A dangerous side of America’s digital divide: Who receives emergency alerts; The Washington Post, December 21, 2022

Brianna Sacks, The Washington Post; A dangerous side of America’s digital divide: Who receives emergency alerts

"While America’s digital divide has been improving, large chunks of the country, especially rural and tribal lands, are still lagging behind in connection, according to research and experts, and that significantly hampers their access to vital, potentially lifesaving information. Without cell towers, urgent emergency alerts can’t get to phones and it is more difficult for residents to warn one another of danger or contact authorities."

Green trademarks and the risk of greenwashing; WIPO Magazine, December 2022

Kathryn Park , WIPO Magazine; Green trademarks and the risk of greenwashing

"Beware the green sheen – the perils of greenwashing

Guidelines promulgated by the Federal Trade Commission in the United States in the Green Guidesand by the European Union in its directive on Unfair Commercial Practices, offer clear guidance on what constitutes misleading information. Under both regimes, using vague terms such as “sustainable,” “green,” “eco,” and the like, are not acceptable if false or misleading. Additionally, claims need to be supported by clear factual evidence and qualified so as not to overstate their benefits. Moreover, the environmental benefit claim must pertain directly to the product as manufactured or used.

While regulators pursue companies that run afoul of consumer protection laws, claims are also pursued by non-governmental entities. Competitors may also sue, as will consumers who are misled, often as part of a consumer class action...

So what constitutes actionable greenwashing? An example is labeling something as compostable, such as a garbage bag that is destined for a landfill where it will not break down.  Claiming that something is recyclable when the infrastructure supports only a fraction of the recycling that would be required to remove the environmental harm ─ think plastic water and soda bottles ─ may also constitute greenwashing. There have been a number of lawsuits in the United States in the past year against Coca-Cola, Blue Triton Brands (which manufactures Poland Spring, Deer Park and other water brands), and others, for making broad sustainability claims despite the fact the vast majority of their bottles end up in landfills and are not recycled. These lawsuits have been filed by various environmental advocacy groups like the Sierra Club."

Sherlock Holmes will finally escape copyright this weekend; The Verge, December 28, 2022

ADI ROBERTSON, The Verge ; Sherlock Holmes will finally escape copyright this weekend

"Watching the copyrights on art expire still feels like a novelty. After all, the US public domain was frozen in time for 20 years, thawing only in 2019. But this weekend’s Public Domain Day will give our cultural commons a few particularly notable new works. As outlined by Duke Law School’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain, the start of 2023 will mark the end of US copyrights on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s final Sherlock Holmes stories — along with the seminal science fiction movie Metropolis, Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, and the first full-length “talkie” film The Jazz Singer."

Vocational awe is always harmful; Information Wants To Be Free, December 22, 2022

Meredith Farkas, Information Wants To Be Free; Vocational awe is always harmful 

"Vocational awe for the individual can feel very very good… until it doesn’t. That sense of purpose is a powerful drug. I came into this profession with a healthy dose of vocational awe after leaving another helping profession, which means I should have known better but didn’t. Vocational awe is more than loving your job or caring about doing a good job. It’s a deep sense of identification with your work where your work becomes a core part of your identity. It’s more than a job; it’s something you were called to do (by God, but like the protestant work ethic, it’s mostly lost its religious connotations). It drives you to go “above and beyond” for your job and you feel good about doing it. For people who have experienced trauma and/or oppression, this deep identification can feel very good when you’re doing well in your work. Each achievement or accolade is another opportunity to feel a sense of self-efficacy, of worthiness. I remember that feeling well. But the flip side is that when things go wrong, you also see that as a referendum on your worth. If your sense of self is wrapped up in your work, having a boss who doesn’t like you, being demoted, being laid off, being mistreated by toxic colleagues, can cause deep wounds to one’s psyche. I’ve written in the past about my own experience with this and how it led to the worst depression of my life. I’ve also heard from so many people who had a similar experience and how it broke them. How they went from happily going above and beyond to questioning their own worthiness. No job is worth that. Crocker and Knight write about this phenomenon and the costs of making one’s self-esteem contingent on performance in one area of one’s life in the article “Contingencies of Self-Worth” (which Jennifer Crocker has written about extensively in other publications as well) and argue that “contingencies of self-worth are both sources of motivation and areas of psychological vulnerability.”

