{"id":100457,"date":"2025-01-15T11:02:38","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T19:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/01\/15\/facebook-lawyer-ditches-client-as-company-embraces-bigotry-for-fun-profit\/"},"modified":"2025-01-15T11:02:38","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T19:02:38","slug":"facebook-lawyer-ditches-client-as-company-embraces-bigotry-for-fun-profit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/01\/15\/facebook-lawyer-ditches-client-as-company-embraces-bigotry-for-fun-profit\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook Lawyer Ditches Client As Company Embraces Bigotry For Fun & Profit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Lemley announced decision on Facebook for maximum effect.
\nThe post Facebook Lawyer Ditches Client As Company Embraces Bigotry For Fun & Profit appeared first on Above the Law.<\/p>\n

\"Facebook<\/p>\n

(Photo by Sean Gallup\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Intellectual property expert Mark Lemley is done working for Facebook. The Stanford Law professor represented Facebook in the copyright case brought on behalf of creators claiming the social media giant infringed their IP while training its large language model, in a case that could have profound implications for generative AI\u2019s future prospects. And while Lemley still hopes Facebook prevails on principle, he\u2019s done associating himself with the company\u2019s \u201cdescent into toxic masculinity and Neo-Nazi madness.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he made this announcement on Facebook.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/p>\n

And by descent into Neo-Nazi madness, we\u2019re talking about policies like these leaked to The Intercept<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Overall the restrictions on claims of ethnic or religious supremacy has been eased significantly. The document explains that Meta now allows \u201cstatements of superiority as long as the statements do not refer to inferiority of another

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There\u2019s a certain irony in the fact that this<\/em> policy has cost Facebook its lawyer in a case against comedian Sarah Silverman, who famously\/infamously had a routine lampooning the idea that proclaiming love for an ethnic group is the same as denigrating that group.<\/p>\n

A sanctimonious segment of the legal profession harps on the idea that \u201ceveryone is entitled an attorney.\u201d Except no one is entitled to you<\/em> as an attorney. Frankly, no one is entitled to anything in a civil case and to the extent society needs to extend more protections to indigent clients on the wrong end of life-altering civil actions \u2014 landlord-tenant cases for instance \u2014 there\u2019s definitely no such entitlement for a multibillion-dollar company in a copyright dispute.<\/p>\n

Representing a client is a business decision. Some lawyers thrive as counsel of last resort and model their business around the willingness to represent unpopular clients. Other lawyers build their business on crusading for good causes. A whole lot of lawyers exist somewhere between those poles. In fact, a lot of deep-pocketed clients also don\u2019t want to work with firms associated with unpopular causes<\/a> \u2014 that\u2019s a business decision too.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing wrong with any of these approaches. Lawyers should feel free to build their practice however they want.<\/p>\n

Lemley isn\u2019t trying to be a Hollywood criminal law fixer, he\u2019s an intellectual property lawyer. He doesn\u2019t need to build an artificial firewall between his moral convictions and some abstract legal principle. He can choose to lend his skills to clients that reflect his values.<\/p>\n

And Facebook doesn\u2019t at this point.<\/p>\n

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\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark Lemley announced decision on Facebook for maximum effect. The post Facebook Lawyer Ditches Client As Company Embraces Bigotry For Fun & Profit appeared first on Above the Law. (Photo by Sean Gallup\/Getty Images) Intellectual property expert Mark Lemley is done working for Facebook. The Stanford Law professor represented Facebook in the copyright case brought […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":100458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law","category-legal_matters"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/GettyImages-512015968-600x400-VEBPIH.jpeg?fit=600%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}