Winter Rant

Tech regulations are going to be an important thing to watch out for in 2024. So, this year, I am going to keep documenting news about tech regulations that show up on my news feeds.

Two things popped up today:

1. Japan: Copyright and AI Training

A story from last year about Japan’s stance on AI training and data copyright seems to have caught wind on Hacker News today. The original news seems to by technomancers.ai, but here is the regurgitated version of the story on ACM’s news site (archived link from last year):

Japanese publishers already seem to be up in arms about this:

“The Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association and three other industry groups released a joint statement Thursday expressing concern that copyright protection is not being adequately considered in the development of generative artificial intelligence.

The other organizations are the Japan Magazine Publishers Association, the Japan Photographic Copyright Association and the Japan Book Publishers Association.

In the joint statement, the organizations said that current generative AI creates content based on the analysis of large amounts of data collected from the internet without the consent of and payments to copyright holders.”

– https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/08/17/japan/crime-legal/japan-publisher-ai-copyright-concern/ (archived link)

2. Montana and North Carolina: Internet Identity

New Internet identification laws went into effect on Jan 1, 2024 in Montana and N.C.

“[…] laws that went into effect in both states on January 1st. Montana passed a standalone ID verification law in May, and North Carolina’s new law was tacked onto a bill regarding the high school computer curriculum. The laws require sites to either use third-party verification or, in the case of Montana, “digitized identification” to verify a visitor’s age. Both states also leave enforcement as a civil matter, allowing individuals to sue if they think a site violates the law.”

– https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/2/24022539/pornhub-blocked-montana-north-carolina-age-verification-law-protest (archived link)

These laws and many others like them are starting to require ID verification before accessing sites on the Internet. While these laws will have an outsized impact on porn hosting websites, their impact will likely be felt by other internet services that may have restrictions around how children use sites and services on the internet.

While the laws are well-meaning and well-intentioned, it is unclear how they will not violate user privacy. If the idea is to protect children, and affirm every user’s age through a well established digital (or physical) identity, then such sensitive identity data will need to make its way through the internet and reside on some web server (or data center). If such identity data ever leaks, it will be a major headache for the impacted users.

UK has passed a similar law that tightens its existing regulations around internet identities and protecting children on the internet. I am unclear on the status of that law: not sure if it has gone into effect, or if there are revisions to be made to it.

– vijay, thinking about backfilling my snack drawer