Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Exhibits A and B?

Posted on March 27, 2023 by Michael Froomkin

The other day I posted Strange Corners of Privacy Law, in which Ohio sheriff’s deputies brought suit about music videos featuring their fruitless search of a rapper’s house, after which $400 appears to have somehow vanished (details, alas, hard to find as the deputies turned off their body cams). Here now is one of the allegedly offending videos in question by Afroman, “Will You Help Me Repair My Door”,

Not exactly breaking new ground musically, but a mellow accompaniment to to the footage of a failed search.  Apparently, the warrant was not just for drugs, but also kidnapping!

If you’re hungry for more where that came from, there’s also Lemon Pound Cake…

As noted in the comment to the earlier post, I found a link to the text of the complaint. Yes, a real lawyer signed this.

Posted in Law: Criminal Law, Law: Privacy | Leave a comment

Strange Corners of Privacy Law

Posted on March 23, 2023 by Michael Froomkin
Afroman

Afroman, the victim of the search and subsequent lawsuit, is running for President

I love this intro to a blog post at Reason:

Do you have a reasonable expectation of privacy when you break into a famous rapper’s house with an AR-15 and take his money? A group of Ohio sheriff’s deputies thinks so.

The facts of the underlying event, on the other hand, I love not so much.

Posted in Law: Criminal Law, Law: Privacy | 4 Comments

Thoughts on the Coral Gables Commission Election April 11, 2023

Posted on March 18, 2023 by Michael Froomkin

TL/DR: I’m voting for Melissa Castro in Group 4, and Ariel Fernandez in Group 5, in the upcoming Coral Gables Commission election. Please don’t forget to vote.

Absentee ballots have dropped for the Coral Gables Commission election that is due to take place on Tuesday, April 11, 2023: Residents can vote early or drop off mail-in ballots at the Coral Gables War Memorial Youth Center, 405 University Drive, on April 1, April 2 and April 8 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. — or in person on Election Day at your assigned precinct.

Three seats on the five-person commission are up this year, but one of the seats won’t be on the ballot as Mayor Vince Lago ran unopposed, so he is automatically re-elected to another two-year term. (Ordinary Commissioners get four-year terms.)

I think that the most important issue this year is the candidates’ stand on (over)development. And, not unrelatedly, the defining feature of the two contested races is a break with the gentility that used to mark Commission elections, in that Mayor Lago’s electoral machine and the state Republican party have set up a slate of candidates, and poured money—much of it from out of town and/or developers—into the coffers of their favored pro-overdevelopment candidates. That’s two strikes against those candidates right there.

Continue reading →

Posted in Coral Gables | 12 Comments

We Robot 2023 CFP — Boston Sept. 29-30

Posted on March 17, 2023 by Michael Froomkin

We Robot 2023 will be in Boston, MA, jointly hosted by the Boston University School of Law and the MIT Media Lab.

We Robot is the most exciting interdisciplinary conference on the legal and policy questions relating to robots. The increasing sophistication of robots and their widespread deployment everywhere—from the home, to hospitals, to public spaces, and even to the battlefield—disrupts existing legal regimes and requires new thinking on policy issues.

If you are on the front lines of robot theory, design, or development, we hope to see you here in Boston. Come join the conversations between the people designing, building, and deploying robots, and the people who design or influence the legal and social structures in which robots will operate.

We would also love to have you as a sponsor. If you are interested in discussing sponsorship opportunities, please get in touch.

News and Updates (twitter)

Key Dates

  • March 6: Submissions for papers, posters, and demos open.
  • March 27: Abstracts for papers and proposals for demos due.
  • April 7: We aim to have responses to paper and demo proposals.
  • June 1: Call for posters closes, but acceptances may be offered on a rolling basis (i.e. it may be beneficial to submit earlier).
  • August 31: Full papers due. They will be posted online at the conference web site unless otherwise agreed.
  • September 29-30: We Robot Conference
Posted in Robots, Talks & Conferences | Leave a comment

There Was a Seventh Child

Posted on March 11, 2023 by Michael Froomkin

For Americans of my generation–a little too young to be drafted into it–there are three iconic photos of the Vietnam War. One is of Saigon’s Chief of Police conducting a summary execution of a Viet Cong officer. A second is of a naked child fleeing down a road after being napalmed, aka the ‘Napalm Girl’ photo. And the third is the famous picture of people clinging to a helicopter’s landing gear as it took off, overladen, from the US’s Saigon embassy as the war effort collapsed.

That third picture, we now know, was to be only the first of a series of photos of ignominious retreat from ill-considered colonial Great Power maneuvers, with the latest coming out of Afghanistan.

That second photo has a subsequent history too, although it is more inspiring, as the victim not only survived, but surmounted the trauma caused by her injuries and also the injuries caused by the world-wide publicity of the photo; eventually she founded an international charity.

Huan Nguyen, being sworn in as a Vice-Admiral in 2019.

It turns out, however, that the subsequent history of the first photo is perhaps the most amazing. The man executed had killed a South Vietnamese Colonel and six of his children. The seventh, then nine, survived and after the fall of Saigon, managed to reach the US. He later joined the US Navy. Yesterday he was promoted to the rank of Admiral.

Posted in Politics: International | Leave a comment

250 Miles North of Here

Posted on March 7, 2023 by Michael Froomkin

A man in Daytona Beach, Florida heard someone at his front door and thought it was a visitor for his son. Unfortunately when he opened the door to welcome the guest, it turned out to be a nearly 8-foot long alligator.

“The alligator lunged and he was bitten in the upper thigh,” said Daytona Beach police spokesman Carrie McCallister.

Source: boingboing, Man opens front door only to be bitten by huge alligator

Posted in Florida | 2 Comments