The Trump administration filed a 20-page brief supporting OpenAI in its copyright dispute with The New York Times, arguing that training large language models on copyrighted material qualifies as fair use. The filing cites an executive order calling for the US to maintain global leadership in artificial intelligence, and warns that restricting AI training practices could harm American innovation and economic competitiveness.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-02
The Trump administration filed a statement of interest in The New York Times' copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, siding with OpenAI's claim that training AI models on copyrighted text qualifies as fair use. Government attorneys warned that narrowing fair-use doctrine could hinder scientific and economic progress tied to large language models.
theverge.com
· 2026-09-02
Four gamers sued Sony in a California court, claiming the company violated state law AB 2426 by using terms like 'Buy Now' and 'Confirm Purchase' for digital games without clearly disclosing that customers were only acquiring a revocable license, not ownership. The suit, seeking class action status, cites titles including Resident Evil Requiem and NBA 2K25, arguing buyers overpaid believing they owned the games. Sony has countered that its Terms of Service already clarify that purchases grant a license rather than ownership.
cnet.com
· 2026-09-01
Responding to a June class-action lawsuit in California, Sony argued that consumers cannot reasonably believe that buying a game digitally grants ownership, since the same digital copy can be sold to countless buyers simultaneously, unlike a physical disc. The lawsuit alleges Sony's use of words like 'buy' and 'purchase' at checkout misleads consumers, while burying the true licensing terms in separate agreements they never have to actively acknowledge.
engadget.com
· 2026-09-01
Anti-surveillance group Secure Justice reports that 214 local governments have cancelled or declined to renew contracts with license-plate-reading company Flock since 2021, with cancellations quadrupling from July to August 2025 alone. Because Flock's value depends on a networked web of cameras shared across jurisdictions, losing contracts in one town can trigger cancellations in neighboring ones, compounding the losses even as Flock insists new signups still outpace cancellations.
futurism.com
· 2026-09-01
Blue Voice, a Boston startup founded by Harvard Law dropout David Lawrence, has emerged from stealth with $6 million in funding led by SignalFire and Las Olas VC. The platform gives police officers instant, real-time access to department-specific policies, laws and protocols, and is already used by officers across 225 county agencies in 25 states.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-08-31
A Taiwanese man remotely accessed his robot vacuum's camera to catch his wife with another man, then used the footage to win roughly $16,000 in a civil suit over infringement of spousal rights. His wife countersued for illegal filming without consent, and a court sentenced him to five months in prison and fined him about 30% of his award.
techspot.com
· 2026-08-31
In their book Time's Second Arrow, Robert Hazen and Michael Wong argue that alongside thermodynamics' entropy-driven decay, there exists a complementary natural principle that consistently pushes matter and systems toward greater order and complexity. They cite phenomena from element formation via nuclear fusion to biological evolution as recurring evidence of this ordering tendency across both living and non-living systems.
nature.com
· 2026-08-31
The European Commission unveiled a new internal security strategy called ProtectEU, framing rising cybercrime and terrorism threats as justification for developing 'technological solutions' to access encrypted communications. The plan avoids concrete legislative proposals for now, instead calling for a roadmap on lawful law enforcement access to encrypted data.
reclaimthenet.org
· 2026-08-30
Deloitte has agreed to pay $21.5 million to resolve a Justice Department investigation alleging the firm considered race and gender in hiring and promotion decisions, in violation of federal law. The settlement caps roughly a year of quiet DOJ scrutiny into diversity, equity and inclusion policies at major corporations under the Trump administration.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-08-28
More than 80 performers, including Matt Lucas, Hugh Bonneville, Siobhán McSweeney and singer Sandi Thom, have signed a letter urging the UK government to introduce legislation protecting performers from unauthorised AI voice cloning. The signatories argue current law fails to safeguard an artist's voice, face and identity as AI technology advances. The letter follows earlier warnings from legal experts that existing UK rules are outdated and cannot fully protect personal likeness or voice.
bbc.co.uk
· 2026-08-28
A DuckDuckGo Research survey found that about one-third of people disclose sensitive personal details to AI chatbots that they withhold from friends, family, and doctors, with the figure rising to 56% among self-identified AI enthusiasts. Nearly half of parents surveyed admitted to telling chatbots things they've never shared with their own children or closest confidants.
cnet.com
· 2026-08-27