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Adi Robertson

Adi Robertson

Senior Editor, Tech & Policy

Senior Editor, Tech & Policy

    More From Adi Robertson

    Adi Robertson
    Adi Robertson
    “This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.”

    So Vice has some excellent backstory on a viral tweet showing a real, published book that warns you not to share it with your friends. But please, for now, just look with me upon the legally unenforceable travesty that is the warning:

    “This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it wasn’t purchased for your use only, then please return to your favourite book retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.”

    First sale doctrine? Never heard of it.

    Adi Robertson
    Adi Robertson
    Today, the Supreme Court considers poop jokes.

    Weighing intellectual property against free speech is a delicate balancing act, and today’s Supreme Court argument — involving a trademark infringement case called Jack Daniel’s v. VIP Products — is serious business. It’s also about a dog toy shaped like a whiskey bottle full of feces.

    “Jack Daniel’s loves dogs and appreciates a good joke as much as anyone. But Jack Daniel’s likes its customers even more, and doesn’t want them confused or associating its fine whiskey with dog poop.”

    While you’re at it, check out the supporting brief from internet art outfit MSCHF, asking each Supreme Court justice to complete a connect-the-dots puzzle. It’s a weird case all around.

    Adi Robertson
    Adi Robertson
    The FTC is apparently closing in on Amazon.

    We already knew the FTC was investigating Amazon, but Politico has laid out just how wide-ranging (and potentially close to fruition) the agency’s efforts are. There’s also some info on a case it didn’t bring: an attempt to block Amazon from acquiring One Medical earlier this year.

    The FTC extensively investigated the One Medical deal and found evidence of anticompetitive behavior that many at the agency considered damning, but ultimately cleared the deal because they saw it as too hard of a case to win, according to multiple people with knowledge of the agency’s thinking.

    As Politico points out, we’re nearing the end of President Joe Biden’s first term, however — so if the FTC is going to take action, it may need to happen soon.

    Pornhub is under new ownershipPornhub is under new ownership
    Adi Robertson and Sean Hollister
    Adi Robertson
    Adi Robertson
    “There are more Discords than you realize, and more lore pouring into them than anyone can truly comprehend.”

    Discord is an information apocalypse waiting to happen — its servers host huge amounts of obscure expert knowledge with very few ways to preserve it if they shut down. I’ll let digital archivist Jason Scott explain why that’s so alarming.

    I have no disputes as the popularity of the places, the things that happen there, and the unquestioned vivaciousness of being the party that never seems to end and everyone wants to join. I just happen to be the sort of person who notices there’s no decent fire exits and most of the structure is wood and there’s an… awful lot of pyrotechnics being set off.

    Discord, or the Death of Lore

    [ASCII by Jason Scott]

    Adi Robertson
    Adi Robertson
    “It is not an ‘I read it on the internet so don’t blame me!’ statute.”

    We’ve written about the dicey legal situation around AI-generated text and images. Now, Public Knowledge’s John Bergmayer makes a thoughtful (if, given how new these tools are, I think still debatable) argument against granting Section 230 liability protections to bots like Microsoft’s new Bing:

    Content that a service helps develop “in whole or in part” is outside Section 230’s scope.

    Section 230 also does not allow services to use uprooted facts or data and then escape liability by saying the data came from somewhere else. It is not an “I read it on the internet so don’t blame me!” statute.