[Plura-list] AI, 1A and Citizens United; James Ball's "The System"; Canadian SFF Hall of Fame induction

Sat Aug 15 10:53:50 EDT 2020

Today's links

* AI, 1A and Citizens United: The lawyer behind Citizens United wants to
legalize Clearview AI.

* James Ball's "The System": My review of a superb new book that
surfaces the invisible infrastructure underpinning our digital world.

* Canadian SFF Hall of Fame induction: Today at 4PM Pacific.

* This day in history: 2005, 2015, 2019

* Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing
projects, current reading

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👾 AI, 1A and Citizens United

You've heard of Clearview AI: they're the grifty facial recognition
system with ties to violent white nationalist terrorists that scraped
social media for training data and then covertly sold unsupervised
access to cops, schools and businesses.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/06/robolawyers-vs-databrokers/#clearviewlied

As the Clearview story dribbled out in the press, the company insisted
that it was a responsible custodian of our faces and could be relied
upon to wield power with prudence and caution.

Then its entire customer database leaked.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/02/28/pluralistic-your-daily-link-dose-28-feb-2020/#petard

The company's in legal trouble but it has deep pockets, thanks to the
public monies it has trousered and the wealthy investors who showered it
with capital - men like John Catsimatidis, owner of New York's Gristedes
groceries.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/technology/clearview-investors.html

That capital has allowed to company to acquire a terrifying legal
weapon: the services of Floyd Abrams, the "First Amendment" lawyer who
successfully argued Citizens United, clearing the way for unlimited
corporate bribery in the US political process.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20200811/10003245090/clearview-hires-prominent-first-amendment-lawyer-to-argue-right-to-sell-scraped-data-to-cops.shtml

Abrams's argument is that there is a speech interest in Clearview's
ability to flog our faces to governments and corporations, that this is
"talking about us" and thus "speech" protected by the First Amendment.

Now, I know a lot of really top-notch #1A lawyers, and some true Free
Speech believers, and collectively, they sometimes support things I do
not - defending the speech rights of people who want to exterminate
others' speech rights, say.

Likewise, they sometimes fail to champion causes I believe in, like the
need to enforce competition law to protect pluralism in venues for
speech so that firms do not end up with undue control over our public
discourse.

https://locusmag.com/2020/01/cory-doctorow-inaction-is-a-form-of-action/

But despite these differences, I respect these people, because they have
a consistent set of well-articulated principles that come from a place
of deep moral conviction that is ultimately grounded in protecting the
views of disfavored minorities from bullies and autocrats.

Floyd Abrams's positions do not hew to that honest morality. Instead, he
defends contradictory speech positions seemingly based on who is signing
his paycheck.

For example, he argued that SOPA - which would remove internet users'
speech without due process in the name of defending copyright - did not
violated the First Amendment.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111111/16242216727/first-amendment-expert-floyd-abrams-admits-sopa-would-censor-protected-speech-thinks-its-okay-collateral-damage.shtml

As EFF Exec Director Cindy Cohn likes to say, "We know you love the
First Amendment, sir, we just wish you'd share."

As is so often the case with Abrams's speech positions, this Clearview
business will has profound implications for our democratic fundamentals.
In this case, the idea that the First Amendment protects the conveyance
of private information is irreconcilable with privacy law.

That is: if laws restricting the disclosure of private information
violate the First Amendment, then your privacy violates my right to free
speech: I can spy on you and everything you do, and sell or give away
the information I glean, and you can't do shit about it.

A precedent upholding Clearview's right to sell our faces would be a
potentially fatal blow to the longrunning, hard-fought battle to get a
US federal privacy statute with a private right of action, something
this country *desperately* needs.

Which is ironic, because the Constitutional bases for so many US privacy
decisions turn on the First Amendment: your ability to speak freely
depends on your ability to speak privately, so that powerful entities
like Abrams's clients can't retaliate against you.

Meanwhile, I'm guessing Abrams would - if paid - argue that
nondisclosure agreements crammed down the throats of employees and other
people with weak negotiating positions DON'T violate the 1A, because
people like Abrams love the First Amendment, but never want to share.

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👾 James Ball's "The System"

"The System" is a new book by James Ball, a Pulitzer-winning veteran of
both Wikileaks and The Guardian's Snowden team; I reviewed it for this
month's issue of The Spectator.

It's *great*.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-big-tech-firms-are-dividing-the-world-between-them

The conceit of The System is fiendishly clever and effective: Ball
explains how each layer of the internet works, starting with the wires
and working his way up the stack through protocol designers, governance,
businesses, regulators, reformers and revolutionaries.

Each chapter is a mix of admirably clear explanations of often abstruse
and technical systems, and keen-eyed profiles of representative
individuals involved in them - storytelling and exposition, playing off
against one another.

