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Zachary Catanzaro

@brainstormlaw.bsky.social
58 followers 48 following 26 posts

Asst. Law Prof. • I teach Law and Tech and Intellectual Property • Musician • Gamer • Tweets not legal advice; opinions my own.

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Zachary Catanzaro @brainstormlaw.bsky.social · 17h
"Professor, whats Skynet?" from a student was the moment that hurt me.
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Reuters @reuters.com · 30/09/2026
Arizona court says judge wrongly allowed AI-generated victim video reut.rs/3VIJOIV
reut.rs
Arizona court says judge wrongly allowed AI-generated victim video
An Arizona appeals court on Wednesday ordered a new sentencing hearing for a man convicted of a fatal road-rage shooting, finding that a judge improperly relied on an AI-generated video depicting ​the victim speaking about forgiveness and addressing the defendant directly.
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Zachary Catanzaro @brainstormlaw.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
is now*
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James Grimmelmann @jtlg.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Bad content drives out good. www.garbageday.email/p/ai-growth-...
In the past week, several content creators have stumbled across accounts feeding their videos to AI programs that replace all the humans in the videos with artificial versions that mimic their movements and words exactly. Essentially, they recreate the video in all other details, but the fake people replacing the original creators is enough to avoid getting flagged as a repost.
This “AI flipping” has been a successful strategy on short-form video apps for months. These videos seem to be most popular on Instagram Reels, where they’re the bread and butter for at least one of the site’s fastest-growing accounts. Recent moves by Instagram seem to be aimed at cutting down on the practice, but we’re still seeing AI flips that are more popular than the original. Let’s walk through everything we know.
Part of why this growth hack works is that the platform doesn’t have any tools to find the original human video from the AI recreation — you need to see them both and remember one when you see the other. That means we’re not certain when or where this began. But the most successful AI flipper we’ve found is called Mr. Stretchy, an Arabic-language Instagram account that takes popular videos from all over the world and replaces the humans in them with this uncanny Wallace & Gromit reject.
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Zachary Catanzaro @brainstormlaw.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Because the marginal cost of production and distribution now near zero, digital art has become/is becoming a post-scarcity commodity. Awash in a sea of slop, 'good' art is pushed out of the market by 'bad' art per Gresham's law. But "[t]he taste of any public is not to be treated with contempt..."
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James Grimmelmann @jtlg.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
If I'm reading this correctly, I think Live Rewind and Siri Recap constitute "intercept[ion]" for purposes of the Wiretap Act. It's not full audio or a full transcript, but it's still "acquisition of the contents" of an oral communication.
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James Grimmelmann @jtlg.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
If you are responsible for a civil society organization, you will do more to advance your organization's mission—and preserve civil society as a thing that meaningfully exists—by forcing an authoritarian government to spend time and effort crushing it than by complying with its illegal damands.
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Zachary Catanzaro @brainstormlaw.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
I think it's time for more research on the venerable rule against perpetuities.
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Zachary Catanzaro @brainstormlaw.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Foucault rolling in his grave.
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Zachary Catanzaro @brainstormlaw.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
It's not torture; it's empirically driven mediocrity.
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Zachary Catanzaro @brainstormlaw.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
I had several students with Gemini Live open and listening to class answering cold call questions in real time last semester. I was very pro-laptop prior to this and am now reconsidering a ban.
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Zachary Catanzaro @brainstormlaw.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
The Dead Law Theory: The Perils of Simulated Interpretation
Judges now consult ChatGPT about what statutes mean. The scholarly response treats this as a reliability problem. Reliability is beside the point. LLMs generate
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Zachary Catanzaro @brainstormlaw.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
My working draft is now on SSRN: "The Dead Law Theory: The Perils of Simulated Interpretation." I argue originalism progressively reduced meaning to pattern, making its computational displacement inevitable. Drawing on Baudrillard and Searle, interpretation became simulation before AI ever arrived.
