rights – Techdirt (original) (raw)

Dead Politicians Hit The Campaign Trail For India’s Billion-Voter Election

from the who-decides-what-you-can-do-after-your-death? dept

The 2024 elections in India are widely regarded as the largest in history, with nearly a billion people eligible to cast a vote. Alongside the sheer human scale, there’s another aspect of the Indian elections that is surprising for its magnitude. This is the use of millions of deepfakes by Indian politicians in an attempt to sway voters, a topic on the most recent Ctrl-Alt-Speech podcast. As Mike noted during the discussions there, it’s a relatively benign kind of deepfake compared to some of the more nefarious uses that seek to deceive and trick people. But an article on the Rest of the World site points out that the use of deepfakes by Indian politicians is pushing ethical boundaries in other ways:

In January this year, M. Karunanidhi, the patriarch of politics in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, first appeared in an AI video at a conference for his party’s youth wing. In the clip, he wore the look for which he is best remembered: a luminous yellow scarf and oversized dark glasses. Even his head was tilted, just slightly to one side, to replicate a familiar stance from real life. Two days later, he made another appearance at the book launch of a colleague’s memoirs.

Karunanidhi died in 2018.

“The idea is to enthuse party cadres,” Salem Dharanidharan, a spokesperson for the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) — the party that Karunanidhi led till his death — told me. “It excites older voters among whom Kalaignar [“Man of Letters,” as Karunanidhi was popularly called] already has a following. It spreads his ideals among younger voters who have not seen enough of him. And it also has an entertainment factor — to recreate a popular leader who is dead.”

A Wired article on the topic of political deepfakes, discussed on the Ctrl-Alt-Speech podcast, mentions another Tamil Nadu politician who was resurrected using AI technology:

In the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, a company called IndiaSpeaks Research Lab contacted voters with calls from dead politician J. Jayalalithaa, endorsing a candidate, and deployed 250,000 personalized AI calls in the voice of a former chief minister. (They had permission from Jayalalithaa’s party, but not from her family.)

That raises the issue of who is able to approve the use of audio and video deepfakes of dead people. In India, it seems that some political parties have no qualms about deploying the technology, regardless of what the politician’s family might think. Should the dead have rights here, perhaps laid down in their wills? If not, who should be in control of their post-death activities? As more political parties turn to deepfakes of the dead for campaigning and other purposes, these are questions that will be asked more often, and which need to be answered.

Follow me @glynmoody on Mastodon and on Bluesky.

Filed Under: ai, ctrl-alt-speech, death, deepfake, elections, india, podcast, political parties, rights, tamil nadu, will
Companies: IndiaSpeaks Research Lab

The End Of Roe Will Bring About A Sea Change In The Encryption Debate

from the rights-matter dept

With the Supreme Court poised to rip away a constitutional right that’s been the law of the land for nearly half a century by overturning Roe v. Wade, it’s time for the gloves to come off in the encryption debate. For a quarter of a century, it has been an unspoken prerequisite for “serious” discussion that American laws and law enforcement must be given a default presumption of legitimacy, respect, and deference. That was always bullshit, the end of Roe confirms it, andI’m not playing that game anymore.

Weirdly, there are a lot of similarities between encryption and abortion. Encryption is a standard cybersecurity measure, just like abortion is a standard medical procedure. Encryption is just one component of a comprehensive data privacy and security program, just like abortion is just one component of reproductive health care. They both save lives. They both support human dignity. They’re both deeply bound up with the right to autonomy privacy, no matter what a hard-right Supreme Court says. (Ironically, the way things are going, the Supreme Court’s position will soon be that we have more privacy rights in our phones than in our own bodies.) And finally, both encryption and abortion keep being framed as something “controversial” rather than something that you and I have every damn right to – something that should be ubiquitously available without encumbrance.

It would be nice if both of these things were settled questions, but as we’ve seen in both cases, the opponents of each will never let them be. The opponents of bodily autonomy are about to score a victory they’ve been working towards for decades. The immediate result will be total bans and criminalization of abortion in large swaths of the United States. We absolutely cannot afford for the opponents of encryption to prevail as well, whether in the U.S., the EU, its member states, or anywhere else.

The only reason there’s still any “debate” over encryption is because law enforcement refuses to let it drop. For over a quarter of a century, they’ve constantly insisted on the primacy of their interests. They demand to be centered in every discussion about encryption. They frame encryption as a danger to public safety and position themselves as having a monopoly on protecting public safety. They’ve insisted that all other considerations – cybersecurity, privacy, free expression, personal safety – must be made subordinate to their priorities. They expect everyone else to make trade-offs in the name of their interests but refuse to make trade-offs themselves. Nothing trumps the investigation of crime.

Why should law enforcement’s interests outweigh everything else? Because they’re “the good guys.” In debates about whether law enforcement should get “exceptional access” (i.e., a backdoor) to our encrypted communications and files, we pretend that American (and other Western democracies’) law enforcement are “the good guys,” positioned in contrast to “the bad guys”: criminals, hackers, foreign adversaries. When encryption advocates talk about how encryption is vital for protecting people from the threat posed by abusive, oppressive governments, we engage in the polite fiction that we’re talking about “that other country, over there.” It’s China, or Russia, or Ethiopia, not the U.S. If we talk about the threats posed by U.S.-based law enforcement at all, it’s the “a few bad apples” framing: we hypothesize about the occasional rogue cop who’d abuse an encryption backdoor in order to steal money or stalk his ex-wife.

We don’t confront the truth: that law enforcement in the U.S. is rife with institutional rot. Law enforcement does not have a monopoly on protecting public safety. In fact, they’re often its biggest threat. When encryption advocates play along with framing law enforcement as “the good guys,” we’re agreeing to avert our eyes from the fact that one-third of all Americans killed by strangers are killed by police, the fact that police kill three Americans a day, and the staggering rates of domestic violence by cops. When actual horrific crimes get reported to them – the very crimes they say they need encryption backdoors to investigate – they turn a blind eye and slander the victims. Law enforcement is a scourge on Americans’ personal safety. The same is true of our privacy as well: as a brand-new report from Georgetown underscores, law enforcement agencies don’t hesitate to flout the law with impunity in the pursuit of their perfect surveillance state.

