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Ben Klemens

@b-k.bsky.social
191 followers 207 following 285 posts

I've stopped using "Economist" and have switched to "Computational Social Scientist". @b@xoxo.zone on Mastodon. He/him or they/them

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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Part of the cost of publishing an academic article is signing on to a lifetime of spam, because it's 2026 and legit academic journals still post plain text author email addresses like they did in 1995 when the only people with email were academics.
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Hi everybody, I'll be giving a talk on AI and copyright on Friday 9 October @ 11AM Eastern (16:00 UTC), based on my paper "The Art Critics Won't Save You from the Robots." It will help you to understand why U.S. copyright law feels wrong to everybody. Logistics at ben.klemens.org/talk_announc... .
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
It's fine if you want to bring a beverage to a job interview, but remember to bring a second for the interviewer.
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
@mrose.ink @courtneyr.bsky.social @pelinozgul.bsky.social I'd be honored if you stopped in! bsky.app/profile/b-k....
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
There are some people who believe that "it's necessary for security" is an incontrovertible and winning argument, and this is a prefect parody. Next time somebody tells you a security measure is suddenly necessary, you can reply 'oh, like the drone port on the triumphal arch?'
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Hi everybody, I'll be giving a talk on AI and copyright on Friday 9 October @ 11AM Eastern (16:00 UTC), based on my paper "The Art Critics Won't Save You from the Robots." It will help you to understand why U.S. copyright law feels wrong to everybody. Logistics at ben.klemens.org/talk_announc... .
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
Going to self-RT this post from 2022 when I thought it was pretty cool that the people who run Google Maps use discretion in selecting location names, and picked something significant instead of the official street name.
Screen shot of a tweet from June 2022. "The street is still New Hampshire Ave but now has the honorific Khashoggi Way, like how I live between Bishop Hart Way and Li'l Benny Way but both of those names won't appear on a map.

But Google is all in and is using the honorific in this case."

The map is a close-up of DC outside the Saudi Embassy, with Jamal Khashoggi Way displayed.
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
#followFriday @yaelwrites.com , who maintains the Big-ass Data Broker Opt-out List (github.com/yaelwrites/B...), and writes award-winning articles on tech and the surveillance state.
github.com
GitHub - yaelwrites/Big-Ass-Data-Broker-Opt-Out-List
Contribute to yaelwrites/Big-Ass-Data-Broker-Opt-Out-List development by creating an account on GitHub.
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Waldo Jaquith @waldo.net · 28/08/2026
I made a map of the location of every business in Virginia*, for some reason? vabusinesses.org/map/ * That I've geocoded so far—it's slow going! 387,006 done so far.
A dot map of Albemarle County, Virginia, with one dot for every location where business are found. Some dots are smaller, and some are larger. They're mostly clustered on the northern half of Charlottesville.
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Brian Galle @bdgesq.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Sneak preview: Not only isn't there an "illegality" doctrine in nonprofit law today, there never was. Despite many treatises that say otherwise! I read every freaking charitable trust case back to 1602 to prove it, y'all. And yes, I did have to get a new eyeglass prescription.
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Have you checked the options in the accessibility settings for your devices lately? A lotta good stuff in there even if your hands and eyes work great.
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
#FollowFriday @gumbyscreens.bsky.social , especially if you have no idea who Gumby is. A wonderfully hand-crafted claymation still a few times/day.
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Taggart @taggart-tech.com · 14/08/2026
This is by no means a new article (June 2026), but this lengthy paper details a reimagining of the case against AI intellectual property theft as unfair business practice rather than strict copyright infringement. Along the way, it's a stellar review of US copyright caselaw.
papers.ssrn.com
The Art Critics Won't Save You from the Robots: Confronting A.I. as Misappropriation
Artificial intelligence (A.I.) systems require a wealth of training data, which is often harvested from creators without their consent, and then used to train s
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
It's sometimes helpful to measure data in floppy disks (1.4MB). Going to my credit union's landing/login page means downloading two floppies, but if I want to e-deposit cheques I need to download the app, 65 floppy disks.
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Erin McKean @emckean.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
It's the 11th of the month, so time for another issue of Things I Learned While Looking Up Other Things! This one is a bit different, more of an essay, about "intense interest, briefly experienced" (but still with 11 links): buttondown.com/thingslearne...
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Elsevier recognizes that there's more than citation count, like social media discussion. No, bsky doesn't count—the only social media network they track for 🧪 discussion is...Facebook. [They also track SSRN, but that's not really a social network.] www.elsevier.com/insights/met...
The following table lists the sources that PlumX tracks for Social Media.

