By @edent · law legal unicode · 11 comments · 450 words · read ~239 times.
OK, first off, you have to read this amazing judgement about whether Walker's Sensations Poppadoms count as a potato-based snack for VAT purposes. Like most judgements, it is written in fairly plain and accessible language. The arguments are easy to follow and it even manages to throw in a little humour. But if you read […]
Continue reading →By @edent · AI legal · 2 comments · 650 words · read ~837 times.
A group of authors are suing various vendors of Large Language Model AIs. The authors claim that the AIs are trained on material which infringes their copyright. Is that likely? Well, let's take a quick look at the evidence presented. First up, Meta's LLaMA Paper. It describes how the LLM was trained: We include two […]
Continue reading →By @edent · Book Review law legal MSc · 450 words
How will law, regulation and ethics govern a future of fast-changing technologies? Focuses on the practical difficulties of applying law, policy and ethical structures to emergent technologies both now and in the future. Covers crucial current issues such as big data ethics, ubiquitous surveillance and the Internet of Things, and disruptive technologies such as autonomous […]
Continue reading →By @edent · covid19 legal wfh · 9 comments · 450 words · read ~381 times.
Back when I worked for an ISP, my employer paid for me to have broadband. I was expected to work from home a few days a month and they needed their workers to have high-bandwidth connectivity. Because it was a business expense, we all received BIG SCARY WARNINGS that the broadband was only to be […]
Continue reading →By @edent · internet legal · 3 comments · 800 words · read ~429 times.
A former advisor to the Prime Minister was recently convicted on charges of downloading indecent images of underage girls. I don't want to go into detail about whether or not his punishment is adequate, but I would like to talk about this curious remark made by the Judge during his sentencing: beginning today and lasting […]
Continue reading →By @edent · BBC Interview dma legal sms spam · 250 words
Earlier this week I appeared on BBC Radio 4's "You And Yours" to talk about the scourge of SMS Spam. You can listen to it on their website - or, if it has expired, I've grabbed an audio clip for your listening pleasure. I've asked the Direct Marketing Associate to create a "Do Not Text" […]
Continue reading →By @edent · legal NaBloPoMo Social Media twitter · 4 comments · 450 words · read ~431 times.
The UK has the notion of a "strict liability" law. If you are caught with a picture of child abuse - you're guilty of a crime. It doesn't matter if it was sent to you unsolicited, or misaddressed. Possession is the crime and there are no mitigating circumstances. On that cheery note, let's consider Twitter's […]
Continue reading →By @edent · jquery json legal piracy Star Wars the phantom menace the pirate bay yql · 3 comments · 750 words · read ~6,899 times.
For reasons best known to themselves, certain sections of the entertainment industries seem to believe that bolting the stable door shutting down The Pirate Bay will stop all piracy. It's as though they think that people won't be able to use a proxy, circumvent the Cleanfeed block, or simply use a search engine to find […]
Continue reading →By @edent · data protection dpa legal twitter · 150 words · read ~236 times.
As Twitter now have a UK office, I thought I would see what data they hold about me. Thanks to the UK's Data Protection act, it's really simple to request the information. I wasn't expecting a whole CD's worth of information - like Facebook provides users - but what I did get surprised me. Twitter […]
Continue reading →By @edent · copyright legal sky sky news twitter YouTube · 22 comments · 1,050 words · read ~7,478 times.
UPDATE! I have reached a settlement with Sky. Update: 16 March, 2011. They have finally paid up! tl;dr Sky News stole my copyrighted work and distributed it without credit or payment. I asked them to pay £1,500. They refused. Full Story During the recent O2 brouhaha I recorded a video showing how the issue could […]
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