SB 244 passed 38-0, and now it’s heading for the California State Assembly. If it passes there and it’s signed into law, it would expand access to replacement parts and service information. That would put California in the company of Minnesota, Colorado, and New York, all of which have recently signed right to repair rules — although New York’s was significantly compromised.
It’s leaving in place a lower court ruling that said Reddit is immunized by Section 230 for failing to take down nonconsensual pornography, despite attempts invoke the limits placed on 230 by FOSTA-SESTA. The decision comes after the court dodged reconsidering the law in Gonzalez v. Google:
“Today’s denial of review in the Reddit case suggests that their aversion was more than just about the Google case, specifically – and that the court is willing, at least for now, to leave any changes to Section 230 to Congress,” said Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at the University of Texas School of Law.
Welcome to my death machine, interloper.
And writer M.L. Clark has put a lot of my feelings into words:
There’s not much money in writing already, so hype around new technology as a ready replacement for existing labor is exacerbating reminders of how little stability is on offer in creative fields.
But in the process of expressing outrage at people eager to leverage the hype to personal benefit — people rushing to “get theirs” through technology trained on other people’s output — there is a thread of commentary that undermines the very richness of literary tradition we’re ostensibly fighting for in the first place.
[mlclark.substack.com]
The Meta (formerly Facebook) Oversight Board is going to make a call on it:
The increasing use of mind-altering drugs in the United States for purposes that blur the line between medical treatment, self-help, and recreation, makes it particularly difficult to ascertain whether this content should be treated as promoting pharmaceutical drugs, which is generally allowed on the platform, or as endorsing drugs for non-prescribed purposes or in order to achieve a high, which is generally not allowed.
Moderation is hard. If you have a compelling argument on either side, you have until June 8th to submit it to the board.
[oversightboard.com]
That’s what 10 US senators are asking in a letter today. They cite reporting by The Washington Post and other outlets that suggests Google is storing sensitive location data about health care visits, something it promised to quit. Here’s the heart of the request:
Will you commit to consistently deleting sensitive location data that pertains to any type of reproductive care, mental health care, and addiction treatment within 24 hours of a user’s visit, on both the user’s device and Google servers? Will you agree to a third-party audit to verify that such a protocol has been successfully implemented?
Thoughts are swarming my mind like a nest of cyber-rats.
I hadn’t realized just how many game titles were falling until Kevin wrote about it this morning. But there’s actually a very good reason! It’s because they have to maintain equilibrium with all the titles that are rising. Consider: Dead Rising. Rise of the Triad. Monster Hunter Rise. Metal Gear Rising. Ryse: Son of Rome. (Actually, maybe don’t consider that one.) I’m sure I’m forgetting some others. Variations in vertical distance fans rise up!