U.S. law enforcement officers and agencies have shown us with their own actions that they don’t deserve any deference whatsoever in discussions about encryption policy. They aren’t entitled to any presumption of legitimacy. They are just another one of the threats that encryption protects people from. With the demise of Roe, we can no longer ignore that the same is also true of American laws.

Of course, this has always been the case. “Crimes” are whatever a group of lawmakers at some point in time decide they are, and “criminals” are whoever law enforcement selectively decides to enforce those laws against: Black and brown people, undocumented immigrants, homeless people, sex workers, parents of trans kids, drug users. Now that we’re rolling back the clock on social progress by half a century, “criminals” once again will include people who have abortions (which, don’t you ever forget, does not just mean cisgender women) and those who provide them. Already, some deeply conservative states are plotting for using contraception to make you a criminal again too. People in consensual same-sex relationships or interracial marriages may be next. All of these “crimes” are what should come to your mind whenever you hear somebody tout “fighting crime” as a reason to outlaw strong encryption.

If you’re an encryption advocate in the United States, it’s time to stop pretending that encryption’s protection against oppressive governments is only about Uighurs in Xinjiang or gay people in Uganda. Americans also need strong encryption to protect ourselves from our own domestic governments and their abominable laws. The impending end of Roe has laid that bare. The threat is coming from inside the house. “China” was really a euphemism for “Alabama” this whole time. Encryption advocates in the U.S. just usually aren’t willing to say so.

Why not? Because we’ve internalized that unless we treat American laws (and the people who enforce them) as unimpeachably legitimate and supreme, we won’t be treated as “serious.” We’ll be derided as “zealots” and “absolutists” who aren’t willing to have a “mature conversation” about “finding a balance” and “working together” to find a “middle-ground solution” on encryption. Our views and demands will be dismissed out of hand. We won’t get invited anymore to events put on by universities and foundations. We won’t get to talk in endless circles while sitting in fancy conference rooms far away from the jailhouses where Purvi Patel and Lizelle Herrera were held.

The loss of Roe will unavoidably usher in a new phase of the encryption debate in the U.S., because Roe has been the law of the land throughout the entire time that strong encryption has been generally available. Roe was decided in 1973, and the landmark Diffie/Hellman paper “New Directions in Cryptography” didn’t come out until 1976. In the decades since, strong encryption went from a niche concern of the military and banks to being in widespread use by average consumers – while, simultaneously, the constitutional right to abortion was slowly and systematically chipped away. Nevertheless, Roe still stood. In all the years since 1976, encryption policy discussions about “balancing” privacy rights and criminal enforcement have never had to seriously grapple with what it means for abortion to be a crime rather than a right. That’s about to change.

Encryption advocates: It’s time to stop playing along with U.S. law enforcement’s poisonous expectation to exempt them from the threat model. The next time you’re at yet another fruitless roundtable event to “debate” encryption and some guy from the FBI complains that law enforcement must always be the star of the show, ask him to defend his position now that abortion will be against the law across much of the country. If he whines that that’s states’ laws, not federal, ask him what the FBI is going to do once a tide of investigators from those states start asking the FBI for help unlocking the phones of people being prosecuted for seeking, having, or performing an abortion.

Tech companies: Do you want to help put your users behind bars by handing over the data you hold about them in response to legal demands by law enforcement? Do you not really care if they go to prison, but do care about the bad PR you’ll get if the public finds out about it? Then start planning now for what you’re going to do when – not if – those demands start coming in. Data minimization and end-to-end-encryption are more important than ever. And start worrying about internal access controls and insider threats, too: don’t assume that none of your employees would ever dream of quietly digging through users’ data looking for people they could dox to the police in anti-abortion jurisdictions. Protecting your users is already so hard, and it’s going to get a lot harder. Update your threat models.

Lawmakers: You can no longer be both pro-choice and anti-encryption. The treasure troves of Americans’ digital data are about to be weaponized against us by law enforcement to imprison people for having abortions, stillbirths, and miscarriages. If you believe that Americans are entitled to bodily autonomy and decisional privacy, if you believe that abortion is a right and not a crime, then I don’t want to hear you advocate ever again for giving law enforcement the ability to read everyone’s communications and unlock anyone’s phone. Whether or not you manage to codify Roe or to crack down on data brokers that sell information about abortion clinic visitors, you need to stop talking out of both sides of your mouth by claiming you care about privacy and abortion rights while also voting for bills like the EARN IT Act that would weaken encryption. The midterms are coming, and we are watching.

As I wrote recently for Brookings, encryption protects our privacy where the law falls short. Once Roe is overturned, the law will fall short for tens of millions of people. We no longer have the luxury of indulging in American exceptionalism. The enforcement of American laws isn’t a justification for weakening encryption. It’s an urgent argument in favor of strengthening it.

Riana Pfefferkorn is a Research Scholar at the Stanford Internet Observatory.

This post originally published to Stanford’s Cyberlaw blog.

Filed Under: abortion, encryption, rights

Pennsylvania Court Reverses Student's Expulsion Over A Snapchat Post, Reminds School Students Still Have Rights

from the disrupting-school-disruption dept

Do you want cheer fucked? Because this is how you get cheer fucked.

No less than the highest court in the land said the off-campus speech of students is subject to the First Amendment, not the whims of school administrators who feel ways about online stuff. A cheerleader expressing her displeasure with school related activities posted a litany of f-bomb-laden complaints to Instagram, resulting in her being summarily dismissed from the cheer team. The Supreme Court said “fuck cheer” is protected speech, no matter how school administrators felt about it.

Students’ constitutional rights don’t disappear just because they’re students. This point has been driven home several times by courts, most famously by the Supreme Court’s 1969 Tinker decision, which stated:

It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.

