WEBVTT
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The Bogosity Podcast,
early and ad-free!
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Become a subscriber at Patreon,
SubscribeStar, or Discord.
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Use the links at donate.bogosity.tv.
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Welcome to the Bogosity Podcast
for the week of March 22 2026,
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the podcast that wants you to want it.
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This is your host, Shane Killian.
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Next week is the fifth weekend
in the month, so no podcast.
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But for now, let's delocalize
the News of the Bogus.
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The goal of AI is for it to be able
to do anything humans can do.
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Of course, that isn't always good.
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A grandmother was falsely
accused of bank fraud,
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even though she'd never set foot in the
state were the crime allegedly took place.
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And it all happened because
of AI facial recognition.
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Humans falsely accuse people, now AI is falsely
accusing people! Another one checked off!
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Okay, so look: AIs are gonna screw
up. They're going to hallucinate.
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There are going to be false positives and
false negatives and false everything else.
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Which is one reason among many that
they shouldn't be used as evidence!
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Case in point: Tennessee grandmother Angela Lipps,
who was arrested by US Marshals at her Tennessee home
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because a facial recognition AI matched her to
surveillance footage from a bank in North Dakota.
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A suspect had allegedly used a fake
Army ID to withdraw thousands of dollars.
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Facial recognition matched Lipps, then a
detective concluded she was the suspect.
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He didn't do any actual
detecting or anything.
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Why, that might actually be work!
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Seriously, with his access, he probably
could have ruled her out in minutes!
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Instead, he had the Marshals arrest Lipps at
gunpoint while she was babysitting four children.
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She was brought to a Tennessee jail
as a fugitive wanted in North Dakota.
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Were she sat for four months
while North Dakota did nothing!
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And during that time, she lost her
home, her car, and even her dog!
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After four months, she was finally extradited to
North Dakota, where she was able to hire a lawyer,
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and the lawyer easily gathered bank
records and transaction logs and,
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as the detective should have done initially,
easily showed she was in Tennessee,
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over 1200 miles away from Fargo,
where the crime was supposedly committed.
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After being incarcerated in June, she was finally
released and all charges dropped on Christmas Eve.
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Quote: "While I was in
jail I lost everything.
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My family put my personal belongings into storage, but
the bill couldn't be paid. Everything is gone. Everything.
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I lost my rental home in a mobile home park.
I lost my Social Security income.
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I lost my health insurance.
I lost my doctors. I lost my dog.
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I lost my car, a Chrysler Sebring convertible
and everything inside of it... Everything."
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The authorities didn't even offer
to help her pay for the trip home!
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Quote: "I had my summer clothes on, no coat, it
was so cold outside, snow on the ground, scared,
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I wanted out but I didn't know what I was
going to do, how I was going to get home."
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She also missed Halloween and Thanksgiving,
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and had to deal with the humiliation of
her neighbors watching her get arrested.
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Quote: "I am now living with
neighbors in the trailer park.
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I have no car, no money, and
no way to start over on my own.
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I have always been an independent woman.
I cannot start life again with nothing."
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Now, understand: if you're held as a fugitive awaiting
extradition, you don't get bail.
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So she had to stay in the
Tennessee jail for 108 days.
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But section 3182 of Title 18 of the US Code,
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regarding "Fugitives from State or
Territory to State, District, or Territory,"
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quite clearly says that if the charging state
doesn't show up within 30 days, they can let her go.
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So why didn't they???
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This should never have happened!
And let's understand this:
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the problem here is not AI.
The problem is government.
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Whatever benefit AI might have as an investigative
tool, it should never be used as evidence!
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In my opinion, any AI recognition
should be treated like an anonymous tip.
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And we know how unreliable those are!
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Let me explain quite clearly
how inexcusable this is:
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For 25 years since the Patriot Act, we've been
living in this financial big brother dystopia.
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All of our bank records are spied on and recorded,
and the government can grab our transactions
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and whereabouts from our phone
companies at any time, no warrant needed.
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And we're supposed to believe they had
no way of figuring this out for themselves,
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and they just had to believe the AI?
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I mean, come on! One advantage of living
in this privacy-destroying surveillance state
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has to be that they can easily find out if
you're someone who had this bank account or not,
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or if you were anywhere
near the state at the time!
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What's the purpose of all this
financial spying otherwise?
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AI or not, she should have been
eliminated as a suspect within minutes.
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Likely with her not
even knowing about it!
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The driving force behind the controversy
around this story is AI. It shouldn't be.
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Blaming the AI is wrongheaded. Blame the
police for continually refusing to do their jobs!
