Open Menu
AllLocalCommunitiesAbout
lotide
AllLocalCommunitiesAbout
Login

Don’t watermark your legal PDFs with purple dragons in suits - Ars Technica

⁨220⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨cm0002@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/05/dont-watermark-your-legal-pdfs-with-purple-dragons-in-suits/

source

Comments

Sort:hotnewtop
  • dzso@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    My first reaction was “who give a fuck?” then I got to the part of the article that says:

    His website, which also features the purple dragon and a bunch of busted links in the footer, says that the firm “integrates AI to lower the cost of legal services.”

    Which is honestly a thousand times more concerning than how he chooses to display his silly logo. Dude is writing legal documents with AI. At least his lack of professionalism is obvious.

    source
    • angelmountain@feddit.nl ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Pretty sure all law firms do that nowadays. And they are quite stupid if they don’t. As long as they check the output…

      source
      • echodot@feddit.uk ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Then why don’t I just get the AI to write my legal filings and skip the lawyer fees?

        The whole reason that I would retain professional help rather than just use an AI system is because the AI system makes stuff up, if the professional is just going to use the AI then what’s the point?

        The problem with all of these types is they always say “oh well as long as you check its work it’s okay”, aka vibe<insert previously intellectually demanding task here>. The problem with that is firstly if you have to check its work then you’re basically just replacing one boring task with a different boring task, but you haven’t actually saved any time, and the second problem is a lot of the time people don’t actually check its work thoroughly, so mistakes still get through. Which is why using AI in a professional sense is a problem.

        It’s fine to use it for summarising the minutes of a meeting, but it just isn’t good enough and reliable enough yet to be used in high-stakes situations. It is utterly irresponsible therefore to attempt to use it like that.

        source
        • -> View More Comments
      • dzso@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Pretty sure I’m not gonna hire you to do any professional work for me.

        source
      • GoodEye8@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        I would imagine they’d be stupid if they did use AI. I’ve seen people use AI to “write” technical documentation that I have had to review. That shit goes straight into the bin because the time I spend fixing all the AI nonsense is about the same amount of time it would take for me to write the document myself. It’s gotten to a point where I straight up reject all AI generated documentation because I know fixing them is a waste of time.

        I imagine legal documents have to be at least as precise as technical documents, so if they’re checking the output I seriously doubt they’re saving any time or money by using AI.

        source
        • -> View More Comments
      • anachrohack@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        They were copy pasting most of the boilerplate before

        source
  • wildtamaskan@pawb.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    10 years ago I would’ve agreed that this kind of watermark was inappropriate. But seeing how much of our federal legal system has become a joke, up to and including the Supreme Court, decorum isn’t high on my priority list anymore

    source
    • taladar@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Agreed, the US Supreme Court is entirely responsible if they receive more ridicule than respect these days.

      source
  • Landless2029@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Watermark aside.

    What the hell is up with that script like font choice!!

    source
    • baines@lemmy.cafe ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      agreed this one is far better

      source
  • tal@lemmy.today ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    “Each page of plaintiff’s complaint appears on an e-filing which is dominated by a large multi-colored cartoon dragon dressed in a suit,” he wrote on April 28 (PDF). “Use of this dragon cartoon logo is not only distracting, it is juvenile and impertinent. The Court is not a cartoon.”

    The Court is not a cartoon.

    They’re portraying themselves as a scalie, not you.

    That being said, why is anyone involved here watermarking PDF with anything? I mean, normally the purpose of a watermark is to link content with the creator. But I seriously doubt that the text and the background image have been merged into some kind of raster image.

    investigates

    Yeah, they link to the original dragonized PDF.

    …courtlistener.com/…/gov.uscourts.miwd.114988.1.0…

    It’s just text on top of the image. You can copy-paste the text:

    DRAGON LAWYERS PC
    Jacob A. Perrone (P71915)
    Attorneys for Plaintiff
    325 East Grand River Ave., Suite 250
    East Lansing, MI 48823
    Phone: (844) JAKELAW
    jacob.perrone@yahoo.com

    It’s like having a screensaver on an LCD monitor.

    And pdftotext, in poppler-utils, looks like it makes a pretty decent txt file of it too.

    source
    • Bezier@suppo.fi ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      It’s like having a screensaver on an LCD monitor.

      But screensavers are fun!

      source
    • Incogni@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      The Court is not a cartoon.

      They’re portraying themselves as a scalie, not you.

      I think they meant this like “This court is not a cartoon, so keep your cartoon character out of it” - cartoon as in the medium, not the character.

      source
      • wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Fine, I’ll wear my fursuit for the trial instead then

        source
    • SkybreakerEngineer@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      It’s not about anyone being a scalie, it’s a cross between “I’m supposed to be reading the text here, take this seriously” and “modernity means we don’t use powdered wigs anymore”

      source
    • Glitchvid@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I gotta admit this got a chuckle out of me, I’d allow it.

      source
  • dohpaz42@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I’m genuinely surprised that corporations haven’t started sponsoring defendants through watermarking their company logos on legal briefings.

    source
    • terminhell@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Thx, they will now…

      source
      • wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Your honor, before we get to the proceedings, I would like to take a moment and thank our sponsor SQUARESPACE!

        source
      • taladar@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        So certain lawsuits won’t be possible anymore because advertisers don’t like to be associated with that kind of content?

        source
    • sparky@lemmy.federate.cc ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Motion for summary dismissal, brought to you by Mountain Dew

      source
      • Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        This jury packed with EXTREME FLAVOR courtesy of Doritos new Late Nite Taco!

        source
  • Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    It’s either a logo on the legal documents, or the lawyers come to court in dragon fursuits. No compromises. 😤

    source
  • cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    do watermark your legal pdfs with purple dragons in suits

    source
  • reddig33@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    How else am I supposed to waste color toner so I can overbill my clients?

    source
  • brsrklf@jlai.lu ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Please keep your weird stuff private, furries/scalies.

    source
    • wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      If you think that is weird, you must be celibate or something, lol.

      source
      • brsrklf@jlai.lu ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        If you don’t think it’s weird to draw funny cartoon animals on official documents, and somewhat attempt to guess people’s marital situation out of nowhere when they don’t, you might be a bit weird.

        source
        • -> View More Comments
      • echodot@feddit.uk ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        It is we had given the context

        source
    • stephen01king@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      While I do agree with the sentiment, I don’t agree that this qualifies as weird.

      source
  • Kaelygon@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    phew, I dodged this one. My logo is just a purple dragon with no suit

    source
  • Treczoks@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I would not mind if they toned it down to what other people do for a watermark. As in: if you really look for it, it is noticeable, but it does not obstruct actual contents, or makes it harder to read.

    And if they don’t want it to be copied or scanned, just drop in a few Eurions.

    source
  • pulido@lemmings.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I honestly think it’s pretty funny.

    I like these guys.

    source
  • HyperfocusSurfer@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Is it just me, or it kinda sounds like they don’t want to prococess a complaint? A warning not to do that again would be enough, IMO, given it seems like there are no rules prohibiting this.

    source