The respondent did not show up to the hearing. They also did not show up to the gun relinquishment hearing, where it was noted they have approached another VC firm with a firearm before being apprehended by the police.
The san mateo prosecutor's office was notified of non-compliance.
This seems unlikely to have any sort of happy ending.
It seems like some people are trying to portray him as something he’s not.
He has been focused on building startups since arriving in Silicon Valley and has created multiple products over the years. That track record speaks more clearly than speculative claims.
The claim that he approached another VC firm is incorrect.
He was invited to the location via text message, where the founder encouraged him to apply and be accepted into their accelerator program. Upon arrival, the situation became uncomfortable, with individuals attempting to intimidate and surround him.
There is a growing concern among founders about how ideas are handled in these environments, and situations like this only reinforce those concerns.
It’s important not to misrepresent what actually happened.
"That alone is a good sign that these judges don't really think this is a great argument."
No, this is a totally normal thing, at least for the 9th circuit (and a few others). They do not publish all rulings, and they don't designate all opinions as precedential.
The rest is just disagreement with governing law, framed as if the court should have disregarded it and done what you wanted.
"California law requires that the end user makes an affirmative action to accept a TOS agreement in the form of checking a box or clicking a button. Something the court admits the defendant does not do."
This is only true as of July 1st, 2025. So was not in force at the time of this dispute.
"Just showing someone text does not count as accepting the TOS."
During the time, it did, as the court explains pretty well.
It is hilarious that you think this was about clearing a docket.
As a lawyer, I would guess this was literally the last thing they cared about here.
I also happen to think consumers get shafted and am quite happy with california's recent contract law changes, but ...
this ruling is quite clearly reasonable, if not totally correct based on the law as it existed at the time.
It is a totally reasonable discussion of what assent entails, is clear that assent only exists when people actually read the notice, and placed the burden on the companies, etc.
One can disagree with the law at issue here, but the court was very carefully following it, and had a meaningful and thoughtful discussion of the issues involved.
Which you dismiss as just "trying to clear their dockets" because apparently you don't like the law as it is (which is cool, but not the courts job)
Lawyer here. Its not. This article is highly confused. The case was about whether an AI could be considered an author for copyright purposes. Mainly as a way of arguing for robot rights, not copyright. The person listed the AI as the sole author: On the application, Dr. Thaler listed the Creativity Machine as the work’s sole author and himself as just the
work’s owner.
This is not the first time someone tried to say a machine is the author. The law is quite clear, the machine cant be an author for copyright purposes. Despite all the confused news articles, this does not mean if claude writes code for you it is copyright free. It just means you are the author. Machines being used as tools to generate works is quite common, even autonomously. ill steal from the opinion here:
In 1974, Congress created the National Commission on
New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works (“CONTU”)
to study how copyright law should accommodate “the creation
of new works by the application or intervention of such
automatic systems or machine reproduction.”
...
This understanding of authorship and computer
technology is reflected in CONTU’s final report:
On the basis of its investigations and society’s experience
with the computer, the Commission believes that there is
no reasonable basis for considering that a computer in any
way contributes authorship to a work produced through its
use. The computer, like a camera or a typewriter, is an
inert instrument, capable of functioning only when
activated either directly or indirectly by a human. When
so activated it is capable of doing only what it is directed
to do in the way it is directed to perform.
...
IE When you use a computer or any tool you are still the author.
The court confirms this later:
Contrary to Dr. Thaler’s assumption, adhering to the
human-authorship requirement does not impede the protection
of works made with artificial intelligence. Thaler Opening Br.
38-39.
First, the human authorship requirement does not prohibit
copyrighting work that was made by or with the assistance of
artificial intelligence. The rule requires only that the author of that work be a human being—the person who created,
operated, or used artificial intelligence—and not the machine
itself. The Copyright Office, in fact, has allowed the
registration of works made by human authors who use artificial
intelligence.
There are cases where the use of AI made something uncopyrightable, even when a human was listed as the author, but all of the ones i know are image related.
"the person who created, operated, or used artificial intelligence" so which one is it? because there the person(s) who created the ai is almost always different that the person who used it.
Oh it's worse bullshit. Modern paint shops don't emit meaningful VOCs. Even in Texas, for example. Nobody's even making non voc compliant auto paint anymore because there is no market for it.
I can't speak to permitting but the coating and coating voc stuff I know quite well and what they state is simply bullshit.
I can also say I know of a bunch of auto paint places that opened in the mountain view surrounding area alone in the 10 years I lived there.
https://web.sanmateocourt.org/midx/
Search for 26-CIV-00518
Deep link to the petition/complaint PDF: https://tinyurl.com/32xj5djy
(The details are the last page)
The respondent did not show up to the hearing. They also did not show up to the gun relinquishment hearing, where it was noted they have approached another VC firm with a firearm before being apprehended by the police. The san mateo prosecutor's office was notified of non-compliance.
This seems unlikely to have any sort of happy ending.
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