And yet schools continue to argue otherwise. But these arguments are unavailing, as this recent Pennsylvania state court decision [PDF] points out. Penncrest High School expelled G.S. (a minor referred to only by their initials) for posting a band’s lyrics to Snapchat. Despite the fact G.S. did this off-campus during non-school hours, the school felt compelled to punish him for it.

Here’s how the school’s stupidity began, as recounted by the Pennsylvania court.

On April 1, 2018, G.S. used his personal smartphone to post the following on Snapchat, where he had 60 to 65 followers, including 4 or 5 other School District students:

Everyone, I despise everyone! Fuck you, eat shit, Blackout, the world is a graveyard! All of you, I will fucking kill off all of you! This is me, this is my, snap!

As attuned as schools are to the neverending threat of shootings, it’s understandable the school might have been concerned by this post, which — taken at face value — appears to threaten fellow students with death. Context matters, but all context was apparently ignored by the school.

Though G.S. did not tag his post as such, the words it contained were copied from “Snap,” a song by the death metal band Spite. The only alteration G.S. made in his post to the excerpted lyrics was to add several exclamation points. G.S. did not direct this post toward any particular person or group and did not tag any other Snapchat users in it, nor did he put up this post at a time when he was involved in school-related activities. Rather, he posted while at an Easter Sunday celebration with his extended family in New Jersey.

Other students noticed the post and tagged in the school student body while reposting screenshots of the Snapchat message. Then parents got involved, notifying the Pennsylvania State Police, visiting the barracks to talk directly with troopers as well as sending emails to PSP officers. Not long after that, G.S. was visited by state troopers. His parents weren’t home so the troopers left and approached the assistant district attorney, seeking permission to arrest G.S. for issuing terrorist threats. Troopers called school administrators and informed them they were looking to bring charges against G.S.

Finally, G.S.’s parents were contacted and informed of the criminal proceedings. G.S. and his parents voluntarily went to the State Police barracks so G.S. could be questioned. G.S. admitted to making the post but told troopers it was just a quote from a band and not intended to threaten or harm anyone. None of that mattered. The DA told troopers to move forward with criminal charges. G.S. was arrested and taken to a juvenile detention center.

Meanwhile, school officials continued to receive reports about the post. A district-wide message was sent out by the school, notifying parents that law enforcement was investigating a threat by a student.

This had an immediate effect. Despite being short on facts — namely, the “threat” in G.S.’s post being copied from a band’s song lyrics — the missive from the school resulted in roughly a quarter of the student body being absent the following day. Those who did show up appeared “anxious and upset.”

Outside of school, G.S. underwent a court-ordered psychological evaluation. That evaluation cleared G.S.

His [Snapchat post] is a duplication of emotionally charged lyrics found in a . . . song that, while disturbing in content and audio, represent a low level of threat to the community. Specifically, [G.S.] does not have the resources, motivation, or intent to carry out the threat. […] His level of risk for future violent behavior is [l]ow.

G.S. was released and placed on house arrest. School administrators sent a letter to his parents informing them he would be suspended for ten days. Another letter followed, extending the suspension for three more days and stating criminal charges were being sought. Six days later, the school informed G.S.’s parents the district was seeking to expel him. Those proceedings proceeded, ignoring the facts that the post was composed of song lyrics, was not posted to threaten anyone, and G.S being cleared by a court-ordered psychiatrist.

The minor has the First Amendment and Pennsylvania’s constitution on his side. The school has measurable disruption and potential criminal charges on its side. The court comes down on the side of the student.

First of all, it points out, the school is no longer welcome to argue the Snapchat post was a “true threat.” It abandoned that argument during the expulsion proceedings.

Initially, we note that much of the School District’s argumentation is based upon its position that G.S.’ post constituted a true threat, as well as that it was both legally proper and factually justified for it to expel G.S. on that basis. […] These positions, however, misapprehend the actual reasoning employed by the School District’s hearing officer in his August 13, 2018 report. As we have already mentioned, the hearing officer declined the opportunity to decide whether the offending post was a true threat; indeed, the hearing officer remarked that “it is not necessary in this matter to make [that] determination[.]” Instead, the hearing officer reasoned that the charges against G.S. should be and G.S. should be expelled, as well as that the School District could do so without violating G.S.’ free speech rights, because his post “materially disrupted class work, involved substantial disorder[,] and invaded the rights of others.”

So, it’s down to “substantial disruption” versus the free speech rights of students who aren’t on campus or engaged in school activities. And on that prong of free speech examination, the school has no case.

In this instance, G.S. did not explicitly target specific Penncrest students, let alone the broader School District community, and he posted at a time when he was neither at Penncrest nor engaged in school-related activities. Thus, G.S.’ post was unambiguously off-campus speech, regarding which the School District’s disciplinary reach was sharply circumscribed by both the First Amendment and Article I, Section 7. Given this, and no matter how objectionable the content of G.S.’ post may have been, it is evident that the School District markedly failed to clear the extremely high bar set by these constitutional provisions and, thus, could not punish him for the disruptions that occurred at Penncrest.

The school’s arguments are bad, the court said. The school wants speech judged by its reaction, rather than its intent. That’s not the way the law works.

Thus, the School District would have us evaluate the constitutional sanctity of disciplining students for disruptions caused by off-campus speech through an analytical framework that would assign great value to the societal response to such speech, but disregard the context in which it was uttered, as well as the intent of the speaker. We decline to accept the School District’s deeply problematic suggestion. Were we to do otherwise, the result would be to imbue public schools with the power to discipline their students for publicly expressing interests or sentiments that school administrators, faculty, or members of polite society considered execrable or simply did not understand, regardless of how, when, where, or why that expressive conduct occurred.

Public schools would consequently become de facto full-time censors, preventing children from making their own decisions about what aspects of popular culture are worthy of consumption or what beliefs should be held, and interfering with parental authority, through a constant potential for punishment that would hang over students like the Sword of Damocles. Such an expansion of governmental authority would do great harm to the expressive rights of individuals still “in the formative years…”

The expulsion and suspension are reversed. The First Amendment prevails and G.S.’s record will be stripped of the district’s unconstitutional add-ons. Even minors have free speech rights and the school should have known this, given there’s plenty of precedent on the books at all levels of the judicial system affirming these rights. The school fully earned this loss. Hopefully, it will accept this ruling and stop wasting the public’s money attempting to undermine free speech rights.