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Presenting: the greatest
game this side of Yuggoth!
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You are H.P. Lovecraft's
cat, and your name is Ni***
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...Right. We can't say that on a podcast.
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Anyway, that's the point: Your name is a joke.
00:06:23.420 --> 00:06:30.380
So now, you are out for revenge.
You become...the NecronomiCat!
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Using the Necronomicon, you come
to the present day to buy a gat.
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That's a gun. For a cat.
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It's a phat cat gat.
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But the Necronomicon is treacherous,
and it let in Lovecraft's monsters.
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Now, in a crumbling world, you must fight!
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Build your team, buy guns and armor,
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buy items of dubious legality,
defeat the bosses of each level.
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Then take Lovecraft down!
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Play NecronomiCat! The link is at cat.bogosity.tv.
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Yeah, we're doing cat.bogosity.tv,
not...that other one.
00:07:08.220 --> 00:07:10.920
What, you want me to get kicked
off the Internet or something?
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So you all know I love efforts to archive the
creative output of our civilization for posterity,
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as much as the big content cartels might hate it.
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This story is about Gaming Alexandria, a website
dedicated to the preservation of the history of gaming.
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Not the games themselves, but associated
media such as box art, manuals, and journalism.
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They've been funded in part through Patreon
subscriptions, and that's where the trouble came in.
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Project head Dustin Hubbard was forced
to issue apologies to the community
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because his effort to translate foreign games,
mostly Japanese, relied heavily on AI.
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He was basically bullied into posting:
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"No Patreon dollars will be used to fund AI.
I sincerely apologize.
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My entire preservation philosophy has been to get people
access to things we've never had access to before.
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I felt this project was a good step towards that,
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but I should have taken more into
consideration the issues with AI.
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I understand that using Patreon funding for
this was not the correct way to go about it."
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He put in his own personal funds to compensate.
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I'm sorry, but Hubbard did
absolutely nothing wrong!
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What was even the problem,
other than just the knee-jerk anti-AI bigots,
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probably not even real supporters
but sent in from whatever
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backchannel on Discord or Bluesky
or wherever the mob is sent from,
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who just hate anything AI
regardless of the benefit.
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I mean, how many of them were offering
to help translate? I'm guessing none!
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You went from a situation where content was inaccessible
to a wide range of people to one where it was accessible.
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Maybe not perfect, maybe not
as good as a real translator,
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but orders of magnitude better than nothing!
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What, because AI makes mistakes?
Like human translators don't?
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Anyone else remember
"All your base are belong to us"?
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His project is actually pretty awesome.
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He experimented with Gemini to
make an OCR and translation process
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that could take scans of magazines and turn
them into useful tools for Western researchers.
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Hubbard said he was
"blown away" by the results.
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While he still recommends professional human
translators where possible, he said that Gemini, quote:
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"gets you a large percentage
of the way there quickly."
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And so he vibe-coded an interface
to show the original PDF scans
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alongside the AI-generated
text for easy comparison.
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He posted the code to GitHub and shared
the code on his Patreon as a beta.
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The tool runs locally on
Windows, Mac, or Linux,
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and it can search, download, and edit Gaming Alexandria's
files from the cloud or work with local files.
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Quote: "This app has been something I
never would have dreamed could exist.
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Now I can finally read and enjoy these Japanese
magazines I've been scanning for years.
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A large part of that is due to your believing in my
work and funding me so thank you so much for that."
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And the toxic backlash he got
from that was insane.
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Legend of Zelda historian
Max Nichols wrote on Bluesky:
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"I have cancelled my Patreon membership
and will no longer promote the organization."
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Nichols later deleted the
message, the coward.
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A lot of the mob seems to have
come from there. Figures.
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The Discord mob also called Hubbard "privileged" and said
he "burned his good faith with the video gaming community."
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For offering them a gift to the world
that could not have existed otherwise.
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But through all the noise,
there was the signal of reason.
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Game preservationist Chris Chapman wrote:
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"There's no world in which they could ever get
hundreds of thousands of pages translated by hand.
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Error-prone searchability is more
useful to more people than none at all.
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You're piling on the free-time project of one
guy who hasn't even woken up yet. Take a minute."
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Author and Journalist Felipe Pepe wrote:
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"Brother, I published a free
game book with 650 pages
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and saw five different crowd-sourced
translation teams give up
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because it was too much
text and too time-consuming.
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Famitsu alone is over 1900 issues,
each with a hundred plus pages.
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That's one magazine from one country.
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Human translation would be ideal,
but it's impossible."
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Lots of organizations like Project Gutenberg have been
using non-AI OCR and translation tools in the past,
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with results that are far from
accurate or sometimes even readable.