Shares, likes & comments: Facebook

That's it, that's the only source in the table.
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
The first network-theory analysis of the U.S. corporate/partnership web is published! 2 lessons: ∙ All the hellishly complicated convolutions you'd expect are there. ∙ It's extremely regular, and we can use those regularities to measure, e.g., private equity concentration. 🧪 doi.org/10.1017/nws....
doi.org
Measures of the capital network of the U.S. economy | Network Science | Cambridge Core
Measures of the capital network of the U.S. economy - Volume 14
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
There was a streetcar on my street in the 1800s—horse drawn! Only the tracks are left, which cause gashes in the road bed. Every fifteen years or so they repave but don't pull the tracks, I suppose so everybody going down this road can be reminded that we once had streetcars.
A road. The pavement is ground down to be resurfaced, and the streetcar tracks are a long gash through the length of it.
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Waldo Jaquith @waldo.net · 03/08/2026
This is very niche stuff for this general audience, but— If you're a government employee dealing with modernizing Medicaid tech infrastructure, I'm co-hosting a one-hour webinar on the subject next week, particularly about how to get better results within your existing contract.
usdigitalresponse-org.zoom.us
Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Modernizing Medicaid technologies through agile procurement. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.
Constant policy changes result in expensive, exhausting, and inefficient software rebuilds and procurements. Break free of this cycle by truly modernizing how your government delivers software with hu...
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drl -Good Alt Txt'r, Bad IRL Txt'r™- dCsta @drl.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
OMFG IF YOU ARE GONNA BE THE GUY WHO BRINGS A FUCKING AMP SIZED SPEAKER TO THE PARK PAY FOR A STREAMING PLAN DON’T BLAST HARD HOUSE INTERUPTED BY B2B SALES PITCHES
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ChicagoVintageTileFloors @chicagovtfloor.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Phew...it's still there at Indian Boundary Park.
Sidewalk cracks filled with shimmery blue and gold mosaic tile.
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Fractal Kitty @fractalkitty.com · 23/07/2026
added some knotty prototypes to inquiries www.inquiries.link/tools/topology #knots #mathart #mtbos
hexagonally arranged knot coloring sheet with symmetric coloring and crossings and one part in the center miss colored from the rest as dark when the others are pink. the colors are muted tonesrectangular arrangement of a celtic-like knot with symmetry in knots, but not in colors. a braid of crossing strands with various colors that weave under and over with muted tones.a circular braid of loops where some cross in and out and others cross few or not at all. muted tones.
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
People used to tell racist jokes about dirty Mexicans, then late-nite comedians cleaned that up to a steady stream of "Taco Bell causes diarrhea" jokes, and they've used the trope for long enough that major newspapers now accept it as fact.
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Waldo Jaquith @waldo.net · 14/07/2026
After a few months of evening and weekend work, I've published v1.1 of my open source software that turns a raw legal code into a lovely, deeply interconnected website. It's been nine years since the last release! cc: @krusynth.bsky.social, @johnathayde.com
github.com
Release v1.1 · statedecoded/statedecoded
Modernized the entire codebase from PHP 5 to PHP 8, fixing hundreds of incompatibilities so that the software runs on currently supported versions of PHP and MySQL 8. Added a Docker-based developme...
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
There was a period in DC politics when people argued that bike lanes were bad because only white male gentrifiers used them.
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Musicology Duck @musicologyduck.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
i just had to explain to a 7 year old why there were armed soldiers at Shake Shack and i'm tired
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
The draft article on AI and copyright I'd posted to SSRN on 25 June is still "under review" by Elsevier. I think this is the right way to convey this here on The Socials: THE CENSORS AT ELSEVIER DON'T WANT YOU TO READ THIS SHOCKING ARTICLE ON A.I. AND COPYRIGHT: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
The Art Critics Won't Save You from the Robots: Confronting A.I. as Misappropriation
Artificial intelligence (A.I.) systems require a wealth of training data, which is often harvested from creators without their consent, and then used to train s
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
250 years later is still not too late to declare your independence from the Imperial System! Switch to Metric today!
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
We're enjoying the reflecting pool and empty National Mall because it's obvious incompetence on display but nobody died or was irreparably harmed. Let's hope it stays that way.
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Public Knowledge @publicknowledge.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
We're hiring! Apply now to join our Government Affairs team at publicknowledge.org/govtaffairs!
publicknowledge.org
Government Affairs Policy Counsel/Advocate - Public Knowledge - Career Page
Apply to Government Affairs Policy Counsel/Advocate at Public Knowledge in Washington, DC.
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Looks like EU-US data transfers of PII depend on having an independent agency in the US handling the details of privacy regulations. Now that SCOTUS has declared tnat the FTC isn't an independent agency, that arrangement is being called into question. noyb.eu/en/us-suprem...
noyb.eu
US Supreme Court just blew up EU-US Data Transfers
