Newsletter Archives
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The right to be sued
ISSUE 20.19 • 2023-05-08 LEGAL BRIEF
By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.
Law students are sometimes puzzled by the section of the Corporations Statute saying that corporations have the right to be sued.
Why, they wonder, would anyone want to be sued? Wouldn’t it be better to have the right not to be sued?
The answer is subtle.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.19.0, 2023-05-08).
This story also appears in our public Newsletter. -
Your call is very important — to you
LEGAL BRIEF
By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.
You may have had the experience. You sign up for a service simply by clicking on a link, then wait on hold endlessly to solve a problem or cancel the service.
It may be small comfort, but you are not alone. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has recognized the pervasiveness of the phenomenon and has proposed a new rule to deal with it.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.15.0, 2023-04-10).
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You are rich!
ISSUE 20.07 • 2023-02-13 LEGAL BRIEF
By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.
You may not realize that you have a valuable asset, one that companies are willing to pay big bucks for.
Unfortunately (for you), to date those companies have paid the big bucks to someone else: $76 billion to Google in the last quarter of 2022, $31 billion to Amazon for advertising alone last year. Those companies (and others) are selling access to your personal information. There is nothing illegal about that — you willingly (although perhaps not purposely) provided them the information.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.07.0, 2023-02-13).
This story also appears in our public Newsletter. -
Note to Congress: Please try to keep up
LEGAL BRIEF
By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.
That’s a big ask.
In a previous column, I explained why law always lags technology.
To summarize, case law is by definition reactive. Courts don’t go out and look for cases; they wait for someone to be upset enough to bring one to them. Legislatures can be proactive, but they can’t act until they realize there’s a problem to be acted upon. So it is not surprising that new issues will arise, and we will need to be patient while solutions are agreed upon.
But …
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.02.0, 2023-01-09).
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The Council of Truth and Wide Diversity
LEGAL BRIEF
By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.
Elon Musk now owns Twitter and has announced that it will return to being a platform for free speech.
With exceptions, of course.
While the Twitterverse was all atwitter about the acquisition, Musk explained what he meant.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.46.0, 2022-11-14).
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Space flight is impossible
LEGAL BRIEF
By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.
I read it in the New York Times.
Two cases currently making their way through the federal court system may determine what you will or will not be able to post and see on the Internet.
The states of Missouri and Louisiana have sued President Biden, his former press secretary Psaki, Surgeon General Murthy, HHS Secretary Becerra, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (and Chief Medical Advisor to the President) Fauci, Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas, Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Easterly, and Director Jankowicz of the so-called “Disinformation Governance Board” of the Department of Homeland Security.
The suit is, as would be expected, highly political. Putting aside the specific allegations of the case, it does raise important issues for the control of social media.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.39.0, 2022-09-26).
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The new privacy policy’s here! The new privacy policy’s here!
ISSUE 19.32 • 2022-08-08 LEGAL BRIEF
By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.
On July 26, Meta (aka Facebook) changed its privacy policy.
So this is a good time to ask two questions: what’s in the new policy, and what should you do about it?
You can find the new privacy policy here. Settle in — it’s enormous.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.32.0, 2022-08-08).
This story also appears in our public Newsletter. -
The right to repair
ISSUE 19.26 • 2022-06-27 Look for our special issue on July 4, 2022! LEGAL BRIEF
By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.
Purchasing a product gives you broad rights to do with it as you please.
Those rights are not unlimited. For example, you can’t drive your new Ferrari through town at 120 mph; you can’t use your new hammer to smash anyone’s thumb but your own.
Those rights are also limited by two legal constraints: you cannot infringe on someone else’s intellectual property rights, and you cannot use the product in a way you promised not to by entering into a contract to that effect.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.26.0, 2022-06-27).
This story also appears in our public Newsletter. -
The one thing you need to know about the metaverse
ISSUE 19.19 • 2022-05-09 LEGAL BRIEF
By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.
Nike is trying to convince a court that the metaverse is a real place, where the rules of the real world (as I think of it) do not apply.
If it succeeds, it will be a revolution in thinking on a par with the introduction of the theory of relativity. Because the one thing you need to know about the metaverse is this — it is not real. The tools that create the metaverse create projections into the real world, but the metaverse itself is no more real than Pandora.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.19.0, 2022-05-09).
This story also appears in our public Newsletter. -
Trust no one: The case for blockchain
ISSUE 19.09 • 2022-02-28 LEGAL BRIEF
By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.
How you read the title above says a lot about how you should approach blockchain and its popular implementations (cryptocurrency and NFTs).
If you read it as “there is no one who can be trusted,” then cryptocurrency may be of interest as a way to keep your finances hidden from the prying eyes of others (perhaps, notably, the government). However, if you read it as “trust the crowd rather than anyone in particular,” then blockchain may offer the means for reaching your goal, offering a way to establish ownership without having to trust any one individual or entity. In either case, you are using a tool and should respect its limitations and risks.
Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 19.09.0 (2022-02-28).
This story also appears in the AskWoody Newsletter 19.09.F (2022-02-28).