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But, no mob screeching about those.
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AI does a much better job,
although far from perfect,
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and the mob bunches their panties about
how the imperfections make it all horrible
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and Hubbard should
be ashamed of himself.
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The apology, and the promise
not to use Patreon dollars for AI,
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just isn't enough for the mob,
of course. One of them wrote:
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"I encourage anyone currently supporting
Gaming Alexandria on Patreon
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to pull their funding until they completely back
away from ever using any kind of genAI ever again.
00:12:32.460 --> 00:12:39.900
This is an unacceptable response that doesn't seem
to understand that any usage of it is unacceptable."
00:12:39.900 --> 00:12:44.780
You see how these extremists are?
They don't actually care how well it works.
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It could be perfect, and they'd still
be against it. That's just an excuse.
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Also, this is one more example of why the last
thing you should do is apologize to these people!
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Because they don't take it as an apology.
00:12:59.500 --> 00:13:05.260
They take it as an admission of guilt,
and use it as fuel to crank up their hate.
00:13:05.260 --> 00:13:09.020
They didn't behave the way they did
because Hubbard did anything wrong.
00:13:09.020 --> 00:13:12.300
They did it because they just hate it to hate it.
00:13:12.300 --> 00:13:16.540
I was actually heartened by most of the
comments in the Ars Technica article.
00:13:16.540 --> 00:13:21.420
Although you had a few of the haters
(and a few defending actual Luddism),
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mostly they were thoughtful and rational.
00:13:23.820 --> 00:13:27.660
Which is another reason you shouldn't
apologize to those who hate:
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they don't represent what
people actually think.
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They're just bullies.
Never give bullies what they want!
00:13:41.500 --> 00:13:45.660
I'm Brother Ezekiel, and I know
how naughty thou hast been!
00:13:45.660 --> 00:13:48.540
So naughty, thou needst a VPN!
00:13:48.540 --> 00:13:55.100
Hide thy iniquity from prying eyes, and make
sure the liturgical authorities remain ignorant.
00:13:55.100 --> 00:14:00.860
Take thy browser to vpn.bogosity.tv to get BoxPN.
00:14:00.860 --> 00:14:05.420
At $6.36 a month, a price only
the most penurious would balk at,
00:14:05.420 --> 00:14:10.220
thou shalt have unlimited high-speed
connections to servers all over the globe.
00:14:10.220 --> 00:14:14.300
And they don't log connections.
Thy privacy is assured.
00:14:14.300 --> 00:14:15.980
That should please you sinners!
00:14:15.980 --> 00:14:18.620
Just remember: the Lord sees all!
00:14:18.620 --> 00:14:21.820
When travelling, make it look
like thou art still home.
00:14:21.820 --> 00:14:25.980
At home, ensure the elders at
your ISP don't take out their
00:14:25.980 --> 00:14:30.060
judgement with traffic-shaping and DMCA notices!
00:14:30.060 --> 00:14:35.900
Up to 5 devices can connect at once,
almost one for every deadly sin!
00:14:35.900 --> 00:14:41.400
Keep thy sins private. Go to vpn.bogosity.tv.
00:14:47.340 --> 00:14:51.980
Oh, more Stupid Copyright Tricks,
and not only is this from a repeat offender,
00:14:51.980 --> 00:14:57.900
it's another example of one of the big problems
I've been pointing out with the DMCA since Day One.
00:14:57.900 --> 00:15:01.740
With the DMCA, anyone can
just make a copyright claim
00:15:01.741 --> 00:15:07.180
and get a video or webpage or whatever
stricken and taken down for ten business days.
00:15:07.180 --> 00:15:09.500
You don't even have
to prove who you are!
00:15:09.500 --> 00:15:12.220
True, you do this under
penalty of perjury,
00:15:12.220 --> 00:15:16.700
but even after millions of false
DMCA claims since the law passed,
00:15:16.700 --> 00:15:23.500
no one has been able to find a single example of even
one of them being so much as charged with perjury.
00:15:23.500 --> 00:15:27.820
But while all they have to do is
just assert the copyright is theirs,
00:15:27.820 --> 00:15:34.300
to make a counterclaim you have to give your personal
information, including your real name and address—
00:15:34.300 --> 00:15:37.900
and that gets forwarded to
the person who made the claim!
00:15:37.900 --> 00:15:41.580
It's either that, or your
content stays down forever.
00:15:41.580 --> 00:15:47.900
So it's a great way for dishonest people to get
someone's personal details and dox them.
