These days, some of tech’s most important decisions are being made inside courtrooms. Google and Facebook are fending off antitrust accusations, while patent suits determine how much control of their own products they can have. The slow fight over Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act threatens platforms like Twitter and YouTube with untold liability suits for the content they host. Gig economy companies like Uber and Airbnb are fighting for their very existence as their workers push for the protections of full-time employees. In each case, judges and juries are setting the rules about exactly how far tech companies can push the envelope and exactly how much protection everyday people have. This is where we keep track of those legal fights and the broader principles behind them. When you move fast and break things, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise when you end up in court.
Netherlands-based immigration activist Dominick Skinner claims he’s used AI to unmask “at least 20 ICE officials recorded wearing masks during arrests,” telling Politico that the undisclosed AI tech only requires “35 percent or more of the face visible.” Only 40 percent of the AI facial recognition results are accurate, however.
The new law takes effect in 2026 and targets smartphone use during class in elementary and middle schools, adding South Korea to a growing list of countries that have imposed similar restrictions on the tech:
Other countries that impose various levels of restriction on smartphone use at school include France, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands and China.
[The New York Times]
Raphaël Graven, a 46-year-old French influencer known by his streaming handle, Jeanpormanove, died in his sleep during a live broadcast on Kick earlier this week after being “humiliated and mistreated for months” on the platform, according to French technology minister Clara Chappaz. A judicial investigation into his death is underway.
Musk’s ‘antitrust’ tantrum takes on a new target.
‘There are two Teslas,’ attorney Brett Schreiber told us. ‘There’s Tesla in the showroom and then there’s Tesla in the courtroom.’
Politico reports that the courts’ case filing system was accessed. The breach was discovered last month, but its full extent is still unknown — one fear is that hackers may have accessed the identities of confidential informants, while a source told Politico that court dockets may have been tampered with.
[politico.com]
Despite police stats showing violent crime in Washington D.C. is down 26 percent from last year, after dropping by 35 percent compared to the year before, the president has continued to insist that crime in the city is “totally out of control,” in posts and comments to reporters.
The latest comments from Trump and Elon Musk pushing to federalize the city follow a report that DOGE affiliate Edward Coristine and another person were attacked in a carjacking attempt that occurred between 3 and 4AM on August 3rd.
As legal wrangling over generative AI and copyright continues, ElevenLabs has launched its latest AI audio product with Eleven Music. There are many AI music generators out there, but the company claims this one “is cleared for nearly all commercial uses, from film and television to podcasts and social media videos, and from advertisements to gaming.”
However, except for podcasts, most of those uses are banned for most listed service plans.
In the Washington Post, Joseph Menn reports on a 25th anniversary reunion for some of the people behind Napster, as they reflected on how it all played out, and the impact it’s had on tech companies dealing with the threat of regulation.
Lawyer and venture capitalist Hank Barry, Napster’s former CEO, recalled famed music executive Quincy Jones asking him whether a particular Dizzy Gillespie track he had sought for years was available over Napster. Amazed that it was, Jones brokered peace talks with the industry, though they didn’t work out.
Robin AI CEO Richard Robinson on hallucinations, facts versus truth, and how lawyers can use generative AI today.
I appeared on On the Media to discuss our story about the Anime Nazi who allegedly hacks universities. I explain why the identity of the alleged hacker is important, why the Times’ obfuscation of its sources is troubling, and what’s at stake in the Republican war on higher education: upward mobility.
Getting copied is devastating — but not necessarily illegal. Who owns what in an era of unprecedented mass consumption?
My longstanding personal obsession, Rupert Murdoch, is getting sued by Donald Trump for the story The Wall Street Journal ran yesterday about a letter to noted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
I imagine this will get either thrown out entirely or settled — Murdoch often settles — but truth is an absolute defense in a defamation case. The WSJ isn’t Fox News. It’s Murdoch’s crown jewel — one he refused to tamper with, even when it cost him a $125 million investment. A settlement could permanently damage the paper’s reputation. Who ya got?
After The Wall Street Journal’s scoop last night on Epstein’s relationship with Donald Trump, I was inspired to go look at some old stories about the sex criminal’s buddies.
On reread, one thing stuck out to me: how close Epstein was to the pioneers, commercializers, and money men of AI. The WSJ scoop suggests there are still new stories out there; I wonder what’s lurking in the field of artificial intelligence — surely I am not the only person who’d like to learn more.
Some patriotic reflections on this Independence Day.
Turns out copyright law in music is special — and the record labels are bringing out the big guns.
Meta and Anthropic defended AI training as fair use, but with major caveats.
The Danish government is proposing a copyright law amendment to give citizens ownership rights to their body, facial features, and voice, theoretically allowing them to demand companies to remove any AI-generated content that uses their likeness and fight for compensation.
“Human beings can be run through the digital copy machine and be misused for all sorts of purposes, and I’m not willing to accept that,” said Danish culture minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt.