Tying your sense of self to your job can also be problematic when you are unable to devote the same amount of yourself to your work as you used to. Perhaps when you just had a baby. Or your spouse is diagnosed with cancer. Or you develop a disabling chronic illness. People whose sense of self-efficacy is tied tightly to their identity as a good worker struggle much more with the idea that they need to shift their priorities."

‘Do you have no shame?’: Tulsi Gabbard grills congressman-elect George Santos; The Guardian, December 28, 2022

Samira Asma-Sadeque, The Guardian; ‘Do you have no shame?’: Tulsi Gabbard grills congressman-elect George Santos

"Santos, who has also admitted to lying about graduating from Baruch College and working at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, said he was not “a fake” and that “everybody wants to nitpick” at him now.

But Gabbard put Santos on the spot by asking him how he defines “integrity”."

The ethical dilemmas of renaming scientific principles that honour fallen idols; Physics World, December 26, 2022

Robert P Crease, Physics World; The ethical dilemmas of renaming scientific principles that honour fallen idols

"Is removing a name good because it avoids appearing to endorse the inappropriate behaviour of a scientist and encourages others to do a better job themselves? Or is removing a name bad because it makes us complacent by suggesting that we’ve eliminated a problem and don’t need to worry about it anymore, and in allowing us to pretend to ourselves that physics is done only by the morally stainless?

What, in other words, is the ethics of eponymy? Readers with insights should inform me and I’ll write about the topic in a future column."

The Signal App and the Danger of Privacy at All Costs; The New York Times, December 28, 2022

Reid Blackman, The New York Times; The Signal App and the Danger of Privacy at All Costs

"Two weeks ago, the Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey passionately advocated in a blog post the view that neither Twitter nor the government nor any other company should exert control over what participants post. “It’s critical,” he said, “that the people have tools to resist this, and that those tools are ultimately owned by the people.”

Mr. Dorsey is promoting one of the most potent and fashionable notions in Silicon Valley: that a technology free of corporate and government control is in the best interest of society. To that end, he announced he would give $1 million a year to Signal, a text-messaging app...

So I am not convinced we are really getting more freedom and “for the people by the people” by way of our technology overlords. Instead, we have a technologically driven shift of power to ideological individuals and organizations whose lack of appreciation for moral nuance and good governance puts us all at risk."

Elon Musk ‘orders Twitter to remove suicide prevention feature’; Reuters via The Guardian, December 23, 2022

Reuters via The Guardian; Elon Musk ‘orders Twitter to remove suicide prevention feature’

"Twitter has removed a feature in the past few days that promoted suicide prevention hotlines and other safety resources to users looking up certain content, according to two people familiar with the matter, who said it was ordered by new owner Elon Musk.

The removal of the feature, known as #ThereIsHelp, has not been previously reported. It had shown at the top of specific searches contacts for support organisations in many countries related to mental health, HIV, vaccines, child sexual exploitation, Covid19, gender-based violence, natural disasters and freedom of expression.

Its elimination could add to concerns about the wellbeing of vulnerable users on Twitter...

In part due to pressure from consumer safety groups, internet services including Twitter, Google and Facebook have for years tried to direct users to well-known resource providers such as government hotlines when they suspect someone may be in danger."

AI-Created Comic Has Been Deemed Ineligible for Copyright Protection; CBR, December 20, 2022

BRIAN CRONIN, CBR; AI-Created Comic Has Been Deemed Ineligible for Copyright Protection

"The United States Copyright Office (USCO) reversed an earlier decision to grant a copyright to a comic book that was created using "A.I. art," and announced that the copyright protection on the comic book will be revoked, stating that copyrighted works must be created by humans to gain official copyright protection. 

