Law Commons^™

Worth A Shot: Encouraging Vaccine Uptake Through “Empathy”, Dr. Jody Lyneé Madeira

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Pro- and anti-vaccine organizations and individuals have frequently invoked empathy as a strategy for increasing uptake of COVID-19 precautions, including vaccinations. On one hand, vaccine supporters deployed empathy to defuse conflict, prioritize safeguarding the collective welfare, and avoid government mandates. On the other hand, vaccine opponents used empathy to emphasize the alleged individual effects of pandemic precautions, mobilize public voices, and stress the importance of medical freedom in policy-making contexts.

This Article first defines empathy and reviews empathy scholarship, paying particular attention to its relationship with narrative and the contexts where empathy can be difficult or dangerous. It then applies …

The Future Of Ai Accountability In The Financial Markets, Gina-Gail S. Fletcher, Michelle M. Le

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Consumer interaction with the financial market ranges from applying for credit cards, to financing the purchase of a home, to buying and selling securities. And with each transaction, the lender, bank, and brokerage firm are likely utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) behind the scenes to augment their operations. While AI’s ability to process data at high speeds and in large quantities makes it an important tool for financial institutions, it is imperative to be attentive to the risks and limitations that accompany its use. In the context of financial markets, AI’s lack of decision-making transparency, often called the “black box problem,” …

Solving For Law Firm Inclusion: The Necessity Of Lawyer Well-Being, Katrina Lee

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Chances are, in a room of one hundred law firm partners in the United States, at most, one Black woman would be present. Statistically, if there were a Black, Latinx, or Asian woman in that room, she would be the only one. Women of color make up only 3.79 percent of all partners, counting equity and nonequity partners. The percentage of Black women among all partners has remained solidly under one percent—0.57 percent in 2009 and 0.80 percent in 2020. And so, women of color lawyers starting at law firms inevitably enter spaces that are overwhelmingly white and male—spaces where …

Innovation Policy And Chronic Emergencies, Robert Burrell, Catherine Kelly

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrust the potential role of the state as a driver of scientific innovation onto center stage. Vaccines have been developed and brought to market in a timescale that seemed almost impossible when the crisis first struck. The pivotal nature of government intervention in this crisis has added to calls from academics and policy makers to adopt a more proactive, mission-oriented approach to innovation policy to tackle other key global challenges.

This Article considers the merits of these calls and argues that an important distinction must be drawn between what this Article terms acute and chronic emergencies. …

Mergers, Antitrust, And The Interplay Of Entrepreneurial Activity And The Investments That Fund It, Gary Dushnitsky, D. Daniel Sokol

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

This Article addresses the potentially negative implications of proposed antitrust legislation on the entrepreneurial ecosystem in general, with a particular focus on the venture capitalists (VCs) that fund it. First, it offers a review of how antitrust merger law currently works and how proposed legislative changes to antitrust may threaten the innovative Venture Capital (VC)-backed ecosystem that has made the United States the center of global innovation across many different industries. Accompanying this review are some empirical observations. Second, recognizing that the understanding of innovative entrepreneurial activity calls for a deep appreciation of those who back it, the Article also …

Putting Cano On Ice – A Path Forward For Border Searches Of Electronic Devices, Davis Price Shugrue

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Across the country, circuit courts disagree over what level of suspicion, if any, is required for border officials to search electronic devices. This leaves law enforcement agencies in the lurch because they must craft nationwide policies that cover jurisdictions with differing rules. The Supreme Court should bring this quandary to an end by holding that no reasonable suspicion or warrant is required for border searches of electronic devices. Many scholars and litigants have called for a reasonable suspicion or warrant requirement in light of Supreme Court decisions like Riley and Carpenter that recognize the privacy concerns raised by searches of …

Gambling On The Blockchain: How The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act Has Opened The Door For Offshore Crypto Casinos, Samuel H. Brown Vii

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Online cryptocurrency casinos have seen a dramatic rise in popularity over the past thirty years as the rate of ownership of cryptocurrencies has risen almost as quickly as the US monetary value of a single Bitcoin. Current US laws and regulations are outdated; the only piece of federal legislation that provides oversight in the area of virtual gambling originated in 2006, more than fifteen years before the publication of this Note. Previous scholarship suggests that a lack of federal action has resulted in a surge of criminal activity, such as money laundering and tax evasion, as well as significant missed …

Basketball On Strike: The All-Stars Of The Fight For Racial Equality, Sherif Robert Hesni Jr.

