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Judge Alsup! Man it's so just so refreshing when people are competent and capable & know their stuff. Alsup and Senator Ron Wyden are the two people who reliab

Judge Alsup! Man it's so just so refreshing when people are competent and capable & know their stuff. Alsup and Senator Ron Wyden are the two people who reliably make me feel better about the intersection of technology and law. The topic here reminds me so strongly of Web Scraping for Me but not for Thee, which talks about how viciously companies are trying to fight scraping on the public internet. The use of contract law - writing whatever terms of use you want - to erode away at humanity's rights has been a long running war, and it's great to see some push back against companies being able to strip rights away from the public as they please (of course add in any DRM at all and suddenly that same exercise of rights is now a felony sooo don't get too happy yet). This could totally be a momentous red letter day! https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2023/08/web-scraping-for-me-but-not-for-thee-guest-blog-post.htm https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2023/08/web-scraping-f... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37264676 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37264676 (It's not like Bright Cove is some noble cause here, but use of clickwrap contract-law to rebuff loose coupling of systems, to prevent re-use & remix, is a totalizing & winnowing horror against the spirit of the internet & against human cause. And it's been creeping outward for way too long. Thanks Mark Lemley's Terms of Use for discussing, back in 2006.)

reaperman 3y ago
We are very lucky that Alsup seems to be handed so many of these cases. I don’t always entirely agree with his rulings on every point, but I am always incredibly reassured to see his name attached to an important case. I know the decision will be fair, informed, and not cause major problems for society or industry. Obligatory mention that Alsup taught himself Java so that he would have confidence evaluating arguments and evidence for Oracle vs. Google. Also I read this decision, and thought it was unusually well written, even for him. It’s unsurprising that he took notice of hiQ vs. LinkedIn but he made it very clear why this case did not intersect with that decision. I’m happy with this case because it clarifies the legal landscape even further for a broad swath of the industry. The scraping niche is still a place where many young entrepreneurs cut their teeth on their first enterprises, and it will be nice for them to avoid costly legal battles relitigating this common issue.

reaperman 3y ago

We are very lucky that Alsup seems to be handed so many of these cases. I don’t always entirely agree with his rulings on every point, but I am always incredibly reassured to see his name attached to an important case. I know the decision will be fair, informed, and not cause major problems for society or industry. Obligatory mention that Alsup taught himself Java so that he would have confidence evaluating arguments and evidence for Oracle vs. Google. Also I read this decision, and thought it was unusually well written, even for him. It’s unsurprising that he took notice of hiQ vs. LinkedIn but he made it very clear why this case did not intersect with that decision. I’m happy with this case because it clarifies the legal landscape even further for a broad swath of the industry. The scraping niche is still a place where many young entrepreneurs cut their teeth on their first enterprises, and it will be nice for them to avoid costly legal battles relitigating this common issue.