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 […]
If you work for a living, do you feel coerced into doing your job? According to Senator Mike Lee, if you have anything to do with pornography, and need to earn money in the industry, it must be coercion at play. While the world continues to be fooled by the Kids Online Safety Act’s false […]
Look, we all like to point out that when dealing in content moderation, mistakes are inevitable. But, I always find it amusing when people insist that mistakes must have been for nefarious purposes. Over the last few years, people, including ExTwitter owner Elon Musk, have insisted that stories like Twitter’s decision to restrict the sharing […]
The EU’s “right to be forgotten” was always a mess in theory. In practice, it’s even worse. This extension of EU data privacy laws gives people the power to delist and/or remove content published by others about themselves. Anyone could immediately see how this would be abused. People wishing to remove unflattering content would send […]
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Sometimes my “I have not participated in any conspiracy to or complicity in murder” t-shirt raises a lot of questions already answered by my shirt. Remember Rajat Khare? He’s the guy associated with Appin Technologies in India, and there’s a pattern of stories mentioning his name suddenly disappearing (or his name disappearing from them) after […]
There are two major reasons that the U.S. doesn’t pass an internet-era privacy law or regulate data brokers despite a parade of dangerous scandals. One, lobbied by a vast web of interconnected industries with unlimited budgets, Congress is too corrupt to do its job. Two, the U.S. government is disincentivized to do anything because it […]
There’s a post on the Creative Commons blog with some important news about copyright (in the UK, at least): In November 2023, the Court of Appeal in THJ v Sheridan offered an important clarification of the originality requirement under UK copyright law, which clears a path for open culture to flourish in the UK. In setting the copyright originality […]
Of all the ways in which Congress chooses to spend its time and focus its priorities, legislation introducing a solution in search of a problem is surely one of the most frustrating. With that in mind, two United States Congress critters have introduced House Resolution 7228, which aims chiefly to confer concrete copyright protection to […]
We’ve been talking a lot about how as streaming subscription growth slows, streaming companies will begin doing whatever’s necessary to deliver Wall Street quarterly growth at any cost. Even if it cannibalizes longer term company health, customer satisfaction, and brand quality. Just like the cable giants they disrupted, that generally means lots of prices hikes, […]
Every time we think it can’t possibly get dumber, it does. Last month, we wrote about the absolute nonsense in which New York City mayor Eric Adams declared social media a public health hazard, akin to toxic waste. As we noted at the time, this was in the midst of a variety of scandals of […]
The DMCA process remains as easily abused as ever, even as companies like Google (and, especially, Automattic) do what they can to head off this abuse. It’s a numbers game. When you’re the size of Google, it’s impossible to vet every takedown demand. The easiest thing to do is comply immediately and, if need be, […]
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Something strange is happening in the legal academy, and we’re worried about it. On January 23, 2024, the progressive policy organization American Economic Liberties Project filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court case NetChoice v. Paxton, in support of a Texas law prohibiting social media companies from moderating – “censoring” in the words of […]
Last December, the Biden FCC proposed a basic plan to ban some of the shitty fees cable and broadband companies use to falsely advertise a lower price and jack up the cost of service. Despite the fact your cable TV and broadband bills are packed with bullshit fees, the FCC was only taking specific aim […]