00:15:47.900 --> 00:15:53.733
Dishonest people like the Jehovah's Witnesses.
The EFF has had to step in once again
00:15:53.734 --> 00:15:58.167
to help people being bullied and
abused by false DMCA takedowns
00:15:58.168 --> 00:16:01.580
issued by the Watch Tower
Bible and Tract Society.
00:16:01.580 --> 00:16:05.500
They've been issuing takedown
notices to anyone critical of them,
00:16:05.500 --> 00:16:09.100
in order to force them to turn
over their personal details.
00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:14.220
In this case, they're defending the
operator of a website called JWS Library,
00:16:14.220 --> 00:16:19.900
run by a member of the church who became curious
about the church's published statements. Quote:
00:16:19.900 --> 00:16:26.500
"They created research tools to analyze those documents
and ultimately created a website, JWS Library,
00:16:26.501 --> 00:16:30.880
allowing others to use those tools and
verify their findings through an archive
00:16:30.881 --> 00:16:33.980
that included documents
suppressed by the church.
00:16:33.980 --> 00:16:37.714
Doe and others discovered
prophecies that failed to come true,
00:16:37.714 --> 00:16:42.540
erasure of a leader's disgrace, increased
calls for obedience and donations,
00:16:42.540 --> 00:16:46.540
and other insights about the
Jehovah's Witnesses' practices."
00:16:46.540 --> 00:16:53.980
Watch Tower then sent DMCA notices to Google and Cloudflare
to get his site taken down and uncover his identity.
00:16:53.980 --> 00:16:55.980
But as the EFF explains:
00:16:55.980 --> 00:16:59.580
"The problem for Watch Tower is
that Doe's research and commentary
00:16:59.580 --> 00:17:02.940
are clear fair uses allowed
under copyright law.
00:17:02.940 --> 00:17:09.100
The First Amendment does not permit the unmasking
of anonymous speakers based on such weak claims.
00:17:09.100 --> 00:17:15.767
Indeed, the First Amendment protects anonymous speakers
precisely because some would be deterred from speaking
00:17:15.768 --> 00:17:18.780
if they faced retribution
for doing so."
00:17:18.780 --> 00:17:20.780
Watch Tower knows this, of course.
00:17:20.780 --> 00:17:23.660
They're not doing this because
they have a genuine conflict.
00:17:23.660 --> 00:17:28.060
They're abusing the DMCA
as a surveillance tool.
00:17:28.060 --> 00:17:32.700
Which, again, as I've pointed out from
the beginning, isn't really abuse—
00:17:32.700 --> 00:17:36.620
because that's what was
intended right from the start.
00:17:36.620 --> 00:17:41.980
Why else would that asymmetry have been
deliberately written in the law to begin with?
00:17:41.980 --> 00:17:45.740
This wasn't just foreseeable;
it was foreseen.
00:17:45.740 --> 00:17:49.020
The one time Watch Tower
actually went to court over it,
00:17:49.020 --> 00:17:53.500
against a critic using the pseudonym
Kevin McFree, things didn't go well.
00:17:53.500 --> 00:17:59.820
A judge started actually questioning what they were
doing, and Watch Tower dropped the case like a hot potato.
00:17:59.820 --> 00:18:06.300
The shameful thing is, this is a very different
Jehovah's Witnesses from what we've seen in decades past.
00:18:06.300 --> 00:18:11.500
They fought for the right to go door-to-door
without the government compelling their speech.
00:18:11.500 --> 00:18:15.900
They fought the requirement that school
children say the pledge of allegiance.
00:18:15.900 --> 00:18:20.220
They fought against the government
forcing speech on a car's license plate
00:18:20.221 --> 00:18:22.700
that had nothing to do
with the tag number.
00:18:22.700 --> 00:18:28.220
They've been one of the biggest voices for
the First Amendment in the country's history.
00:18:28.220 --> 00:18:33.820
Unless, of course, you start to
criticize them. Funny how that works.
00:18:40.220 --> 00:18:43.740
I want to tell you about the eyeglasses
I've been wearing for years.
00:18:43.740 --> 00:18:47.260
As people can see on my videos,
I have a very strong prescription,
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which makes glasses more expensive,
especially when I need computer glasses,
00:18:51.260 --> 00:18:53.580
reading glasses,
prescription sunglasses,
00:18:53.580 --> 00:18:58.219
and most expensively, progressive
lenses for general everyday wear.
00:18:58.220 --> 00:19:02.620
To save money while still getting
quality glasses, I get them from Firmoo.
00:19:02.620 --> 00:19:06.700
In fact, I just got a pair of progressives
with high index aspherical lenses
00:19:06.700 --> 00:19:10.940
in a nice pair of frames my
wife loves, for just over $100.
