Happy Morris Worm Day to those who celebrate

Excited to present my new paper, Generative Cybersecurity, to the faculty of the University of Alabama today. But equally excited to try some conecuh sausage this morning, apparently an Alabama classic.

I'm not conspiratorial, but I can't ignore this circumlocution. The issue isn't whether there's some formal "Epstein list" that lists clients along with their crimes. The issue is whether there is any *evidence* of others who participated in sex trafficking, whether in emails, texts, photos, etc.

Enjoyed presenting the new RIR Governance Document in Prague and answering questions from the governments of China, India, Russia, Switzerland, and the United States #ICANN83

So, does this mean it's no longer an act of domestic terrorism to accidentally scratch a Tesla in the parking lot?

Excited to present an early draft of my paper on Generative Cybersecurity at the Penn Law & Computer Science Roundtable.

Univ. of Tenn. has developed HarmonyCloak, a tool that prevents AI models from reproducing an artist’s unique sound. Here's a nice write-up about the tool, which also features some legal commentary by me. torchbearer.utk.edu/2025/04/pitc...

Judge Wilkinson, a Reagan appointee, says the Trump administration's position on Abrego Garcia amounts to a "path of perfect lawlessness." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

The fertile octogenarian rule has been vindicated www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2025/...

The touchstone of most authoritarian regimes is not the kind of total control that most people feel in their day-to-day lives. It is that the regime is only selectively bound by law, producing constant low-grade anxiety as to whether, how, or against whom power will be exercised.

Beyond betrayal.

We must defend Ukraine not because it is a democracy and not because it is free from all corruption but because the international norm that has kept the world safe and predictable since WWII is that a nation may not invade and plunder another just because it is bigger and stronger.

The correct response to rightwing corruption (if indeed this dropping of charges was corrupt) is not "What about when Biden/Obama/Clinton did ...?" It's "Because I don't wish to make any allowance for corruption, past or future, left or right, I will forcefully condemn it under all circumstances."

The thing about running the federal government like a software startup is that most software startups fail www.wired.com/story/the-us...

“People, especially people who aren’t experts in the subject domain, coming into projects often think ‘this is dumb’ and then find out how hard the thing really is.”

If the pardon of Ross Ulbricht to fulfill a campaign promise and now the potential dropping of charges (or pardoning of) new Trump buddy Eric Adams teach anything, perhaps it's that state prosecutors need to think about bringing parallel state charges where possible. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/29/u...

WSJ Ed board even includes descriptions of the cop-assailants Trump pardoned. www.wsj.com/opinion/dona...

Welp. Apple snuck something dirty in our phones last night. Settings > Apps > (pick an app) > Siri > Learn From this App TOGGLE OFF. You have to go through each app. My garage app, my BANKING APPS, others had that turned on automatically. 😡

To an amazing woman. RIP.

My New Year's resolution

Another banger by Kevin Williamson. "As every bully, boor, and New York City subway maniac knows, one person or a small group of people can dominate and cow a much larger group of people simply by being willing to ignore rules and social conventions." thedispatch.com/newsletter/w...

Following Salt Typhoon's hacking of U.S. telcos, FBI and CISA are advising Americans to use encrypted messaging and calling solutions - though not ruling out their perennial push for lawful intercept. www.forbes.com/sites/zakdof...

The European Commission is accepting feedback on a draft delegated act under the DSA to govern researcher access to platform data. The draft introduces many commendable ideas, but suffers from a limited conception of empirical research, write Lukas Seiling, Ulrike Klinger, and Jakob Ohme.

How is it that Nick Catoggio, who has arguably the keenest political insight (not to mention a superbly compelling writing style), remains so obscure?

New from 404 Media: this is huge. FTC to ban Venntel from selling sensitive location data. Sensitive locations include health facilities (think abortion); places of worship; schools; refugee shelters. Crucial because Venntel sold its data to ICE, CBP etc www.404media.co/ftc-bans-loc...

Setting aside the merits of Joe Biden's decision to pardon Hunter, his actions will likely embolden Trump to be more provocative in his own exercise of the pardon power, including potentially pardoning himself.

This

Strange question asked here. It presupposes CAPTCHA could impose different burdens of proof on humans vs. robots. But the problem is that a test is needed to determine in the first place whether signals originated from a human or a robot. Thus, the burden of proof is on humans and robots alike.

Even if a website can prohibit scraping via ToS, trespass to chattels, copyright, or other doctrine, how would damages be calculated? Looks like X is trying a (new?) tack by specifying liquidated damages in its ToS. (not quite new news but new to me) www.digitalinformationworld.com/2024/10/x-ti...

Interesting that DOJ's proposed remedies would give website operators the ability to opt out of scraping.

Excited to be in Colorado Springs to present on the topic of low-earth orbit satellite internet and state sovereignty at the SPACECOM Academic Engagement Enterprise Fall Symposium

How many superbly talented DOJ employees are bound to leave if the Senate confirms Matt Gaetz as Attorney General, only to create a vacuum that gets filled by more MAGA loyalists?

Seems strange to say we need fed NN rules when we've operated just fine without them for 7 years (+1 WSJ) But just as strange to say that adding fed NN rules now will hamper broadband when state NN laws have effectively created a national NN regime for 6 years (-1 WSJ) www.wsj.com/articles/fed...

What I look like in avatar form, according to readyplayer.me. I don't think I'm that handsome (or young), but who am I to argue with AI?

"A fool can ask more questions in an hour than a wise man can answer in a lifetime" - Eastern proverb

"Any definition of property, to be useful, must reflect the fact that property merges by imperceptible degrees into government, contract, force, and value." - Felix Cohen

You probably think the federal government has grown dramatically in the last 70 years. It hasn't. The number of federal government civilian employees is only slightly higher now than it was in 1955 (and the US population is more than double what it was in 1955, so it's much smaller per capita)

I asked ChatGPT to find cases involving a particular fact pattern related to digital property. The first result, one Brink v. AOL, was particularly on point. Failing to find the case on Lexis, I asked ChatGPT for a citation. It then fessed up that it had invented the case out of whole cloth. Oy.

Sure, I'll try (just about) any new social media platform in its infancy, if for no other reason than to get a good handle during the land-grab phase.