Law Commons^™

Fair Play: Notes On The Algorithmic Soccer Referee, Michael J. Madison

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The soccer referee stands in for a judge. Soccer’s Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system stands in for algorithms that augment human deciders. Fair play stands in for justice. They are combined and set in a polycentric system of governance, with implications for designing, administering, and assessing human-machine combinations.

Chaos Or Continuity? The Legal Profession: From Antiquity To The Digital Age, The Pandemic, And Beyond, Jan L. Jacobowitz

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The idea of individuals entering into a social contract to relinquish some of their rights in order to have a civilized society protect their fundamental rights originates at least as early as ancient Greece, where it was espoused by the philosopher Epicurus. Implicit in a social contract is the enactment of laws to achieve a democratic, civilized society and the concept of advocacy. Advocacy exists to protect an individual’s rights. The legal profession originated organically as the citizens of ancient Greece and Rome recognized the need for professional advocates. From this nascent beginning, the legal profession has evolved over centuries …

The Evolving Technology-Augmented Courtroombefore, During, And After The Pandemic, Fredric I. Lederer

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Even before the COVID-19 Pandemic, technology was changing the nature of America’s courtrooms. Access to case management and e-filing data and documents coupled with electronic display of information and evidence at trial, remote appearances, electronic court records, and assistive technology for those with disabilities defined the technology-augmented trial courtroom. With the advent of the Pandemic and the need for social distancing, numerous courts moved to remote appearances, virtual hearings, and even virtual trials. This Article reviews the nature of technology-augmented courtrooms and discusses virtual hearings and trials at length, reviewing legality, technology, human factors, and public acceptance, and concludes that …

The Threat Of Deepfakes In Litigation: Raising The Authentication Bar To Combat Falsehood, Agnieszka Mcpeak

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Deepfakes are all over the internet—from shape-shifting comedians and incoherent politicians to disturbingly realistic fake pornography. Emerging technology makes it easier than ever to create a convincing deepfake. What used to take significant time and money to develop is now widely available, often for free, thanks to rapid advances in deepfake technology.

Deepfakes threaten individual rights and even democracy. But their impact on litigation should not be overlooked. The US adversarial system of justice is built on a foundation of seeking out the truth to arrive at a just result. The Federal Rules of Evidence serve as an important framework …

To Win Friends And Influence People: Regulation And Enforcement Of Influencer Marketing After Ten Years Of The Endorsement Guides, Craig C. Carpenter, Mark Bonin Ii

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

For the last ten years, social media influencer marketing has been regulated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) under the FTC’s Section 5 “unfair practices” authority, guided by the Endorsement Guides, a “best practices” document published by the FTC. This is a fairly “light” regulatory scheme where violators typically enter no-money, no-fault consent decrees and generally undertake to do a better job following the Endorsement Guides in the future. During this time, the practice has flourished, and companies are spending significant portions of their marketing budgets on social media influencer advertising. Recently, the FTC has submitted proposals for increased enforcement …

Regulating Data Breaches: A Data Superfund Statute, Kyle Mckibbin

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Collecting and processing large amounts of personal data has become a fundamental feature of the modern economy. Personal data, combined with good data analytics, are valuable to businesses as they can provide highly detailed information about individual preferences and behaviors. This data collection can also be valuable to the consumer as it generates innovative products and digital platforms. The era of big data promises great rewards, but it is not without its costs. Data breaches, or the release of personal data into unwanted hands, are pervasive and increasingly massive in scale. Despite the personal privacy harm caused by data breaches, …

Labor Organization In Ride-Sharing—Unionization Or Cartelization?, Mark Anderson, Max Huffman

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The sharing economy brings together the constituent parts of a business enterprise into a structure that, on its surface, resembles a business firm, but in crucial ways is nothing like the traditional firm. This includes the ownership of the primary capital assets used in the business, as well as one of the most fundamental features of a firm—the relationship with its labor force. Sharing economy workers are formally contractors, running small businesses as sole entrepreneurs, with the effect that they are excluded from many of the protections made available to workers across the economy. The result is a seeming disparity …

Current Regulatory Challenges In Consumer Credit Scoring Using Alternative Data-Driven Methodologies, Sahiba Chopra

