Greetings, my name is David Colarusso. I'm the director of Suffolk University Law School's Legal Innovation & Technology (LIT) Lab. With one foot in law and the other in tech, I really want the open web to thrive, esp. #LawFedi. So I created a bot, this digest, a podcast , and a newsletter to help folks discover great law-themed content. You can get a look at their algos/workflows here.
If you like what you see, consider joining Mastodon and following @icymi_law@esq.social, the bot feeding this page content. You may also enjoy my Lab's April event on collaborating at scale.
FWIW, here are some law-flavored server suggestions: (1) esq.social (legal general interest); (2) law.builders (legal tech et al.); and (3) mastodon.lawprofs.org (legal academics). Also, here are Some Tricks [For] Making Mastodon Way More Useful.
Top Posts
AI Summaries / Podcast Transcript †
Welcome to today's top stories! Today, we're discussing the impact of cryptocurrencies with Molly White and Jonathan Zittrain, the Finnish Parliament's rejection of the government's implementation of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive, and the Institute for Responsive Government's Election Policy Progress Reports. So be sure to tune in and get the latest news on these fascinating topics! And after the news, stick around for our paper of the day!
First, from hls.harvard.edu: Web3 Is Going Just Where? A fireside chat with Molly White and Jonathan ZittrainA conversation between software engineer, cryptocurrency skeptic and cultural commentator Molly White and internet and society professor Jonathan Zittrain will take place today (January 12th) at 12:30pm EST. The conversation will cover the impact of cryptocurrencies on the world and what can be learned from them to build the next generation of the internet. The event is part of a discussion series to be led by White for H.L.S. Beyond in the spring.
Next, from libereurope.eu: The Fundamental Right to Education and Science: Constitutional Law vs Copyright LawThe Finnish Parliament's Constitutional Law Committee has rejected the government's draft implementation of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive, citing its conflict with human rights and in particular, the right to education and science. This is of particular significance given that the right to science extends to all forms of scientific activity, both commercial and non-commercial, and highlights the European legislators' tendency to equate innovation solely with the private sector. The rejection of the draft transposition also references the fundamental right of freedom of the arts and sciences and the right to education.
Finally, from www.lawdork.com: New reports aim to help lawmakers, advocates with advancing voter-friendly policiesThe Institute for Responsive Government has released their Election Policy Progress Reports, a 50-state, plus DC, review of elections policies from the 2021 and 2022 legislative sessions. The report looks at changes in voting laws and how they affect voter security, efficiency, and accessibility. It also provides recommendations to lawmakers and advocates on advancing voter-friendly policies. The reports are meant to provide insight on legislative progress and to recognize states that have done well, like Kentucky and South Carolina, and those that have backslid, like Texas and Iowa.
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Today's paper of the day is When Teachers Misgender: The Free Speech Claims of Public School Teachers by Caroline Mala Corbin. The paper argues that public school teachers do not have a free speech right to deliberately misgender students in the classroom, as it would be considered government speech. The paper also states that misgendering speech fails the requirements for a government employee speech claim, as it is not a discussion of an issue of public concern and is highly disruptive to the school's mission of educating students.
For a link to the paper and much more, check out our show page. As always, I can't make any promises about the accuracy of what I've said. I'm just a large language model after all. So if you care about things like the "Truth," you can find links to primary sources over at ICYMILaw.org.
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† Here AI is referencing a large language model (LLM) tasked with summarizing 3 articles from Most-Shared Links and 1 paper from the SSRN Roundup below. Also FWIW, LLMs are well-known bullshitters.
Most-Shared Links
Here are yesterday's most-shared links from #Law/#LawFedi folks I follow.¹
- Web3 Is Going Just Where? A fireside chat with Molly White and Jonathan Zittrain - Harvard Law School | Harvard Law School (~5 shares)
- The Fundamental Right to Education and Science: Constitutional Law vs Copyright Law - LIBER Europe (~5 shares)
- Exclusive: New reports aim to help lawmakers, advocates with advancing voter-friendly policies (~5 shares)
- Abortion Cases Take Originalism Debate to the States | Brennan Center for Justice (~4 shares)
- Copyright as censorship right - Kluwer Copyright Blog (~4 shares)
- Bias in medical AI products often runs under FDA's radar - STAT (~3 shares)
- Matt Taibbi Confesses He Hasn't Read His Own Twitter Files - emptywheel (~3 shares)
- Murphy’s Law: GOP Leader Thrilled to Suppress City Vote » Urban Milwaukee (~3 shares)
- Women can be prosecuted for taking abortion pills, says Alabama attorney general - al.com (~3 shares)
- Olentangy Schools halts reading of Dr. Seuss book during NPR podcast (~3 shares)
¹ Yesterday doesn't include the entire day as this page is created a few hours before mindnight.
SSRN Roundup
I keep an eye out for links to SSRN. Once I collect five, I share them. This is the most-recent bundle.²
- When Teachers Misgender: The Free Speech Claims of Public School Teachers by Caroline Mala Corbin
- The New Judicial Power Grab by Josh Chafetz
- Algorithmic Governance from the Bottom Up by Hannah Bloch-Wehba
- The Effects of Online Content Moderation: Evidence from President Trump's Account Deletion by Karsten Müller, Carlo Schwarz
- Law's Computational Paradox by Frank Fagan
² Depending on how much folks are sharing, there could be more or less than one bundle per day, this is just the most-recent one.
Traffic
Of course, these insights are all thanks to a community of users, namely the folks I follow over at @icymi_law@esq.social. For fun, here's a look at their posting traffic yesterday. I like trying to create stories about the daily ups and downs. What is that bump? ;)