In September, Kris Kashtanova announced that they had received a U.S. copyright on his comic book, Zarya of the Dawn, a comic book inspired by their late grandmother that she created with the text-to-image engine Midjourney. Kashtanova referred to herself as a "prompt engineer" and explained at the time that she went to get the copyright so that she could “make a case that we do own copyright when we make something using AI.”"

Some of Trump’s New NFTs Look Like Photoshops of Google Search Results; PetaPixel, December 16, 2022

 JARON SCHNEIDER, PetaPixel; Some of Trump’s New NFTs Look Like Photoshops of Google Search Results

"After hyping a major announcement, Donald Trump revealed his next major project: NFTs. But reverse image searches of some of the “digital trading cards” revealed them to be edits of clothing easily found in Google search, raising copyright questions...

While these images aren’t what most would consider to be the height of photographic art, they are still photos that are presumably owned by a manufacturer and using images — even e-commerce photos — without permission in this manner brings up copyright questions: it may not be legal, not to mention unethical, to just take photos off web stores, turn them into “art,” and then sell them for $99 each.

Gizmodo says it reached out to the manufacturer of both pieces of clothing to ask if either granted the former U.S. President permission to use their images, but neither immediately responded." 

Age Verification Online: Ethical, Legal, and Technical Considerations; Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University, December 2022

Irina Raicu, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University ; Age Verification Online: Ethical, Legal, and Technical Considerations

"On December 1st, as part of the “IT, Ethics, and Law” lecture series (co-sponsored by MCAE and the High Tech Law Institute), I moderated an online panel; the title of our event was “Determining Users’ Ages Online: Ethical, Legal, and Technical Considerations.” The panelists were Eric Goldman (from Santa Clara University’s School of Law), Jennifer King (from the Stanford University Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence), and Sarah Krehbiel (from SCU’s Computer Science department). You can now watch the recording of that conversation at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPqX2I98eL0"

Teens and Cyberbullying 2022; Pew Research Center, December 15, 2022

EMILY A. VOGELS, Pew Research Center; Teens and Cyberbullying 2022

"Nearly half of U.S. teens have been bullied or harassed online, with physical appearance being seen as a relatively common reason why. Older teen girls are especially likely to report being targeted by online abuse overall and because of their appearance."

Ethics Hotline available to Ohio University employees; Ohio University, Ohio News, December 5, 2022

Ohio University, Ohio News; Ethics Hotline available to Ohio University employees

"The following message was shared with Ohio University faculty and staff on Monday, Dec. 5, 2022

Dear Ohio University employees,

Promoting a responsible and ethical workplace is everyone’s responsibility. For more than 16 years, Ohio University has demonstrated its commitment to this principle by contracting with EthicsPoint® to provide the Ohio University Ethics Hotline. The hotline can be used to report concerns of fraud, waste, abuse, or non-compliance with regulations or University policies—anonymously if so desired. This process is managed by the Office of Audit, Risk, and Compliance, and additional information can be found on the Office’s website(opens in a new window). 

Members of the University community may submit an anonymous report one of two ways: through a toll-free number or through a web-intake process on any computer or mobile device. Reports made to the hotline—via phone or website—are triaged and responded to by anonymous dialogue between the reporter, Audit, Legal Affairs, or the University representative who can most appropriately respond to the concern.

The University encourages employees to report concerns through normal lines of communication, such as to a supervisor or to an office or individual whose responsibility it is to handle such reports. However, when employees are uncomfortable doing so, the hotline offers an alternative for filing concerns anonymously. The University prohibits retaliation against an individual who in good faith reports concerns or provides information about suspected University-related misconduct, whether reported through normal channels or through the hotline. 

If you have concerns about possible fraud, waste, abuse of University assets, or other compliance or regulatory issues, you can file a report from any computer or mobile device on the Ohio University Ethics Hotline(opens in a new window), or by calling EthicsPoint toll-free at (866) 294-9591. 

While investigations are conducted in a highly confidential manner, it should be noted that records generated during an investigation may be subject to disclosure in accordance with applicable laws, including Ohio’s Public Records Act. The University is also required by Ohio law to make the University community aware of an additional fraud hotline maintained by the Ohio Auditor of State. This additional hotline resource is available by calling (866) 372-8364. 

