Category: Technology
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A Tale of Two States: Tackling Big Tech Across the Atlantic
By Justin Murdock — The Digital Markets Act (DMA) and its counterpart, the Digital Services Act (DSA), form the cornerstone of the European Commission’s efforts to regulate the rapidly evolving digital landscape. While the DMA specifically targets major tech companies labeled as “gatekeepers,” its implementation has sparked debates and critiques regarding its approach to competition…
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AI’s Assault on IP: The Inadequacy of the “Human Authorship” Test
By Nicholas Vickery — Each year, the United States Copyright Office (USCO) receives around half a million copyright claims, and typically, only a very small percentage of these claims are rejected. Recently, controversial claims involving works created by artificial intelligence (AI) have comprised some of these rejections.
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AI as Legal Inventors?
By Ollie Braden — Thaler v. Hirshfeld, decided by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on September 2, 2021, ruled that artificial intelligence (AI) systems could not be listed as inventors on patent applications. The court wrote that, “based on the plain statutory language of the Patent Act… the clear answer…
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FISA and the USA PATRIOT Act: Reforms and Legal Implications
By Lizzie Evanko — Congress passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in 1978, in an effort to establish a legal framework for the physical and electronic surveillance of foreign entities. FISA allowed the federal government to collect intelligence on any foreign power (or agent of a foreign power) suspected of terrorism or espionage. The…
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Steering Towards Safety: Analyzing the Constitutionality and Effectiveness of Alternative Regulatory Frameworks in the Production of Self-Driving Vehicles
By Clay Reiferson — How do we weigh the value of the lives of future generations against the people of today? In the United States, federal and state governments are left to ponder this question as they seek to regulate the burgeoning self-driving car industry. It is widely accepted that, by removing human error, self-driving…
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Social Media Platforms as Publishers: Evaluating the First Amendment Basis for Content Moderation
By Jimmy Fraley — In recent years, many Republican politicians have become increasingly vocal about the content censorship imposed by social media companies. These Republicans are concerned that social media companies have taken actions to censor conservative speech and have engaged in a type of viewpoint policing. This concern has turned into action, with Jim…
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Electronic Surveillance, the Fourth Amendment, and the NYPD’s “Muslim Surveillance Program”
By Annie Akbar — In a letter to James Madison after the French Revolution had begun, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “The earth belongs always to the living generation… Every constitution, then, and every law, naturally expires at the end of 19 years. If it be enforced longer, it is an act of force and not of…