Computer Law Commons^™

Texas’ War On Social Media: Censorship Or False Flag, Leni Morales

DePaul Journal of Art, Technology & Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Pooling Patents For Pandemic Progress: Mrna Vaccines And The Broader Context Of Modernatx Inc V. Pfizer Inc., Francis Brefo

DePaul Journal of Art, Technology & Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Aclu V. Clearview Ai, Inc.,, Isra Ahmed

DePaul Journal of Art, Technology & Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

How High Fashion Brands And Nfts Are Changing The Future Of The Art Market And Trademark Prosecution, Grace Hodges

DePaul Journal of Art, Technology & Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Thaler V. Vidal, 43 F.4th 1207 (Fed. Cir. 2022), Matthew Messina

DePaul Journal of Art, Technology & Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Enhancing The Battleverse: The People’S Liberation Army’S Digital Twin Strategy, Joshua Baughman

Military Cyber Affairs

No abstract provided.

What Senior U.S. Leaders Say We Should Know About Cyber, Dr. Joseph H. Schafer

Military Cyber Affairs

On April 6, 2023, the Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative hosted a panel discussion on the new National Cybersecurity Strategy. The panel featured four senior officials from the Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD), the Department of State (DoS), the Department of Justice (DoJ), and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The author attended and asked each official to identify the most important elements that policymakers and strategists must understand about cyber. This article highlights historical and recent struggles to express cyber policy, the responses from these officials, and the author’s ongoing research to improve national security cyber policy.

Operationalizing Deterrence By Denial In The Cyber Domain, Gentry Lane

Military Cyber Affairs

No abstract provided.

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind? Remote Work And Contractual Distancing, Nicola Countouris, Valerio De Stefano

Articles & Book Chapters

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, remote work has acquired quasi-Marmite status. It has become difficult, if not impossible, to approach the issue in a measured and dispassionate way, which is one of the reasons books such as the present one are being published. Remote work is often seen as anathema by some who associate it with laziness, low productivity and the degradation of the social fabric of firms and of their creative and collaborative potential. The notorious views of CEOs such as Tesla and Twitter’s Elon Musk or JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon come to mind, indicative – in the view of …

Introduction To The Future Of Remote Work, Nicola Countouris, Valerio De Stefano, Agnieszka Piasna, Silvia Rainone

Articles & Book Chapters

Debates on the future of work have taken a more fundamental turn in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Early in 2020, when large sections of the workforce were prevented from coming to their usual places of work, remote work became the only way for many to continue to perform their professions. What had been a piecemeal, at times truly sluggish, evolution towards a multilocation approach to work suddenly turned into an abrupt, radical and universal shift. It quickly became clear that the consequences of this shift were far more significant and far-reaching than simply changing the workplace’s address. They …

The Common Law Inside Social Media, Anita Bernstein

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Mass E-Carceration: Electronic Monitoring As A Bail Condition, Sara Zampierin

Faculty Scholarship

Over the past decade, the immigration and criminal legal systems have increasingly relied on electronic monitoring as a bail condition; hundreds of thousands of people live under this monitoring on any given day. Decisionmakers purport to impose these conditions to release more individuals from detention and to maintain control over individuals they perceive to pose some risk of flight or to public safety. But the data do not show that electronic monitoring successfully mitigates these risks or that it leads to fewer individuals in detention. Electronic monitoring also comes with severe restrictions on individual liberty and leads to harmful effects …

Digital Privacy For Reproductive Choice In The Post-Roe Era, Aziz Z. Huq, Rebecca Wexler

Faculty Scholarship

The overruling of Roe v. Wade has unleashed a torrent of regulatory and punitive activity restricting previously lawful reproductive options. But the turn to the expansive criminal law and new schemes of civil liability creates novel concerns, quite distinct from the pre-Roe landscape a half-century ago. Reproductive choice, and its nemesis, turn upon information. For pregnant people, deciding on a choice of medical care entails a search for advice and services. Information is at a pre­mium for them. Meanwhile, efforts to regulate abortion began with clinic closings. But they will quickly extend to civil actions and criminal indictments of patients, …

