This post was authored by the mysterious Raul Duke.
The weather was unusually cool for a summer night. Just the right amount of bitterness in the air for attorneys from all walks of life to gather in San Francisco’s Mission District for EFF’s 16th annual Cyberlaw Trivia Night.
Inside Public Works, attorneys filled their plates with chicken and waffles, grabbed a fresh tech-inspired cocktail, and found their tables—ready to compete against their colleagues in obscure tech law trivia. The evening started promptly six minutes late, 7:06 PM PT, with Aaron Jue, EFF’s Director of Member Engagement, introducing this year’s trivia tournament.
A lone Quizmaster, Kurt Opsahl, took the stage, noting that his walk-in was missing a key component, until The Blues Brothers started playing, filling the quizmaster with the valor to thank EFF’s intern fund supporters Fenwick and Morrison Forrester. The judges begrudgingly took the stage as the quizmaster reminded them that they have jobs at this event.
One of the judges, EFF’s Civil Liberties Director David Greene, gave some fiduciary advice to the several former EFF interns that were in the crowd. It was anyone’s guess as to whether they had gleaned any inside knowledge about the trivia.
I asked around as to what the attorneys had to gain by participating in this trivia night. I learned that not only were bragging rights on the table, but additionally teams had a chance to win champion steins.
The prizes: EFF steins!
With formalities out of the way, the first round of trivia – “General” – started with a possibly rousing question about the right to repair. Round one ended with the eighth question, which included a major typo calling the “Fourth Amendment is Not for Sale Act” the “First Amendment…” The proofreaders responsible for this mistake have been dealt with.
I was particularly struck by the names of each team: “Run DMCA,” “Ineffective Altruists,” “Subpoena Colada,” “JDs not LLM,” “The little VLOP that could,” and “As a language model, I can’t answer that question.” Who knew attorneys could create such creative names?
I asked one of the lawyers if he could give me legal advice on a personal matter (I won’t get into the details here, but it concerns both maritime law and equine law). The lawyer gazed at me with the same look one gives a child who has just proudly thew their food all over the floor. I decided to drop the matter.
Back to the event. It was a close game until the sixth and final round, though we wouldn’t hear the final winners until after the tiebreaker questions.
After several minutes, the tiebreaker was announced. The prompt: which team could get the closest to Pi without going over. This sent your intrepid reporter into an existential crisis. Could one really get to the end of pi? I’m told you could get to Pluto with just the first four and didn’t see any reason in going further than that. During my descent into madness, it was revealed that team “JDs not LLMs” knew 22 digits of pi.
After that shocking revelation, the final results were read, with the winning trivia masterminds being:
1st Place: JDs not LLMs
2nd Place: The Little VLOP That Could
3rd Place: As A Language Model, I Can’t Answer That Question
EFF Membership Advocate Christian Romero taking over for Raul Duke.
EFF hosts Cyberlaw Trivia Night to gather those in the legal community who help protect online freedom for tech users. Among the many firms that dedicate their time, talent, and resources to the cause, we would especially like to thank Fenwick and Morrison Foerster for supporting EFF’s Intern Fund!
If you are an attorney working to defend civil liberties in the digital world, consider joining EFF’s Cooperating Attorneys list. This network helps EFF connect people to legal assistance when we are unable to assist.
Are you interested in attending or sponsoring an upcoming EFF Trivia Night? Please reach out to tierney@eff.org for more information.
Be sure to check EFF’s events page and mark your calendar for next year’s 17th annual Cyberlaw Trivia Night
