Blog Posts
The Legal Questions Surrounding the TSA’s Facial Recognition Program
Mar. 19, 2024—By Robert Lowell The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has been rapidly expanding a pilot program implementing facial recognition technology (FRT) into its security screening checkpoints at airports across the country.[1] The program’s rollout began just a couple of years ago, in 2020.[2] In mid-2023, FRT had already been implemented at 25 major US airports and...
Federal Judge Throws Wrench Into NCAA’s NIL Plans
Mar. 13, 2024—By Charlie Visconti In January 2024, Virginia and Tennessee’s attorneys general filed an antitrust suit against the NCAA alleging that the NCAA’s name, image, and likeness (“NIL”) guidelines introduced in 2021 violated federal antitrust laws.[1] Specifically, the suit alleges that the NCAA guidelines improperly prevents college athletes from earning their full potential from their name,...
Algospeak: Jailbreaking the Marketplace of Ideas
Mar. 8, 2024—By Amaris Aloise Social media algorithms have become the captors of the marketplace of ideas, but they have also captured its importance to US culture. With the exponential rise in algorithmic content moderation, the marketplace of ideas has become dependent on internet culture and slang, resulting in a “chronically online”[1] censorship of expression known as...
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...