Aspen Ideas Festival that all content on the web should be considered fair use, unless expressly specified as otherwise.

The media has piled on, reporting the issue with headlines such as “Mustafa Suleyman believes it is perfectly fine to steal content it is on the open web”, or “Have you ever put content on the web? Microsoft says its okay for them to steal it because it’s freeware”. As anybody knows, since its inception, any content on the internet is there to be shared, and the traditional copyright rules dating back to the 17th century’s Statute of Anne no longer apply to the new reality.

Mustafa Suleyman was clear and concise:

“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.”