Obfuscation Clarity Part 3: Be Careful

Matthew Galeotti, a senior US Justice Department employee, gave a speech in late August with the explicit explicit goal of "provid[ing] fair notice and clarity around our enforcement policies." This was an invited speech at an event launching the American Innovation Project (AIP). More about them in a bit. The speech is interesting as much for what is says as for what it does not say. And it narrows the focus more tightly on what has been the real problem all along: developers and their lawyers being forthright about their non-developer activities.

Galeotti, now Acting Assistant Attorney General, gave a few quotes that appear to have been well received by the crowd. We know this because other participants in the event have spoken to the media about how great these developments are. We are a bit confused. Mainly because we do not understand what all the fuss is about here. To us Galeotti said nothing new or interesting. And that is not a criticism of Galeotti's speech! It would be kind of weird for a senior law enforcement official to make news at a random industry conference hosted by an organization launched about 2 months ago.

This speech contained, to our ears, mainly bland fairly-obviously-true statements that should not surprise anyone. And the only reason to get excited about such statements is if you plan to misinterpret them in a way that would make news. So let us dig through what happened here and read the play a bit. This looks like yet another attempt to set up future claims about a lack of clarity when, truly, everything is well buttoned-down already.