The Editorial Board, The Wall Street Journal; Copyright Piracy at the Supreme Court" In Cox v. Sony, is an internet provider liable for digital thieves?
Lucy Campbell, The Guardian ; For Trump, there’s Columbus Day and Victory Day, but no World Aids Day
[Kip Currier: Not recognizing December 1st's World AIDS Day is another clear indication of what Trump 2.0 values and prioritizes and what it doesn't.
Ask yourself why Trump wouldn't continue acknowledging this public health and humanitarian effort that began in 1988.
As an interesting side note, Trump's mentor Roy Cohn -- who, as the BBC noted in 2024, taught Trump to "attack, counterattack and never apologise" -- passed away from AIDS in 1986 at the age of 59.
Seeing the examples cited in this Guardian article of topics Trump has commemorated makes the administration's explanation even more unconvincing.]
[Excerpt]
"For the first time since 1988 the US government said it will no longer commemorate World Aids Day, which honors those who have lost their lives to the disease, celebrates efforts to combat the epidemic and raises awareness.
“An awareness day is not a strategy,” a state department spokesperson, Tommy Pigott, told the New York Times.
However, since returning to office Donald Trump has signed multiple proclamations for awareness days – and awareness weeks and awareness months – on topics that are apparently more to his liking. They include:"
Joseph Gedeon, The Guardian ; ‘Traitor’: US representatives call for Trump envoy Witkoff to be fired after leaked Kremlin call: Republicans and Democrats warn Witkoff ‘cannot be trusted’ after reportedly advising officials on peace plan
"A handful of US representatives have reacted furiously to a leaked recording in which the special envoy to Ukraine reportedly coached Moscow on how to handle Donald Trump, but most have so far remained mute on the revelation that American officials were advising a US adversary.
Don Bacon, a Republican representative, called for Steve Witkoff’s immediate dismissal. “For those who oppose the Russian invasion and want to see Ukraine prevail as a sovereign & democratic country, it is clear that Witkoff fully favors the Russians,” the Nebraska lawmaker wrote on X.
“He cannot be trusted to lead these negotiations. Would a Russian paid agent do less than he? He should be fired.”
Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican wrote that the leak represented “a major problem” and “one of the many reasons why these ridiculous side shows and secret meetings need to stop”. He urged that the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, be allowed to “do his job in a fair and objective manner”.
Democratic representative Ted Lieu went further, calling Witkoff an “actual traitor,” and adding: “Steve Witkoff is supposed to work for the United States, not Russia.”
In a recording obtained by Bloomberg of a 14 October phone call between Witkoff and Yuri Ushakov, Vladimir Putin’s top foreign policy aide, Witkoff said peace would require Moscow gaining control of Donetsk and potentially additional Ukrainian territory."
O. ALAN NOBLE, Christianity Today ; How To Practice Gratitude (Even When You Don’t Feel It): Gratitude is more about action than feeling.
"We must often practice and embody gratitude before we feel and experience it in our hearts. The key is choosing to practice gratitude as a habit, not an emotional state. Gratitude may come spontaneously, but more often, it is a habit, choice, and action in response to what we know to be true."
Ann E. Marimow, The New York Times ; Supreme Court Defers Ruling on Trump’s Effort to Oust Copyright Official
"The Supreme Court on Wednesday deferred a decision about whether President Trump could remove the government’s top copyright official until after the justices resolved a pair of related cases testing the president’s power to fire independent regulators.
The court’s order is a placeholder and means that Shira Perlmutter, the head of the U.S. Copyright Office, can remain in her role as an adviser to Congress at least until January. The order represents a rare departure from recent cases in which the conservative majority has allowed Mr. Trump to immediately remove agency leaders while litigation over their status continues in the lower courts.
The justices said they were putting off a decision in Ms. Perlmutter’s case until after the court heard arguments in December and January in cases testing the president’s authority to fire other government officials, despite laws generally prohibiting their dismissals that were meant to protect them from political interference."
Noah Goldberg, Los Angeles Times ; DWP employee made assistants run personal errands, buy her Snoop Dogg tickets, ethics enforcer says
"Hardy accused Anderson of seven counts of misusing her city position to create a personal benefit for herself. If the parties do not come to an agreement, the Ethics Commission will hold a hearing and decide what penalties to impose. Each count comes with a potential $5,000 fine."
