Law Commons^™

Watching Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep: Immersive Technology, Biometric Psychography, And The Law, Brittan Heller

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Virtual reality and augmented reality present exceedingly complex privacy issues because of the enhanced user experience and reality-based models. Unlike the issues presented by traditional gaming and social media, immersive technology poses inherent risks, which our legal understanding of biometrics and online harassment is simply not prepared to address. This Article offers five important contributions to this emerging space. It begins by introducing a new area of legal and policy inquiry raised by immersive technology called “biometric psychography.” Second, it explains how immersive technology works to a legal audience and defines concepts that are essential to understanding the risks that …

"The New Weapon Of Choice": Law's Current Inability To Properly Address Deepfake Pornography, Anne Pechenik Gieseke

Vanderbilt Law Review

Deepfake technology uses artificial intelligence to realistically manipulate videos by splicing one person’s face onto another’s. While this technology has innocuous usages, some perpetrators have instead used it to create deepfake pornography. These creators use images ripped from social media sites to construct—or request the generation of—a pornographic video showcasing any woman who has shared images of herself online. And while this technology sounds complex enough to be relegated to Hollywood production studios, it is rapidly becoming free and easy-to-use. The implications of deepfake pornography seep into all facets of victims’ lives. Not only does deepfake pornography shatter these victims’ …

The Standing Of Article Iii Standing For Data Breach Litigants: Proposing A Judicial And A Legislative Solution, Devin Urness

Vanderbilt Law Review

Data breaches are not going away. Yet victims still face uncertainty when deciding whether and where to file cases against companies or other institutions that may have mishandled their information. This is especially true if the victims have not yet experienced a financial harm, like identity theft, as a result of a data breach. Much of the uncertainty revolves around the standing doctrine and the Supreme Court’s guidance (or lack thereof) on what constitutes a substantial risk of harm sufficient to establish an injury in fact. Federal circuit courts have come to divergent results in data breach cases based on …

Data Imperialism: The Gdpr's Disastrous Impact On Africa's E-Commerce Markets, Cara Mannion

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The European Union (EU) recently passed the General Data Protection Regulation--a sweeping regulatory framework that sets a new global standard for the collection, storage, and use of personal data. To ensure far-reaching compliance with the GDPR, the EU has adopted a strict take-it-or-leave-it approach--countries that wish to engage with digital users in the EU must either comply with the GDPR's expansive data obligations or risk losing access to the world's largest trading block.

This presents significant obstacles for several African nations. Notably, no African country currently has domestic laws that comply with the GDPR. Even if they did, several African …

The Law Of The Tetrapods, Henry T. Greely

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Should there be such a thing as "Technology Law"? This Article explores that question in two ways. It first looks at four substantive issues that appear across many different areas of technology law: privacy, security, property, and responsibility. It then examines five questions that frequently recur about how to regulate very different new technologies. These questions include which agency should regulate, whether regulation should focus on before or after marketing, what jurisdiction should regulate, how relevant new information will be gained and used, and how-politically-good regulation can be enacted. This Article concludes that it may make sense to develop a …

Privative Copyright, Shyamkrishna Balganesh

Vanderbilt Law Review

“Privative” copyright claims are infringement actions brought by authors for the unauthorized public dissemination of works that are private, unpublished, and revelatory of the author’s personal identity. Driven by considerations of authorial autonomy, dignity, and personality rather than monetary value, these claims are almost as old as Anglo-American copyright law itself. Yet modern thinking has attempted to undermine their place within copyright law and sought to move them into the domain of privacy law. This Article challenges the dominant view and argues that privative copyright claims form a legitimate part of the copyright landscape. It shows how privative copyright claims …