Filed Under: 1st amendment, free speech, lyrics, pennsylvania, rights, schools

Students Have Rights: Court Dumps Evidence After Cops Rely On A Month-Old Anonymous Tip To Search A Minor

from the striking-cold-irons-still-counterproductive dept

As courts seemingly have to remind school administrators (and their partners in unconstitutional crime, school police officers), students — even minors — still have constitutional rights. The First and Fourth Amendments are the most frequently violated, despite there being no lack of precedent upholding students’ rights.

This latest rebuke of law enforcement overreach comes via the Colorado Court of Appeals (and via FourthAmendment.com). In this case, a Denver, Colorado student had his backpack warrantlessly searched by school security officers. This search resulted in the discovery of marijuana and paraphernalia, which led to juvenile charges against the minor, referred to in the opinion [PDF] as “C.C-S.”

The reason the search was unconstitutional has a lot to do with how the school officers got it into their heads that C.C-S. should be detained and searched. The state of Colorado maintains an anonymous tip line called “Safe2Tell” which allows students and faculty to report suspicious activity or behavior to school officials.

The Safe2Tell tip that initiated this chain of unconstitutional events was old news by the time it was forwarded to DPS (Denver Public Schools) officials and, because of its origin, could not be corroborated.

A school security officer employed by Denver Public Schools (DPS) received a report that C.C-S., a student at a DPS high school, had been seen in a Snapchat video shooting a firearm out of a car window.

[…]

By the time the Snapchat video showing C.C-S. was reported to Safe2Tell on February 25, 2018, it was about one month old. At that point, no one was able to review the footage because videos posted on Snapchat automatically disappear from the platform after twenty-four hours, unless they are saved.

Nevertheless, school officials decided to act, relying on little more than this and another unsubstantiated (and unrelated) allegation.

Although unable to review the Snapchat video, the dean of C.C-S.’s school told the school security officer that C.C-S. had a history of “bringing things to school that he shouldn’t, such as drugs and things like that.”

“Drugs and things.” Leaves a lot open to the imagination, which is what was exercised by school security officers, who took two uncorroborated reports and combined them into a search unsupported by probable cause.

At that point, the school security officer decided to search C.C-S., based on the Safe2Tell firearm tip, the dean’s comment, and the security officer’s policy of searching every student and their backpack when he received a Safe2Tell report that the student had either drugs or weapons. Once C.C-S. arrived at school, he was taken to an office for questioning by the school security officer, as well as a campus security officer, who was also employed by DPS but was stationed at C.C-S.’s school. With the door closed, the DPS officers told C.C-S. about the information they had received from the Safe2Tell tip and told him they were going to search his backpack.

C.C-S. refused to consent to a search and, after further discussion, attempted to leave the office. The DPS officers would not allow him to leave, instead reiterating that they were going to search his backpack. After the campus security officer asked C.C-S. whether he was refusing to allow the search because he had drugs in his backpack, C.C-S. confessed that he had drugs in his backpack and handed it over to the officers to be searched.

That’s not consent. That’s the implication that a search is going to take place, with or without cooperation. Keeping someone in a room and refusing to let them leave pretty much takes consent out of the equation. That only makes things worse for the school officers and the case they thought they had built against C.C-S.

Rights are rights, and while they are limited on school campuses, they are not nonexistent. The officers needed at least reasonable suspicion to approach and search C.C-S. and they didn’t even have that.

[W]e conclude that the Safe2Tell tip was insufficient to provide reasonable suspicion. We reach this conclusion for four reasons. First, as noted above, the tip was anonymous. Second, the information provided in the tip was stale. Third, because it was anonymous and stale, the limited information in the Safe2Tell tip did not provide reasonable suspicion that C.C-S. had committed or was about to commit a crime. And, fourth, the information about C.C-S.’s past behavior at school did not corroborate the Safe2Tell weapons tip.

Information about someone seen on SnapChat a month ago isn’t a good tip, or an actionable tip, or even a somewhat fresh tip. It may prompt some additional “keeping an eye on” by administrators but it cannot justify a seizure and a search, even on school grounds, and even with the district’s apparently unconstitutional policy of searching every student that has been reported via a Safe2Tell tip.

The school dean’s “tip” was no better and created no additional reasonable suspicion. The tip mentioned drugs, not weapons, and there was no information given that implied or stated the student had brought weapons onto campus before.

The state argued that this was asking too much from the Safe2Tell program, which guarantees students’ anonymity. Au contraire, says the court. This program may be useful and aid in public safety efforts, but it cannot summarily revoke students’ rights for these reasons or by its mere existence.

While we recognize the importance of Safe2Tell’s role in preventing school violence, investigations based on Safe2Tell tips by DPS security officers and other school officials must occur within the bounds of students’ Fourth Amendment rights.

As for the supposed “consent” to a search, the court says there was no consent.

[W]e conclude that the uncorroborated Safe2Tell tip did not justify detaining C.C-S. Because he was unreasonably detained, we may not rely on his admissions made during that unlawful detention to uphold the search of his backpack.

The state also argued that the exclusionary rule does not apply to juvenile cases or school security officers. Wrong again, says the court. The rule applies to government employees and their actions, which encompasses school administrators and school security officers.

We conclude that applying the exclusionary rule in school searches conducted by DPS security officers would deter Fourth Amendment violations. Those security officers perform quasi-law enforcement functions, inasmuch as the evidence they collect is often used in juvenile delinquency adjudications such as this one.

[…]

To apply the Fourth Amendment’s exclusionary rule to school searches is therefore a logical extension of Supreme Court precedent. Its application here is especially appropriate since school security officers, whether acting in concert with the police or not, are governmental actors.