Shaila Dewan, The New York Times ; Prosecutor Used Flawed A.I. to Keep a Man in Jail, His Lawyers Say
"On Friday, the lawyers were joined by a group of 22 legal and technology scholars who warned that the unchecked use of A.I. could lead to wrongful convictions. The group, which filed its own brief with the state Supreme Court, included Barry Scheck, a co-founder of the Innocence Project, which has helped to exonerate more than 250 people; Chesa Boudin, a former district attorney of San Francisco; and Katherine Judson, executive director of the Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences, a nonprofit that seeks to improve the reliability of criminal prosecutions.
The problem of A.I.-generated errors in legal papers has burgeoned along with the popular use of tools like ChatGPT and Gemini, which can perform a wide range of tasks, including writing emails, term papers and legal briefs. Lawyers and even judges have been caught filing court papers that were rife with fake legal references and faulty arguments, leading to embarrassment and sometimes hefty fines.
The Kjoller case, though, is one of the first in which prosecutors, whose words carry great sway with judges and juries, have been accused of using A.I. without proper safeguards...
Lawyers are not prohibited from using A.I., but they are required to ensure that their briefs, however they are written, are accurate and faithful to the law. Today’s artificial intelligence tools are known to sometimes “hallucinate,” or make things up, especially when asked complex legal questions...
Westlaw executives said that their A.I. tool does not write legal briefs, because they believe A.I. is not yet capable of the complex reasoning needed to do so...
Damien Charlotin, a senior researcher at HEC Paris, maintains a database that includes more than 590 cases from around the world in which courts and tribunals have detected hallucinated content. More than half involved people who represented themselves in court. Two-thirds of the cases were in United States courts. Only one, an Israeli case, involved A.I. use by a prosecutor."
Laura Snapes, The Guardian; Estate of Johnny Cash suing Coca-Cola for using tribute act in advert
"The estate of Johnny Cash is suing Coca-Cola for illegally hiring a tribute act to impersonate the late US country singer in an advertisement that plays between college football games.
The case has been filed under the Elvis Act of Tennessee, made effective last year, which protects a person’s voice from exploitation without consent. The estate said that while it has previously licensed Cash’s songs, Coca-Cola did not approach them for permission in this instance."
Gabe Castro-Root, The New York Times ; What Is Agentic A.I., and Would You Trust It to Book a Flight?
"A bot may soon be booking your vacation.
Millions of travelers already use artificial intelligence to compare options for flights, hotels, rental cars and more. About 30 percent of U.S. travelers say they’re comfortable using A.I. to plan a trip. But these tools are about to take a big step.
Agentic A.I., a rapidly emerging type of artificial intelligence, will be able to find and pay for reservations with limited human involvement, developers say. Companies like Expedia, Google, Kayak and Priceline are experimenting with or rolling out agentic A.I. tools.
Travelers using agentic A.I. would set parameters like dates and a price range for their travel plans, then hand over their credit card information to the bot, which would monitor prices and book on their behalf...
Think of agentic A.I. as a personal assistant, said Shilpa Ranganathan, the chief product officer at Expedia Group, which is developing both generative and agentic A.I. trip-planning tools.
While the more familiar generative A.I. can summarize information and answer questions, agentic tools can carry out tasks. Travelers benefit by deputizing these tools to perform time-consuming chores like tracking flight prices."
Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic ; Why Does Steve Witkoff Keep Taking Russia’s Side?: Trump’s envoy isn’t promoting peace. His interventions are helping Vladimir Putin.
"I’ve written this before, but it cannot be repeated often enough: This war will end only when Russia stops fighting. The Russians need to halt the invasion, recognize the sovereignty of Ukraine, and drop their imperial ambitions. Then Ukraine can discuss borders, prisoners, and the fate of thousands of kidnapped Ukrainian children.
But the only way to persuade Russia to stop fighting is to put pressure on Russia. Not Ukraine, Russia. The Ukrainians have already said they will stop fighting and agree to a cease-fire right now, on the current lines of conflict. Yet Witkoff is seeking to persuade Trump not to put pressure on Russia, and we don’t really know why.