00:19:10.940 --> 00:19:14.220
It would have been $500 to get
them through my eye doctor.
00:19:14.220 --> 00:19:16.940
Not only do they look good,
the glasses are durable.
00:19:16.940 --> 00:19:20.540
I've worn many pairs for several
years without problems.
00:19:20.540 --> 00:19:23.100
All orders come with a
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00:19:23.100 --> 00:19:26.700
a 3-month warranty, and
one-on-one customer service.
00:19:26.700 --> 00:19:35.420
Go to firmoo.bogosity.tv any time you
need quality glasses at a low price.
00:19:35.420 --> 00:19:39.686
Once again, that's
firmoo.bogosity.tv.
00:19:48.460 --> 00:19:53.500
And now it's time to prefabricate
this week's Biggest Bogon Emitter.
00:19:53.500 --> 00:19:59.580
Back in the 13 October 2024 podcast, we gave
it to Apple for their takedown of the Musi app,
00:19:59.580 --> 00:20:03.027
in which they engaged in
hysterics, calling it piracy,
00:20:03.028 --> 00:20:07.900
and removing it from their app store basically
because YouTube screeched loudly about it.
00:20:07.900 --> 00:20:11.660
Abuse of App stores is an
ongoing and continuing problem.
00:20:11.660 --> 00:20:15.260
But this week, we have to
switch it up and give it to Musi!
00:20:15.260 --> 00:20:18.140
Well, at least you can't
accuse us of being biased!
00:20:18.140 --> 00:20:25.420
The fact is, at the end of the day Apple has the choice
over what it does and does not allow in its app store.
00:20:25.420 --> 00:20:29.353
While there may be good arguments to
make about the contractual relationship
00:20:29.354 --> 00:20:31.980
Apple might have violated
with actions like this,
00:20:31.980 --> 00:20:36.140
the Musi lawyers for some reason
chose not to make any of those.
00:20:36.140 --> 00:20:40.620
In fact, it's hard to imagine how they
could have screwed it up any harder.
00:20:40.620 --> 00:20:45.980
The main problem is that the Apple Developer
Program License Agreement clearly says, quote:
00:20:45.980 --> 00:20:51.820
"Either party may terminate the DPLA for its
convenience, for any reason or no reason,
00:20:51.820 --> 00:20:57.447
effective 30 days after providing the other party
with written notice of its intent to terminate,"
00:20:57.448 --> 00:21:05.020
and that Apple Apple "may, in its sole discretion,
reject an Application for distribution for any reason."
00:21:05.020 --> 00:21:08.214
"Apple reserves the right to
cease marketing, offering,
00:21:08.214 --> 00:21:11.500
and allowing purchase by Custom
App Distribution Customers
00:21:11.500 --> 00:21:17.580
and download by End-Users of the Custom
Applications at any time, with or without cause,
00:21:17.580 --> 00:21:20.733
by providing notice of
termination to You."
00:21:20.733 --> 00:21:24.700
Judge Eumi K. Lee of the Northern
District of California ruled:
00:21:24.700 --> 00:21:30.540
"In sum, these provisions establish that the
DPLA is mutually terminable by either party,
00:21:30.540 --> 00:21:34.300
and applications may be removed
from the App Store by either party,
00:21:34.300 --> 00:21:37.260
upon satisfying the relevant
notice requirements.
00:21:37.260 --> 00:21:41.366
The DPLA also establishes a
non-exclusive dispute process
00:21:41.366 --> 00:21:45.020
that a developer must follow
in response to complaints.
00:21:45.020 --> 00:21:51.820
Musi fails to plausibly allege that Apple breached
the DPLA by removing the Musi app from the App Store."
00:21:51.820 --> 00:21:56.780
"The plain language of the DPLA
governs because it is clear and explicit:
00:21:56.780 --> 00:22:03.340
Apple may cease marketing, offering, and allowing
download by end-users of the Musi app at any time,
00:22:03.340 --> 00:22:07.500
with or without cause,
by providing notice of termination.
00:22:07.500 --> 00:22:11.720
Based on this language, Apple had the
right to cease offering the Musi app
00:22:11.721 --> 00:22:15.420
without cause if Apple provided notice to Musi.
00:22:15.420 --> 00:22:21.340
The complaint alleges, and Musi does not
dispute, that Apple gave Musi the required notice.
00:22:21.340 --> 00:22:27.580
Therefore, Apple's decision to remove the Musi
app from the App Store did not breach the DPLA."
