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Articles 1 - 30 of 53
Full-Text Articles in Law
The Gptjudge: Justice In A Generative Ai World, Maura R. Grossman, Paul W. Grimm, Daniel G. Brown, Molly (Yiming) Xu
The Gptjudge: Justice In A Generative Ai World, Maura R. Grossman, Paul W. Grimm, Daniel G. Brown, Molly (Yiming) Xu
Duke Law & Technology Review
Generative AI (“GenAI”) systems such as ChatGPT recently have developed to the point where they can produce computer-generated text and images that are difficult to differentiate from human-generated text and images. Similarly, evidentiary materials such as documents, videos, and audio recordings that are AI-generated are becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate from those that are not AI-generated. These technological advancements present significant challenges to parties, their counsel, and the courts in determining whether evidence is authentic or fake. Moreover, the explosive proliferation and use of GenAI applications raises concerns about whether litigation costs will dramatically increase as parties are forced to …
Tribal Lending After Gingras, Max King
Tribal Lending After Gingras, Max King
Duke Law & Technology Review
Online payday lenders pose serious risks for consumers. Yet, for years, these lending companies have skirted state regulation by pleading tribal sovereign immunity. Under this doctrine, entities that are so affiliated with tribal nations that they are “an arm of the tribe” are immune from suit. Without comprehensive federal regulation, tribal sovereign immunity has served as a trump card at the pleading state for online payday lenders. The Note argues that change may be on the horizon. In the recent decision Gingras v. Think Finance, the Second Circuit held that the Supreme Court’s holding in Michigan v. Bay Mills Indian …
Dialing It Back: Why Courts Should Rethink Students’ Privacy And Speech Rights As Cell Phone Communications Erode The ‘Schoolhouse Gate’, Nicholas J. Mcguire
Dialing It Back: Why Courts Should Rethink Students’ Privacy And Speech Rights As Cell Phone Communications Erode The ‘Schoolhouse Gate’, Nicholas J. Mcguire
Duke Law & Technology Review
The ubiquity of cell phones in today’s society has forced courts to change or dismiss established, but inapplicable analytical frameworks. Two such frameworks in the school setting are regulations of student speech and of student searches. This Article traces the constitutional jurisprudence of both First Amendment off-campus speech protection and Fourth Amendment search standards as applied to the school setting. It then analyzes how the Supreme Court’s ruling in Riley v. California complicates both areas. Finally, it proposes a pragmatic solution: by recognizing a categorical First Amendment exception for “substantial threats” against the school community, courts could accommodate students’ constitutional …
Regulating Data As Property: A New Construct For Moving Forward, Jeffrey Ritter, Anna Mayer
Regulating Data As Property: A New Construct For Moving Forward, Jeffrey Ritter, Anna Mayer
Duke Law & Technology Review
The global community urgently needs precise, clear rules that define ownership of data and express the attendant rights to license, transfer, use, modify, and destroy digital information assets. In response, this article proposes a new approach for regulating data as an entirely new class of property. Recently, European and Asian public officials and industries have called for data ownership principles to be developed, above and beyond current privacy and data protection laws. In addition, official policy guidances and legal proposals have been published that offer to accelerate realization of a property rights structure for digital information. But how can ownership …
Peeling Back The Student Privacy Pledge, Alexi Pfeffer-Gillett
Peeling Back The Student Privacy Pledge, Alexi Pfeffer-Gillett
Duke Law & Technology Review
Education software is a multi-billion dollar industry that is rapidly growing. The federal government has encouraged this growth through a series of initiatives that reward schools for tracking and aggregating student data. Amid this increasingly digitized education landscape, parents and educators have begun to raise concerns about the scope and security of student data collection. Industry players, rather than policymakers, have so far led efforts to protect student data. Central to these efforts is the Student Privacy Pledge, a set of standards that providers of digital education services have voluntarily adopted. By many accounts, the Pledge has been a success. …
