Author
OpenAI’s Sora & the Role of the US Copyright Office
Mar. 5, 2024—By Bart Mueller When Shira Perlmutter took office as the 14th Register of Copyrights in October 2020, many saw the US Copyright Office as relatively unimportant—a group of glorified librarians tucked away in a sleepy back room of the Library of Congress.[1] Four years later, this could not be farther from the truth. On February...
Courting Fair Play: The Future of the NCAA’s Role in College Sports Governance
Feb. 27, 2024—By Dominic Keilty In the wake of recent judicial rulings against the NCAA, its role in the future governance of college sports is murkier than ever. With no current legislative exemptions for the NCAA, the emerging recognition of a college athlete labor market casts part the organization’s traditional role in doubt. The NCAA’s 2021 decision...
Safeguarding Democracy in the Age of AI
Feb. 22, 2024—By Faheem Ali Earlier this month, the FCC issued a ruling that robocalls using voices generated by artificial intelligence (AI) are illegal.[1] The ruling comes at a particularly important time as the 2024 election cycle ramps up. The problem of AI generated robocalls has already been evident, as prior to the New Hampshire Democratic Primary,...
Failures of Predictive Policing: Chicago’s ShotSpotter Program
Feb. 20, 2024—By Lauren Szwarc After facing much criticism, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has finally fulfilled his campaign promise to cancel the city’s contract with ShotSpotter.[1] The ShotSpotter program is a recent technological development in predictive policing that was adopted by the city under Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2018.[2] The ShotSpotter program functions by placing microphones and...
Taylor Swift Threatening Lawsuit for Private Jet Emission Tracking
Feb. 17, 2024—By Justine May Superstar Taylor Swift has been trending in the news for quite some time. Swift has been touring her massively popular, economy-boosting, Eras Tour.[1] She was named Time Magazine’s 2023 Person of the Year and was Spotify’s most-streamed artist globally in 2023.[2] Her recent romance with Kansas City Chief’s tight end Travis Kelce...
Universal Music Group and TikTok’s Contractual Standstill
Feb. 13, 2024—By Dana Branstetter TikTok legally adds music from artists as sounds on its platform through licensing agreements,[1] typically through negotiations with rights holders, such as the labels or publishing companies to which artists sign.[2] In exchange for providing the music to TikTok users, the owner of the music’s rights receives the royalties in accordance with...
Formula One and a Race for Patents That Will Never Cross the Finish Line
Feb. 9, 2024—By Anjali Dhamsania In the high stakes world of Formula One, where precision is measured in fractions of a second and innovation can mean the difference between victory and defeat, the automotive industry’s influence is undeniable. Much like the broader automotive sector, F1—the pinnacle of motorsport racing—serves as a showcase for cutting-edge technology and engineering...
Taylor Swift & AI deepfakes: Swifties Join the Fight Against Deepfake Pornography
Feb. 7, 2024—By Katie Graham Over the past week, Taylor Swift fans were outraged to find out that America’s sweetheart has become the latest victim of deepfake nonconsensual pornography. Sexually explicit AI-generated pictures of Swift proliferated on websites like Celeb Jihad before they quickly spread to social media, going viral on X, formerly known as Twitter.[1] X...
Regulation of Algorithm Use in Public Sector Application Systems
Feb. 5, 2024—By Molly Devereaux As algorithms have increasingly been used in the public sector to streamline service provision,[1] it is important to understand that the output from algorithms is not always accurate.[2] One example of using algorithms in government settings is to streamline applicant processes, such as detecting fraudulent claims in unemployment applicants.[3] Algorithms are helpful,...
Left for the Future, Solved in the Past: A Test for School’s Ability to Regulate Student Speech Off-Campus
Feb. 2, 2024—By Monica Miecznikowski In 2021, the Supreme Court of the United States released on opinion regarding the First Amendment rights of a high school student, Brandi Levy, who had been suspended from the school’s junior varsity cheer team.[1] The suspension came after she posted a photo on snapchat depicting her flashing the middle finger and...