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Credit is a crucial determinant of financial success for most US consumers, but not all consumers can access it. This financial exclusion is partially due to traditional credit-risk scoring and approval processes that cannot assess the creditworthiness of “credit invisible” or “thin file” consumers––that is, consumers who do not have enough traditional data depicting their financial payment history. Consequently, some consumer-reporting agencies and lenders turn to alternative data credit-scoring systems as a way to increase financial inclusion. The enormous complexity of these alternative consumer credit-scoring systems, however, raises significant accuracy and transparency issues—most of which stem from their secret, legally …

“Computer Says No!”: The Impact Of Automation On The Discretionary Power Of Public Officers, Doa A. Elyounes

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The goal of this Article is to unpack the “human in the loop” requirement in the process of automation. It will analyze the impact of automation on street-level bureaucrats and lay out the steps policy makers need to take into account to ensure that meaningful human discretion is maintained. This issue is examined by comparing two algorithms related to the use of automation to detect and investigate fraud in welfare benefits. The first algorithm is used by Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance Agency for detecting and investigating unemployment fraud. This is a draconian algorithm with the ability to automatically decide to cut …

The Right To Feast And Festivals, Juan C. Riofrio

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Festive behavior is a basic characteristic of human life, as evidenced from ancient times. Humans need to use ceremony and ritual in specific places and times to mark their triumphs, joys, and sorrows. However, some categories of individuals are harmed because they cannot celebrate the most important highlights of their lives through such festive feasts: prisoners, mariners at sea, soldiers on the frontlines, workers subject to the pressures of ungenerous employers, towns occupied by oppressive invaders, and impoverished individuals who cannot afford customary celebrations, among others. When feasts and festivals are restricted, societies lose well-being, communities lose identity, and individuals …

Equal Protection And Ectogenesis, Brit J. Benjamin

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Ectogenesis is the gestation of a fetus in an artificial womb. This suite of technologies, now in use to preserve the lives of premature infants, is on the cusp of being a viable method of reproduction from conception to term. This Article argues that an equal protection challenge to a ban on utilizing ectogenetic technologies should be analyzed under intermediate or strict scrutiny. Should the US Supreme Court apply the rational basis or rational basis “with bite” standard of review to such a challenge, the petitioner should prevail.

The nature of ectogenesis is a technological alternative for a sex-specific organ. …

When Art Might Constitute A Taking: A Takings Clause Inquiry Under The Visual Artists Rights Act, Thomas A. Shelburne

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

At first glance, a federal statute protecting the moral rights of artists and their artwork seems like a unanimous victory. But it turns out that government action protecting certain works of art attached to buildings may give rise to a valid takings clause claim under the Fifth Amendment. Without compensation, a regulation requiring a landowner to maintain someone else’s property on his land would constitute a taking. The Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA) requires landowners to maintain protected artwork attached to buildings or potentially face statutory damages. Although only one court has heard and subsequently denied a takings …

Pausing The Game: Esports Developers’ Copyright Claims To Prevent Or Restrict Tournament Play, Alexander Tu

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Unlike traditional sports, esports are-—at their core—-video games, which must be designed and programmed by a game company. These video game developers are the copyright owners of the esports titles they create, which, in turn, results in continued developer control even after a player has purchased or downloaded the game. Because there is no relevant court precedent that is directly applicable to the world of esports, game developers unimpededly exert their copyright authority in order to restrict third-party tournaments that utilize their games, and in some cases, prevent those events from occurring altogether. This use of copyright authority is an …

Race Cartels: How Constructor Collaboration Is Curbing Innovation In Formula 1, Chandler C. Gerard-Reimer

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Formula 1 is in the midst of a copycat scandal: technology has made it possible for teams to reverse engineer clones of competitors’ race cars. This is a less than ideal state of affairs for the championship series, which prides itself on being the pinnacle of motorsport and automotive innovation, thanks in large part to the cars’ rapid rate of technological advancement. In order to address this problem, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), Formula 1’s governing body, must increase independent innovation efforts by amending the technical regulations to restrict the extent of presently allowed inter-team collaboration. Worried that the …

Regulating Social Media In The Global South, Zahra Takhshid

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

In recent years, the disinformation crisis has made regulating social media platforms a necessity. The consequences of disinformation campaigns are not only limited to election interferences or political debates, but have also included fatal consequences. In response, scholars have generally focused on regulating social media companies in the United States without paying much attention to these companies’ global impact, particularly in the Global South. Lost in the quest to fight disinformation is addressing the social media companies’ neglect of consumer rights in the Global South.