The US Supreme Court decided that the US Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) may not be independent anymore – with major implications for EU-US Data Transfers.
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
Super-glad I got this op-ed about 12-dimensional spheres into Scientific American before it got sold out. www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-... It's even relevant to that article about AI+copyright I'd posted earlier this week; see papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... fn 41. #selfpromotionSunday
scientificamerican.com
The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle of Social Science Modeling
It’s known as the “curse of dimensionality,” and it’s why our estimates of how a disease will behave will always have imprecision
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
OK, intellectual property fans, here's a draft law review essay I wrote for you about AI and copyright. It's really about a trend in copyright jurisprudence which is distorting the AI debate. You shift the trend, you fix the debate. 1/9 papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
The Art Critics Won't Save You from the Robots: Confronting A.I. as Misappropriation
Artificial intelligence (A.I.) systems require a wealth of training data, which is often harvested from creators without their consent, and then used to train s
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
"Springer Nature is nevertheless still selling the empty PDF for $39.95."
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Normalize parasols.
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Ad at NJ & K NW DC, about ten blocks from the U.S. Capitol.
Bus ad: "fair use advances innovation and improves lives". There is light bulb iconography, and a logo for "AI Progress".
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
"Your ID isn't for you; it's for the bouncer and the system that put the bouncer in place."
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Waldo Jaquith @waldo.net · 19/06/2026
This bot goes hard
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Brian Galle @bdgesq.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
I'm very excited to be part of this awesome virtual symposium on the future of the U.S. tax system, hosted at Democracy Journal. democracyjournal.org/category/mag... So many smart, thoughtful, and especially readable takes on what's next. My own bit is here: democracyjournal.org/magazine/81/...
democracyjournal.org
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A Journal of Ideas
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dad--joke.bsky.social @dad--joke.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
Nobody knows how Caesar was born--it should be called a K-section, because we all have a good image of how the Kool-aid Man was born.
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Victoria @fakegreendress.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
“So how did you two meet?” “We were both palace guards stationed outside the gate.” “No we weren’t.”
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Are there any technology law reviews that accept submissions in LaTeX? I'd take that as a strong signal that the editors won't exclude technologist authors.
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SocArXiv @socarxiv.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
SocArXiv accepts law papers, as we always have. Some of the bells and whistles he wants we don't have- like ranking and email subscriptions, but those can be built using SocArXiv. We don't have funds or staff to help build that, but law schools do.
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alex roberts @lexlanham.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
lastly, contrary to what a lot of blueskiers seem to be posting, the idea of trademark having a duty to police is dramatically overblown. patagonia letting pattie be does not meaningfully undermine the strength of its marks or its ability to enforce its marks against others.
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Jonathan H. Liu @jonathanhliu.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Look, I'm trying to get on board with descriptive (vs prescriptive) grammar, but it still bugs me when people use "dice" as a singular. Though not as much as when they try to pluralize it to "dices."
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Blake E. Reid @chup.blakereid.org · 21/05/2026
Emerging from lurk to drop the final version of Separation of Copyright Powers, my new explainer on all the legal and historical puzzle boxes surrounding the administration's attempt to take over the Library of Congress and the Copyright Office. A quick summary... 1/ papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
Separation of Copyright Powers
<div> <div> <div> The United States Copyright Office’s multifarious roles in the U.S. copyright system have long prompted uncertainty about its position a
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Daniel Schuman @americalabs.org · 20/05/2026
In front of the committee chair is a plaque: "No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law." See my potato photo below.
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
2006: instead of buying CDs, mp3s are how you avoid paying musicians for their work. 2026: instead of streaming, where musicians get paid $1e-6 per spin, buying mp3s is how you pay musicians for their work.
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
AS SOMEONE WHO GOT NEED-BASED AID TO GO TO U Of C (wait why are we yelling), it's great to see the opportunity extended to more people. I wouldn't be where I am without that financial aid when I needed it.
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Ben Klemens @b-k.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
My biggest Bluesky #FeatureRequest is a filter for screencaps of other social media sites. I know there are people on other sites posting horrible comments, but that's why I'm here and not there. Whatever you're using to autodetect and auto-tag nipples, you can use that to tag X/Truth/... logos.
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