As I write in my review, I am very familiar with Ball's subjects. I've
picketed some of them, eulogized others at their funerals, and at one
point, he visits my workplace. I feel justified in my confidence when I
say he really captures what's going on.

And knowing what's going on is really important. There's no longer any
argument that digital rights are human rights, not during a pandemic
that transformed the internet from a system that is involved in all our
activities to one that is *required* for all our activities.

And the internet is broken: uncompetitive, stagnant, coopted by
oppressive autocrats and corporate sociopaths. We must understand it so
we can fix it. Reading Ball's work will help with the first part.

The second part is up to us.

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👾 Canadian SFF Hall of Fame induction

A reminder: I'm being inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and
Fantasy Hall of Fame today at 4PM Pacific/7PM Eastern, during the Prix
Aurora Awards, which will livestream here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt8FHApN40c

As I wrote earlier this week, this is a very special moment for me, not
merely because of the incredible honour, but because of the company it
puts me in: the women like Judith Merril, Tanya Huff and Lorna Toolis
who mentored me when I was becoming a writer.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/13/better-to-have-loved/#neofuturians

It's one thing to be recognised for your work, another altogether to be
placed in the company of people who did so much good for the community
and the arts.

I hope to see you there. I will try very hard not to weep openly.

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👾 This day in history

#15yrsago Babies on the no-fly list
https://web.archive.org/web/20050910182032/http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2005/08/15/national/w115806D06.DTL&type;=printable

#15yrsago Windows on a PSP
https://web.archive.org/web/20060308161800/http://www.joystiq.com/2005/08/13/linux-and-windows-on-the-psp/

#15yrsago Lloyds of London to offer insurance for corporate open source
users https://www.theregister.com/2005/08/12/opensource_indemnification/

#5yrsago Pre-crime: DHS admits that it puts people on the no-fly list
based on "predictive assessment"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/10/us-no-fly-list-predictive-assessments

#5yrsago Furiosa's tampon ad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR9Ga297BFk

#5yrsago Exotic polyhedra: RPG dice made from carbon fiber, marble,
bourbon barrels
https://www.cnet.com/pictures/drool-worthy-dice-for-discerning-rollers-pictures/

#5yrsago Miami police union smears woman who posted video of cop beating
handcuffed suspect in police cruiser
https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/police-union-smears-woman-who-posted-video-of-police-beating-on-facebook-7823262

#5yrsago AT&T; was the NSA's enthusiastic top surveillance partner
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/us/politics/att-helped-nsa-spy-on-an-array-of-internet-traffic.html

#5yrsago Stephen Harper will use 12-18 year old junior rangers to fight
the Russians
https://web.archive.org/web/20150901133539/http://www.conservative.ca/cpc/expanding-the-junior-canadian-rangers/

#1yrago Defeating Apple's Faceid's proof-of-life by putting tape over
glasses' lenses
https://threatpost.com/researchers-bypass-apple-faceid-using-biometrics-achilles-heel/147109/

#1yrago Amazon pays happy warehouse workers to tweet about how happy
they are whenever someone complains about warehouse conditions
https://twitter.com/masshysteric/status/1161820065773182976

#1yrago Wework loses $5200/customer, lost $1.3B in H1/2019
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1533523/000119312519220499/d781982ds1.htm

#1yrago Googlers circulate petition demanding a moratorium on contracts
with US border agencies
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-14/google-workers-demand-company-not-work-with-u-s-border-agencies

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👾 Colophon

Today's top sources: Naked Capitalism (https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/)

Currently writing:

* My next novel, "The Lost Cause," a post-GND novel about truth and
reconciliation. Friday's progress: 570 words (50048 total).

Currently reading: Null Set, SL Huang; How to Argue with a Racist, Adam
Rutherford.

Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town (part 12),
https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/08/03/someone-comes-to-town-someone-leaves-town-part-12/

Upcoming appearances:

* Induction into the CSFFA Hall of Fame, Aug 15,
https://www.whenwordscollide.org/canvention.php

* Keynote for Law Via the Internet conference, Sept 22,
https://www.crowdcast.io/e/LVI2020/register

* Writing into an Uncertain Future, Afterwords Festival, Oct 1,
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/writing-into-an-uncertain-future-tickets-115378329690

Latest book:

* "Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new
introduction by Edward Snowden:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583; personalized/signed copies
here:
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1750/July%3A__Little_Brother_%26_Homeland.html

* "Poesy the Monster Slayer" a picture book about monsters, bedtime,
gender, and kicking ass. Order here:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627. Get a personalized, signed
copy here:
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1562/_Poesy_the_Monster_Slayer.html.

Upcoming books:

* "Attack Surface": The third Little Brother book, Oct 20, 2020.
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250757531

This work licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially,
provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link
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https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are
included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the
basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.

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*When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla* -Joey "Accordion Guy"
DeVilla

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