Sen. Edward Markey has raised concerns that police and law enforcement agencies have access to controversial facial recognition app Clearview AI in cities where people are protesting the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died two weeks ago while in the custody of Minneapolis police. CNET reports: Markey, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts and a member of the…
Tag: First Amendment
Joe Biden Doesn’t Like Trump’s Twitter Order, But Still Wants To Revoke Section 230
Former Vice President Joe Biden still wants to repeal the pivotal internet law that provides social media companies like Facebook and Twitter with broad legal immunity over content posted by their users, a campaign spokesperson told The Verge. Still, the campaign emphasized key disagreements with the executive order signed by the president earlier this week. From a report: Earlier this year,…
‘King of Donkey Kong’ Billy Mitchell Continues Defamation Suit Over Cheating Accusations
destinyland shares an update about Billy Mitchell, the intense dark-haired videogame champion in the 2007 documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. Last year the videogame record-keepers at Twin Galaxies revoked Billy Mitchell’s entire lifetime’s worth of videogame high scores after an online discussion argued videotapes of three of Mitchell’s performances suggested they’d been achieved using a MAME emulator….
Court Upholds Public Right of Access To Court Documents
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation: A core part of EFF’s mission is transparency and access to information, because we know that in a nation bound by the rule of law, the public must have the ability to know the law and how it is being applied. That’s why the default rule is that the public…
‘Video Vigilante’ Arrested After Filming a Hospital’s Emergency Ramp
The Boston Herald writes that a “video vigilante faces numerous charges after being arrested outside Massachusetts General Hospital where police say he was recording the emergency ramp at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.” schwit1 shares their report: John L. McCullough, 41, was charged with trespassing, disturbing the peace and threats to do bodily harm after police say he refused to…
‘Call of Duty’ Wins First Amendment Victory Over Use of Humvees
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Hollywood Reporter: Call of Duty maker Activision has prevailed in a closely watched trademark dispute brought by AM General, the government contractor for Humvees. On Tuesday, a New York federal judge responded favorably to Activision’s argument that it had a First Amendment right to depict contemporary warfare in its game by featuring Humvees….
Judge Rejects Tulsi Gabbard’s ‘Free Speech’ Lawsuit Against Google
Last July, Hawaii representative and long-shot presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard sued Google for infringing on her free speech when it briefly suspended her campaign’s advertising account after the first Democratic debate in June. On Wednesday, California’s Central District Court rejected the suit outright. TechCrunch reports: Gabbard’s campaign, Tulsi Now, Inc., asked for $50 million in damages from Google for “serious and…
Oregon Engineer Proved Right About Traffic Lights
“Mats Järlström’s emotions were clearly visible Friday morning. After years of arguing red light traffic cameras are flawed, the official Journal of the Institute of Transportation Engineers said he was right,” reports a local news station in Portland, Oregon:
The ITE sets traffic policy recommendations for the United States — and they said cities should be using his formula. “It is a…
Netflix Loses Bid To Dismiss $25 Million Lawsuit Over ‘Black Mirror: Bandersnatch’
On Tuesday, Netflix lost a bid to escape a lawsuit brought by the trademark owner of “Choose Your Own Adventure” over the 2018 immersive film Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. The series’ original publisher, Chooseco, sued the company early last year for $25 million in damages, as the company says that Netflix’s new movie benefits from association with the Choose Your Own Adventure…
Senator: Mark Zuckerberg Should Face ‘the Possibility of a Prison Term’
In a recent interview with the Willamette Week, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) said that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg should face the possibility of a prison term for Facebook’s privacy violations. Zuckerberg has Mark “repeatedly lied to the American people about privacy,” said Wyden. “I think he ought to be held personally accountable, which is everything from financial fines to — and…