There goes the evidence obtained during the illegal search… which would be all of the evidence. Without it, all the government has is C.C-S., who may or may not have been the person seen by some student in some Snapchat video officers never viewed and which had vanished from the service long before the tip was sent in. The state has nothing to prosecute with. But maybe it has at least learned it can’t treat students like detainees following extraordinary rendition. Students have rights and the government — at least in this case — gains nothing by ignoring them.

Filed Under: 4th amendment, anonymous tips, backpack search, colorado, evidence, police, rights, school police, sro, students, tips

Disney (Disney!) Accused Of Trying To Lawyer Its Way Out Of Paying Royalties To Alan Dean Foster

from the the-maximalism-only-works-in-one-direction dept

Disney, of course, has quite the reputation as a copyright maximalist. It has been accused of being the leading company in always pushing for more draconian copyright laws. And then, of course, there’s the infamous Mickey Mouse curve, first designated a decade ago by Tom Bell, highlighting how copyright term extensions seemed to always happen just as Mickey Mouse was set to go into the public domain (though, hopefully that’s about to end):

Whether accurate or not, Disney is synonymous with maximizing copyright law, which the company and its lobbyists always justify with bullshit claims of how they do it “for the artist.”

Except that it appears that Disney is not paying artists. While the details are a bit fuzzy, yesterday the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) and famed author Alan Dean Foster announced that Disney was no longer paying him royalties for the various Star Wars books he wrote (including the novelization of the very first film back in 1976), along with his novelizations of the Aliens movies. He claims he’d always received royalties before, but they suddenly disappeared.

Foster wrote a letter (amusingly addressed to “Mickey”) in which he lays out his side of the argument, more or less saying that as Disney has gobbled up various other companies and rights, it just stopped paying royalties:

When you purchased Lucasfilm you acquired the rights to some books I wrote. STAR WARS, the novelization of the very first film. SPLINTER OF THE MIND?S EYE, the first sequel novel. You owe me royalties on these books. You stopped paying them.

When you purchased 20th Century Fox, you eventually acquired the rights to other books I had written. The novelizations of ALIEN, ALIENS, and ALIEN 3. You?ve never paid royalties on any of these, or even issued royalty statements for them.

All these books are all still very much in print. They still earn money. For you. When one company buys another, they acquire its liabilities as well as its assets. You?re certainly reaping the benefits of the assets. I?d very much like my miniscule (though it?s not small to me) share.

You want me to sign an NDA (Non-disclosure agreement) before even talking. I?ve signed a lot of NDAs in my 50-year career. Never once did anyone ever ask me to sign one prior to negotiations. For the obvious reason that once you sign, you can no longer talk about the matter at hand. Every one of my representatives in this matter, with many, many decades of experience in such business, echo my bewilderment.

You continue to ignore requests from my agents. You continue to ignore queries from SFWA, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. You continue to ignore my legal representatives. I know this is what gargantuan corporations often do. Ignore requests and inquiries hoping the petitioner will simply go away. Or possibly die. But I?m still here, and I am still entitled to what you owe me. Including not to be ignored, just because I?m only one lone writer. How many other writers and artists out there are you similarly ignoring?

In a video press conference, Foster and SFWA (while admitting that no one on the call were lawyers) said that Disney is claiming that it purchased “the rights but not the obligations” to these works. That’s… weird. And I wish there was a lawyer on the call. Because that doesn’t make much sense.

As SFWA notes, if it is possible to purchase rights without the obligations, then any company could just do a sham sale of the rights without the obligations and get out of paying any royalties ever.

Of course, the details here matter, and we only have one side (and not their lawyers). There may be something very weird in these contracts (and this is, basically, a contract dispute, not a copyright one). But just at a fundamental facts of the situation look disgusting on Disney’s part. If you owe royalties, you pay the royalties. Considering how aggressive Disney is with its own copyrights, you’d think its lawyers would understand that.

Filed Under: alan dean foster, aliens, contracts, copyright, mickey mouse, obligations, rights, royalties, star wars
Companies: disney, sfwa

Happy 20th Birthday To 'No One Lives Forever', The Classic PC Game That Can't Be Sold Today Thanks To IP

from the and-yet-it's-dead dept

There are a great many interesting arguments we tend to have over both the purpose of copyright law and how effectively its current application aligns with that purpose. Still, we are on fairly solid legal footing when we state that the main thrust of copyright was supposed to be to drive more and better content to the public. Much of the disagreement we tend to have with naysayers revolves around whether ever expanding rights coupled with protectionist attitudes truly results in more and better content for the public. We, to a large extent, say the current copyright bargain is horribly one-sided against the public interest. Detractors say, essentially, “nuh-uh!”.

But if one were to distill the problems with the current state of copyright to their most basic forms, you would get No One Lives Forever. The classic PC shooter/spy game was released way back in 2000, times of antiquity in the PC gaming space. It was a critically acclaimed hit, mixing Deus Ex style shooter missions, spycraft, and an aesthetic style built on 1960s classic spy films. And, as RockPaperShotgun reminds us, No One Lives Forever celebrated its 20th birthday this November.

If you remember the game fondly, or perhaps if you never played it and are curious as to why there’s so much love for the game, you might be thinking about going and getting a copy for yourself to play. Well, too bad. You can’t.

FPS spy romp No One Lives Forever turns 20 today but alas Cate Archer is still confined to her room, unable to come out and play. The secret agent shooter has been tied up in legal gridlock for years. You’ll not find it for sale online aside from second-hand, but that hasn’t stopped RPS singing its praises all this time. A remaster still seems unlikely, but Nightdive Studios say they aren’t done trying to make it happen.

Legal gridlock is being extremely kind. Why you cannot buy this game is one of the most frustrating stories in intellectual property. We discussed much of this back in 2015. Nightdive Studios is a company that buys up the rights to older video games, updates and/or remasters them for modern gaming hardware, and then rereleases them. And we’re talking about a professional operation that has managed to rerelease games like Doom 64, 7th Guest, and System Shock. In other words, these guys are legit and they know what they’re doing.