The Perks Of Being Human, Max Stul Oppenheimer

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

The power of artificial intelligence has recently entered the public consciousness, prompting debates over numerous legal issues raised by use of the tool. Among the questions that need to be resolved is whether to grant intellectual property rights to copyrightable works or patentable inventions created by a machine, where there is no human intervention sufficient to grant those rights to the human. Both the U. S. Copyright Office and the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office have taken the position that in cases where there is no human author or inventor, there is no right to copyright or patent protection. …

Between Risk Mitigation And Labour Rights Enforcement: Assessing The Transatlantic Race To Govern Ai-Driven Decision-Making Through A Comparative Lens, Valerio De Stefano, Antonio Aloisi

Articles & Book Chapters

In this article, we provide an overview of efforts to regulate the various phases of the artificial intelligence (AI) life cycle. In doing so, we examine whether—and, if so, to what extent—highly fragmented legal frameworks are able to provide safeguards capable of preventing the dangers that stem from AI- and algorithm-driven organisational practices. We critically analyse related developments at the European Union (EU) level, namely the General Data Protection Regulation, the draft AI Regulation, and the proposal for a Directive on improving working conditions in platform work. We also consider bills and regulations proposed or adopted in the United States …

Your Biometric Data Is Concrete, Your Injury Is Imminent And Particularized: Articulating A Bipa Claim To Survive Article Iii Standing After Transunion V. Ramirez, Kelsey L. Kenny

Maine Law Review

Biometric data is a digital translation of self which endures in its accuracy for one’s entire lifespan. As integral elements of modern life continue to transition their operations exclusively online, the verifiable “digital self” has become indispensable. The immutable and sensitive nature of biometric data makes it peculiarly vulnerable to misappropriation and abuse. Yet the most frightening is the unknown. For an individual who has had their digital extension-of-self covertly stolen or leaked, the dangers that lie in the technology of the future are innumerable. The Illinois legislature recognized the danger associated with the cavalier collection and handling of biometric …

Behind The Scenes Of The 2021 Hollywood Labor Unrest, Kimberly Shely

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

In 2021, the Hollywood guild International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) negotiated a new contract with Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). IATSE had enjoyed a relatively peaceful labor existence in its 128 years. However, after negotiations with AMPTP stalled in 2021, IATSE held a vote to strike. The IATSE voters authorized a strike if negotiations did not produce an agreement.

If IATSE had initiated a strike, productions would have effectively shut down. If Hollywood productions shut down, the industry would suffer millions in lost profits, employees would risk an unpaid strike, and viewers would likely see …

Paradigms For Foreign Tech-Platforms Regulation: U.S. Options After The Tiktok Saga, Zhining Zhang

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

The heated discussion stirred up by the U.S. regulatory actions against TikTok continues to this day. The nearly predatory popularity of this Chinese application has raised people’s awareness that the country is in urgent need of a fully developed policy in order to deal with the surge of robust foreign digital platforms.

This article gives the contour of the latest development of theories regarding the foreign tech-platforms regulation. Three contemporary frameworks are reviewed. The first laissez faire paradigm inherits the values of early neoliberalism to prevent a “Splinternet,” but its inaction fails to deal with novel security threats ranging from …

The Takings Clause Does Not Prevent The United States From Supporting A Patent Waiver At The Wto But Prevents Domestic Implementation Of The Waiver, Xiang Li

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

The Biden Administration announced its support for the initiative at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to suspend patent rights protections for COVID-19 vaccines, in the hope of providing equitable and affordable access to the vaccines to low-income countries. Since then, domestic pharmaceutical companies have been voicing vociferous opposition, claiming that “[e]liminating IP protections undermines our global response to the pandemic and compromises safety.”2 Passing a patent waiver at the WTO means eligible member countries can opt to free themselves from the obligations to enforce qualifying patents, and anyone within those countries can accordingly practice the patents without infringement liability. It …

Standing In The Age Of Data Breaches: A Consumer-Friendly Framework To Pleading Future Injury And Providing Equitable Relief To Data Breach Victims, John E. Mcloughlin

Brooklyn Law Review

Data breaches have rapidly increased in volume in the United States since the beginning of the twenty-first century. As entities across the United States have increasingly stored personally identifiable information (PII) in online databases, cybercriminals have developed tools to steal and sell stolen PII. This note explores the devastating consequences felt by data breach victims and the uphill battles victims often face in finding legal remedies. Although data breach victims may be at risk of identity theft, they are often barred from taking legal action against the entity that breached their data due to the “injury in fact” requirement under …

