Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002

Daily Archives: December 2, 2024

Librarian Amanda Jones Files New Defamation Lawsuits

School Library Journal – Amanda Jones has had enough. Again. The 2021 School Librarian of the Year, who has sued online harassers in the past, filed two new federal lawsuits on Tuesday. Jones is suing Dan Kleinman for defamation and “false light”—an invasion of privacy that arises from publicity that unreasonably places the plaintiff in false light before the public. “The publicity need not be defamatory in nature, but must be objectionable to a reasonable person under the circumstances and must contain either falsity or fiction,” according to a court decision cited in the suit. Kleinman, who blogs at SafeLibraries.blogspot.com, is being sued in his home state of New Jersey, as well as Jones’s state of Louisiana, where he traveled to speak against Jones at a meeting and on a local podcast. Kleinman’s posts against Jones have escalated, she says. He has tweeted about her more than 300 times in the last year and contacted her principal and school board members. He frequently tags her legislators, district, and school in his posts. He showed up at one of her recent events where she was promoting her book, That Librarian. “In addition to me feeling unsafe and that he is escalating [his harassment], I’ve been watching him do this to other librarians for years,” Jones told SLJ the day Kleinman was served. “I’ve had enough for me, and I’ve had enough for everyone else.” Jones, who is still awaiting judgment on the re-petition of her original case in Louisiana, spent a year considering taking action against Kleinman before finally deciding to sue him. “I’m just taking a stand,” she said. “I’m not sure how much more I’m expected to take from this man. He’s swaying the opinion of my school board members. It’s just unacceptable and it’s just escalating.…This is my only recourse. It’s the only thing I have.” The suit includes tweets from Kleinman on X where he posts under the account @SexHarrassed and accuses Jones of being a groomer, sexualizing children, and, in one from September, says she is carrying a gun to defend herself against parents who object to her sexualizing and indoctrinating children… [h/t Rachel Royce]

The Great Scrape: The Clash Between Scraping and Privacy

Solove, Daniel J. and Hartzog, Woodrow, The Great Scrape: The Clash Between Scraping and Privacy (July 03, 2024). 113 California Law Review (forthcoming 2025), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4884485 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4884485   Artificial intelligence (AI) systems depend on massive quantities of data, often gathered by “scraping” – the automated extraction of large amounts of data from… Continue Reading

CFPB Proposes Rule to Stop Data Brokers from Selling Sensitive Personal Data to Scammers, Stalkers, and Spies

“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) today proposed a rule to rein in data brokers that sell Americans’ sensitive personal and financial information. The proposed rule would limit the sale of personal identifiers like Social Security Numbers and phone numbers collected by certain companies and make sure that people’s financial data such as income is… Continue Reading

Why ‘open’ AI systems are actually closed, and why this matters

Widder, D.G., Whittaker, M. & West, S.M. Why ‘open’ AI systems are actually closed, and why this matters. Nature 635, 827–833 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08141-1. “This paper examines ‘open’ artificial intelligence (AI). Claims about ‘open’ AI often lack precision, frequently eliding scrutiny of substantial industry concentration in large-scale AI development and deployment, and often incorrectly applying understandings… Continue Reading

52 things I learned in 2024

Tim Whitwell: Just a preview: When writing a sentence, don’t keep your reader waiting. [David Crystal via The Browser] Millions of free bikes have been given to children in rural India, doubling the number of girls cycling to school, increasing attendance and reducing dropouts. [Rachita Vora] On 30 September 2024, the UK became the first… Continue Reading

Patient-Reported Treatment Outcomes in ME/CFS and Long COVID

LongCovidPharmD: “Yesterday, a preprint including data analysis of my TREATME survey results was released. For those who haven’t heard, this survey collected pertinent information regarding 140+ different medications, supplements, and non-drug interventions from nearly 4,000 Long COVID and ME/CFS patients. For those who participated in the survey, THANK YOU! I hope the paper emphasizes the… Continue Reading

Social Security Faces a Crisis, but Sound Tax Policy Can Help

Bloomberg Tax: “Social Security, one of the most successful anti-poverty programs in US history, faces a funding crisis by 2035. Raising taxes on upper-income earners and including investment income in the taxable base for Social Security would be practical and politically plausible solutions ahead of this deadline. The economic stability offered by the Social Security… Continue Reading