And they really, really wanted to give No One Lives Forever the treatment. There was just one problem: nobody seems to know who holds the copyright for the game, but everyone independently has told Nightdive that they’ll sue if they make the game. Warner Bros., Activision, and 20th Centry Fox all might own the copyright to the game, except that the paperwork for how the rights all shake out was contrived in a time before such records were digitized. So, someone owns the rights to this game. And Nightdive very much wants to work out an arrangement with whoever that someone is. But none of the three potential owners are willing to go hunt down the paperwork so such a deal could be worked out.

You can get a sense of how each is communicating with Nightdive from our original post on the subject.

“So we went back to Activision and, [after] numerous correspondence going back and forth, they replied that they thought they might have some rights, but that any records predated digital storage. So we’re talking about a contract in a box someplace.” Kuperman laughed. “The image I get is the end of Indiana Jones… somewhere in a box, maybe in the bowels of Activision, maybe it was shipped off to Iron Mountain or somewhere. And they confessed, they didn’t have [their] hands on it. And they weren’t sure that they even had any of those rights.”

And yet Nightdive was also told by all three entities, independently mind you, that they might own some rights and would go find out if Nightdive tried to rerelease the game to see if they could sue over it. The end result is a game that can’t be released legitimately to the public over rights three companies insist are important enough to sue over, but not so important that they should know if they even have those rights to begin with.

Which brings us back to the RPS post, five years later on the 20th birthday of No One Lives Forever, where we find out that essentially zero progress has been made.

As one of the best FPS games on PC, it seems plenty worthy of a remaster or re-release, but efforts on that front have died in the water over the past decade or more. Hit any one of those quoted links to get the evolving story, but the short version is this: Nightdive Studios, who want to modernise No One Lives Forever, don’t own the rights to it. More than one company might have legal claim to it, but none of them are terribly motivated to unearth stacks of paper contracts literally hidden in basements. They’re just sure they don’t want anyone else making money off it without them. So Cate’s all tied up in the super villain’s lair without a Deus Ex Machina to save her.

On that front, Nightdive recently told The Gamer that they aren’t done trying to make it happen. “It is a process that we’re continuing,” said director of business development Larry Kuperman. “We continue on with our mission to unearth and bring back these classic games.”

And so the public is flatly denied legitimate access to content that is a piece of our culture over copyrights nobody can say for sure if they have. I can’t claim to crawl into the founding fathers’ heads to say precisely how they wanted copyright to work, but it sure as shit can’t be like this.

Filed Under: copyright, licensing, limitations, no one lives forever, rights, updates, video games
Companies: 20th century fox, activision, nightdrive studio, warner bros.

New 'National Security' Law Threatens Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Protesters With Life In Prison

from the so-secret-it-couldn't-be-published-until-after-it-was-enacted dept

Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997 with the understanding the Chinese government would not strip away the rights granted to Hong Kong residents prior to the handover. The Chinese government has no intention of honoring that agreement, which has prompted months of protests.

The Hong Kong government has consummated its acquiescence to the Chinese government with the adoption of a harsh law that directly targets dissent and protest under the guise of securing the nation. Hong Kong residents weren’t informed about the contents of the new law until after it was passed and adopted. The BBC runs down the key aspects of the new law — none of which appear to respect the rights supposedly granted to Hong Kong residents.

Crimes of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces are punishable by a minimum sentence of three years, with the maximum being life

Inciting hatred of China’s central government and Hong Kong’s regional government are now offences under Article 29

Damaging public transport facilities can be considered terrorism

These are all things the Chinese government claims must be implemented to secure the nation. And these are all things that conveniently allow the government to imprison Hong Kong residents. It also allows them to target dissidents and opponents abroad, thanks to the government granting itself extraterritorial reach.

This Law shall apply to offences under this Law committed against the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region from outside the Region by a person who is not a permanent resident of the Region.

The law also says residents found guilty of these crimes cannot run for public office. This seems unnecessary, especially as many vocal anti-government activists have either chosen to go silent or leave the country completely.

The court process for adjudicating these cases has been streamlined to allow the Chinese government to imprison as many protesters and activists as possible. The chief executive of Hong Kong — who has already gone on record as supportive of the “long overdue” law — can appoint judges to oversee these trials. The Chinese government retains the option to take over prosecutions in cases where it feels local prosecutors just aren’t trying hard enough. And decisions made by the newly-formed “national security commission” cannot be challenged in court.

Reactions have been immediate. Pro-democracy books have been pulled from libraries by the Hong Kong government in order to review them for violations of the new law. And protesters are now carrying blank signs, since the law makes the existence of any anti-Chinese government words a potential violation of the new law, possibly putting protesters in line for life in prison.

No one seems to be immune from the new law. The Hong Kong police apparently visited a restaurant to warn it of a violation of the new law. It responded by covering its menu and windows with blank Post It notes.

A girl uses a blank piece of paper yesterday as a protest sign, as she wasn?t sure what constitutes breaking the NatSec Law.

Today, eateries are removing posters and replacing them with blank memo notes after HKPF visited a restaurant in Shau Kei Wan warning of a NSL violation. pic.twitter.com/3TLyfI9JIx

— Karen Tse (@ktse852) July 2, 2020

But even blank notes can carry a message:

After months of battling a rebellious region, the Chinese government has placed Hong Kong firmly under its control. There will be no more “one country, two systems.” The only system the Chinese government is willing to back is its own. With countries like Australia and the UK opening their doors to Hong Kong citizens wishing to flee, the government may not have nearly as many people to place under its jackboot. But those who choose to stay run the risk of being jailed for years for complaining about a government willing to jail people for complaining.

Filed Under: china, civil rights, free speech, hong kong, national security, rights

Your Tax Dollars At Work: Cops Arguing They Thought A Small Envelope Might Have Contained A Weapon

from the most-unreliable-narrators-of-all dept

When a police officer violates rights, they’re put in the awkward position of defending their actions. If qualified immunity isn’t immediately awarded to them by far-too-compliant courts, they’ve got to put in their work in defending the indefensible. That’s when taxpayer dollars get spent defending actions that violate the rights of taxpayers.