Thank you for doing your part in creating an open and ethical culture here at Ohio University. 

Marion L. Candrea
Chief Audit Executive"

Does the U.S. Supreme Court need an ethics code? Editorial Board Roundtable; Cleveland.com, December 17, 2022

Editorial Board, cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer; Does the U.S. Supreme Court need an ethics code? Editorial Board Roundtable

"So, is a Supreme Court ethics code needed? If so, should Congress impose one? The Editorial Board Roundtable offers its rulings."

PLOS flags nearly 50 papers by controversial French COVID researcher for ethics concerns; Retraction Watch, December 13, 2022

Retraction Watch ; PLOS flags nearly 50 papers by controversial French COVID researcher for ethics concerns

"The publisher PLOS is marking nearly 50 articles by Didier Raoult, the French scientist who became controversial for promoting hydroxychloroquine for treating COVID-19, with expressions of concern while it investigates potential research ethics violations in the work."

Star Wars’ evil Empire can feel a little corny — but then came Andor; December 15, 2022

Sonia Saraiya , Vox; Star Wars’ evil Empire can feel a little corny — but then came Andor

"Most of the heroes of Star Wars films are teenagers; much of the plot is family drama writ large. Andor works in a diametrically opposed way: The characters are weary adults, often forced to face moral dilemmas in the midst of what is otherwise their professional life...

Evil, Andor observes, is hidden inside the hearts of everyday lackeys."

First Global Forum on Ethics of AI held in Prague, one year after the adoption of UNESCO’s global recommendation; UNESCO, To Be Held December 13, 2022

 UNESCO; First Global Forum on Ethics of AI held in Prague, one year after the adoption of UNESCO’s global recommendation

The Global Forum on the Ethics of AI, hosted by the Czech Republic on 13 December 2022 in Prague, is the first international ministerial meeting to take place after the adoption of the global recommendation on the ethics of AI a year ago. The forum will place a spotlight on “ensuring inclusion in the AI world,” and take stock of the implementation of the recommendation so far. The event is held under UNESCO’s patronage.

"Human Rights At Risk

While artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing our lives, its benefits are not being distributed equitably across and within countries. Moreover, the technology continues to be developed in ways that raise risks related to human rights. They may also increase inequalities. While most countries are willing to take steps to minimize the risks associated with AI, many lack the regulatory capacity to do so. UNESCO seeks to bridge this gap by promoting a global and ethical approach to AI and offering guidance on regulatory measures and policies. The Recommendation is the first-ever global normative instrument in this domain, unanimously adopted 193 Member States of UNESCO."

Your selfies are helping AI learn. You did not consent to this.; The Washington Post, December 9, 2022

 Shira Ovide, The Washington Post; Your selfies are helping AI learn. You did not consent to this.

"My colleague Tatum Hunter spent time evaluating Lensa, an app that transforms a handful of selfies you provide into artistic portraits. And people have been using the new chatbot ChatGPT to generate silly poems or professional emails that seem like they were written by a human. These AI technologies could be profoundly helpful but they also come with a bunch of thorny ethical issues.

Tatum reported that Lensa’s portrait wizardly comes from the styles of artists whose work was included in a giant database for coaching image-generating computers. The artists didn’t give their permission to do this, and they aren’t being paid. In other words, your fun portraits are built on work ripped off from artists. ChatGPT learned to mimic humans by analyzing your recipes, social media posts, product reviews and other text from everyone on the internet...

Hany Farid, a computer science professor at the University of California at Berkeley, told me that individuals, government officials, many technology executives, journalists and educators like him are far more attuned than they were a few years ago to the potential positive and negative consequences of emerging technologies like AI. The hard part, he said, is knowing what to do to effectively limit the harms and maximize the benefits."

Popular Photo App Lensa Spurs Debate Over Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in Art; WTTW, December 8, 2022

 Eunice Alpasan, WTTW; Popular Photo App Lensa Spurs Debate Over Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in Art

"For a few dollars, users can submit photos of themselves that the app will use to generate multiple self-portraits in different art styles using artificial intelligence technology.

