What Conte established at SXSW is not a moral case but a structural one: the selective deal-making between AI labs and major publishers collapses fair use as a universal defense. A doctrine invoked to avoid compensation becomes incoherent the moment the invoking party begins paying for the same category of content — just from counterparties powerful enough to demand it. Conte, who opened his SXSW remarks by noting he runs a tech company and cannot be anti-AI , is not making an outsider argument. He is making a consistency argument,…