And there are so many examples of bad behavior no one should be defending in court. Here are cops arguing that someone invoking their rights is suspicious behavior. Here’s one claiming that driving carefully and obeying all traffic laws is suspicious. Here are two cops claiming there’s an expectation of privacy in the room they used to drink alcohol and nap while on the clock. Here are some officers claiming Constitutional rights are time-wasting bullshit.

There’s just so much of it. It would be darkly comic if it wasn’t so tragic and/or frightening. Here’s a school resource officer claiming a small amount of missing cash justified the strip search of twenty-two preteen girls. Here’s another arguing it’s OK to arrest a bunch of middle school students to “prove a point.” Oh and it’s apparently just good police work to hurl a flashbang grenade in the general direction of a toddler.

This is all a lead-in to this gem of a defense, offered by cops hoping to see their small drug bust survive their unconstitutional actions. (via FourthAmendment.com)

After running a red light, Joshua West was approached by a police officer after he had already parked his truck in the County Administration Building’s parking lot. Officer Williams asked West to get back in his truck and proceeded to ask him questions about the truck’s ownership, since it only had dealer tags in the window. West presented the officer with some paperwork — including his valid license and insurance information. Officer Williams began writing a ticket for the red light violation.

At some point during this stop, West dropped a small object on the floor of his truck. The officers weren’t sure what it was but they really wanted to take a look. So, without actually having the legal permission to do so (West did not give consent), they began searching the truck. During this search, they found the object West had dropped: a small envelope (one that was — according to the officers — “concealed in West’s fist”) containing a clear plastic bag with methamphetamine in it.

They then performed a second search, which turned up even more drugs. West moved to suppress this evidence, arguing the initial search of his truck was unjustified.

Here’s where it gets ridiculous. The officers claimed the first unlawful search was in fact lawful because it was done for “officer safety.” Somehow, this “protective search” for weapons inside the truck allowed the officer to open an envelope and inspect its contents. The appeals court [PDF] agrees with the district court: this is a very stupid thing to assert.

The district court found that the envelope — which had been in West’s hands and lap to the end of the encounter — was full of papers and could not have been used to hide even a small weapon without first pushing the papers aside and without creating a visible bulge. In the light of these circumstances, no reasonable suspicion could exist that would support Officer Sorrell’s initial search of West’s truck or the envelope for weapons.

Not only that, but there was nothing about the stop or West’s behavior that should have given the officers any reason to suspect he was dangerous or carrying weapons he planned to use against them.

Given the totality of the circumstances presented in this case, we conclude that no probable cause existed to justify Officer Sorrell’s initial search of West’s truck. West was pulled over for having run a red light. West engaged in no erratic driving, and nothing evidenced that West attempted to flee. Neither officer had had prior dealings with or knowledge of West before the traffic stop. Nor did either officer smell or see marijuana or other contraband inside the truck.

During the traffic stop, West complied with Officer Williams’s orders, provided Officer Williams with the requested information and documents, and remained calm and cooperative. Officer Williams confirmed that West had a valid driver’s license and no outstanding warrants. These circumstances gave the officers no good reason to suspect West of engaging in criminal activity beyond running a red light.

The Appeals Court also disagrees with the sworn statements made by the officers, which were undermined by their own silent witness.

Although Officers Williams and Sorrell testified that West appeared nervous and agitated during this interaction with Officer Williams, the district court found that the officers’ testimony about West’s demeanor was contradicted by the video recording of the traffic stop.

All of this unjustified behavior led directly to cops arguing in court that they had to search an envelope because it might have contained a weapon. The evidence is gone, along with the conviction. And this was done with tax dollars. The government argued on behalf of these cops who couldn’t take down a drug user without ignoring the Constitution. Lots of things are done in our name, using our money. Arguing that an small envelope might have contained a gun shouldn’t be one of them.

Filed Under: 4th amendment, joshua west, police, probably cause, rights

Court Tells Cop That A Person Invoking Their Rights Isn't Suspicious Behavior

from the your-rights-will-be-respected-at-the-discretion-of-the-government-apparently dept

To some cops, there’s nothing more inherently-suspicious than the invocation of rights. It appears they believe only guilty people do this. The innocent have no need for rights because if they have nothing to hide then they have nothing to fear.

It takes a court to remind officers that rights are rights everyone has, whether or not they’re guilty of anything. This case deals with an officer who treated someone’s invocation of his rights as the Constitutional approval he needed to search him. He was wrong. (via FourthAmendment.com)

It all started with a traffic stop that really wasn’t a traffic stop. Two officers staking out a “high-crime area” decided to follow a van that drove by them. After discovering the plate on the van actually belonged to a Chevy Silverado, the officers decided to initiate a stop. But it was too late. The van had already reached its destination and was parked in a driveway. The officers pulled up behind it and parked, exiting their car to speak to the driver. By the time they did this, the passenger, Antonio Arrington, had already exited the vehicle and headed towards the house.

While passengers can be questioned and searched in vehicles during traffic stops, Arrington was no longer in the van when the cops pulled up behind the vehicle to perform their “stop.” Arrington argued the officers had no reasonable suspicion to detain him and question him — acts that led to the discovery of drugs and a weapon.

Arrington is right, the court says [PDF]:

The Court agrees and makes two critical findings: (1) by the time Fryt initiated the traffic stop, Arrington was no longer a passenger in the van, was on private property doing nothing suspicious, and should never have been subject to an investigation in connection with the traffic stop; and (2) even if Arrington was still a passenger when the traffic stop was initiated, Norris admitted the only focus of his investigation was to investigate Arrington for other criminal activity. For this, he did not have the reasonable, articulable suspicion necessary for a continued investigatory detention.

The court says the traffic stop (such as it were) was justified. And that could have encompassed Arrington if he had still been in the vehicle. But the Supreme Court’s Rodriguez decision doesn’t just affect drivers. It also affects passengers. The speedy, but unrelated, criminal investigation is still a violation of rights, even if did not “unreasonably” prolong the stop. It’s the expansion that’s the problem.