Witkoff has no previous diplomatic experience, so perhaps he is naive. He spent many years in New York real estate, at a time when Russians were spending fortunes on property, so perhaps he feels gratitude. Maybe he’s helping Russia win because he has “the deepest respect for President Putin,” as he told Ushakov, and admires his brutality. Maybe he, or others in the White House entourage, have business interests tied to Russia—or hope to. In addition to discussing “peace,” Witkoff has also been, according to the document made public last week, talking with the Russians about American investments “in the areas of energy, natural resources, infrastructure, artificial intelligence, data centers, rare earth metal extraction projects in the Arctic.”
Whatever the reason, Witkoff is prolonging the conflict. He is not promoting peace. His call to Ushakov was not, as Trump said last night, a normal negotiating tactic. Every time he intervenes, advocating for Putin’s positions, he encourages the Russians to think they can get Trump on their side, pull America away from Europe, break up NATO, and win the war. In other words, every time he intervenes on behalf of the Russians, he contributes to the deaths of Ukrainians, the attacks on infrastructure, the ongoing tragedy that affects millions of people.
If this were a normal American administration, he would be fired immediately. But nothing about this negotiation, or this administration, is normal at all."
Apoorva Mandavilli, The New York Times; Trump Administration Will No Longer Commemorate World AIDS Day
[Kip Currier: How disconcerting it is to see the Trump 2.0 administration make this policy change from years of recognizing December 1st's World AIDS Day, particularly when many other proclamations have been issued this year for "World Autism Awareness Day, National Manufacturing Day and World Intellectual Property Day", as reported in the New York Times article.]
[Excerpt]
"Every year since 1988, the United States has marked Dec. 1 as World AIDS Day, when people mourn those who died of the disease, honor efforts to contain the epidemic and raise awareness among the general public.
Not this year.
The State Department this month instructed employees and grantees not to use funds from the United States government to commemorate the day. The directive is part of a broader policy “to refrain from messaging on any commemorative days, including World AIDS Day,” according to an email viewed by The New York Times.
Employees and grantees may still “tout the work” being done through various programs “to counter this dangerous disease and other infectious diseases around the world,” the email said. And they may attend events related to the commemoration.
But they should “refrain from publicly promoting World AIDS Day through any communication channels, including social media, media engagements, speeches or other public-facing messaging."...
So far this year, the White House has issued proclamations for dozens of other observances, including World Autism Awareness Day, National Manufacturing Day and World Intellectual Property Day.
The Trump administration froze foreign aid early in the year, derailing many public health programs dedicated to fighting H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. Modeling studies have suggested that cuts by the United States and other countries could result in 10 million additional H.I.V. infections, including one million among children, and three million additional deaths over the next five years.
To some activists, the administration’s decision was a painful reminder of the early days of the epidemic, when H.I.V. was neglected as a public health crisis...
World AIDS Day is when the State Department sends data to Congress from the President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, which provides money for H.I.V. programs worldwide. The program’s budget was sharply cut back earlier this year, and the administration is reported to be planning to end it."
Reza Torkzadeh, Daily Journal; AI, ethics, and the lawyer's duty after Noland v. Land of the Free
"Noland establishes a bright line for California lawyers. AI may assist with drafting or research, but it does not replace judgment, verification or ethical responsibility. Technology may change how legal work is produced -- it does not change who is accountable for it."
Merle Jantz, Freedom To Read; Freedom To Read
"Patrons will tell you: There’s a lot to love about Mt. Lebanon Public Library. Award-winning programs for all ages, knowledgeable and committed staff members, a wide and lovingly curated collection of items from multiple media and plans for a building renovation. Enough good stuff to make it a thriving community hub. But one thing stood out above all the rest, and caught the eye of the Pennsylvania Library Association’s Library of the Year selection board, which chose Mt. Lebanon from among 630 public libraries, marking the first time any Allegheny County library has received the award. The library is the commonwealth’s first (and at press time only) book sanctuary.
