Microsoft doesn't understand the Fediverse
Kevin Beaumont (@GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social)
The admin of the Mastodon instance cyberspace.social just received an AI powered notice to delete the parody account @microsoft@lea.pet
Does Microsoft understand anything? At all? They suck at making software, they suck at making operating systems, they suck at making genAI, they suck at making game consoles, they're starting to suck at owning github, what don't they suck at? What part of their business is done better than anyone else? What end user experience is better on an MS product than anywhere else? They have a shittier alternative to literally everything and nothing truly good.
VSCode
Vscode being more accessible than Visual doesn't actually mean anything in the grand scheme of code creation. Both sucks btw.
You're talking to a vim user. If you even suggest that a MS product is better I'll go crazy and crush up my own teeth into dust and then put it in my morning breakfast milk to make Teeth Milk (Tilk)
You've been warned.
(It's 6 in the morning and I still haven't slept I'm really sorry about this but this reply seems really funny to me so I'm posting against my better judgement)
They rock at being the default. As much as I love LibreOffice MS office is probably the best office suite I've used too.
They suck at making everything except money.
That's called a scam artist, and honestly that's not far off at all. They did some sneaky shit to maintain a monopoly.
let them sue, parody is fair use. get that bag king
AI putting copyright troll lawyers out of jobs? Best use I’ve heard of yet.
Look ma, my instance is being threatened! Proud to be on the instance of Mastodon CEO 🥹
Ok but fr, MS please don't shut down cyberplace.social I just switched to there like a few months ago.
this is why niche stuff on fedi is so funny sometimes. especially when a corporate entity tried to approach it, in the most corporate way lol.
So, here's what I would do. I would comply (you should be able to delete the local instance of that account). But I'd also reply pointing out that it's a mirror of the real account hosted at lea.pet and their real beef is with them, and should that user interact with or generate content pushed to you, the local copy would be re-created.
Keep a copy of the email you send (because it's highly likely a human doesn't monitor that mailbox) and then move on with your life. If a real person then wants to complain you can just forward the email you sent and tell them the same still applies.
It's automated and the email indicates as such.
Why comply? As far as I'm aware there's no legal obligation to do so. They think they can just ask for things and get them. Fuck them.
So, then, according to corpo logic, you've setup a system that automatically repeatedly breaks the law (copyright , maybe? Ianal).
And if the liability is on you for hosting a federation service with no control over the content and you are accountable for the replicated content, then it is effectively the end of federation. Again, not a lawyer but given how much the law favors corps over individual rights in the US it seems like it would track.
I've said this before. The UK online safety act if they enforce it hard against fediverse instances, it will be the end of federation, for UK users without a VPN at least. Because it puts too much on the shoulders of small site operators.
In this case though, the exception most countries have for site operators to avoid being responsible for their user's posts is usually reliant on action being taken when content on your site is reported to you. There isn't really an exception for saying "Umm, wasn't from my site mate. Go follow the trail and get the original guy". The argument will be, the site you control has the content, remove it.
In the UK in the 1990s there was a court case [1] that might even form the part of the case law behind the publisher exception. In that case the claimant stated that the ISP was alerted to forged usenet articles (usenet was pretty much a good analogue for modern federated content) that he believed defamed him. They did not remove the articles (presumably because they did not originate on their usenet server, by their users I am not sure). He sued them and the court ruled in his favour. There's more nuance, but the take away is pretty much what we got in the law created later.
Since then we have enacted the Defamation Act 2013 [2], which has section 5 that gives SOME exemption to operators of websites that allow posts by third parties (that pretty much covers the fediverse). That makes it clear that if the claimant cannot identify the user (which would be the case for 99% of threadiverse users), and if you are informed about the content and do not take action, then you may be held accountable for the defamation. Now that just means that if they tell you X post is defamatory or should be removed for another legal reason, if you refuse to do so in a reasonable time period, then you can be held responsible and treated as the publisher of that message. So if it were to breach some law, they could sue you for it as if you posted it yourself. Which is kinda why I'd say just remove it if there's any doubt at all. I'm not a legal expert, but that's how I read the act.
I'm not sure how it works elsewhere. I live in the UK. But generally the rules are somewhat similar.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godfrey_v_Demon_Internet_Service [2] https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2013/26/section/5
Microsoft is such a horrid company.
I feel like this is going to become a problem with federation in the future. A Mastodon instance is hosting content outside of its control that may or may not comply with its internal policies or local law. Is that instance protected legally? Likely not.
It would likely be treated the same way as auto forwarding an email would be treated.
AT proto's PDS architecture does solve that 👀
Edit: I do want to say that after reading this blog post I have become a bit more lenient on ATProto. It seemed rather neutral and objective and found several upsides that I think are worth taking a look at.
The instance rules state;
3 . No impersonation of a person or a brand. Even parodies.
6 . Each username on here should be a person, not a brand or corporation - and that person must be you, no impersonation.
Now I'm not coming to the defense of a corporation because fuck corps but wouldn't this account violate those rules? Microsoft is a (shitty) brand and this is a parody of that.
I might be wrong but thats how I would interpret those two rules.
And again fuck microsoft, even if it does violate the instance rules it should be left alone just to piss of a shitty corp.
Edit: As TherapyGary pointed out, the instance they are on has no rule pertaining to parody accounts, My bad.
I believe the Microsoft account is hosted on Lea.pet, which doesn't have those rules
don’t harass people if there isn’t a valid reason for doing that
what a nothing rule lol, every harasser believes they are justified
Mrrrrp :3
Poor Ubuntu.
Fair point, I didn't know those rules weren't on lea.pet. That's on me I should have checked, my bad.
Quick, everyone make a million parody accounts to troll microsoft harder.
It's not hosted on that instance. It's hosted at another instance. You're making the same mistake that the Microsoft bot AI did.
You're making the same mistake Microsoft made
6 . Each username on here should be a person, not a brand or corporation - and that person must be you, no impersonation.
"I'm not a businessman, I'm a business, man!"
-Jay-Z regretting his words
Stupid rules deserve breaking.
:D
Not that I have any sympathy for them but technically speaking, can we say "Microsoft does X" when it was just a "brand protection LLM"?
For sure they chose it to be an outward connection but are we really now stating that an LLM can represent a company? I feel like that's both "you are stupid for using LLMs that way" and empowering LLMs at the same time
They are the ones who configured the tool to be used this way. Yes, Microsoft did that.
You're always responsible for the actions of those that you choose to represent you. Regardless of how stupid they may be.
This is honestly a dumb post. It doesn't say anything about "Microsoft" understanding or not understanding anything.
It just shows them using an automated system to try and take down an account that they think is infringing on their trademark. There are legal protections for parody accounts, but they are not absolute and it's possible that Microsoft could get a court order compelling the owner to cease control of the account.
So I guess I'll explain the post for you, since it seems you do not understand the fediverse, either.
cyberplace.social federates with lea.pet but is not responsible for and cannot control the Microsoft parody account on lea.pet. Microsoft sent the notice to the wrong server. That's why Microsoft does not understand the fediverse or how federation works, and why the post is funny instead of dumb. Now you can laugh too! You're welcome!
Microsoft doesn't understand parody
...yet.
$followers++
When did they understand anything? Fuck MS
Streisand effect in full swing too. I'm now following @Microsoft@lea.pet :)
I don't get fediverse either. How do I follow that from a Lemmy app. The link dosnt work.