Ian Ballon

Internet lawyer in LA and Silicon Valley

[Ian Ballon @ianballon]

My article today in the National Law Journal on how working from home is changing the way we litigate cases in federal court - for the better! https://t.co/79WO5suJlI

[James Lucas @JamesLucasIT]

This is real footage from 120 years ago.

None of the people in it knew that the city around them had four days left...

What you are watching is a cable car gliding down Market Street in San Francisco, filmed on the 14th of April, 1906.

The camera was mounted on the front of the car, so you see the city exactly as it was: the crowds, the horse-drawn carriages, the early automobiles weaving through traffic, the men in hats, the great buildings rising on either side. An ordinary spring afternoon in a thriving American city.

Four days later, on the morning of the 18th of April, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck. The shaking lasted under a minute, but it ignited fires that burned through the city for days...

By the time it was over, more than 3,000 people were dead and roughly 80 percent of San Francisco had been destroyed. Almost every building you see in this footage was gone.

And the film itself nearly went with it.

The negative was placed on a train bound for New York on the 17th of April, the day before the earthquake. Had it left a single day later, it would have burned in the fire along with the studio that made it.

This entire moving record of a lost city survives because of one day...

[Ian Ballon @ianballon]

https://t.co/5y1F686W7e

My interview with the LA Times about trends in AI law, which was published today

[ABC News @ABC]

Roblox, the online gaming platform wildly popular with children and teenagers, is rolling out an open-source version of an artificial intelligence system it says can help preemptively detect predatory language in game chats. https://t.co/vkeszlRInr

[Ian Ballon @ianballon]

https://t.co/fj0kyUDRb7
“His own vice president is not supporting him,” Farah Griffin said. “Multiple chiefs of staff. Former national security advisors. Multiple former Department of Defense heads. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff….All of us who saw him up close …”

[Ian Ballon @ianballon]

Honored to have again been named to the Daily Journal’s annual list of Top IP Litigators in California https://t.co/2GaJOLqkHL

[Ian Ballon @ianballon]

SCOTUS 2014: Laches is not a copyright infringement defense b/c Congress established a 3 year statute of limitations & “courts are not at liberty to jettison Congress' judgment on the timeliness of suit.” SCOTUS this am: But damages may reach back decades under the discovery rule

[Ian Ballon @ianballon]

I am speaking on advanced strategies for defending data privacy, AdTech and cybersecurity breach class action litigation and mass arbitration at the 2024 Privacy & Security Conference in Washington, DC on Friday, May 10.

[Ian Ballon @ianballon]

In Atlanta to speak on data privacy and AdTech class action litigation at an ABA meeting and to attend an event at GT’s Atlanta office

[CALL TO ACTIVISM @CalltoActivism]

How incredible is this?

“The famous Italian diver Enzo Maiorca dove into the sea of ​​Syracuse and was talking to his daughter Rossana who was aboard the boat. Ready to go in, he felt something slightly hit his back.

He turned and saw a dolphin. Then he realized that the dolphin did not want to play but to express something. The animal dove and Enzo followed.

At a depth of about 12 meters, trapped in an abandoned net, there was another dolphin. Enzo quickly asked his daughter to grab the diving knives.

Soon, the two of them managed to free the dolphin, which, at the end of the ordeal, emerged, issued an "almost human cry" (describes Enzo). (A dolphin can stay under water for up to 10 minutes, then it drowns.)

The released dolphin was helped to the surface by Enzo, Rosana and the other dolphin. That’s when the surprise came: she was pregnant!

The male circled them, and then stopped in front of Enzo, touched his cheek (like a kiss), in a gesture of gratitude and then they both swam off.

Enzo Maiorca ended his speech by saying: “Until man learns to respect and speak to the animal world, he can never know his true role on Earth.”

[Daphne Keller @daphnehk]

Lost in the hubbub over platforms and child abuse is one incredibly important fact about the *government's* role:
Most of the time when platforms report CSAM, there is no response from law enforcement. No effort to find the actual purveyors of horrific and harmful material. 1/

[Ian Ballon @ianballon]

Spoke today at the CLA’s annual privacy conference on data privacy and CPRA litigation and mass arbitration

[Ian Ballon @ianballon]

I am chairing PLI’s annual Advanced Data Privacy, Cybersecurity, and TCPA Class Action Litigation Conference on Thursday and will be presenting on the year in review and moderating the judges and in-house counsel panels.

Please join us in San Francisco or on the web!

[Adam Thierer @AdamThierer]

How bad are state #AI regulatory proposals getting? Well, he's another zinger, this one from Hawaii (S. 2572, "Hawaii Artificial Intelligence Safety and Regulation Act"), that proposes a literal AI Precautionary Principle, saying:

"it is crucial that the State adhere to the precautionary principle, which requires the government to take preventive action in the face of uncertainty; shifts the burden of proof to those who want to undertake an innovation to show that it does not cause harm; and holds that regulation is required whenever an activity creates a substantial possible risk..."

https://t.co/FW7abYUUKQ

[Daphne Keller @daphnehk]

OK, I've been spent a truly excessive amount of time with Texas's and Florida's NetChoice briefs to the Supreme Court. I Have Thoughts.
If people think particular amicus briefs or articles speak well to the issues in this thread, pointers would be great. 1/

[Greenberg Traurig LLP @GT_Law]

GT Shareholder @IanBallon will present his annual program, "Internet, AI & Privacy Law Year in Review" to the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the @ACCinhouse on Jan. 10 and 11 in SF and Palo Alto, as well as in the #GTLosAngeles office on Jan. 18. https://t.co/U1h6fLs6zo

[Ian Ballon @ianballon]

“Russia is seemingly attempting to wipe out evangelical churches in occupied Ukrainian territories.”

Free to read outside the paywall https://t.co/8d3IqUpp0T

[Ian Ballon @ianballon]

George Conway, retired Fourth Circuit Judge J. Michael Luttig and former Congresswoman Barbara Comstock, on the creation of a new conservative legal movement to defend democracy and the Constitution. Free to read outside the paywall.
https://t.co/ofCAQU8IR4

[Ian Ballon @ianballon]

Joe Biden: The U.S. won’t back down from the challenge of Putin and Hamas. Free to read outside the paywall https://t.co/jVOqnWG9w6

[Ian Ballon @ianballon]

A new study from Oxford and Cambridge researchers provides good news for post-Covid parents: “There is no evidence that screen time harms children’s thinking abilities or wellbeing, researchers have concluded.

https://t.co/jbQu4KsAl1

[Ian Ballon @ianballon]

Imbibing caffeine after arriving on the redeye for the annual fall Privacy & Security Forum. I will be speaking tomorrow at 4 PM EST on Advanced State Privacy and Security Breach Class Action Litigation Strategies (and Lessons for Compliance Lawyers)