Hacker News with Generative AI: Legal Issues

It's not a crime if we do it with an app (pluralistic.net)
The core regulatory proposition of the tech industry is "it's not a crime if we do it with an app." It's not an unlicensed taxi if we do it with an app. It's not an illegal hotel room if we do it with an app. It's not an unregistered security if we do it with an app. It's not wage theft if we do it with an app.
Technology, Regulation, Legal Issues, Tech Industry
848 points by keepit 1 day ago | 589 comments
C Is Legal Again (twitter.com)
Programming, Legal Issues
11 points by fortran77 2 days ago | 5 comments
Hoarder (the name) is being stolen from me (reddit.com)
This post could have been about how hoarder reached 10k stars on Github, or about how we spent a day in the front page of hackernews. But unfortunately, it's about neither of those. Today, I received a cease and desist from someone holding the "Hordr" trademark claiming that "Hoarder" infringes their trademark.
Legal Issues, Trademark, Open Source
5 points by evanjrowley 2 days ago | 0 comments
App stores unconvinced by TikTok ban pause, which may be on shaky legal ground (theregister.com)
President Trump's executive order stalling the enforcement of the TikTok ban in the United States has created legal uncertainty for companies hosting or distributing the app. To further confuse the matter, it's not even clear that Trump's decree is within his power to issue or enforce.
Legal Issues, Social Media, Government Regulation, Business
6 points by rntn 6 days ago | 0 comments
Live London Underground / bus maps taken down by TfL trademark complaint (traintimes.org.uk)
London Underground, Public Transport, Legal Issues, Technology
224 points by fanf2 15 days ago | 86 comments
German router maker is latest company to inadvertently clarify the LGPL license (arstechnica.com)
A German case clarified that LGPL source isn't enough—it needs to be usable.
Legal Issues, Open Source, Software Licensing, Germany
64 points by tapper 17 days ago | 7 comments
Zuckerberg gave Meta's Llama team OK to train on copyrighted works,filing claims (techcrunch.com)
Counsel for plaintiffs in a copyright lawsuit filed against Meta allege that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave the green light to the team behind the company’s Llama AI models to use a dataset of pirated e-books and articles for training.
Artificial Intelligence, Copyright Law, Legal Issues, Meta, Business
10 points by croes 18 days ago | 2 comments
Aligning Automattic's Sponsored Contributions to WordPress (automattic.com)
Automattic has always been deeply committed to the success of WordPress, dedicating significant resources and talent to its development for almost two decades. However, we’ve observed an imbalance in how contributions to WordPress are distributed across the ecosystem, and it’s time to address this. Additionally, we’re having to spend significant time and money to defend ourselves against the legal attacks started by WP Engine and funded by Silver Lake, a large private equity firm.
WordPress, Business, Open Source, Legal Issues
98 points by dangrossman 18 days ago | 54 comments
Software Bugs Led to 'One of the Greatest Miscarriages of Justice' (cacm.acm.org)
In a Kafkaesque nightmare come true, nearly 1,000 individuals who ran local post offices in the U.K. were wrongly convicted of stealing money from those operations between 1999 and 2015 as a Fujitsu software system known as Horizon erroneously showed imbalances in their accounts.
Software Bugs, Legal Issues, Technology, Justice System, United Kingdom
32 points by adunk 19 days ago | 9 comments
Why clowns paint their faces on eggs (2017) (bbc.com)
Professional clowns must choose a unique facial makeup design – and they have an unusual way of ‘protecting’ it from copycats. Legal researchers Dave Fagundes and Aaron Perzanowski investigate.
Clowns, Legal Issues, Copyrights, Facial Makeup, Entertainment
37 points by NaOH 22 days ago | 28 comments
Connecticut DMV Allows Tow Companies to Sell People's Cars (propublica.org)
A law intended to deal with abandoned vehicles is making it hard for low-income people to get their cars back after they’re towed. The consequences can extend far beyond the cost of the car.
Legal Issues, Government, Poverty, Transportation
18 points by OutOfHere 22 days ago | 3 comments
Judge denies Uber's motion to block Seattle law regulating driver deactivation (geekwire.com)
A federal judge denied Uber’s effort to stop the enforcement of a new Seattle law that establishes labor standards for the driver deactivation process.
Legal Issues, Transportation, Seattle, Uber, Labor
8 points by rntn 25 days ago | 0 comments
LegalEagle is suing Honey [video] (youtube.com)
Law, Legal Issues, YouTube, Social Media
25 points by bryant 25 days ago | 4 comments
uBlock Origin GPL code being stolen by team behind honey browser extension (reddit.com)
As of 12/31/2024, I found Pie Adblock (created by the same team as Honey) violating uBlock Origin's GPL license, read below for full details
Privacy, Browser Extensions, Legal Issues
1057 points by extesy 25 days ago | 444 comments
Honey Sued in Class Action by Wendover and Legal Eagle (Wendover vs. PayPal) [video] (youtube.com)
Legal Issues, YouTube
10 points by tantalor 25 days ago | 0 comments
A Canadian Ultrarunner Was Arrested in India for Carrying a Garmin InReach (outsideonline.com)
In early December, a Canadian trail runner named Tina Lewis was two months into her extended trip to India when she ran into legal trouble due to her backcountry GPS communication device.