But the app has also reignited concerns about the ethics regarding the use of artificial intelligence in art.

A.I. algorithms work by going into large datasets of work posted online from various sources to help photo apps like Lensa generate self-portraits for users in different styles, said Jennifer deWinter, dean of Lewis College of Science and Letters at Illinois Tech. 

DeWinter said this presents a copyright issue, but because it’s a computer program generating the images, it makes it hard to trace back who is actually culpable. “It’s a problem of a giant, diffused system of multiple actors,” she said. 

Kennedy Freeman, a student in fine arts at Columbia College and founder of the Black fem art collective HourNine, said seeing these generated portraits spreading on social media made her concerned about how her art and those of other artists are being used without permission to help train A.I. generators."

Intellectual property waiver for COVID vaccines should be expanded to include treatments and tests; The Conversation, November 21, 2022

 Deborah Gleeson, Associate Professor in Public Health, La Trobe University, Dianne Nicol

Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Tasmania, James Scheibner
Lecturer in Law, Flinders University, The Conversation;

 Intellectual property waiver for COVID vaccines should be expanded to include treatments and tests

"Low and middle-income countries have been impacted disproportionately by the pandemic so far, suffering 85% of the estimated 14.9 million excess deaths in 2020 and 2021. 

Globally, progress in reducing extreme poverty was set back three to four years during 2020–21. But low-income countries lost eight to nine years of progress.

Expanding the WTO decision on COVID vaccines to include treatments and tests could be vital to reduce the health burden on poorer countries from COVID and enable them to recover from the pandemic. The Australian government should get behind this initiative and encourage other countries to do the same."

Everyday ethics: In praise of banned books; Reading Eagle, December 7, 2022

JOHN C MORGAN , Reading Eagle ; Everyday ethics: In praise of banned books

Works of literature that make people nervous are often the best ones to read.

"Great literature not only describes life but often shines a light on injustices.  I can’t read Orwell’s “1984” without seeing how the story applies to us today in America, for example.  From “The Catcher in the Rye” I can gain insight into what it feels like to be a young person in a culture that doesn’t acknowledge the particular state of feeling like an outsider.

Absolute freedom can lead to anarchy. Absolute control can lead to tyranny of the few over the many. Think of Russian state television as an example of what happens with complete control, and the new version of Twitter as what happens when little control is exercised. Somewhere in between these two extremes must be a reasoned solution that protects freedom of expression as well as community values that is legally and morally appropriate."

The Supreme Court Needs Real Oversight; The Atlantic, December 5, 2022

Glenn Fine, The Atlantic; The Supreme Court Needs Real Oversight

"A series of recent events at the Supreme Court threatens to undermine trust and confidence in the institution and demonstrates the need for it to have a code of ethics and for better oversight within the judiciary...

First, a code of judicial ethics should apply to Supreme Court justices. The Supreme Court should explicitly state that the Judicial Code of Conduct applies to it, or implement a modified code that does.

Second, the justices should be more transparent about their recusal decisions. They should explain the reasoning for their decisions to recuse, or not to recuse, themselves in significant cases.

Third, the judiciary as a whole should be subject to inspector-general oversight—to investigate alleged misconduct and to promote efficiency throughout the judiciary’s administrative operations, not to second-guess any judicial opinion. An experienced, permanent, internal judiciary inspector general, potentially reporting to the chief justice, could be structured to ensure that the judiciary maintains its institutional independence but employs more effective oversight.

In short, the Court needs to assure the public that it is governed by ethical rules and that each justice is not voluntarily judging his or her own compliance with ethical requirements. Supreme Court justices are not above the law or ethical rules. The Court’s failure to adopt an ethical code and its resistance to oversight risk further decline in public trust and confidence."

Z-Library operators arrested, charged with criminal copyright infringement; The Register, November 18, 2022

Jessica Lyons Hardcastle, The Register ; Z-Library operators arrested, charged with criminal copyright infringement

"Two Russian nationals accused of operating Z-Library – one of the largest online book piracy websites – have been charged with criminal copyright infringement, wire fraud and money laundering.

