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Adapting Advertising Infrastructure for Content Regulation: WIPO’s BRIP Blacklist

By Annemarie Bridy on July 8, 2019 at 2:27 pm

In the name of “brand safety,” advertisers these days are working hard to better control where their ads appear online. Programmatic advertising with real-time bidding automates the process of online ad buying and ad placement to such an extent that the entire process takes place in the time it takes a web page to load. The process is highly efficient, but a significant downside is that ads sometimes appear alongside controversial content with which an advertiser would rather not be associated. Online pornography is the classic example, but other strains of extreme content—e.g., hate speech, conspiracism, and incitement-to-terrorism—have more recently come into focus for advertisers as threats to brand reputation. Read more about Adapting Advertising Infrastructure for Content Regulation: WIPO’s BRIP Blacklist

How to beat a copycat.

By Ryan E. Long on July 2, 2019 at 2:10 pm

If you run a billion (or even million) dollar brand, does it make sense to spend a few thousand dollars to protect your mark from copycats? Or if you are a songwriter, does it make sense to spend thirty-five dollars to register a copyright on your song? The answer is yes. But the recent "SUPREME" trademark drama shows why this answer isn't so obvious to all. Read more about How to beat a copycat.

Bringing the Fight for Court Transparency to the Ninth Circuit

By Riana Pfefferkorn on June 20, 2019 at 5:09 pm

You may recall that in February, a federal district court in Fresno denied a petition I filed with the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Northern California, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation to attempt to shed light on the Department of Justice's attempt to force Facebook to break the encryption on its Messenger app for encrypted voice calls so that Facebook could carry out a wiretap order the DOJ had obtained. Read more about Bringing the Fight for Court Transparency to the Ninth Circuit

Thoughts on Baltimore's ongoing ransomware situation

By Richard Forno on June 5, 2019 at 4:45 am

The people of Baltimore are beginning their fifth week under an electronic siege that has prevented residents from obtaining building permits and business licenses – and even buying or selling homes. A year after hackers disrupted the city’s emergency services dispatch system, city workers throughout the city are unable to, among other things, use their government email accounts or conduct routine city business. Read more about Thoughts on Baltimore's ongoing ransomware situation

Tool Without A Handle: Guerilla Information Warfare

By Chuck Cosson on June 2, 2019 at 11:27 pm

The security of our news and media information systems matters as much as the security of personal and commercial information systems. "Information warfare" shows that harms can arise even when there is no unauthorized access, when tools are used as intended, and when there’s no compromise of user privacy settings. In both cases of cybersecurity and news/media security, the threats are asymmetric, the tools readily available, usable for many purposes, and threats are easily disguised as benign. Read more about Tool Without A Handle: Guerilla Information Warfare

Open Letter to GCHQ Regarding Threats Posed by their Ghost Proposal

By Richard Forno on May 30, 2019 at 7:15 am

Today I join several cybersecurity, civil liberties, civil society organizations and researchers in responding to the United Kingdom's GCHQ recent proposal to silently add 'ghost' users from law enforcement or the security services to online chats and calls, including those conducted via encrypted messaging tools like WhatApp, iMessage, or Signal. Read more about Open Letter to GCHQ Regarding Threats Posed by their Ghost Proposal

What Online Content Are We Regulating? Illegal Speech, Offensive Speech, and Platform Value

By Daphne Keller on May 6, 2019 at 10:28 am

This discussion, excerpted from my Who Do You Sue article, very briefly reviews the implications of what I call “must-carry” arguments – claims that operators of major Internet platforms should be held to the same First Amendment standards as the government, and prevented from using their Terms of Service or Community Guidelines to prohibit lawful speech. Read more about What Online Content Are We Regulating? Illegal Speech, Offensive Speech, and Platform Value

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