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Zachary Catanzaro @brainstormlaw.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
My new article, "Sovereignty in the Technological Singularity," is forthcoming in the Yale J. of Law & Tech. The article traces how algorithmic systems preserve human intention beyond death, evading the democratic accountability that mortality once guaranteed. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
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Zachary Catanzaro @brainstormlaw.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Ernst Fraenkel called it the dual state.
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Amy Landers @amylanders.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
IP Section pedagogy panel #AALS2026
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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
If we are banning cell phones for kids we need to be talking about banning chatbots for boomers www.persuasion.community/p/my-chatgpt...
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Zachary Catanzaro @brainstormlaw.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
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Zachary Catanzaro @brainstormlaw.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
I submitted a response article last night and still have not been approved.
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Zachary Catanzaro @brainstormlaw.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
tell me you're a middle aged millennial without telling me
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Zachary Catanzaro @brainstormlaw.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
He beat the wrap.
media.tenor.com
muppet fozzie bear is singing into a microphone while wearing a hat and tie .
ALT: muppet fozzie bear is singing into a microphone while wearing a hat and tie .
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Zachary Catanzaro @brainstormlaw.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
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Zachary Catanzaro @brainstormlaw.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
Hello from Delaware
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Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
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Mark Lemley @marklemley.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
I filed an amicus brief on behalf of 24 professors challenging the interim PTO director's illegal policy of blocking IPRs for any patent that is more than a few years old. drive.google.com/file/d/1NhrG...
drive.google.com
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Zachary Catanzaro @brainstormlaw.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
“The taste of any public is not to be treated with contempt”
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Zachary Catanzaro @brainstormlaw.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
www.techdirt.com/2025/07/17/f...
techdirt.com
Fascism For First Time Founders
Over the last year or so I’ve seen a disturbing tendency in tech/startup/VC worlds to buy into the neoreactionary view that for startups to be successful they need to get on board the Trump t…
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Zachary Catanzaro @brainstormlaw.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
I did a thing. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXus...
youtube.com
Ghosts in the Machine: Training AI to Outlive Us | Zachary Catanzaro | TEDxSTU
YouTube video by TEDx Talks
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Mark Lemley @marklemley.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
Along with @prmalone.bsky.social, @heidikitrosser.bsky.social, and several colleagues at Stanford, I filed this amicus brief on behalf of 363 law professors in support of Perkins Coie and the rule of law. We will file similar briefs for Jenner and Wilmer Hale law.stanford.edu/publications...
law.stanford.edu
BRIEF OF AMICI CURIAE 363 LAW PROFESSORS IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT AND FOR DECLARATORY AND PERMANENT INJUNCTIVE RELIEF | Stanford Law School
Amici 363 law professors submit this brief in support of Plaintiff’s Motion for Summary Judgment and for Declaratory and Permanent Injunctive Relief
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Zachary Catanzaro @brainstormlaw.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
You wouldn't download a lawyer, would you? abovethelaw.com/2025/03/appe...
abovethelaw.com
Appellant Sends AI Avatar To Oral Argument... Judges Are NOT Pleased - Above the Law
This is the wrong kind of LL.M.
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Georgetown Law @georgetownlaw.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Today, #GeorgetownLaw Dean William M. Treanor joined 79 law school deans in signing the letter posted below, issued March 26, 2025. [ Those signing are expressing their personal views and are not speaking for their institutions. Find the full letter and list of signatories: bit.ly/4hSna6u ]
"As deans of law schools, we have a special responsibility for the legal profession. Recently, the federal government has imposed significant sanctions on the law firms of Perkins Coie, Covington & Burling, Paul Weiss, and Jenner & Block seemingly because of the clients they and their lawyers represented and litigation in which their lawyers participated. 

