Jon Festinger

Somebody needs to write a short pithy list/article titled “10 Things I’ll Miss Most About BuzzFeed”! ;)

Shaping Law and Legal Education for the Future A new Allard Law initiative will help law students and the broader legal community respond to technological change.

allard.ubc.ca/about-us/new...

icon showing a roughly human-shaped outline next to an empty speech bubble

D561,197 - issued to Disney in 2008 for a design for a "design for a portion of a computer Screen with an icon image." #DesignPatents

The Bluesky-ization of the American left Progressives discovered a seemingly invincible weapon. One day it stopped working.

The Bluesky-ization of the American left

The Constitution has not been meaningfully amended since 1971. That same year, a new method of constitutional interpretation was put forward. This would become known as originalism.

Jill Lepore on how the radical philosophy has undermined the Constitution: https://theatln.tc/ezc53Llb

*COMMENTARY UPDATE* One of our most consulted casebooks -- Samuel Beswick's award-winning "Tort Law: Cases and Commentaries" -- has just received a major revision! #tortlaw #legalcommentary zurl.co/czdMt

The latest issue (vol 22 no 1) of the Canadian Journal of Law and Technology (CJLT) is now available on CanLII! With contributions from Amanda Turnbull, Gulnoza Abdurakhmonova, Christian Clavette, Bertina Lou, and Christopher D'Souza. #techlaw #legalcommentary zurl.co/ylAoa

The latest issue (vol 58 no 2) of the UBC Law Review is now available on CanLII! With contributions from Jon Festinger, Céline Castets-Renard, Robert Diab, Bradley Henderson, Katie Szilagyi, Peter Wills, Isabelle St-Hilaire, David Cohen + Matthew Peters. #ai #techlaw #legalcommentary zurl.co/DKCqY

20 Years Later, Teaching Sports Law Is a Whole New Ballgame Michael McCann became a sports law professor in 2005 and has seen this area of law evolve dramatically since that time.

I became a law professor in 2005, and have taught sports law every year. Looking back at my syllabus from 20 years ago, let's just say things have changed—from the NCAA, to sports betting to marijuana. Plus now it's a "real" area of law. My
@sportico.bsky.social column:

📣AI propaganda factories🏭 are now operational. My study shows how small, open-weight models can run as fully automatic generators in influence campaigns. mechanising personas, engagement, cadence. Possible for State, non-state, and micro-actors, including and bedroom ones.

An alpha tool for legal aid clinics that my wonderful colleague Nikos Harris & I have been working on with UBC CIC. More to come.
drive.google.com/file/d/1k_tc...

Vol. 58 No. 2 UBC Law Review: Special Issue on AI & The Legal Profession can be dowloaded here www.canlii.org/commentary/j... My introduction to the Special Issue here www.canlii.org/en/commentar...

A Teen Was Suicidal. ChatGPT Was the Friend He Confided In.

At some point, Ms. Raine came in to check on her husband. “Adam was best friends with ChatGPT,” he told her. Ms. Raine started reading the conversations, too. She had a different reaction: “ChatGPT killed my son.” www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/t...

I have posted the latest version of my census of US cases referencing "emojis" or "emoticons" (over 1,300 in total) 📈

digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/cgi/viewcont...

front view of what looks like a motorcycle helmet or the like

D312,513 - issued in 1990 for a design for a "crash helmet." #DesignPatents

The entry's text: Unopposed MOTION for Leave to File Amicus Brief by Amici Curiae 363 Law Professors. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit Amici Brief, # 2 Text of Proposed Order)(Malone, Phillip) (Entered: 04/02/2025)

Thumbnail of page 1 of the PDF linked above.

Thumbnail of page 2 of the PDF linked above.

Thumbnail of page 3 of the PDF linked above.

New filing: "Perkins Coie v. DOJ (EO punishing firm)"
Doc #45: Unopposed MOTION for Leave to File Amicus Brief by Amici Curiae 363 Law Professors. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit Amici Brief, # 2 Text of Proposed Order)(Malone,…

[full entry below 👇]

Download PDF | View Full Case

#CL69725919

I am one of hundreds of law professors who joined this amicus brief supporting Perkins Coie in its challenge to Trump's unconstitutional and retaliatory executive order targeting the law firm

digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/cgi/viewcont...

poor Nintendo, announcing the Switch 2 just in time to have it cost ten thousand dollars

United States of America v. Live Nation Entertainment, Inc., 1:24-cv-03973 - CourtListener.com Docket for United States of America v. Live Nation Entertainment, Inc., 1:24-cv-03973 — Brought to you by Free Law Project, a non-profit dedicated to creating high quality open legal information.

New filing: "U.S. v. Live Nation (ticketmaster/live nation antitrust)"
Doc #503: Letter

Download PDF | View Full Case

#CL68557723

Thumbnail of page 1 of the PDF linked above.

New filing: "Perkins Coie v. DOJ (EO punishing firm)"
Doc #42-2: Text of Proposed Order

Download PDF | View Full Case

#CL69725919

How an AI courtroom simulation is helping first year law students find their voices Many are familiar with the racing heart and sweaty palms that can come with public speaking. This anxiety and the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) has inspired professors at the Peter A. Alla...

How an AI courtroom simulation is helping first-year law students combat public speaking fear via @ubyssey.ca ubyssey.ca/science/ai-c...

Gamify Your Life We all know that video games are more fun than real life… but what if your life was a video game? That’s the question you’ll answer every day, all ...

Twelve years ago.

baseball cap with extra holes

D694,493 - issued in 2013 for a "baseball-style sports cap." #DesignPatents

What’s going on with AI copyright authorship? It’s been a while since we covered the AI authorship debate here at Llama Towers, despite it being one of the first AI legal questions we discussed here nearly 10 years ago (time flies when y…

Another excellent Andres Guadamuz piece on the current status of AI copyright authorship:

What's going on with AI copyright authorship? www.technollama.co.uk/whats-going-...

Researchers Highlight BlueSky’s Transparency and User Control Amid X Exodus Researchers find BlueSky offers user data control, transparency, and decentralized moderation, yet lacks financial security without ads.

www.digitalinformationworld.com/2025/02/rese...

Cryptocurrency Might be a Path to Authoritarianism Extreme libertarians built blockchain to decentralize government and corporate power. It could consolidate their control instead.

That time when I wrote this seven and one half years ago

Big-Shot Lawyer: I Won’t Represent Meta Any More Thanks to Zuckerberg A lawyer representing the social media giant in a copyright dispute with famous writers said he could no longer “in good conscience” keep working with the company.

A high-powered lawyer representing Meta in a copyright case said he was dropping the company as a client due to CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s “descent into toxic masculinity.”

The D.C. Circuit Court's TikTok Ban Decision, Explained The court ruled the divest-or-ban requirement does not violate the First Amendment.

Tomorrow, SCOTUS will hear oral argument on the constitutionality of the TikTok ban legislation. Niharika Vattikonda and Benjamin Kelley explain the facts of the case, the D.C. Circuit’s decision on the matter, First Amendment questions at hand, and more.