Tag: Law

Take Facebook to Court

Opinion | We Should Be Able to Take Facebook to Court by Neema Singh Guliani (nytimes.com)

After The New York Times revealed last month that Facebook continued to share personal information of millions of consumers with companies like Netflix, Yahoo, Spotify and Google — despite contrary assertions to Congress — many people decided to delete their Facebook accounts. But if Facebook’s actions, as described by The Times, violated the law, consumers should be able to send an even more powerful message, one that could leave a much larger imprint on the company’s ledger books: suing the company for damages.

Facebook knows this and has been working to make it near impossible to do so.

Using Facebook's logic, if a therapist or lawyer knowingly shares privileged/private information of clients with a third-party, the clients have no legal recourse.

ABC Suspends Enforcement of Special Ruling on Breweries in New Jersey.

ABC Suspends Enforcement of Special Ruling Pending Additional Study! by South Jersey Beer Scene (South Jersey Beer Scene)

“We want to make sure that we get this right,” said ABC Director David Rible. “We are committed to supporting the state’s growing craft beer industry, while also balancing the concerns of other stakeholders and ensuring compliance with state law.”

ABC Suspends Enforcement of Special Ruling. In New York State, breweries are required by law to serve food. But New Jersey would prefer you to drink on an empty stomach.

ABC Suspends Enforcement of Special Ruling Pending Additional Study! by South Jersey Beer Scene (South Jersey Beer Scene)

“We want to make sure that we get this right,” said ABC Director David Rible. “We are committed to supporting the state’s growing craft beer industry, while also balancing the concerns of other stakeholders and ensuring compliance with state law.”

I hope a reasoble decision is made. The brewery tour experience in New Jersey is subpar compared to neighbouring states. In New York State, breweries are required by law to serve food so that patrons don't drink on an empty stomach. Which makes sense.

Autonomous Vehicle Thought Experiment

Test Case By Charlie Stross by Charlie Stross

Firstly, it's apparent that the current legal framework privileges corporations over individuals with respect to moral hazard. So I'm going to stick my neck out and predict that there's going to be a lot of lobbying money spent to ensure that this situation continues ... and that in the radiant Randian libertarian future, all self-driving cars will be owned by limited liability shell companies. Their "owners" will merely lease their services, and thus evade liability for any crash when they're not directly operating the controls. Indeed, the cars will probably sue any puny meatsack who has the temerity to vandalize their paint job with a gout of arterial blood, or traumatize their customers by screaming and crunching under their wheels.

Autonomous Vehicle Thought Experiment

Test Case By Charlie Stross by Charlie Stross

Firstly, it's apparent that the current legal framework privileges corporations over individuals with respect to moral hazard. So I'm going to stick my neck out and predict that there's going to be a lot of lobbying money spent to ensure that this situation continues ... and that in the radiant Randian libertarian future, all self-driving cars will be owned by limited liability shell companies. Their "owners" will merely lease their services, and thus evade liability for any crash when they're not directly operating the controls. Indeed, the cars will probably sue any puny meatsack who has the temerity to vandalize their paint job with a gout of arterial blood, or traumatize their customers by screaming and crunching under their wheels.

Sadly, I think the reasoning on liability for failures of autonomous vehicles will be driven by law and corporate risk avoidance and not on moral or ethics.