According to a newly unsealed indictment, 33-year-old Anton Napolsky and 27-year-old Valeriia Ermakova, both of St Petersburg, Russia, operated the site between January 2018 and November 2022, allowing people to freely download pirated books and academic papers.

The duo "did knowingly and willfully infringe a copyright for purposes of commercial advantage and private financial gain" by distributing copyrighted works "having a total retail value of more than $2,500," according to the court documents [PDF].

They were arrested on November 3 in Cordoba, Argentina, at the request of the United States. Around the same time, the Feds also took down Z-Library's network of nearly 250 domains and seized its assets – much to the dismay of students everywhere who used the site to access textbooks and academic journals without paying the hefty price tags charged by academic publishers."

Explainer: The Supreme Court, Fair Use and the Future of Protected Artistic Expression; Jurist, December 1, 2022

  Jaimee Francis | Boston University School of Law, Jurist; Explainer: The Supreme Court, Fair Use and the Future of Protected Artistic Expression

"What’s at stake here?

The decision of the current Supreme Court case can shape the future of what does and does not constitute fair use. Goldsmith claimed that Warhol’s images based upon her copyrighted photographs constituted a derivative work. Thus, Goldsmith argued that the Warhol Foundation infringed her exclusive right to prepare derivative works and is therefore liable to her. The Warhol Foundation, however, argued that Warhol’s images were sufficiently transformative and thus constituted fair use. As such, the Warhol Foundation argued that it did not infringe Goldsmith’s copyright and is therefore not liable for its use of Goldsmith’s work in the Prince illustrations.

By finding in favor of Goldsmith, who owns copyright in the Prince photographs, the applicability of fair use may be limited. In this scenario, future content creators may face increased liability when creating new content based on copyrighted work. Because creativity is often inspired by some underlying work, such a decision may stifle creativity. As the Acuff-Rose case highlights, for example, works like parodies of a copyrighted work would constitute infringement without fair use. On the other hand, by finding in favor of the Warhol Foundation, which used Goldsmith’s copyrighted work in its work, future copyright owners may be denied a remedy when a user has unfairly used their creative work. Because the copyright regime has historically protected a creator’s financial incentive, such a decision may stifle creativity. In either scenario, creativity may be stifled: over-protecting a work may prevent others from using that work in their creative process, while under-protecting a work may prevent creators from entering the market without an assurance of monetary gain. As the Gerald Ford case highlights, for example, some uses may unfairly exploit the initial creator’s work. As the Supreme Court noted in that case, quoting in part an earlier decision, “The challenge of copyright is to strike the ‘difficult balance between the interests of authors and inventors in the control and exploitation of their writings and discoveries on the one hand, and society’s competing interest in the free flow of ideas, information, and commerce on the other hand.'”"

"Fight the Empire!" - Maarva Andor's Speech [Andor Episode 12]; November 23, 2022

 [Spoiler Alert]

"Fight the Empire!" - Maarva Andor's Speech [Andor Episode 12]

"We were sleeping.

I've been sleeping...

The Empire is a disease that thrives in darkness.

It is never more alive than when we sleep."

'Andor' soared — it was about the force, not The Force, of the Star Wars universe; NPR, November 23, 2022

Glen Weldon, NPR; 'Andor' soared — it was about the force, not The Force, of the Star Wars universe

"Force with a lowercase "f"

Karn and his colleagues are dedicated to the cause of fascist oppression (which they're careful to refer to only as "order") with a zeal that isn't remotely macro. It isn't mythic, religious or even passionate. Instead, they're driven by institutional imperatives that scour their souls free of empathy, compassion and understanding, and reward them for ruthlessness, cruelty and — above all — efficiency. 

Who's the showrunner here, Hannah Arendt? Because as we watched season one of Andor play out in a series of mini-arcs across its 12 episodes, we saw the inner workings of the Empire. It's The Banality of Evil: The Series."

