Tag: laws
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Polyday Politics workshop
Grant ran a workshop on politics (and law) around polyamory, at a recent event. I wasn't there, but enjoyed reading his notes after-the-fact... and wanted to use the opportunity to share some of my own thoughts and experiences.
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F-Day plus 214
It's been 214 days since I had to evacuate my house following a flood, and repair work is (intermittently) underway. And there are so-many moving pieces to this dance that... it's little wonder that people are getting confused.
Like:
Our insurance company appointed a relocations specialist to handle our temporary accommodation needs (moving … -
New social media restrictions
Despite being parody, diamond geezer's new age-gating - which e.g. asks for personal information but, obviously, doesn't actually block access to the site - somehow perfectly straddles the line between "invasive" and "ineffective"... in exactly the same way that I expect the UK's legal implementation will manage in a year or two.
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Reply to: Sent to Coventry: Who is Princess Victor Duleep Singh?
In a longer article about the less-known Duleep Singh princesses, my friend Sundeep argued that it was inappropriate to describe Irene's death as her "committing suicide" because it implies criminality. One rabbithole of the laws of four countries later, I argue a (pointless) counterpoint.
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Run your own WireGuard VPN
I stopped paying for VPN services a decade ago and I haven't looked back. When I 'need' a VPN service, I just spin one up on cheap VM services, and then I throw it away when I'm done. It's cheaper and more-customisable... and if the UK goes ahead with an idea to age-gate VPN services, it might soon become more-convenient too.
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Actually, Yes! (that IS what my birth certificate says)
There's a certain kind of person who, upon hearing my unusual name, immediately asks whether that's what's on my birth certificate (with an underlying implication that it's not my 'real' name, whatever that means, if it isn't). Well: as of this week, thanks to a quirk in Scottish law, the name I've used every day for almost two decades DOES appear my birth certificate. Fuck the haters.
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How Online Privacy Has Been Championed by Dreamwidth
Coyote's written some solid words about how well Dreamwidth are standing up for user privacy and liberty against an increasingly hostile and censorship-ridden environment.
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I got kicked off LinkedIn this week. Apparently there was "suspicious behaviour" on my account. To get back in, I needed to go through Persona's digital ID check (this, despite the fact that I've got a Persona-powered verification on my LinkedIn, less than six months old).
After looping around many times identifying which way up a picture of a dog was and repeatedly photographing myself, my passport, and my driving license, I eventually got back in. Personally, I suspect they just rolled out some Online Safety Act functionality and it immediately tripped over my unusual name.
But let this be a reminder to anybody who (unlike me) depends upon their account in a social network: it can be taken away in a moment and be laborious (or impossible) to get back. If you care about your online presence, you should own your own domain name; simple as that!
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The Huge Grey Area in the Anthropic Ruling
The court ruling that declares Anthropic's use of (purchased) books as training material leaves a curious sorites paradox. If we assume that an LLM trained on only one book (and so only capable of producing content directly inspired by that book) would necessarily be copyright-infringing, at what number of books does that cease to be the case?
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"Trans former judge plans to challenge gender ruling at European court": https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9qw2149yelo
Representation matters. That we have a trans former-judge, somebody both well-equipped and motivated to escalate this important challenge to the ECHR, is hugely fortunate.
We need more representation (of trans people specifically, but many other groups too, and perhaps particularly in the intersections) in positions of power, expertise, and authority. To defend the human rights of all of us.
Wishing you luck, Victoria McCloud.
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Bloomberg's Terms
Chris Messina remarked about the insane terms and conditions that Bloomberg.com require you to agree to in order to read a news article, effectively signing away your rights. Except... I don't see the dialog: I just see the articles. I haven't given consent, and they can't conceivably prove to the contrary... 😈
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'All Americans legally female': Trump invites mockery with sloppy executive order
I'm not sure that President Trump knew what she was doing when three days ago she signed a law into effect that declares herself legally-female. But if that's how she identifies, then of course I'm happy to use her correct pronouns.
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US Constitution and Presidential Assassinations
A thought came to me this morning: if a US President-Elect dies before their inauguration, does their running mate automatically get the Presidency? Finding the answer led me through a warren of interconnected Constitutional Amendments.
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What the heck is going on with WordPress?
My colleague Paolo Belcastro invites you to play a little game: one of these phrases that begins "wp" is not like the others...
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WP Engine's Three Problems
Matt Mullenweg kicked off a battle of words between Automattic and the WordPress Foundation and hosting company WP Engine. Without weighing in on the legal aspects (IANAL), I've written up my thoughts.