00:22:27.580 --> 00:22:33.820
Musi tried to argue that the language limited Apple's
removal rights, even though the clause says, quote:
00:22:33.820 --> 00:22:37.500
"Without limiting the
generality of this Section."
00:22:37.500 --> 00:22:43.020
When the clause you're relying on to be
limiting specifically says without limiting,
00:22:43.020 --> 00:22:46.220
well, that's just a dumb
move on your part!
00:22:46.220 --> 00:22:53.100
While there is an implied covenant of good faith, you
can't use that to contradict express terms of the contract.
00:22:53.100 --> 00:22:57.820
Apple had an express right
to remove the app. Full stop.
00:22:57.820 --> 00:23:04.380
The court wasn't going to imply an obligation that
directly contradicts what the parties wrote down.
00:23:04.380 --> 00:23:07.500
Musi was given a chance to
make an amended complaint,
00:23:07.500 --> 00:23:13.980
and they were given two full months of expedited
discovery to try to build a better complaint.
00:23:13.980 --> 00:23:17.180
And they still couldn't
state a viable claim.
00:23:17.180 --> 00:23:22.940
They could only reference vague "additional
details" without actually identifying any.
00:23:22.940 --> 00:23:25.973
The FAC reads more
like a conspiracy theory,
00:23:25.974 --> 00:23:33.180
with allegations of collusion between Apple and "music
industry players" that they couldn't even name. Quote:
00:23:33.180 --> 00:23:40.460
"Musi's failure to identify any such fact in its briefing
or argument supports dismissal without leave to amend.
00:23:40.460 --> 00:23:46.700
Musi already had the deposition testimony and
documents from Apple when it amended the complaint.
00:23:46.700 --> 00:23:52.700
Indeed, the Court further extended Musi's deadline
to amend the complaint after discovery concluded
00:23:52.700 --> 00:23:58.700
so Musi could use Apple documents and witness
testimony to amend the complaint, which Musi did.
00:23:58.700 --> 00:24:03.180
For all these reasons,
dismissal is without leave to amend."
00:24:03.180 --> 00:24:07.820
This is not how you take your second
bite at the apple, so to speak.
00:24:07.820 --> 00:24:15.020
In fact, it was so bad that Apple asked for
and got Rule 11 sanctions, which are rare.
00:24:15.020 --> 00:24:21.580
Maybe it's wrong to blame Musi, really, it's more the
fault of their lawyers at Winston & Strawn, but, eh.
00:24:21.580 --> 00:24:28.540
Paragraph 1 of the FAC says that Apple "admitted" that
it relied on false evidence to justify the removal.
00:24:28.540 --> 00:24:32.620
You have to be really careful
with the word "admitted."
00:24:32.620 --> 00:24:38.120
What actually happened is that Apple
acknowledged receiving an email. That's it.
00:24:38.120 --> 00:24:42.140
Quote: "Musi's complaint is
not the paradigm of candor.
00:24:42.140 --> 00:24:47.820
The Court finds that the first allegation—
that Apple 'admitted' that it relied on false evidence—
00:24:47.820 --> 00:24:51.980
is so factually baseless
that it violates Rule 11."
00:24:51.980 --> 00:24:59.100
Rule 11 basically says that any representations to a
court must not be presented for any improper purpose,
00:24:59.100 --> 00:25:03.180
that it's warranted by existing law,
has evidentiary support,
00:25:03.180 --> 00:25:07.260
and is reasonable based on
belief or lack of information.
00:25:07.260 --> 00:25:13.986
Ironically, Rule 11 is exactly the sort of
requirement Musi accused Apple of violating!
00:25:13.986 --> 00:25:20.540
Quote: "Musi's amended complaint went beyond alleging
a tenuous and convoluted theory of liability.
00:25:20.540 --> 00:25:26.620
Musi presented its theory as undisputed fact by
alleging that Apple endorsed it through an admission.
00:25:26.620 --> 00:25:30.652
It was particularly misleading to make
such an incriminating allegation
00:25:30.652 --> 00:25:36.460
because Musi took two months of expedited
discovery before filing the amended complaint.
00:25:36.460 --> 00:25:40.620
Claiming that Apple admitted that it
knowingly relied on false evidence
00:25:40.620 --> 00:25:45.180
conveys that discovery yielded
damning evidence—but it did not.
00:25:45.180 --> 00:25:49.500
Moreover, this allegation appears in
the first paragraph of the complaint,
00:25:49.500 --> 00:25:53.740
and it materially misrepresents
facts at the heart of this lawsuit.