May ‘Bad Spaniels’ Mock Jack Daniel’s? The Supreme Court Will Decide.; The New York Times, December 5, 2022

 Adam Liptak, The New York Times; May ‘Bad Spaniels’ Mock Jack Daniel’s? The Supreme Court Will Decide.

"The justices agreed last month to decide the fate of the Bad Spaniels Silly Squeaker dog toy, which looks a lot like a bottle of Jack Daniel’s but with, as an appeals court judge put it, “lighthearted, dog-related alterations.”

The jokes are scatological. The words “Old No. 7 Brand Tennessee Sour Mash Whiskey” on the bottle are replaced on the toy by “the Old No. 2, on your Tennessee carpet.” Where Jack Daniel’s says its product is 40 percent alcohol by volume, Bad Spaniels’s is said to be “43 percent poo.”

A tag attached to the toy says it is “not affiliated with Jack Daniel Distillery.”

Trademark cases generally turn on whether the public is likely to be confused about a product’s source. In the Bad Spaniels case, a unanimous three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, said the First Amendment requires a more demanding test when the challenged product is expressing an idea or point of view."

Journalist Maria Ressa explains 'How to Stand Up to a Dictator'; NPR/Fresh Air, November 30, 2022

NPR/Fresh Air ; Journalist Maria Ressa explains 'How to Stand Up to a Dictator'

"DAVE DAVIES, HOST: 

This is FRESH AIR. I am Dave Davies, in for Terry Gross. Our guest today, Maria Ressa, is an international journalist who's widely celebrated around the world. She was Time magazine's Person of the Year in 2018 and last year won the Nobel Peace Prize along with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov. But in her home country, the Philippines, Ressa faces multiple criminal charges and regulatory actions, which could shut down Rappler, the online news organization she heads, and land her in jail for decades. Rappler drew the anger of President Rodrigo Duterte, known for his violent campaign against alleged drug users, because the news site did stories about corruption and cronyism and exposed a web of online disinformation networks with ties to Duterte.

Before co-founding Rappler in 2011, Ressa spent many years covering Southeast Asia for CNN, breaking important stories about Islamic terrorist networks. Ressa's story isn't just that of a crusading journalist exposing corruption, though it is that; she's also focused on the role of social media networks, who, she says, are weakening democracy by enabling the rise of online disinformation and hate mobs in the service of authoritarian rulers around the world. Her new memoir is "How To Stand Up To A Dictator: The Fight For Our Future."...

DAVIES: To kind of summarize here, it sounds like what you're proposing is that news organizations need to overcome some of their competitive instincts and work together when there is important fact-checking to be done, connect them to other organizations in a way that puts energy and emotion into it and get that out there.

RESSA: Think about it like this. Like, if you don't have integrity of facts, you cannot have integrity of elections. And ultimately, what that means is that these elections will be swayed by information warfare. I mean, you know, it's funny. Americans actually look at the midterms. And they say, well, it wasn't as bad as it could be. Death by a thousand cuts - it's still bad. And if we follow, you know, what - the trend that we're seeing, if nothing significant changes in our information ecosystem, in the way we deliver the news, we will elect more illiberal leaders democratically in 2023, in 2024.

And what they do is they crumble institutions of democracy in their own countries, like you've seen in mine. But they do more than that. They ally together globally. And what they do is, at a certain point, the geopolitical power shift globally will change. Democracy will die. That point is 2024. We must figure out what civic engagement, what we do as citizens today, to reclaim, to make sure democracy survives."

‘Our mission is crucial’: meet the warrior librarians of Ukraine; The Guardian, December 4, 2022

Stephen Marche, The Guardian; ‘Our mission is crucial’: meet the warrior librarians of Ukraine

"The work of the state archivists during the course of the Ukrainian war is simple – to keep what they have out of Russian hands and in existence. “Our mission is crucial because the destruction of archives can be seen as part of cultural genocide,” Khromov says. Russians have destroyed more than 300 state and university libraries since the start of the war. In May, the National Library conducted an online survey on the state of its system. By then, 19 libraries were already completely destroyed, 115 partially destroyed and 124 permanently damaged. The Russians have destroyed libraries in Mariupol, Volnovakha, Chernihiv, Sievierodonetsk, Bucha, Hostomel, Irpin and Borodianka, along with the cities they served. They have destroyed several thousand school libraries at least."