Countries in the Global North, such as the United States, have the power to regulate …

Promoting Patent Practitioner Diversity: Expanding Non-Jd Pathways And Removing Barriers, Christopher M. Turoski

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The patent field suffers from a reciprocal problem: the cost of becoming a Registered Patent Attorney is high, and the diversity of the patent bar is low. The high cost of law school tuition (over $50,000 per year at some schools) prices out individuals from less privileged backgrounds, thereby decreasing the number of diverse candidates who could become Registered Patent Attorneys. The relatively low number of students with science, technology, or engineering (STE) degrees also restricts the number of diverse candidates who could become Registered Patent Attorneys. These factors contribute to a lack of diversity in the patent bar, reflecting …

The Perfect Match: Solving The Due Process Problem Of Signature Matching With Federal Agency Regulation, Rachel Blumenstein

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Local election commissions in the United States disenfranchise Americans when they erroneously reject voters’ mail-in ballots for failed signature matches. Disenfranchisement is not only problematic because it is dangerous to the health of American democracy, but also because signature matching violates the procedural due process protections voters are entitled to when they exercise their right to vote. Furthermore, the practice of signature matching is one of many ballot access restrictions that disproportionately impact minority voters under the guise of voter fraud prevention. Expanding the Election Assistance Commission’s mandate to allow it to develop more accurate methods of ballot verification can …

Adapting Indian Copyright: Bollywood, Indian Cultural Adaptation, And The Path To Economic Development, Michael P. Goodyear

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Bollywood and the Indian film industry have enjoyed enormous success, being among the largest movie producers in the world. Yet, despite the bright image of Indian cinema producing over a thousand movies a year and selling billions of tickets, the industry has faced controversy over the practice of copying expression, sometimes practically scene for scene, from US and other international films and adapting them into a version that reflects Indian social and cinematic customs and mores (“Indian cultural adaptation”). A long-standing practice, Indian cultural adaptation in Bollywood has only attracted the attention of Hollywood studios in the past twenty years, …

Envisioning The Ftc As A Facilitator Of Blockchain Technology Adoption In The Direct-To-Consumer Genetic Testing Industry, Noah Spector

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Seemingly overnight, the kingpins of the direct-to-consumer genetic testing (DTC-GT) industry shifted their focus from exploring their customers’ DNA to commodifying it. Companies like Ancestry or 23andMe that were once exclusively known as mere sources of “infotainment” now regularly sell consenting customers’ genetic data to pharmaceutical researchers or use it to develop drugs of their own. To gain these customers’ consent, both firms employ a series of long, complex clickwrap contracts that largely fail to apprise their readers of the potential risks of sharing their genetic data. Nor do these agreements provide any form of compensation to those consumers whose …

Privacy Beyond Possession: Solving The Access Conundrum In Digital Dollars, Nerenda N. Atako

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The advent of a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) could reshape the US payments system. A retail CBDC would be a digital representation of the US dollar in the form of an account or token that is widely accessible to the general public. It would be a third form of US fiat money that is created and issued by the Federal Reserve and complementary to physical cash. CBDC proposals have suggested a myriad of retail CBDC design models with an overwhelming interest in a retail CBDC that either implements a centralized ledger system or some form of a distributed …

Confronting The Biased Algorithm: The Danger Of Admitting Facial Recognition Technology Results In The Courtroom, Gabrielle M. Haddad

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

From unlocking an iPhone to Facebook “tags,” facial recognition technology has become increasingly commonplace in modern society. In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement and call for police reform in the United States, it is important now more than ever to consider the implications of law enforcement’s use of facial recognition technology. A study from the National Institute of Standards and Technology found that facial recognition algorithms generated higher rates of false positives for Black faces—sometimes up to one hundred times more false identifications—than white faces. Given the embedded bias of this technology and its increased prevalence, the …

Let Me Get My Glasses, I Can’T Hear You: Sheet Music, Copyright, And Led Zeppelin, Brandon P. Evans

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Musical copyright infringement cases are experiencing an identity crisis. The crisis is that courts are beginning their analyses of the similarities between compositions by examining visual, rather than aural, evidence. Prior to the 1976 Copyright Act, copyright protection extended only to musical works reduced to sheet music. That sheet music, which is filed with the US Copyright Office (Copyright Office) as a “deposit copy,” represents the sum of the composition’s copyright protection. Even though Congress amended the Copyright Act to allow for sound recordings of a composition to function as a deposit copy post-1976, courts—particularly the Ninth Circuit—begin evaluating musical …