A few weeks ago we were shocked to learn that Playboy had, without notifying us, sued us over this post
(we learned about it when a journalist DM’ed us on Twitter to ask about
it). Today, we filed a motion to dismiss, asking the judge to throw out
this baseless, bizarre case. We really hope the courts see it our way,
for all our sakes.
Playboy’s lawsuit is based on an imaginary (and dangerous) version of US
copyright law that bears no connection to any US statute or precedent.
Playboy – once legendary champions for the First Amendment – now
advances a fringe copyright theory: that it is illegal to link to things
other people have posted on the web, on pain of millions in damages –
the kinds of sums that would put us (and every other small publisher in
America) out of business.
Rather than pursuing the individual who created the allegedly infringing
archive, Playboy is pursuing a news site for pointing out the archive’s
value as a historical document. In so doing, Playboy is seeking to
change the legal system so that deep-pocketed opponents of journalism
can shut down media organizations that displease them. It’s a law that
they could never get from Congress, but which they hope the courts will
conjure into existence by wiping us off the net.
It’s not just independent publishers who rely on the current state of
copyright law, either. Major media outlets (like Playboy!) routinely
link and embed media, without having to pay a lawyer to research the
copyright status of something someone else posted, before discussing,
explaining or criticizing it.
The world can’t afford a judgment against us in this case – it would
end the web as we know it, threatening everyone who publishes online,
from us five weirdos in our basements to multimillion-dollar,
globe-spanning publishing empires like Playboy.
As a group of people who have had long associations with Playboy,
reading the articles (really!) and sometimes writing them, we hope the
judge sees it our way – for our sakes… and for Playboy’s.
You can read our motion here, and EFF’s press release here. We’ll have more to say after the judge issues his ruling.
Here’s the introduction from our motion to dismiss:
This lawsuit is frankly mystifying. Playboy’s theory of liability
seems to be that it is illegal to link to material posted by others on
the web — an act performed daily by hundreds of millions of users of
Facebook and Twitter, and by journalists like the ones in Playboy’s
crosshairs here.
Defendant Happy Mutants, LLC (“Happy Mutants”) is the corporation
behind Boing Boing, a blog created and written by five people to share
“mostly wonderful things.” For three decades, Boing Boing has reported
on social, educational, political, scientific, and artistic developments
in popular culture, becoming one of the Internet’s leading sources of
news and commentary. Plaintiff Playboy Entertainment Group Inc.
(“Playboy”), an entertainment behemoth with a notable history of
defending freedom of the press, is suing this much smaller but important
news site for reporting on the existence of a collection of Playboy
centerfolds and linking to that collection. In other words, rather than
pursuing the individual who created the allegedly infringing archive,
Playboy is pursuing a news site for pointing out the archive’s value as a
historical document.
The facts pleaded in Playboy’s First Amended Complaint (“FAC”) do not
state a claim for either direct or contributory copyright infringement.
With respect to direct infringement, Playboy alleges that third
parties — not Boing Boing — posted the collection at issue, and that
Boing Boing made reference to that collection with a hyperlink. As for
secondary liability, Playboy does not allege facts that could show that
Boing Boing induced or materially contributed to direct infringement by
any third party. Playboy’s claim fails for these reasons alone.
What is more, Playboy’s own allegations show that further amendment
would be futile. Boing Boing’s post is a noninfringing fair use, made
for the favored and transformative purposes of news reporting,
criticism, and commentary so that the reader can, in the words of the
post in question, “see how our standards of hotness, and the art of
commercial erotic photography, have changed over time.”
The Court should dismiss Playboy’s First Amended Complaint with prejudice.
Naturally, this has triggered a flurry of stories delving into the
Hawai’ian emergency management agency, and a rush of editors looking for
stock art to illustrate it, leading to an old AP photo being unearthed.
The photo depicts Jeffrey Wong, an operations manger, standing by his
workstation, which flutters with yellow post-its; one of them clearly
reads “PASSWORD: warningpoint2.”
The agency has confirmed that this is a real password for an “internal
application,” but adds that it “wasn’t for any major piece of software.”
Motherboard reports that a university professor created an app that detects net neutrality violations –
that is, when service providers block, throttle, prioritize or
otherwise interfere with legal internet use. It’s like a speed-test app,
same as all the others, but with more detail and a serious research
goal in mind. Apple, sadly, finds it contains “objectionable content”
that lacks “direct benefits” to its users, unlike utilitarian AppStore
mainstays such as iFart: The Original Fart Sounds App and Thump Trump.
An Apple App Store reviewer told Choffnes that “your app has no
direct benefits to the user,” according to screenshots reviewed by
Motherboard. According to Apple’s reviewer, the app contained
“Objectionable Content,” a catch-all for apps that Apple doesn’t want to
let into its App Store. Apple is blocking the app and no one is quite
sure why, including Choffnes; neither Apple nor Verizon responded to
requests for comment for this article.
Wehe is is designed to be part of Choffnes’s research work to determine
geographic and carrier-related differences in video throttling. When you
open the app, you are presented with a consent form that “invites you
to take part in a research project.”
Can’t imagine why deep academic research, performed by the general
public at the app layer when the Senate is one vote from enshrining Net
Neutrality in law and permanently undermining the federal regulator that
ISPs spent years capturing, might set off alarm bells in the walled
garden at the world’s most profitable phone company
Last week, cowards from both sides of the aisle caved into America’s lawless spy agencies and made sure that Congress would not get a chance to vote on amendments to the renewal of Section 702,
the rule that has allowed the NSA to conduct mass, warrantless
surveillance on Americans in secret, without meaningful oversight or
limits.
It was a crushing defeat for anyone who cares about civil liberties, the
rule of law, and the Bill of Rights. In a stirring open letter,
Electronic Frontier Foundation executive director Cindy Cohn (previously)
gives us all the furious post-game analysis we need: people everywhere,
of every political persuasion, are waking up to the dangers of the mass
surveillance that the spies poisoned the digital world with, and their
time is running out. More people than ever, from more walks of life,
stood up for limits on Section 702, and that number will only grow from
here on in.
The legal challenges to NSA spying refuse to die. Toolsmiths are
hardening their systems against surveillance. And the NSA’s dirty
laundry keeps getting aired. Lather, rinse, repeat. A better world is
possible.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a Freedom of Information Act
request with the FBI seeking details of its surveillance policy – who
it spies upon, and how, and under what circumstances. The FBI sent back
two 50+ page memos in reply, each of them totally blacked out except for
some information on the title page.
#@ the entire rogue one cast and crew but especially diego luna: #WHO GAVE YOU PERMISSION #i would like to file a complaint #MY HEART #the moment that realization comes crashing down might…honestly be cassian’s least restrained moment in the entire film #one of them at any rate #even when he and jyn have their fight he keeps himself on a very tight leash #it’s clear that he feels very passionately about it but he’s almost ruthlessly in control of himself; he barely even raises his voice #that first gif though! that’s just unrestrained terror #he drops the mission itself to scream his friend’s name and run for the door #and that last gif! god. that uncomprehending grief #for a character who occupies the role of ‘guy who can improvise a plan on the spot when things go terribly wrong’ through the whole movie #that lost expression…says a lot #k2s0 #cassian andor #I have feels about them ok #star wars #rogue one #tag posts via @chamerionwrites
my favorite thing about this is that each of them is walking in a different direction, it’s like these girls are off to conquer the entire goddamn world