In sharp contrast to Stepp, this Court knows exactly what Norris – the backup officer – was doing: he admittedly did not ask any questions about the traffic investigation. While not prolonged by the addition of time, the original traffic investigation was certainly unreasonably expanded. Rodriguez cautions that the reasonableness of the stop depends on what the police officer in fact does. Rodriguez, 575 U.S. at 357 (citing Knowles, 525 U.S. at 115-17). Norris – in fact – engaged in an investigation unrelated to the traffic stop.

Officer Norris tried to argue he did have reasonable suspicion to detain Arrington.

In concluding that Arrington was engaged in criminal activity, Norris testified that he relied upon only three things: (1) Arrington attempted to divert attention from himself by speaking loudly; (2) Arrington would not tell Norris what was in his pockets; and (3) Norris noticed an “irregular bulge” in Arrington’s pocket.

But the first of those three things was Arrington loudly telling the officer to leave him alone because he (correctly) knew his rights.

Officer Norris did not testify that Arrington became noticeably more nervous as time progressed. In fact, Arrington’s agitation with officers seemed to result from his repeated requests that they terminate his encounter when he informed them that he understood his legal rights.

That’s not acceptable, says the court.

Just as numerous courts have stated nervousness cannot be a reliable indicator of criminal activity, loudly asserting one’s right to terminate an encounter with officers does not provide reasonable suspicion for continued investigation of suspected criminal activity.

And, in a but-for-video twist, Norris’ own body camera made it clear the officer’s sworn assertions about Arrington’s behavior during the stop were untrue.

While Officer Norris testified that Arrington failed to comply with his commands, body camera video indicates otherwise. Arrington adhered to officers’ requests: (1) for his name; (2) for his relation to the property owner; (3) to see items in his pocket; and (4) to lift up his sweatshirt so officers could see that he did not have a weapon concealed in his waistband. This sequence of events substantially discounts the assertion that Arrington failed to follow basic commands or attempted to divert Norris’ attention from his pockets. Accordingly, the Court gives little weight to this in the reasonable suspicion calculus.

Everything seized during this stop is now gone, as if it had never been discovered. Considering this end result, the officer would have been better off listening to Arrington and deciding not to violate the rights he correctly invoked. Reasonable suspicion only exists when it’s reasonable, and here it was anything but.

Filed Under: 4th amendment, antonio arrington, law enforcement, police, rights, suspicious behavior, traffic stop

ACLU Asks CBP Why It's Threatening US Citizens With Arrest For Refusing Invasive Device Searches

from the I-assume-'because-fuck-you,-that's-why'-is-the-answer-we'll-be-g dept

Just a reminder this is the sort of thing that is happening at our borders with exponentially-increasing frequency.

The agents proceeded to search my belongings and demanded that I unlock my smartphone and laptop. This was rather concerning for me. My phone and laptop are property of my employer and contain unreleased software and proprietary information. I’ve signed a non-disclosure agreement promising not to give anyone access.

Because I was uncertain about my legal responsibilities to my employer, I asked the agents if I could speak to my employer or an attorney before unlocking my devices. This request seemed to aggravate the customs officers. They informed me that I had no right to speak to an attorney at the border despite being a U.S. citizen, and threatened me that failure to immediately comply with their demand is a violation of federal criminal code 18 USC 111.

Those are the words of Andreas Gal, Apple engineer and outspoken defender of online privacy. Gal is a US citizen, not that you’d know that from the treatment he received from the CBP. Gal also has “Global Entry” status, which provides “expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travelers upon arrival in the United States.”

Global Entry is the CBP’s version of the TSA’s Precheck program. In both cases, the federal government is willing to respect a bit more of your rights in exchange for a lot of personal info and a bit of cash. You can see how well that’s working out for Gal, who was told he could not speak to an attorney and would be arrested if he did not allow agents to search his devices. In addition, he was told his Global Entry status would be revoked and was only allowed to exit the CBP’s custody by leaving his devices behind so the CBP could search them at its leisure.

The ACLU has lodged a formal complaint [PDF] with the CBP, demanding answers for its refusal to treat an American citizen like an American citizen.

CBP must ensure that its officers comply with the U.S. Constitution. Even at the border, the search of an electronic device is governed by the Fourth Amendment. To satisfy Ninth Circuit and Supreme Court law concerning electronic searches, any such search should be based on a warrant and be limited in scope to information relevant to the agency’s legitimate purpose in conducting the search. The attempted unconstitutional search of Dr. Gal’s devices illustrates that CBP’s policies do not in fact include the requirements necessary to safeguard the constitutional rights of people at the border.

The CBP has been given a lot of latitude to perform extensive searches at the border. But officers still need reasonable suspicion to demand US citizens unlock their devices for examination. Sadly, there’s still no warrant requirement at the border, even after the Supreme Court’s Riley decision. Multiple courts have held that securing our borders from threats like privacy advocates and Apple engineers is more important than respecting the rights the Founding Fathers said we were guaranteed.

The ACLU’s complaint letter suggests another complaint is on its way to a federal court.

There was no basis for Dr. Gal to be detained and interrogated by “TTRT” officers with special training in “counterterrorism response.” Dr. Gal entered the United States as a holder of Global Entry status, available only to “low-risk” individuals. And Dr. Gal has been an entrepreneur, technologist, and public figure for decades. Designating Dr. Gal for interrogation by “TTRT” indicates that Dr. Gal was targeted because of his exercise of his First Amendment rights in expressing viewpoints that may be disfavored by the federal government.

Compounding violations is never a smart move, but courts have handed so much Constitutional slack to border agencies, it will be tough to step over the pile of ignored rights to secure a victory. But every challenge edges us closer to a decision that may finally find the federal government isn’t free to ignore rights its supposed to be protecting just because there’s a border involved.

(Hat tip to Techdirt Insider Jeffrey Nonken who dropped a link related to this story into our Insider Chat. And a hat tip to all the Insiders in the chat who are always dropping useful and interesting links into the sidebar of this site!)

Filed Under: andreas gal, cbp, civil liberties, device searches, global entry, privacy, rights
Companies: aclu, apple