Happy to release (with Jerry Kang and @alanindc.bsky.social) Edition 9.0 of our Communications Law casebook. If you're reporting on or studying dense telecom topics like the fracas over broadcast TV licenses, this book is meant as a gentle, conceptual introduction to the field. (And it's free!)

While Cook/Slaughter demolish much of what's left of the foundations of modern administrative law, I think a remaining separation-of-powers red line sits at the door of Congress itself in the dispute over the leadership of the Library of Congress and the Copyright Office. Initial reactions here...

Anthony Michael Kreis@anthonymkreis.bsky.social · last mo.

This is the most transparently absurd set of twin decisions in Cook and Slaughter.

Another new piece: Jawbreaking and Counterboning, now out in @connlrev.bsky.social. It uses the FCC Chair's threats over Jimmy Kimmel to explore the role of corporate resistance to unlawful demands and the weird dynamics of making the First Amendment ~mandatory. 1/2 papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Law and policy try to encompass a lot of different threat models but "mendacious children with bare-metal control over discourse and information flow and entrusted with the fate of the global economy" is a pretty tough one to handle

Elizabeth Lopatto@lopatto.bsky.social · 3mo ago

maybe I do not count as a professional but I did just spend a month in court hammering home home much OpenAI and xAI are run by mendacious children. saw a lot of other outlets covering it too...

Emerging from lurk to drop the final version of Separation of Copyright Powers, my new explainer on all the legal and historical puzzle boxes surrounding the administration's attempt to take over the Library of Congress and the Copyright Office. A quick summary... 1/ papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

This is probably preaching to the choir here, but @jonathanzong.com and @frank.computer have a 🔥 new @techpolicypress.bsky.social op-ed on how AI co-opts, tokenizes, denigrates, and drains the political economy of disability rights. 1/2

The Web Is Being Made Accessible for AI, Not People

Jonathan Zong and Frank Elavsky critique how AI-driven infrastructure changes obscure accessibility and reveal whose needs society chooses to prioritize.

techpolicy.press

so glad I sat through three weeks of trial for this

Legendary, inspiring, bucket-list show. Karina and Elyse still hit album-perfect harmonies, way faster than the record, at altitude, 25 years later. Jason, Mikey, @gavinhammon.bsky.social, and Jon killed it. One of the first bands I ever really loved as a kid. What a gift to finally see them play. 🙌

Blake E. Reid@chup.blakereid.org · 3mo ago

In good news: Dance Hall Crashers are, somehow, playing my town tomorrow night. They put out one of the best live albums ever recorded, I never got to see them, and I was sure they would never play again. And yet! This is like finding out that space aliens have scheduled a press conference.

In good news: Dance Hall Crashers are, somehow, playing my town tomorrow night. They put out one of the best live albums ever recorded, I never got to see them, and I was sure they would never play again. And yet! This is like finding out that space aliens have scheduled a press conference.

Breaking hiatus to flag @masnick.com's thoughtful piece riffing on my thread's social-media-burnout theme to explain his vision for protocols, AI tools, and more. Resisting the urge to comment deeply, but as usual I both disagree a bit with Mike's thinking yet appreciate where he's coming from. 1/3

Stop Begging Big Tech To Fix Your Social Media Experience. You Can Do It Yourself.

Disclaimer: This post talks about Bluesky and an offering from Bluesky and I am on the Bluesky board. Take everything I say with whatever size grains of salt you feel is appropriate. I’ve wri…

techdirt.com

Blake E. Reid@chup.blakereid.org · 4mo ago

I had a natural experiment of being ~totally off social media for a few months (from ~Nov-February) and then coming back on, nominally for work and getting sucked back in, for the couple months since then. It's time for a break. Some non-prescriptive, semi-annual going-back-on-hiatus reflections: 1/

CRITICAL 1201 COMMENTER RANKING NEWS!!!! Thx to @chup.blakereid.org feedback the 1201 commenter leaderboard has been updated to include even more comments: 1201.nyuengelberg.org/leaderboard/ ALSO, a 2nd word count-based board has entered the conversation: 1201.nyuengelberg.org/leaderboard/...

May his memory be an intrinsic and extrinsic blessing

Sid Krofft, 96, a Creator of Trippy Kids’ Shows Like ‘H.R. Pufnstuf,’ Dies

nytimes.com

I had a natural experiment of being ~totally off social media for a few months (from ~Nov-February) and then coming back on, nominally for work and getting sucked back in, for the couple months since then. It's time for a break. Some non-prescriptive, semi-annual going-back-on-hiatus reflections: 1/

Just incredible work by @michaelweinberg.org and team

Michael Weinberg@michaelweinberg.org · 4mo ago

NEW REPORT on the 1201(a)(1) process! (you may know it as the cell phone/mcflurry jailbreaking process) Every 3 years almost 100 nonprofits & clinics submit >1000 pages of comments asking for an exemption to a law that is almost never used. For what? www.nyuengelberg.org/outputs/unba...

