When we tell kids that they have to be careful what they share on FaceBook, that it can affect them in the future, it seems that even we don’t realize all the possible implications.
Archive of posts filed under the Law category.
“Truck nuts swing onto US freedom of speech agenda”
Um… this is a matter of excessive authoritarian zeal, personal opinion, or dollar signs (imagine all the people driving through their town that they could ticket for having these). Whichever it is, these people should be publicly slapped down for abusing the law. Leaving aside the obvious First Amendment issue, consider this: if testicles are [...]
“Move to Amend: coalition to abolish corporate personhood”
I try to keep this blog away from politics, but for issues of sufficient magnitude and importance, I have to bend that rule on occasion. If you’re American (and maybe even if you’re not), you’ve probably heard by now about the Supreme Court case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which ruled that money was [...]
“Reducing Bribery by Legalizing the Giving of Bribes”
Legalize the giving, but not the receiving, of bribes, giving the briber every incentive to report the bribee — including getting his bribe money back. I have to admire the guy who came up with this. The only reason to criminalize the giving of a bribe is moralistic outrage, a system like this would be [...]
“Disclaimers in Email Signatures are Not Just Annoying, But Legally Meaningless”
I recently saw this, and having seen several of these disclaimers in the last decade or so, thought it would make a good blog topic. When I first started communicating with BigCo, they had a policy that required an eleven-line legal disclaimer at the end of all e-mails. I know bits are cheap, but these [...]
“Stiglitz: wealth concentration will be America’s downfall”
There’s a growing movement to “do something” about the massive inequality of wealth in the US, but no one seems to know what to do, or even what can be done. The obscenely wealthy essentially control the politicians (if you don’t believe me, just look at the rhetoric of “tax cuts for the wealthy!” that [...]
“Email protected by Fourth Amendment, says appeals court”
You know, when I see things like this, I have to ask where these guys were when e-mail was the sole domain of us geeks. Does anyone else remember Operation Sundevil? Or the raid against Steve Jackson Games (makers of one of my favorite games in my late teens, Car Wars) around the same time? [...]
“Silencing Wikileaks is silencing the press”
I’m sure some of you have been following the Wikileaks news recently… how the founder and spokesperson for the organization, Julian Assange, has been arrested in England, over an accusation in Switzerland. There are reports, which I haven’t been able to confirm, that the US is trying to criminalize Wikileaks retroactively and get him extradited, [...]
“New Orleans Scrapping Surveillance Cameras”
I’ve been against wide-spread spy cameras on privacy principles, ever since I heard about plans for them a few years ago. Now it seems that my concerns are unfounded… there’s no incentive to install them in any new cities, and the existing ones will probably scrap them soon, as they discover the same thing.
“How to record the cops”
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? This isn’t a perfect society, by a long shot, so those who have authority must be held accountable for exercising that authority responsibly. And the best way to do that is to give everyone — especially their superiors and the courts — the ability to see their behavior first-hand. If they [...]