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

National Basketball Association players have a long history of fighting against racial injustice. In August 2020, players participated in the most attention-grabbing endeavor to date: a league-wide strike against racial discrimination in the United States. Refusing to play games entails financial risk for players because of a no-strike clause in the collective bargaining agreement between the National Basketball Players Association and National Basketball Association team governors. Team governors can fine, bench, or fire players for refusing to play. However, it may be infeasible to discipline players for attempting to fight for racial equality—-players are extremely important to the well-being of …

A Modern Reconceptualization Of Copyrights As Public Rights, Matthew L. Pangle

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Copyright law is at a crossroads. In the wake of Oil States Energy Servs., LLC v. Greene’s Energy Grp., LLC, the patent, copyright, and intellectual property regimes as a whole, are primed for a modern reconceptualization. At the heart of this reconceptualization is the distinction between public rights, those vindicated by public offices for the public good, and private rights, those vindicated by private citizens for their exclusive government-granted monopolies. Thanks to Oil States, patent rights now exist in two separate bundles-—a public bundle including the patent grant itself and a private bundle consisting of a patent owner’s exclusivity rights. …

Grey State, Blue City: Defending Local Control Against Confederate “Historical Preservation”, Sage Snider

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Confederate monuments have become lightning rods across the American landscape. While these ubiquitous symbols have spread Lost Cause propaganda for over one hundred years, they have also instigated unprecedented protest and violence since the 2015 Charleston massacre, 2017 Charlottesville rally, and 2020 George Floyd murder. In response, southern state legislatures have passed preemptory “statue statutes,” laws that obstruct left-leaning cities from removing Confederate monuments. This Note compares the political and legal strategies cities and citizens have used to overcome these legal barriers, both in opposition to individual monuments and statue statutes themselves. Using Tennessee’s Historical Commission waiver process as a …

A Deep Dive Into Private Governance Of Deep-Sea Mining, Andrew Johnson

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Modern, information-driven economies need rare-earth metals for everything from laptop computers to cellular phones. Society will require more of these metals for the solar panels, wind turbines, and storage batteries necessary to convert electricity systems to renewable energy. The deep sea contains large amounts of high-quality, rare-earth metals that companies and nations are increasingly interested in mining. The International Seabed Authority (ISA) is authorized under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to permit and regulate deep-sea mining of the sea floor outside of national jurisdiction (the “Area”), and the ISA is currently developing regulations to …

Barriers To Criminal Enforcement Against Counterfeiting In China, Daniel C.K. Chow

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Multinational companies (MNCs) with valuable trademarks in China seek criminal enforcement against counterfeiting because other available avenues of relief, such as administrative and judicial remedies, have proven to be ineffective. While MNCs prefer enforcement through China’s Police, the Public Security Bureau (PSB), many MNCs are unaware of the significant hidden dangers of using the PSB.

Most MNCs will delegate enforcement of trademark rights to their Chinese subsidiaries. These subsidiaries are known to make illegal payments to the PSB that may violate the laws of the PRC as well as the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). These acts expose …

Big Brother Is Scanning: The Widespread Implementation Of Alpr Technology In America’S Police Forces, Yash Dattani

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs) are an increasingly popular tool in police departments across the United States. At its core, ALPR technology functions in a relatively simple manner. The technology has two major components: the actual scanners, which record license plates, and the databases which collect, compile, and analyze this information for officers to access at the click of a button. Although this technology first came to the United States in 1998 as a form of rudimentary border security, its purpose and capabilities have rapidly grown. Now, in 2022, ALPR has evolved into a frighteningly powerful piece of technology, potentially …

The Path To Employee Status For College Athletes Post-Alston, Tyler J. Murry

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

College athletics are in a state of flux following the Supreme Court’s decision in NCAA v. Alston. While student athletes can now earn money from their name image and likeness (NIL) through endorsement deals, the NCAA and its member schools can still exploit college athletes to earn billions of dollars. To remedy this injustice, courts should classify student athletes as employees under the Federal Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to compensate these students for their work. Whether student athletes should be eligible for minimum wage and employment benefits has been a hot-button topic in the legal community for many years. Fortunately, …

Technological Self-Sufficiency And The Role Of Novelty Traps, Rochelle C. Dreyfuss, Daniel Benoliel

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The COVID pandemic has demonstrated the tragic consequences of technological dependency. Unable to manufacture vaccines for themselves, developing countries must rely on obtaining supplies from other nations. While strong arguments have been made to waive international obligations under the TRIPS Agreement to permit these countries to freely use COVID-related patented inventions, it is not clear that this move would produce sufficient vaccines to meet global demand. Considerable scholarship has been devoted to the question of how to help these countries reach the technological frontier and become technologically independent. In this Article, we identify a novel source of their problem: a …