Increasing Copyright Protection For Social Media Users By Expanding Social Media Platforms' Rights, Ryan Wichtowski
Increasing Copyright Protection For Social Media Users By Expanding Social Media Platforms' Rights, Ryan Wichtowski
Duke Law & Technology Review
Social media platforms allow users to share their creative works with the world. Users take great advantage of this functionality, as Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, Snapchat, and WhatsApp users alone uploaded 1.8 billion photos per day in 2014. Under the terms of service and terms of use agreements of most U.S. based social media platforms, users retain ownership of this content, since they only grant social media platforms nonexclusive licenses to their content. While nonexclusive licenses protect users vis-à-vis the social media platforms, these licenses preclude social media platforms from bringing copyright infringement claims on behalf of their users against infringers …
Websites As Facilities Under Ada Title Iii, Ryan C. Brunner
Websites As Facilities Under Ada Title Iii, Ryan C. Brunner
Duke Law & Technology Review
Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act requires public accommodations—private entities that offer goods or services to the public—to be accessible to individuals with disabilities. There is an ongoing debate about whether Title III applies to websites that offer services to the public, but this debate may be resolved in the coming years by litigation or Department of Justice regulations. Assuming for the sake of argument that Title III will eventually be applied to websites, the next inquiry is what that application should look like. The regulatory definition of “facilities” should be amended to include nonphysical places of public …
Schools, Speech, And Smartphones: Online Speech And The Evolution Of The Tinker Standard, Aleaha Jones
Schools, Speech, And Smartphones: Online Speech And The Evolution Of The Tinker Standard, Aleaha Jones
Duke Law & Technology Review
Under the Supreme Court’s holding in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, public schools may only restrict student speech where the speech is reasonably forecasted to cause a “substantial and material disruption.” With online forums calling into question who may control speech and forecast its impact, the circuit courts have granted public schools broad authority to monitor, and punish, their students for online activity that occurs off-campus. The Supreme Court recently declined the opportunity to reverse this disturbing trend by denying certiorari for Bell v. Itawamba County. As a result, questions remain unanswered regarding students’ right to free …
What's In A Name: Cable Systems, Filmon, And Judicial Consideration Of The Applicability Of The Copyright Act's Compulsory License To Online Broadcasters Of Cable Content, Kathryn M. Boyd
Duke Law & Technology Review
The way we consume media today is vastly different from the way media was consumed in 1976, when the Copyright Act created the compulsory license for cable systems. The compulsory license allowed cable systems, as defined by the Copyright Act, to pay a set fee for the right to air television programming rather than working out individual deals with each group that owned the copyright in the programming, and helped make television more widely accessible to the viewing public. FilmOn, a company that uses a mini-antenna system to capture and retransmit broadcast network signals, is now seeking access to the …
Unprotected And Unpersuaded: The Fcc's Flawed Merger Review Procedures, Trey O'Callaghan
Unprotected And Unpersuaded: The Fcc's Flawed Merger Review Procedures, Trey O'Callaghan
Duke Law & Technology Review
In CBS Corporation v. FCC, the D.C. Circuit struck down the Federal Communication Commission’s rules for protecting confidential information that it collects during certain merger proceedings. In response, the Commission released a new order, pursuant to the Charter, Time Warner, and Bright House merger proceeding, for protecting confidential information. This iBrief analyzes the policy and legal implications of the Order, arguing that the Order is unlawful because it violates the Trade Secrets Act and notice-and-comment rulemaking requirements.
