Author: Aron Solomon

First appeared in Western Journal By Aron Solomon During the third week of February, Elon Musk claimed that Twitter’s algorithm would become open-source the next week. Yet that week became the next week and the week after that. Then, finally, very early Friday morning, over a month after the original announcement, Musk committed to making Twitter’s algorithm open-source that day. The opposite of open-source software is, logically, closed-source. As David Gelman, a New Jersey lawyer, explains, “Closed-source software is another way of saying ‘proprietary.’ In other words, the company that builds it owns the rights to its use. If you want to use you,…

First appeared in BOXSCORE By Aron Solomon Early on Friday, Wimbledon and all British professional grass court season events announced that Russian and Belarusian players would be allowed to play in this year’s tournament if and only if they sign personal player declarations that have been “clarified and developed” with the government and tennis stakeholder bodies. Looking back at the history of this issue, Wimbledon banned Russian and Belarusian players from the 2022 tournament due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The ban included top players such as Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, and Aryna Sabalenka, among many others. While Wimbledon defended the decision,…

First appeared in Down With Tyranny By Aron Solomon Open AI, the parent company for ChatGPT and GPT-4, has racked up nothing but wins. Until last week, that is: While “feeling awful” is an appropriate sentiment here, it doesn’t negate the fact that this breach violated many data protection laws, including the global queen of them all, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). I’m very familiar with the GDPR, having lived in Germany during the period of its final adoption and its implementation, having advised large legal and technology companies that would ultimately be firmly on regulators’ radar if they violated…

First appeared in Western Journal By Aron Solomon Elon Musk’s recent claim that Twitter is worth less than half of what he paid for it has caused widespread speculation about his intentions. While it is not entirely clear what his endgame is, Musk recently offered stock grants to Twitter staff that value the company at $20 billion, less than half of the $44 billion he paid to take control of the social media company in late October. Musk told employees they would receive stock awards based on a $20 billion valuation of the firm. This message came in the context of…

First appeared in Florida Daily By Aron Solomon A meme going around social media this weekend details a man who is “legally squatting in a bank-owned multi-million dollar mansion” in Boca Raton. The video has close to a million views this weekend, with a string of comments suggesting that since Florida is in a housing crisis with so many homes sitting empty that they should simply be occupied. One commenter even mentioned that there are now agencies that will help you legally squat in a mansion. The reality is, of course, very different. For those who were thinking that simply moving into an unoccupied $8…

First appeared in Substack By Aron Solomon This image went viral over the weekend: People went nuts over it and for good reason. The Pope had, in the words of the most fashion-forward among us, some crazy drip (translation: he looked very stylish).  Yet after a day or so of reveling in the look, asking whether the Pope had collaborated with Drake, and similar observations, word slowly began to leak that this was perhaps not a “real” photo, at least in the sense that we have come to know the term. Here lies the problem from the perspective of all things…

First appeared in NewsBreak By Aron Solomon On January 11, 2021, the City of New York enacted a new law that requires retailers and other commercial establishments that collect, retain, convert, store, or share customers’ “biometric identifier information” to notify their customers of these practices before customers enter those establishments. This law, known as “The Biometric Identifier Information Law,” went into effect in July 2021 and is designed to protect the privacy and security of individuals’ biometric data. Under the law, businesses that collect biometric data from customers must provide notice in the form of a sign that is visible and legible. The…

First appeared in NewsBreak By Aron Solomon Dick Van Dyke is a beloved American TV star, particularly for those of us of a certain vintage. We remember his work as a trailblazer in TV comedy, star of his eponymous show, and all-around excellent comedian Yet the 97-year-old Van Dyke was in the news this month for a decidedly un-comedic reason – running his Lexus into a gate near his Malibu home. This has once again brought an important legal issue into the spotlight, the correlation between older drivers, accidents, and the need to review licensing procedures as drivers get older. There have…

First appeared in DC Journal By Aron Solomon If you consume literally any media you’ve seen commercials for Ozempic. They’re intentionally vague, in that all we see is people doing things and looking happy. If you’re unfamiliar with what Ozempic is, the commercials really don’t help. There’s a reason for this – Ozempic is a drug with multiple uses. It had an original use and now has a far more popular secondary use. The problem is that there are dangers in how Ozempic is being prescribed and used for that very popular secondary use. Ozempic (semaglutide) is a medication used to…

First appeared in Florida Daily By Aron Solomon Mifepristone, a medication that is used to terminate early pregnancies, is all over our news cycles as a federal court judge in Texas heard arguments last week about whether it should be sold in the United States. The lawsuit was filed by an anti-abortion group in Texas based on an argument that mifepristone’s safety was never adequately or properly studied. Yet looking at the history of the drug makes this a difficult argument. The drug was first developed in the 1980s by a French pharmaceutical company, Roussel-Uclaf. The drug is also known…