HackerTubewatch
Surprise me
Frame from SLAPP Suits: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

SLAPP Suits: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

68 videos recommended on HN
YouTube
2 HN users recommended this commentary2 months2020–2021 score 2.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN recommends it whenever legal threats against critics or open-source authors come up, often as the best accessible primer on SLAPP suits.

John Oliver explains SLAPP suits, lawsuits designed to silence critics through legal costs, after his show's legal fight with coal executive Bob Murray. It covers how such suits work and why state anti-SLAPP laws matter.

“In my opinion, it's the best one they've ever done with an absolutely magnificent ending” (HN, 2021)

1 strong recommendations · 1 recommendations · 2 citations · Commentary

4 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@input_sh Apr 2021 Strongly recommends
on HN thread EFF sues Proctorio on behalf of student falsely DMCA'd
Read more
SLAPP suits (acronym for Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) are designed to shut up critics, plain and simple. They're not designed to be won, they're designed to be an annoyance to those that are being sued, dragged on as much as possible, and incur as many legal fees for the defendant as possible. The end goal is simply for other people's self-censorship to kick in. As in, when other people want to criticise Proctorio, there's a chance they're gonna stumble upon this lawsuit and decide against speaking up. Highly recommend this John Oliver video. In my opinion, it's the best one they've ever done with an absolutely magnificent ending: [this video]
Best Oliver episode on SLAPP suits with a great ending

Citations, criticism and jokes

@luc4sdreyer Oct 2020 Cites it
on HN thread Coal baron Robert Murray has died
And after he was sued by Robert Murray for the above episode, the follow up episode [1] won an Emmy award [2] [1] [this video] [2] [link]
Follow-up episode after Murray's lawsuit
@munk-a Jun 2021 Cites it
on HN thread Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project
Read more
John Oliver is actually a really good source for this sort of point as he dedicated an episode[1] to the trials and tribulations of his lawsuit against Murray Energy - something he described as a SLAPP suit which I think is a fair viewpoint. The replit case is especially interesting since it could be a lot more personal (because the dev behind it previously worked for them and people hold grudges) and also because it might actually be a lot more valid then a lot of other frivolous C&Ds we see (since they were a former employee and it would be impossible to claim they were unaware of how replit worked at a very basic level). I think this lawsuit is a lot riskier than most and replit certainly does have a leg to stand on in open court. 1. [this video]
Oliver on his lawsuit from Murray Energy

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

Keyboard shortcuts

/
Search
j k
Next / previous video
r
Surprise me
l
Like (video page)
w
Watch later (video page)
?
This help
Esc
Close