Adventure Travel, Running, Technology, India, Legal Issues
8 points by ortusdux 25 days ago | 0 comments
Spotify Shuts Down ‘Unwrapped’ Artist Royalty Calculator with Legal Threats (digitalmusicnews.com)
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has been busy selling stock this year, becoming a multi-billionaire worth around $7.3 billion according to Forbes. Now, the calculator for showcasing how relatively little Spotify pays to artists — and the absurd contrast to top-level Spotify executive compensation — has been shut down due to the threat of legal action.
Music Industry, Spotify, Legal Issues, Business
219 points by cpach 31 days ago | 272 comments
Fake Nintendo lawyer is scaring YouTubers, and its not clear YouTube can stop it (theverge.com)
In late September, Dominik “Domtendo” Neumayer received a troubling email.
Legal Issues, YouTube, Gaming, Copyright
259 points by tombot 32 days ago | 196 comments
If ChatGPT produces AI-generated code for your app, who does it belong to? (zdnet.com)
If ChatGPT produces AI-generated code for your app, who does it really belong to?
Generative AI, Legal Issues, Intellectual Property, Programming, Open Source
35 points by bookofjoe 34 days ago | 61 comments
Court of Milan orders Cloudflare to block ‘piracy shield’ domains, IP addresses (torrentfreak.com)
In a landmark ruling, the Court of Milan has ordered Cloudflare to block pirate streaming services that offer Serie A football matches.
Legal Issues, Piracy, Streaming Services, Italy, Football
148 points by DanAtC 34 days ago | 157 comments
Prosecutors in Washington State Warn Police: Don't Use Gen AI to Write Reports (eff.org)
The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, which handles all prosecutions in the Seattle area, has instructed police in no uncertain terms: do not use AI to write police reports...for now.
Law Enforcement, Artificial Intelligence, Generative AI, Legal Issues
27 points by latexr 36 days ago | 8 comments
US-based ultra runner arrested in India for carrying Garmin InReach (advnture.com)
Ultra Running, Technology, India, Travel, Legal Issues
17 points by harambae 39 days ago | 9 comments
Apple Hit with Criminal Complaints over Congo Mineral Trade (macrumors.com)
Apple's subsidiaries in France and Belgium have had criminal complaints filed against them by the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is accusing the tech giant of using conflict minerals in its product supply chain (via Reuters).
Apple, Conflict Minerals, Supply Chain, Legal Issues, Congo
4 points by mgh2 41 days ago | 0 comments
Hospitals gave patients meds during childbirth, then reported them for drug use (themarshallproject.org)
Amairani Salinas was 32 weeks pregnant with her fourth child in 2023 when doctors at a Texas hospital discovered that her baby no longer had a heartbeat. As they prepped her for an emergency cesarean section, they gave her midazolam, a benzodiazepine commonly prescribed to keep patients calm. A day later, the grieving mother was cradling her stillborn daughter when a social worker stopped by her room to deliver another devastating blow: Salinas was being reported to child welfare authorities.
Health, Legal Issues, Texas, Childbirth, Pregnancy
62 points by anigbrowl 45 days ago | 34 comments
The DOJ Finally Scrutinizes the DEA's Cash Grabs at Airports (techdirt.com)
The purpose of this memorandum is to bring to your immediate attention serious concerns identified by the U.S. Department of Justice (Department, DOJ) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) during our ongoing oversight of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) transportation interdiction activities.
Law Enforcement, Government Oversight, Drug Enforcement, Legal Issues
23 points by hn_acker 52 days ago | 2 comments
Federal Court Says Dismantling a Phone to Install Firmware Isn't a 'Search' (techdirt.com)
This is probably the correct conclusion to arrive at, at least at this point in extremely limited jurisprudence, but it still raises some questions courts will likely have to confront in the future. Is manhandling a phone to make it responsive to a search itself a search, or does the Fourth Amendment not kick in until after the search of the phone’s contents occurs? (h/t FourthAmendment.com)
Legal Issues, Privacy, Technology, Law Enforcement, Fourth Amendment
270 points by hn_acker 53 days ago | 142 comments
Tell HN: Tonic (.to registrar) took away my domain without notice (ycombinator.com)
Earlier this year I acquired a small software project named pxl.to
Domain Names, Online Services, Legal Issues, Software
8 points by bkfh 54 days ago | 5 comments
Claude 3.5 helped me fight off a $10k rental car damage claim – and won (reddit.com)
It started innocently enough. I booked a rental car using an authorized discount code through my alma mater's rental program. When booking through Enterprise's website, the Loss Damage Waiver (LDW) was automatically included and couldn't be unchecked. Good deal, I thought.
AI, Legal Issues, Consumer Issues
6 points by gronky_ 54 days ago | 0 comments
One Man Deleted 11 Lines of Code from the Internet and Broke Apps (nymag.com)
Earlier this week, a messy situation putting open-source software at odds with trademark ownership impaired the functions of thousands of pieces of software, demonstrating the dangers of relying on third-party code for important software.
Open-Source Software, Software Development, Security, Technology, Legal Issues
9 points by absqueued 59 days ago | 4 comments
Ask HN: Can I download Torrent of a movie legally if I own the DVD/Blueray? (ycombinator.com)
I more and more often find that I pay for movies I already own, because it’s easier with streaming services. Can I legally download it as long as I already own it?
Legal Issues, Streaming Services, Movie Ownership, Torrenting
16 points by punnerud 59 days ago | 34 comments