We write to reaffirm basic principles: The government should not punish lawyers and law firms for the clients they represent, absent specific findings that such representation was illegal or unethical. Punishing lawyers for their representation and advocacy violates the First Amendment and undermines the Sixth Amendment. 

We thus speak as legal educators, responsible for training the next generation of lawyers, in condemning any government efforts to punish lawyers or their firms based on the identity of their clients or for their zealous lawful and ethical advocacy."

[Those signing are expressing their personal views and are not speaking for their institutions]List of law school deans who signed the March 26, 2025 letter:
Nicholas W. Allard, Jacksonville University College of Law
Johanna Bond, Rutgers Law School
Lolita Buckner Inniss, University of Colorado Law School
Marisa Cianciarulo, Western State College of Law
Anthony W. Crowell, New York Law School
Jerry Dickinson, University of Pittsburgh School of Law
David L. Faigman, UC Law San Francisco
Neil Fulton, University of South Dakota Knudson School of Law
James Hackney, Northeastern University School of Law
Blake Hudson, Cumberland School of Law at Samford University
Alena M. Allen, LSU
Martin H. Brinkley, UNC Chapel Hill School of Law
Cinnamon Carlarne, Albany Law School
Brietta Clark, LMU Loyola Law School
Judith Daar, NKU Chase College of Law
Jeffrey C. Dobbins, Willamette University College of Law
Roger A. Fairfax, Jr., Howard University School of Law
Jace C. Gatewood, Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School
Zelda B. Harris, Western New England University
Melanie B. Jacobs, University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law
Jessica Berg, UC Davis
S. Todd Brown, Buffalo School of Law
Erwin Chemerinsky, UC Berkeley School of Law
Danielle M. Conway, Penn State Dickinson Law
Camille M. Davidson, Mitchell Hamline School of Law
Angela Felecia Epps, UNT Dallas College of Law
Joshua Paul Fershée, Creighton University School of Law
Leah Chan Grinvald, UNLV Boyd School of Law
Cassandra L. Hill, Northern Illinois University College of Law
Jelani Jefferson Exum, St. John’s University School of LawAdditional law school deans who signed the March 26, 2025 letter:
Roscoe Jones, Jr., Drake University Law School
Jason Kreag, University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law
Madeleine M. Landrieu, Loyola University New Orleans College of Law
Melanie Leslie, Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University
Beth McCormack, Vermont Law & Graduate School
David D. Meyer, Brooklyn Law School
Lumen N. Mulligan, University of Missouri–Kansas City
Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Boston University School of Law
Austen Parrish, UC Irvine School of Law
LaVonda N. Reed, University of Baltimore School of Law
Johanna Kalb, University of San Francisco School of Law
Anita K. Krug, Chicago-Kent College of Law
Renee Hutchins Laurent, University of Maryland Carey School of Law
Odette Lienau, Boston College Law School
William McGeveran, University of Minnesota Law School
Richard Moberly, University of Nebraska College of Law
Eboni S. Nelson, University of Connecticut School of Law
Antony Page, Florida International University College of Law
Wendy C. Perdue, University of Richmond School of Law
Amelia Smith Rinehart, West Virginia University College of Law
Michael J. Kaufman, Santa Clara University School of Law
Joseph Landau, Fordham Law School
Stacy L. Leeds, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Arizona State University
Stephen W. Mazza, University of Kansas School of Law
James McGrath, Cooley Law School
Fernando Moreno Orama, Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico Law School
Jens David Ohlin, Cornell Law School
Brian Pappas, University of North Dakota
Andrew Perlman, Suffolk University Law School
Jenny Roberts, Hofstra University Maurice A. Deane School of LawAdditional law school deans who signed the March 26, 2025 letter:
Jacob H. Rooksby, Gonzaga University School of Law
Michael Sant’Ambrogio, Michigan State University College of Law
Michael Hunter Schwartz, McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific
Jamelle C. Sharpe, University of Illinois College of Law
Franita Tolson, USC Gould School of Law
Michael Waterstone, UCLA School of Law
Melanie D. Wilson, Washington and Lee University School of Law
Paul Rose, Case Western Reserve University School of Law
Robert A. Schapiro, University of San Diego School of Law
Sean M. Scott, California Western School of Law
Henry C. Strickland (Retired), Samford University
William M. Treanor, Georgetown University Law Center
Ronald Weich, Seton Hall Law School
Charles H. Rose III, Ohio Northern University Pettit College of Law
Nicholas J. Schroeck, University of Detroit Mercy School of Law
Sudha Setty, City University of New York School of Law
Patricia Timmons-Goodson, North Carolina Central University School of Law
Anthony Eudelio Varona, Seattle University School of Law
David J. Western, Appalachian School of Law
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Mark Lemley @marklemley.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Eric Goldman and I (along with the Juelsgaard clinic at Stanford Law School) filed this brief on behalf of 31 law professors in the Eleventh Circuit urging them to reject the idea that keyword advertising and initial interest confusion are trademark infringement. drive.google.com/file/d/1v8rT...
drive.google.com
Brief Amici Curiae of 31 Intellectual Property and Media Law Professors.pdf
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Zachary Catanzaro @brainstormlaw.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
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Zachary Catanzaro @brainstormlaw.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
“A hyperreal henceforth sheltered from the imaginary, and from any distinction between the real and the imaginary, leaving room only for the orbital recurrence of models and for the simulated generation of differences.” ― Jean Baudrillard www.404media.co/ai-slop-is-a...
404media.co
AI Slop Is a Brute Force Attack on the Algorithms That Control Reality
Generative AI spammers are brute forcing the internet, and it is working.
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Zachary Catanzaro @brainstormlaw.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
Here at Santa Clara School of Law's beautiful campus to present my latest article, Algorithmic Death-Worlds: Sovereignty in the Technological Singularity. @scuhtli.bsky.social #InternetLawWIP25
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The Onion @theonion.com · 21/02/2025
Exhausted Friends Slowly Realize They Were Playing Board Game Wrong Entire 6 Hours
theonion.com
Exhausted Friends Slowly Realize They Were Playing Board Game Wrong Entire 6 Hours
MILWAUKEE—Growing more despondent as each turn brought them no closer to a conclusion, an exhausted group of friends was reportedly coming to the realization Friday that they had been playing the boar...
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Zachary Catanzaro @brainstormlaw.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
Wild.
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Zachary Catanzaro @brainstormlaw.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
Thanks to the wonderful student editors of Fordham's IPLJ for their hard work on my recent article Algorithmic Dead Hands: What is Dead May Never Die. The article explores how AI can exploit property law's weakened restrictions on dead hand control. ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/iplj/vol35/i...
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