Last month you probably saw the story about how somebody used a (sloppy) deepfake of Joe Biden in a bid to try and trick voters into staying home during the Presidential Primary. It wasn’t particularly well done; nor was it clear it reached all that many people or had much of an actual impact. But it clearly […]
For quite some time now we’ve been pointing out the many harms of age verification technologies, and how they’re a disaster for privacy. In particular, we’ve noted that if you have someone collecting biometric information on people, that data itself becomes a massive risk since it will be targeted. And, remember, a year and a […]
Like most tech, facial recognition AI continues to become cheaper and easier to implement. Is it getting better? Well, that hardly seems to be a primary concern for those deploying it. Adoption of this tech tends to focus on the law enforcement side of things. This is where it seems to perform worse. The tech […]
On Monday, the Supreme Court heard the oral arguments over both Florida and Texas’ social media content moderation laws. Even though the issues were similar, and the parties challenging both laws (NetChoice and CCIA) were the same (and had the same lawyer, Paul Clement, argue both cases), the laws are somewhat different, and so each […]
Back in October, Walled Culture wrote about the grandly named “Piracy Shield”. This is Italy’s new Internet blocking system, which assumes people are guilty until innocent, and gives the copyright industry a disproportionate power to control what is available online, no court orders required. Piracy Shield went live in December, and has just issued its first blocking […]
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Earlier this year, we wrote about outspoken financier Bill Ackman’s threat to sue Business Insider over articles regarding accusations by the publication that Ackman’s wife, Neri Oxman, had plagiarized parts of her dissertation years ago. The timeline and context of what happened here is important because Ackman continues to ignore it. Ackman got upset about […]
As we survey the rubble that once was the U.S. journalism industry, a common refrain involves lamenting that “online journalism just isn’t profitable.” But as the recent collapse of outlets like Sports Illustrated and The Messenger illustrate, the real culprit often isn’t that journalism isn’t profitable, it’s that U.S. media is predominantly run by utterly […]
Copyright is generally understood to be for the benefit of two groups of people: creators and their audience. Given that modern copyright often acts against the interests of the general public – forbidding even the most innocuous sharing of copyright material online – copyright intermediaries such as publishers, recording companies and film studios typically place […]
For semi-obvious reasons, I’ve been following developments at Bluesky closely, given that my Protocols, not Platforms paper was originally part of the reason Jack Dorsey decided to create Bluesky. I have no official association with the organization, though I did help Twitter review some of the early Bluesky proposals and spoke with a few of […]
Law enforcement says laws are the rules that apply to everyone, but especially to people who aren’t in the law enforcement business. We have to follow the laws or face the consequences. But it often appears cops hold themselves to a lower standard. They only have to follow the laws that won’t get in the […]
This morning, as you likely heard, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the NetChoice/CCIA cases regarding Texas’ and Florida’s social media laws. The outcomes of these cases will have a pretty major impact on the future of online speech. While a lot of people have suggested that the states’ arguments are supported by conservatives, […]
We’ve noted for decades how, despite all the political lip service paid toward “bridging the digital divide,” the U.S. doesn’t truly know where broadband is or isn’t available. The FCC’s past broadband maps, which cost $350 million to develop, have long been accused of all but hallucinating competitors, making up available speeds, and excluding a key metric of […]
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There have been plenty of silly lawsuits against tech companies over the last few years, but a new one from Nevada against Meta may be the most crazy — and most dangerous — that we’ve seen so far. While heavily redacted, the basics fit the pattern of all of these lawsuits. Vague claims of harms […]
Sometimes, an advertisement is worth a thousand op-eds. Last week, one of us co-authored an op-ed criticizing an amicus brief filed by the American Economic Liberties Project and several prominent law professors in the pending Supreme Court case NetChoice v. Paxton. AELP’s brief defends the constitutionality of a Texas law prohibiting social media companies from […]
This week, we’ve got a double winner on the insightful side with Toom1275 taking both top spots. In first place, it’s a comment about the news that Sony has once again made purchased digital content disappear: If buying isn’t owning, then pirating isn’t stealing. In second place, it’s a general-purpose comment about Elon Musk: There […]
Five Years Ago This week in 2019, the EU Commission decided to mock the public by insisting all the fears about the copyright directive were myths, even as lots of real people were showing up in real life to protest, and journalists were pointing out the problems with Article 11. Amidst this, we featured a […]
The cop-friendliest circuit in the United States has done it again. Whenever there’s a bit of doubt to be had, it’s the cops benefiting from it when the Fifth Circuit Appeals Court handles the case. Sure, every so often a judge or two might serve up a blistering dissent. And, even more rarely, a Fifth […]
Who knew you could make this much fuss over a “+” sign? Back in 2021, Peloton was sued by a company called World Champ Tech LLC over the former’s Peloton Bike+ name. See, World Champ has a trademark for its biking mobile app called “Bike+” and sued claiming that Peloton’s product constituted trademark infringement. World […]
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