Opinion I’ll say it: I do not think killer robots are a good idea; The Washington Post, December 3, 2022

Alexandra Petri, The Washington Post ; Opinion 

I’ll say it: I do not think killer robots are a good idea

"I am just going to go ahead and say it: I do not think that killer robots are a good idea.

I know that the San Francisco Police Department wants to have killer robots. But I think, sometimes, you do not need to give people what they want. Especially if what they want is killer robots.

I understand that this remark is controversial. But what are columnists for, if not to take these bold stances? So I will say it again: I, for one, think that killer robots are bad. I do not think the robots should kill. I think if you are going to draw a line someplace, killer robots should be on the other side of the line...

Nobody in anything that I have read or seen in real life or fiction sees a killer robot and says, “Ah, good! The killer robot is here, to kill!” And I think there is a reason for that. I would venture that reason is: Killer robots are bad."

Can police use robots to kill? San Francisco voted yes.; The Washington Post, November 30, 2022

 Daniel Wu, The Washington Post; Can police use robots to kill? San Francisco voted yes.

"Adam Bercovici, a law enforcement expert and former Los Angeles Police Department lieutenant, told The Post that while policies for robotic lethal force must be carefully written, they could be useful in rare situations. He referenced an active-shooter scenario like the one Dallas officers encountered.

“If I was in charge, and I had that capability, it wouldn’t be the first on my menu,” he said. “But it would be an option if things were really bad.”

Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, worried that San Francisco could instead end up setting a dangerous precedent.

“In my knowledge, this would be the first city to take this step of passing a law authorizing killer robots,” Cahn told The Post.

Cahn expressed concern that the legislation would lead other departments to push for similar provisions, or even to the development of more weaponized robots. In the aftermath of the school shooting in Uvalde, Tex., the police equipment company Axon announced plans to develop drones equipped with Tasers to incapacitate school shooters but canned the idea after nine members of the company’s artificial-intelligence ethics advisory board resigned in protest."

Calls mount for binding SCOTUS ethics code after anti-abortion crusader alleges Hobby Lobby leak; ABA Journal, November 21, 2022

DEBRA CASSENS WEISS, ABA Journal; Calls mount for binding SCOTUS ethics code after anti-abortion crusader alleges Hobby Lobby leak

"The New York Times and other publications covered the reaction to Schenck’s allegations. Reactions included:

• Fix the Court, a court transparency group, called for passage of the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal and Transparency Act, which would require justices to write and adopt an ethics code; strengthen recusal rules; and adopt disclosure rules for gifts, income and reimbursements. Similarly, Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said in a tweet the justices should “operate under the same ethics rules as every other federal judge.” (Fix the Court, the New York Times)

•Brian Fallon, executive director of Demand Justice, a legal advocacy organization, said the Senate Judiciary Committee should investigate the new leak report. (The Washington Post)

• Louis J. Virelli III, a professor at the Stetson University College of Law, said revelations are creating public concern, and “the cost for the justices will be more transparency.” Requiring the justices to disclose with whom they meet, particularly those with interests in a decision, would be constitutional, he said. (The New York Times)

• Alicia Bannon, director of the judiciary program at the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, criticized “a whole bunch of bad incentives & broken processes that encourage today’s politicized dynamics” in a tweet. “18-year terms for justices + decoupling appointments & vacancies would be a good place to start,” she tweeted. “Finally, this is also an opportunity for leadership from the justices. SCOTUS could adopt a binding code of conduct tomorrow. They could commit to greater transparency, including re: recusal. They could stop appearing w/ politicians and litigants. Legitimacy must be earned.” (The National Law Journal)

• In a blog post, Paul Horwitz, a professor at the University of Alabama School of Law, said the revelations raise questions that include: What is the right balance between isolation and non-isolation for judges and justices? And how many actions described by the New York Times are not only legal but generally treated as the way the system works? (PrawfsBlawg via Original Jurisdiction)"