Newsletter Archives

• Looking back, looking forward

  Posted on January 20, 2025 at 02:44 CST by Max Stul Oppenheimer • Comment in the Forums

  LEGAL BRIEF

  

  By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.

  The big tech story of 2024 was, by far, artificial intelligence.

  Although it was often portrayed as sui generis (Latin for “we’ve never seen anything like it, and we need to start thinking from scratch …”), the emergence of artificial intelligence into public use and consciousness highlighted (and added urgency to) old issues, more than it created any new ones.

  The questions — who owns personal information, where does the right to privacy begin and end, what are the limits of copyright’s fair use doctrine, to what extent can free speech be controlled in the interest of other rights (such as privacy or the protection of minors) — are not new, nor even recent.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.03.0, 2025-01-20).

  Legal Brief Adult websites, Artificial Intelligence, Chevron Doctrine, Data Privacy Act, Loper, Net neutrality, Newsletters, Privacy, TikTok

• Forces shaping the future: The courts at work

  Posted on September 23, 2024 at 02:43 CDT by Max Stul Oppenheimer • Comment in the Forums

  LEGAL BRIEF

  

  By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.

  Three social factors shape the path of future development of technology: government rules, litigation, and consumer actions.

  In last month’s Legal Brief, we reviewed how government rules and enforcement actions are being used to attempt to influence how technology will develop.

  This time, we’ll look at how litigation — both private and governmental — is being used in attempts to influence the path of technological development.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.39.0, 2024-09-23).

  Legal Brief AI, ByteDance, Consumers, Copyright, Facebook, Fair Use, GARM, Google, Legal, Litigation, Meta, Newsletters, NFT, TikTok

• Your government at work

  Posted on August 26, 2024 at 02:45 CDT by Max Stul Oppenheimer • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.35 • 2024-08-26

  LEGAL BRIEF

  

  By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.

  While most of the world was distracted by the question of whether anyone in their right mind would voluntarily swim in the Seine, there were major legal developments affecting the tech world.

  In a two-part series, I’ll first summarize what the US federal government has been up to. In the follow-on column, I’ll cover some notable actions taken by state governments and private individuals.

  First, the feds.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.35.0, 2024-08-26).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Legal Brief AI, Antitrust, ByteDance, Credit cards, Deepfakes, Federal Trade Commission, Generative AI, Google, Newsletters, Targeted Pricing, Terms of Service, TikTok

• The best tech secrets of 2022: AirTags, TikTok, Twitter, oh my

  Posted on December 26, 2022 at 02:45 CST by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 19.52 • 2022-12-26

  Look for our BONUS issue on January 2, 2023!

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  Amid my efforts to help you protect yourself against some rather aggressive technologies, I’m glad to report that there’s been at least some progress this year on the worst aspects of our “labor-saving” devices.

  Please note: I’m not claiming that my columns by themselves caused any of the changes I describe below. I just report the problems. We can all celebrate when bad tech is improved, whoever may have developed a particular solution.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.52.0, 2022-12-26).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Public Defender AirTags, Cryptocurrency, Newsletters, NFT, Privacy, Security, Surveillance, TikTok, Twitter

• TikTok steals your files, passwords, and more: FCC official

  Posted on July 11, 2022 at 02:45 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 19.28 • 2022-07-11

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  TikTok, the wildly popular short-video app owned by China’s ByteDance corporation, may be kicked out of Apple’s and Google’s download stores.

  A US official boldly asserts that TikTok is “accessing users’ most sensitive data, including passwords, cryptocurrency wallet addresses, and personal messages.”

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.28.0, 2022-07-11).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Public Defender Federal Communications Commission, Newsletters, Privacy, Public Defender, Security, TikTok

• Microsoft and TikTok – a match made in Clippy heaven

  Posted on August 3, 2020 at 09:29 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  I don’t have any particular words of wisdom to add to the ongoing debacle, except to say that Microsoft is very, very good at killing its acquisitions. Tell me when I can sign up for TikTokTeams.

  Tom Warren at The Verge has an interesting spin on the acquisition:

  The key part of any TikTok deal will be the data and users Microsoft gains access to… Microsoft has all the data it needs on business usage of software, but it hasn’t been successful with pure consumer services in recent years, which has left the company with a gap of insight into consumer behaviors.

  So Tom sees the acquisition as an acquihire-like bid to get even more data. An acquisnoop.

  Wonder if they’ll call it TikTokTelemetry?

  Microsoft News TikTok