The Nlrb's Purple Communications Decision: Email, Property, And The Changing Patterns Of Industrial Life, Josh Carroll
The Nlrb's Purple Communications Decision: Email, Property, And The Changing Patterns Of Industrial Life, Josh Carroll
Duke Law & Technology Review
On December 11th, 2014, in a much-anticipated case, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) held in a 3-2 decision that employees with access to an employer’s email system had a presumptive right to use that email system during non-working time under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”). In an attempt to adapt to the “changing patterns of industrial life,” the NLRB reversed a seven-year precedent by overturning In re Guard Publ'g Co., 351 N.L.R.B. 1110 (2007), and thereby gave employees the statutory right to use employer email systems for non-business purposes. This issue brief argues that the …
Aereo And Internet Television: A Call To Save The Dukes (A La Carte), Pooja Patel
Aereo And Internet Television: A Call To Save The Dukes (A La Carte), Pooja Patel
Duke Law & Technology Review
If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably a duck. The most recent U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding the Copyright Act employed this “duck test” when determining that Aereo, an Internet content-streaming company, violated the Copyright Act by infringing on the copyrights of television broadcast networks. The Supreme Court ruled that Aereo's Internet streaming services resembled cable television transmissions too closely. Therefore, by streaming copyrighted programming to its subscribers without the cable compulsory license, Aereo violated the Transmit Clause of the 1976 Copyright Act. Subsequently, Aereo used this Supreme Court …
Noriega V. Activision/Blizzard: The First Amendment Right To Use A Historical Figure's Likeness In Video Games, Joshua Sinclair
Noriega V. Activision/Blizzard: The First Amendment Right To Use A Historical Figure's Likeness In Video Games, Joshua Sinclair
Duke Law & Technology Review
Panama’s former dictator, Manuel Noriega, recently sued Activision Blizzard in the California Superior Court for using his likeness and image in the popular video game “Call of Duty: Black Ops II.” In his complaint, Noriega alleged that the use of his likeness violated his right of publicity. Former New York Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, came to Activision’s defense, and filed a motion to dismiss, which was granted. In granting Activision’s motion, the court held that Activision’s use of Noriega’s likeness was transformative and did not violate his right of publicity. This Issue Brief argues that the California Superior Court should not …
Authenticity And Admissibility Of Social Media Website Printouts, Wendy Angus-Anderson
Authenticity And Admissibility Of Social Media Website Printouts, Wendy Angus-Anderson
Duke Law & Technology Review
Social media posts and photographs are increasingly denied admission as evidence in criminal trials. Courts often cite issues with authentication when refusing to admit social media evidence. Cases and academic writings separate recent case law into two approaches: The Maryland Approach and the Texas Approach. The first method is often seen as overly skeptical of social media evidence, setting the bar too high for admissibility. The second approach is viewed as more lenient, declaring that any reasonable evidence should be admitted in order for a jury to weigh its sufficiency. This Brief addresses the supposed differences between the two sets …
The Constitutionality And Legality Of Internet Voting Post-Shelby County, Logan T. Mohs
The Constitutionality And Legality Of Internet Voting Post-Shelby County, Logan T. Mohs
Duke Law & Technology Review
The technological and electoral landscapes have changed drastically since the turn of the century. While it once might have made sense to view voting online as unconstitutional, as opposed to merely impractical, the expanded range of Internet access for minority communities has made that argument tenuous at best. While there still may exist practical and political reasons to avoid Internet voting, the Constitution no longer stands as an effective wall against the practice. Furthermore, the primary statutory obstacle to the implementation of Internet voting on a local level, the Voting Rights Act, has been greatly weakened by the recent Supreme …
Tragedy Of The Regulatory Commons: Lightsquared And The Missing Spectrum Rights, Thomas W. Hazlett, Brent Skorup
Tragedy Of The Regulatory Commons: Lightsquared And The Missing Spectrum Rights, Thomas W. Hazlett, Brent Skorup
Duke Law & Technology Review
The endemic underuse of radio spectrum constitutes a tragedy of the regulatory commons. Like other common interest tragedies, the outcome results from a legal or market structure that prevents economic actors from executing socially efficient bargains. In wireless markets, innovative applications often provoke claims by incumbent radio users that the new traffic will interfere with existing services. Sometimes these concerns are mitigated via market transactions, a la “Coasian bargaining.” Other times, however, solutions cannot be found even when social gains dominate the cost of spillovers. In the recent “LightSquared debacle,” such spectrum allocation failure played out. GPS interests that access …
Sharing Is Airing: Employee Concerted Activity On Social Media After Hispanics United, Ryan Kennedy
Sharing Is Airing: Employee Concerted Activity On Social Media After Hispanics United, Ryan Kennedy
Duke Law & Technology Review
Section 7 of the United States’ National Labor Relations Act allows groups of American workers to engage in concerted activity for the purposes of collective bargaining or for “other mutual aid or protection.” This latter protection has been extended in cases such as Lafayette Park Hotel to workers outside the union context. Starting in 2005, the National Labor Relations Board increasingly signaled to employers that concerted activity may take place on social media such as Facebook. However, the Board proper delivered its first written opinion articulating these rules in the 2012 case of Hispanics United of Buffalo, Inc. There, the …
Ensuring An Impartial Jury In The Age Of Social Media, Amy J. St. Eve, Michael A. Zuckerman
Ensuring An Impartial Jury In The Age Of Social Media, Amy J. St. Eve, Michael A. Zuckerman
Duke Law & Technology Review
The explosive growth of social networking has placed enormous pressure on one of the most fundamental of American institutions—the impartial jury. Through social networking services like Facebook and Twitter, jurors have committed significant and often high-profile acts of misconduct. Just recently, the Arkansas Supreme Court reversed a death sentence because a juror Tweeted about the case during deliberations. In light of the significant risks to a fair trial that arise when jurors communicate through social media during trial, judges must be vigilant in monitoring for potential outside influences and in deterring misconduct.