00:25:53.740 --> 00:25:59.420
An attorney, after conducting an objectively
reasonable inquiry into the facts and law,
00:25:59.420 --> 00:26:02.780
would not have found this
allegation to be well-founded."
00:26:02.780 --> 00:26:07.420
And that discovery included
over 3500 documents!
00:26:07.420 --> 00:26:11.980
If they couldn't find an actual admission
in all of that, then where was it?
00:26:11.980 --> 00:26:15.913
They certainly didn't impress the
judge by arguing to be rewarded
00:26:15.914 --> 00:26:20.073
their own attorneys' fees for
answering the motion for sanctions!
00:26:20.073 --> 00:26:27.020
Quote: "Musi audaciously requests an award of attorneys'
fees for defending against Apple's motion for sanctions.
00:26:27.020 --> 00:26:31.340
Musi's request is denied.
Musi is not the prevailing party,
00:26:31.340 --> 00:26:35.900
and Apple's motion has substantial
merit for the reasons discussed above.
00:26:35.900 --> 00:26:40.700
Although the Court did not find that every
challenged allegation violates Rule 11,
00:26:40.700 --> 00:26:43.420
all of Apple's arguments
were reasonable.
00:26:43.420 --> 00:26:47.740
Each allegation that Apple challenged
was on the verge of baselessness."
00:26:47.740 --> 00:26:50.060
It's really disappointing,
if nothing else.
00:26:50.060 --> 00:26:56.220
This could have been a really good case for getting
license agreements to have the full force of contract law.
00:26:56.220 --> 00:27:00.060
Musi's lawyers should have known
this was an uphill battle from day one.
00:27:00.060 --> 00:27:05.100
The whole "at any time, with or without
cause" language is tough to get over.
00:27:05.100 --> 00:27:11.820
While I'm hardly the biggest fan of antitrust, in some cases
it can actually fill a lot of the holes in contract law.
00:27:11.820 --> 00:27:15.900
In this case, it could have been employed
as Epic Games did against Apple,
00:27:15.900 --> 00:27:22.000
getting the court to say that, although Apple isn't
a monopoly, Apple's blocking of Fortnite specifically
00:27:22.001 --> 00:27:27.340
because they employed a payment method where Apple
couldn't take a cut of it was a road too far.
00:27:27.340 --> 00:27:33.233
They did have evidence of coordination with
YouTube and the music industry, in particular Sony,
00:27:33.233 --> 00:27:40.700
which is exactly the kind of gang-up bullying contract
law doesn't protect you from but antitrust law does.
00:27:40.700 --> 00:27:43.260
They could at least have
put Apple on the back foot,
00:27:43.260 --> 00:27:48.940
requiring them to show that they were a victim of
pressure from the industry rather than a willing partner.
00:27:48.940 --> 00:27:50.860
And with all of that discovery,
00:27:50.860 --> 00:27:56.300
they should have pushed for communications
showing the reasons why Apple removed the app,
00:27:56.300 --> 00:28:02.780
as well as a pattern of kowtowing to the music industry
and how they dealt with similarly-situated apps.
00:28:02.780 --> 00:28:05.260
Musi had public
sympathy on their side.
00:28:05.260 --> 00:28:09.860
A small app developer being crushed under
the sheer weight of the music industry
00:28:09.860 --> 00:28:14.140
meant that a lot of people—
including us—were rooting for them.
00:28:14.140 --> 00:28:16.620
They chose the wrong
legal vehicle, though.
00:28:16.620 --> 00:28:19.260
And instead of changing
vehicles when it broke down,
00:28:19.260 --> 00:28:23.820
they insisted on slapping it with a
bit of spray paint and calling it new.
00:28:23.820 --> 00:28:27.420
This will always be the story of
the case that could have been:
00:28:27.420 --> 00:28:31.180
a trillion-dollar industry using
a trillion-dollar tech company
00:28:31.180 --> 00:28:36.540
to suppress a small app developer who
did nothing wrong, legally or morally.
00:28:36.540 --> 00:28:42.860
Instead, they filed a case against a contract that
explicitly permitted the conduct they complained about,
00:28:42.860 --> 00:28:49.446
committed the exact same sort of violation with
Rule 11, and rode it all the way into sanctions.
00:28:49.446 --> 00:28:55.393
Tell you what: I'll revoke Biggest Bogon Emitter
for Musi and give it to Winston & Strawn instead
00:28:55.393 --> 00:28:58.700
if Musi sues them for
legal malpractice.
00:28:58.700 --> 00:29:02.800
Until then, that makes Musi this
week's Biggest Bogon Emitter.
00:29:15.020 --> 00:29:23.420
And now let's prepoststructuralationalisticalify
this week's Idiot Extraordinaire.