The Chicago Public Library and the City of Chicago launched the first book sanctuary in 2022, declaring themselves a space for endangered stories and calling for others to join the movement. Currently, there are 5,361 book sanctuaries across the country.
What’s a book sanctuary?
It’s a space where access to books and the right to read them are protected. A book sanctuary is committed to doing at least one of the following:
This means the library will not remove or relocate any materials from the library’s collection, as long as those materials meet the standards of the approved policy."
Michael Auslin , The Wall Street Journal; ‘The Library of Congress’ Review: Corridors of Knowledge
"When the president unexpectedly fired the librarian of Congress, a prominent legislator denounced the “open despotism which now rules at Washington.” The year was 1829, and as Andrew Jackson installed a political ally as librarian, it was Henry Clay who accused the president of being a threat to democracy.
This is but one vignette from Jane Aikin’s comprehensive history “The Library of Congress” (Georgetown, 356 pages, $32.95), which shows how bare-knuckled domestic politics have often shadowed the crown jewel of America’s intellectual institutions. In April, the library turned 225 years old, secure in its position as one of the world’s largest libraries. It now houses approximately 178 million items, from ancient clay tablets to Stradivarius violins, from the Gutenberg Bible to ever-expanding digital records."
Laura Romero and Luke Barr , ABC News; Kristi Noem directed Venezuelans to be sent to El Salvador after federal judge ordered deportation planes turned around: DOJ
"Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem directed that hundreds of Venezuelan men who were removed from the U.S. in March be transferred to El Salvador, despite a federal judge ordering deportation planes turned around, according to a new court filing from Trump administration lawyers.
In the filing late Tuesday, the Department of Justice said that DOJ and DHS officials conveyed their legal advice to Noem after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg gave first an oral directive and then a written order that sought to block the deportations under the Alien Enemies Act.
"After receiving that legal advice, Secretary Noem directed that the AEA detainees who had been removed from the United States before the Court's order could be transferred to the custody of El Salvador," DOJ said on Tuesday."
The Florida Bar; GEORGE C. YOUNG AMERICAN INNS OF COURT EXPLORES ETHICS AND PITFALLS OF AI IN THE COURTROOM
"The George C. Young American Inns of Court continued its ongoing focus on artificial intelligence with a recent program titled, “The Use of AI to Craft Openings, Closings, and Directing Cross-Examination: Ethical Imperatives and Practical Realities.”...
Demonstrations showed that many members could not distinguish AI-generated narratives from those written by humans, highlighting the technology’s increasingly high-quality output. However, presenters also noted recurring drawbacks. AI-generated direct and cross-examinations frequently included prohibited or incorrect elements such as hearsay, compound questioning, and fabricated details — jokingly referred to as “ghost people” — distinguishing factual hallucinations from the better-known “phantom citation” problem.
The program concluded with a reminder that while AI may streamline drafting and help lawyers think creatively, professional judgment cannot be outsourced. The ultimate responsibility for accuracy, ethics, and advocacy remains with the lawyer."
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ; Report: US envoy coached Putin aide on how Russian leader should pitch Trump on Ukraine peace plan
"President Donald Trump’s chief interlocutor with the Russian government last month advised a senior aide to Vladimir Putin on how the Russian leader should go about pitching the U.S. president on a peace plan aimed at bringing an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to a transcript of the call published by Bloomberg News on Tuesday.
Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, according to a transcript of the Oct. 14 call published by the news service, advised Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov that Putin should call Trump to congratulate him for the Gaza peace deal, say Russia had supported it and that he respects the president as a man of peace."
Ronald Mann , SCOTUSblog; Court to consider billion-dollar judgment for copyright infringement
"The court will hear its big copyright case for the year during the first week of the December session, when on Monday, Dec. 1, it reviews a billion-dollar ruling against Cox Communications based on its failure to eradicate copyright infringement by its customers."
JULIANNE HILL, ABA Journal; Is unauthorized artificial intelligence use in law school an honor code violation?
"With generative artificial intelligence’s growing availability and acceptance into students’ workflow, some law schools are wondering whether unauthorized AI use should be an honor code violation—something that could potentially trip up aspiring lawyers in the character and fitness portion of the bar licensure process...