In this Article, we present informal survey data …
Privacy Expectations And Protections For Teachers In The Internet Age, Emily H. Fulmer
Privacy Expectations And Protections For Teachers In The Internet Age, Emily H. Fulmer
Duke Law & Technology Review
Public school teachers have little opportunity for redress if they are dismissed for their activities on social networking websites. With the exception of inappropriate communication with students, a school district should not be able to consider a public educator’s use of a social networking website for disciplinary or employment decisions. Insisting that the law conform to twenty-first century social norms, this iBrief argues that the law should protect teachers’ speech on popular social networking websites like Facebook and MySpace.
Who Owns The Virtual Items?, Leah Shen
Who Owns The Virtual Items?, Leah Shen
Duke Law & Technology Review
Do you WoW? Because millions of people around the world do! Due to this increased traffic, virtual wealth amassed in MMORPGs are intersecting in our real world in unexpected ways. Virtual goods have real-life values and are traded in real-life markets. However, the market for trading in virtual items is highly inefficient because society has not created property rights for virtual items. This lack of regulation has a detrimental effect not just the market for virtual items, but actually the market for MMORPGs. Assuming we want to promote the production of MMORPGs as a market, society requires a set of …
The Anonymous Poster: How To Protect Internet Users’ Privacy And Prevent Abuse, Scott Ness
The Anonymous Poster: How To Protect Internet Users’ Privacy And Prevent Abuse, Scott Ness
Duke Law & Technology Review
The threat of anonymous Internet posting to individual privacy has been met with congressional and judicial indecisiveness. Part of the problem stems from the inherent conflict between punishing those who disrespect one's privacy by placing a burden on the individual websites and continuing to support the Internet's development. Additionally, assigning traditional tort liability is problematic as the defendant enjoys an expectation of privacy as well, creating difficulty in securing the necessary information to proceed with legal action. One solution to resolving invasion of privacy disputes involves a uniform identification verification program that ensures user confidentiality while promoting accountability for malicious …
The Future Of “Fair And Balanced”: The Fairness Doctrine, Net Neutrality, And The Internet, Sasha Leonhardt
The Future Of “Fair And Balanced”: The Fairness Doctrine, Net Neutrality, And The Internet, Sasha Leonhardt
Duke Law & Technology Review
In recent months, different groups--pundits, politicians, and even an FCC Commissioner--have discussed resurrecting the now-defunct Fairness Doctrine and applying it to Internet communication. This iBrief responds to the novel application of the Doctrine to the Internet in three parts. First, this iBrief will review the history and legal rationale that supported the Fairness Doctrine, with a particular emphasis on emerging technologies. Second, this iBrief applies these legal arguments to the evolving structure of the Internet. Third, this iBrief will consider what we can learn about Net Neutrality through an analogy to the Fairness Doctrine. This iBrief concludes that, while the …
The U.S. On Tilt: Why The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act Is A Bad Bet, Gerd Alexander
The U.S. On Tilt: Why The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act Is A Bad Bet, Gerd Alexander
Duke Law & Technology Review
The United States federal government’s attempts to curb Internet gambling are beginning to resemble a game of whack-a-mole. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (the "UIGEA" or "Act") represents its most recent attack on Internet gambling. This iBrief first looks at U.S. attempts to limit Internet gambling and how those efforts have affected gambling law and business. It then discusses how the UIGEA works and highlights some of its major limitations. This iBrief argues that the UIGEA will not only fail to rein in online gambling, but that the U.S. federal government is treading an improvident course towards …
Taxation Of Virtual Assets, Scott Wisniewski
Taxation Of Virtual Assets, Scott Wisniewski
Duke Law & Technology Review
The development of vast social networks through Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games has created in-game communities in which virtual assets have real-world values. The question has thus arisen whether such virtual assets are legal subjects of taxation. This iBrief will detail and discuss the various exclusions to taxable income, and analyze their application to the possibility of creating potential tax liability based on in-kind exchanges of virtual assets.