00:29:26.140 --> 00:29:32.940
And it's another one for The Guardian, for combining
anti-nuclear bogosity with NIMBY fearmongering.
00:29:32.940 --> 00:29:40.300
It all starts with the headline: "Miliband reveals plans
that could mean nuclear power plants built near homes."
00:29:40.300 --> 00:29:45.900
They attack Britain's Secretary of State for
Energy Security and Net Zero Ed Miliband.
00:29:45.900 --> 00:29:50.633
His office released a statement illustrating his
plan to overhaul the country's nuclear system
00:29:50.634 --> 00:29:53.820
to speed up building
and cut costs. Quote:
00:29:53.820 --> 00:29:59.420
"The core of the plan is a move towards smarter
regulation: proportionate, focused on real risk,
00:29:59.421 --> 00:30:04.460
rooted in evidence, and designed to
effectively protect nature and biodiversity."
00:30:04.460 --> 00:30:07.420
Whereupon The Guardian and
a bunch of others screeched
00:30:07.420 --> 00:30:11.740
"irresponsible deregulation"
and "putting nature at risk."
00:30:11.740 --> 00:30:18.740
That apparently includes a new £14.2 billion
nuclear station as well as building SMRs.
00:30:18.740 --> 00:30:25.660
Environmental lawyer (that really lets you know
what to expect, doesn't it?) Alexa Fulver screeched:
00:30:25.660 --> 00:30:30.287
"No ecologists or environmental specialists
were invited to shape these proposals
00:30:30.288 --> 00:30:33.900
into anything that resembles
a 'win' for nature."
00:30:33.900 --> 00:30:36.066
Yeah, there's a reason for that.
00:30:36.066 --> 00:30:39.433
Quote: "This is irresponsible deregulation
00:30:39.434 --> 00:30:46.540
at a time when the true human and national costs of
nature degradation are becoming more fully understood."
00:30:46.540 --> 00:30:50.620
What "nature degradation" do you
think nuclear plants cause???
00:30:50.620 --> 00:30:54.220
As opposed to what, chopping
down trees to make solar farms?
00:30:54.220 --> 00:30:57.240
Or interrupting weather
cycles with windmills?
00:30:57.240 --> 00:31:00.707
Quote: "This was a chance for the
government to design resilience
00:31:00.708 --> 00:31:04.380
into our industrial strategy and
the government didn’t take it."
00:31:04.380 --> 00:31:09.580
The only kind of resilience we can
really have with energy is nuclear!
00:31:09.580 --> 00:31:16.114
And you're far better off having a nuclear plant
"closer to homes" than you are with an unreliable grid
00:31:16.115 --> 00:31:21.500
that's constantly having to rely on volatile
fossil fuel markets to compensate.
00:31:21.500 --> 00:31:25.180
Instead of reporting on what the
Secretary actually said and did,
00:31:25.180 --> 00:31:33.420
they gave megaphones to crazy environmentalists who have
been keeping us in the dark—literally—for far too long.
00:31:33.420 --> 00:31:37.953
Just once again, keep this in mind
whenever they and theirs mouth off
00:31:37.954 --> 00:31:42.380
about "zero carbon" and
"sustainability" and "global warming."
00:31:42.380 --> 00:31:49.500
Because we have the solution for it. And you
people always oppose it with everything you have.
00:31:49.500 --> 00:31:56.180
So all of that makes The Guardian
this week's Idiot Extraordinaire.
00:31:59.740 --> 00:32:04.220
Well, that wraps up this "More nuclear
power!" edition of the Bogosity Podcast.
00:32:04.220 --> 00:32:09.180
I hope you enjoyed it; if you did, please go to
donate.bogosity.tv for several ways to support,
00:32:09.180 --> 00:32:12.460
and discord.bogosity.tv
to join the discussion.
00:32:12.460 --> 00:32:17.420
Subscribe at the Discord, Patreon, or
SubscribeStar and you can listen early and ad-free.
00:32:17.420 --> 00:32:21.500
Thank you for listening. Remember, no
podcast next week; we'll see you in two weeks.
00:32:21.500 --> 00:32:24.220
Until then, here's a quote
from James Lovelock:
00:32:24.220 --> 00:32:29.420
"The oil companies regard nuclear power
as their rival, who will reduce their profits,
00:32:29.420 --> 00:32:33.100
so they put out a lot of
disinformation about nuclear power."
00:32:33.100 --> 00:32:37.180
The Bogosity Podcast is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
00:32:37.180 --> 00:32:39.093
4.0 International license.