iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sounds amazing. Email me & we can schedule.

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An interesting thing about returning to running in your 50s is that you don’t just wonder how long you’ll keep getting faster, but also when you’ll start getting slower. A little under a 7:30 mile for now anyway.

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Of course! I’d be delighted. Email me & we can schedule.

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Now that I’m settling in at Tulane, I’d like to do more Ipse Dixit interviews. If you’ve got a new paper or book you’d like to discuss, lmk.

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I mean, it’s embarrassing for the client, but so what? The opinion of one of the client’s employees on a question of law is irrelevant.

020

Client’s employee has legally irrelevant opinion, what else is new?

Indeed. Ironically, when it comes to charitable spending, effective altruists haven’t actually been all that effective. It turns out that altruism is hard to scale.

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Brian L. Frye @brianlfrye.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I love Liz Phair. Although I have regretted buying some of her more recent albums.

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Tickled to see my institution promoting this! 😜

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Reposted by Brian L. Frye

Tulane Law School @tulanelawschool.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

What happens when a comedy club has a copyright and trademark question? They call a law professor. Professor @brianlfrye.bsky.social, an expert in intellectual property law, sat down with the team behind The Comedy Cellar to talk copyright, trademarks, joke stealing and more. Check it out ⤵️

youtube.com

In Defense of Plagiarism╎ Brian L. Frye on Ross Barkan, Claudine Gay, and Writing With AI

YouTube video by Comedy Cellar USA

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Brian L. Frye @brianlfrye.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The report says they are complements, which means you can have one without the other, which is the case wrt academic freedom & institutional neutrality. And you haven’t identified anything in the chancellor’s statement that violated academic freedom or institutional neutrality. You just dislike it.

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Brian L. Frye @brianlfrye.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The report says that academic freedom & institutional neutrality are complements, which is to say they are different things. Also, nothing about institutional neutrality prevents a university from stating that it doesn't endorse the protected statements of its faculty members.

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Brian L. Frye @brianlfrye.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Even if it is a violation of the institutional neutrality policy - which nothing you have said substantiates - it still isn’t an academic freedom violation. Again, you can just argue that he is wrong on the merits.

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Brian L. Frye @brianlfrye.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Institutional neutrality policies don't require universities to refrain from speaking about matters related to their mission or clarifying that they don't endorse the speech of faculty members. No one's academic freedom has been violated. You can just disagree with him on the merits.

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Brian L. Frye @brianlfrye.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I certainly agree that the university president can affect someone's willingness to exercise academic freedom in different ways than others. But I also think it's relatively easy to avoid the president's attention. And I think it's an open question what academic freedom should & shouldn't protect.

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I would characterize that as criticism of the expressive act of inviting that person to speak, without of course defending the content of that criticism.

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Yeah, fair. It's hard to speak generally about institutional neutrality policies in the abstract, because they're all different. Our provost just discussed the Tulane policy with us & his interpretation seemed consistent with institutional criticism under some circumstances.

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Fair. I think one way of protecting the principle of academic freedom is by criticizing speech but recognizing that it is protected.

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A policy of institutional neutrality means the university generally doesn’t take positions on political matters unrelated to its mission. It certainly allows a university to disclaim the speech of its employee. While it doesn’t require criticism of that speech, it doesn’t prohibit it either.

Sure, he’s a fair target for criticism too.

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I think it’s fine to criticize the chancellor & I’m not defending his statement. But there’s no academic freedom problem here.

On the contrary, the chancellor protected academic speech by affirming the principle that academic institutions cannot punish academics for distasteful academic speech.

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You are more than welcome to criticize the chancellor’s assessment of what constitutes reasonable speech.

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Yes, firing someone for speech protected by academic freedom is the essence of a violation.

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So Penn should defend Amy Wax? I disagree. The institution has to defend the engage in academic speech. It doesn’t have to defend & can criticize the speech itself.

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Ok. Doesn’t create an academic freedom problem.

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Hard disagree. Academic freedom means the institution can’t punish you for academic speech. It doesn’t mean the institution can’t criticize your academic speech.

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Fair. But we criticize the administrators all the time, sauce for the goose &c. Also, if you’re gonna court controversy for attention, you can’t complain when you get it.

Oh no what about his academic freedom.