Fcc Regulation: Indecency By Interest Groups, Patricia Daza
Fcc Regulation: Indecency By Interest Groups, Patricia Daza
Duke Law & Technology Review
FCC regulations are among the most controversial administrative law regulations because of their impact on broadcast television. This iBrief analyzes the history of FCC regulation and highlights the problems associated with the current model. Applying theories of economics, this iBrief proposes solutions to the current problems of selective enforcement and vagueness in enforcement. While the Supreme Court recognized that FCC regulation is necessary, it is also necessary for there to be a clearer model for how the agency should be run.
Is The Internet A Viable Threat To Representative Democracy?, David M. Thompson
Is The Internet A Viable Threat To Representative Democracy?, David M. Thompson
Duke Law & Technology Review
The Internet, despite its relatively recent advent, is critical to millions of Americans’ way of life. Although the Internet arguably opens new opportunities for citizens to become more directly involved in their government, some scholars fear this direct involvement poses a risk to one of the Constitution’s most precious ideals: representative democracy. This iBrief explores whether the constitutional notion of representation is vulnerable to the Internet’s capacity to open new vistas for a more direct democracy by analyzing statistics and theories about why voters in the United States do or do not vote and by examining the inherent qualities of …
T-Mobile Usa Inc. V. Department Of Finance For Baltimore City: What The Latest Salvo In Disproportional Cellular Phone Taxation Means For The Future, Daniel P. Slowey
T-Mobile Usa Inc. V. Department Of Finance For Baltimore City: What The Latest Salvo In Disproportional Cellular Phone Taxation Means For The Future, Daniel P. Slowey
Duke Law & Technology Review
Seventeen percent of the average monthly cellular phone bill in 2004 was comprised of federal, state, and local taxes. As the number of wireless subscribers across the nation continues to increase, states, cities, and counties are increasingly seizing upon cellular taxation as a panacea for budget shortfalls. The Maryland Tax Court’s recent decision in T-Mobile USA, Inc. v. Department of Finance for Baltimore City held state and county taxes on the sale of individual cellular lines as legal excise taxes rather than illegal sales taxes. This iBrief will highlight the origins of telecommunications taxation, examine the ruling in T-Mobile in …
When Is Employee Blogging Protected By Section 7 Of The Nlra?, Katherine M. Scott
When Is Employee Blogging Protected By Section 7 Of The Nlra?, Katherine M. Scott
Duke Law & Technology Review
The National Labor Relations Act forbids employers from retaliating against certain types of employee speech or intimidating those who engage in it. This iBrief examines how blogging fits into the current statutory framework and recommends how the National Labor Relations Board and the courts should address the unique features of employee blogs.
The End Of Net Neutrality, William G. Laxton Jr.
The End Of Net Neutrality, William G. Laxton Jr.
Duke Law & Technology Review
In 2005, the FCC changed the competitive landscape of the high-speed Internet access industry by classifying both DSL and cable modem service as "information services." While many hail this move as a victory for competition and free markets, others fear the ruling could jeopardize the future of the Internet. This iBrief examines the potential end of "net neutrality" and concludes that new federal regulations are unnecessary because antitrust laws and a competitive marketplace will provide consumers with sufficient protection.
Shielding Journalist-“Bloggers”: The Need To Protect Newsgathering Despite The Distribution Medium, Laura Durity
Shielding Journalist-“Bloggers”: The Need To Protect Newsgathering Despite The Distribution Medium, Laura Durity
Duke Law & Technology Review
The failure to agree on a sufficiently narrow definition of "journalist" has stalled efforts to enact a federal shield law to legally protect reporter-source communications from compelled disclosure in federal court. The increasing use of the Internet in news coverage and the greater reliance by the public on the Internet as a news source creates further problems as to who should qualify for federal shield law protection. This iBrief argues that a functional definition of "journalist" can be created to shield journalists from compelled source disclosure so as to protect the free flow of information to the public, but limits …