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Amazon Argues That Alexa Is Protected By the First Amendment in a Murder Trial (qz.com)
Amazon is sticking to its guns in the fight to protect customer data. The ecommerce giant has filed a motion to quash the search warrant for recordings from an Amazon Echo in the trial of James Andrew Bates, accused of murdering friend Victor Collins in Bentonville, Arkansas in November 2015. And it's arguing that the responses of Alexa, the voice of the Echo, has First Amendment rights as part of that motion. From a report on Quartz: The company's lawyers claim that Alexa's recordings and responses are subject to free speech protections under the US constitution's bill of rights, and that prosecutors need to provide more evidence that this audio is essential to the case. "It is well established that the First Amendment protects not only an individual's right to speak, but also his or her 'right to receive information and ideas,'" Amazon lawyers wrote in a court filing. "At the heart of that First Amendment protection is the right to browse and purchase expressive materials anonymously, without fear of government discovery." Amazon also referenced a 2014 case involving Chinese search giant Baidu, where a court ruled that results returned by a search engine are protected by the First Amendment.
Alexa has a Mute Mic button. The purpose of that button is to signal Amazon that you're about to discuss something especially interesting. Therefore everything should now be recorded until the user indicates to unmute.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
The roots of what would later be called "The robotics rights movement" began early in 2017, when the shopping giant, Amazon, asserted that its weak AI based shopping assistant could legally claim rights enshrined to "The people" in the US constitution. The far reaching effects of this legal precedent would not be challenged again until late 2037, during the historic murder trial of Roomba X36-1. which led directly to the robotic riots of 2038, based largely in the recently annexed New California republic
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