Lack of clarity
The problem stems from unclear AI policies within law schools and universities, says Daniel W. Linna Jr., a senior lecturer and the director of law and technology initiatives at the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law in Illinois.
These cases “illustrate why these policies are problematic,” says Linna, a 2018 Journal Legal Rebel.
The vast majority of policies that Linna has seen at law schools don’t draw firm lines between what is and what isn’t acceptable...
“We don’t have a good means of policing this,” Linna says. “What if someone is wrongly accused and or maybe even makes innocent mistakes? This should really force law schools to reconsider what we’re trying to accomplish with these policies and whether we’re doing more harm than good.”...
Along with clear AI policies, says Kellye Testy, the executive director and CEO of the Association of American Law Schools, the solution includes solid ethical training for law students to use AI before entering the workplace, where comfort with the tool will be expected."
Lisa Peet, Library Journal ; A Victory for IMLS as Court Blocks Trump’s Attempt to Dismantle Agency
"In a summary judgment on November 21 in Rhode Island v. Trump, Judge John J. McConnell Jr. ruled that the Trump administration’s attempt to shut down the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), along with other federal agencies, was illegal and unconstitutional.
McConnell’s ruling permanently enjoins the administration “from taking any future actions to implement, give effect to, comply with, or carry out the directives contained in the Reduction EO with respect to IMLS,” as well as the Minority Business Development Agency, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, and the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness.
Shortly after President Trump issued a March 14 executive order that called for the elimination of IMLS and six other government agencies, two separate lawsuits were filed: American Library Association v. Sonderling by the American Library Association (ALA) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; and Rhode Island v. Trump by a coalition of 21 state attorneys general."
"A federal judge declined to dismiss a copyright-infringement claim in a proposed class action led by Mike Huckabee, accusing Bloomberg LP of using a pirated dataset to train its AI model.
Judge Margaret M. Garnett said she couldn’t evaluate Bloomberg’s defense that its use of authors’ books to train BloombergGPT was fair use under US copyright law without a factual record, denying its motion to dismiss in a Monday opinion filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York."
John Ismay, The New York Times ; How the Coast Guard Revised Its Policy on Swastikas, Nooses and Bullying
"The revisions set off a backlash. Seth Levi of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights group, called the new policy “a national embarrassment.”
Just hours later, on Thursday night, the Coast Guard’s leadership gave assurance that the public display of hateful symbols would continue to be banned. But whether a service member could display such symbols in private remained unclear...
Why did the Coast Guard make the changes?
Neither the Coast Guard nor the Homeland Security Department offered an explanation for why the “hate incident” category was eliminated, nor why officials felt the need to create a distinction between public and private displays of symbols like nooses and swastikas.
The ban on gender identity issues, however, came straight from the White House."
Apoorva Mandavilli, The New York Times; Doctor Critical of Vaccines Quietly Appointed as C.D.C.’s Second in Command
"Dr. Ralph Abraham, who as Louisiana’s surgeon general ordered the state health department to stop promoting vaccinations and who has called Covid vaccines “dangerous,” has been named the second in command at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Department of Health and Human Services did not announce the appointment, and many C.D.C. employees seemed unaware of it. But the C.D.C.’s internal database lists Dr. Abraham as the agency’s principal deputy director, with a start date of Nov. 23. The appointment was first reported by the Substack column Inside Medicine."
Nathan Wilk , Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB); White Bird Clinic sues Willamette Valley Crisis Care over misuse of trade secrets, copyright infringement
"Eugene’s White Bird Clinic is suing a rival nonprofit, Willamette Valley Crisis Care, over copyright infringement and the stealing of trade secrets.
WVCC was founded after White Bird shuttered CAHOOTS services in Eugene in April. The new nonprofit hopes to launch a similar mobile crisis intervention program and has multiple former CAHOOTS staff members on board.
White Bird is now alleging that minutes before WVCC co-founder Alese “Dandy” Colehour sent a resignation letter to White Bird earlier this month, they downloaded confidential client information, training manuals and other materials to give to the newer non-profit.
White Bird is also accusing the WVCC of infringing on its CAHOOTS trademark through advertising materials and other public outreach efforts, and of passing off White Bird’s services as its own."