Lotta people using “scaffolding” as a metaphor when they mean “armature.” Scaffolding is an exterior structure that allows construction to occur within it, armature is an interior framework around which something is built.

OpenAI's "industrial policy" doc is a helpful roadmap for the tropes they are about to flood the zone with (including via "research" grants) to influence law and policy. Look out for stuff like the "Right to AI," "democratization," "public-private collaboration," "open economy,"... 1/

Industrial policy for the Intelligence Age

Explore our ambitious, people-first industrial policy ideas for the AI era—focused on expanding opportunity, sharing prosperity, and building resilient institutions as advanced intelligence evolves.

openai.com

This rules

Ben Collins@bencollins.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Had no idea this existed, but Madi Diaz covering the entirety of Blink 182's Enema of the State is so good. These songs were always country songs and I'm glad somebody who's really good at this quieted them down.

Dying that a story about Meta *taking away the Oversight Board's money* which is a *thing Meta can do* still describes the Board as "independent governance." That Meta convinced reporters to continue using this framing even now is such an effective soft law op that Ma Bell-era AT&T is like "damn."

Exclusive: Meta has discussed ending funding to the Oversight Board

Shifting priorities and budget pressures could bring an end to the company’s experiment in independent governance, sources say

nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com

Reminder: the administration previously attempted to install the now-acting Attorney General as the acting Librarian of Congress (currently in litigation limbo before SCOTUS)

As many have noted, even one justice’s vote for the government’s racist, offensive, ahistorical and legally incoherent position would be a disaster and a travesty.

We’ll look into ways to take into account the preferences expressed by people who’ve blocked @attie.ai. The team has been making progress towards private accounts. There was a lot of good feedback on the tech at ATmosphereConf this week, and we’ll have more to share soon.

You: basic, hate the internet because of AI or social media brainrot or whatever. Me: wise, has always hated the internet, for killing off CD-ROMs

This is an excellent rundown of what I was getting at on the Vergecast this week - there just isn’t some competitive market that will generate better experiences for people, and there’s virtually no regulation, so instead we’re going to get real weird litigation forever. America, basically

Blake E. Reid@chup.blakereid.org · 4mo ago

Here’s a slightly longer version of my thinking on the social media verdicts. The trouble I see is that the problems with social media are so multifarious. Addictive design is part of the story, but there are so many more pathologies and harms. 🧵

Thank you for sharing this. In case anyone is interested, Audre Lorde's speech can be read here awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/communicatio...

This is an essential read, and the closing on credentialing versus engagement and "centering the people for whom the stakes are highest" in particular. (H/T @peachfleurr.bsky.social @robin.berjon.com)

On The Enshittification of Audre Lorde: "The Master's Tools" in Tech Discourse

🖼️Cover Photo: Train at the Nairobi terminus of the Mombasa–Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway. It runs parallel to the Uganda Railway that was completed in 1901. The first fare-paying passengers boarded ...

tarakiyee.com

Here’s a slightly longer version of my thinking on the social media verdicts. The trouble I see is that the problems with social media are so multifarious. Addictive design is part of the story, but there are so many more pathologies and harms. 🧵

Blake E. Reid@chup.blakereid.org · 4mo ago

TLDR: something will happen, IMO likely not as bad as libertarians fear but not nearly as good as progressives hope, with disparate distributive consequences.

Glad to chat with @thedextriarchy.bsky.social about the uncertain ramifications of the social media verdicts this week, on which @masnick.com and I are (surprisingly) not all that far apart.

Meta’s legal defeat could be a victory for children, or a loss for everyone

A jury said Instagram and YouTube are defective — now what?

theverge.com

I love FCC language in legal filings where staff know they are in trouble. "Waivers are permitted for good cause." In this case: "Good Cause" is defined by the FCC as exceeding the ownership cap set by Congress and removed from agency jurisdiction by...(checks notes)...um...205%.

FCC Defends Waiver Power In Nexstar-Tegna Merger Fight - Law360

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday defended its authority to waive the television station ownership cap and approve the transfers at the heart of Nexstar's $6.2 billion acquisition of T...

law360.com

It’s instructive how Wikipedia structured its political economy to make this choice in the face of strong contrary incentives

Jason Koebler@jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Wikipedia does what is essentially a full ban on AI content: www.404media.co/wikipedia-ba...

No matter your priors on this, remember that the ripple effects of these cases are going to be filtered through a cold, calculated rubric. No one is getting religion about the problems at the heart of the enterprise; no grand "fix" is in the works. It's just another day at the office.

dell cameron@dell.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Mark's ride-or-die comms bro is tweeting through it -- because having a jury find you've endangered the mental health of millions isn't a big deal apparently if it doesn't impact your bottom line.