Searching For A Compromise: A Case For The Crypto Like-Kind Exchange, John Paul Boyter

Arkansas Law Review

In recent years, cryptocurrencies, cryptoassets, electronic coins, tokens, non-fungible tokens, and other various terms for electronic assets have gained prodigious attention in the financial world. From the spike (and subsequent drop) in value of Bitcoin, to people spending millions of dollars on pixelated pictures of punks, the market for these assets has been extremely active despite its ups and downs. However, in addition to potential financial success via crypto markets, the development of crypto technology has allowed for a transformation of how individuals and institutions think of currency, financial security, and access to information Part I of this Comment explains …

Regulating Ai At Work: Labour Relations, Automation, And Algorithmic Management, Valerio De Stefano, Virginia Doellgast

Articles & Book Chapters

Recent innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) have been at the core of massive technological changes that are transforming work. AI is now widely used to automate business processes and replace labour-intensive tasks while changing the skill demands for those that remain. AI-based tools are also deployed to invasively monitor worker conduct and to automate HR management processes.

Through the dual lens of comparative labour law and employment relations research, the articles in this special issue of Transfer investigate the role of collective bargaining and government policy in shaping strategies to deploy new digital and AI-based technologies at work. Together, they …

Some Legal And Practical Challenges In The Investigation Of Cybercrime, Ritz Carr

Cybersecurity Undergraduate Research Showcase

According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), in 2021, the United States lost around $6.9 billion to cybercrime. In 2022, that number grew to over $10.2 billion (IC3, 2022). In one of many efforts to combat cybercrimes, at least 40 states “introduced or considered more than 250 bills or resolutions that deal significantly with cybersecurity” with 24 states officially enacting a total of 41 bills (National Conference on State Legislatures, 2022).

The world of cybercrime evolves each day. Nevertheless, challenges arise when we investigate and prosecute cybercrime, which will be examined in the following collection of essays that highlight …

Waking Sleeping Beauty? Exploring The Challenges Of Cyber-Deterrence By Punishment, Thibault Moulin

Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Nft For Eternity, Hadar Y. Jabotinsky, Michal Lavi

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are unique tokens stored on a digital ledger – the blockchain. They are meant to represent unique, non-interchangeable digital assets, as there is only one token with that exact data. Moreover, the information attached to the token cannot be altered as on a regular database. While copies of these digital items are available to all, NFTs are tracked on blockchains to provide the owner with proof of ownership. This possibility of buying and owning digital assets can be attractive to many individuals.

NFTs are presently at the stage of early adoption and their uses are expanding. In …

Do Not Touch My Data: Exploring A Disclosure-Based Framework To Address Data Access, Francis Morency

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Companies have too much control over people’s information. In the data marketplace, companies package and sell individuals’ data, and these individuals have little to no bargaining power over the process. Companies may freely buy and sell people’s data in the private sector for targeted marketing and behavior manipulation. In the justice system, an unchecked data marketplace leaves black and brown communities vulnerable to serious data access issues caused by predictive sentencing, for example. Risk assessment algorithms in predictive sentencing rely on data on individuals and run all relevant data points to provide the likelihood that a defendant will recidivate low …

Law Informs Code: A Legal Informatics Approach To Aligning Artificial Intelligence With Humans, John J. Nay

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities are rapidly advancing. Highly capable AI could cause radically different futures depending on how it is developed and deployed. We are unable to specify human goals and societal values in a way that reliably directs AI behavior. Specifying the desirability (value) of AI taking a particular action in a particular state of the world is unwieldy beyond a very limited set of state-action-values. The purpose of machine learning is to train on a subset of states and have the resulting agent generalize an ability to choose high value actions in unencountered circumstances. Inevitably, the function ascribing …

The Evidentiary Implications Of Interpreting Black-Box Algorithms, Varun Bhatnagar

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

Biased black-box algorithms have drawn increasing levels of scrutiny from the public. This is especially true for those black-box algorithms with the potential to negatively affect protected or vulnerable populations.1 One type of these black-box algorithms, a neural network, is both opaque and capable of high accuracy. However, neural networks do not provide insights into the relative importance, underlying relationships, structures of the predictors or covariates with the modelled outcomes.2 There are methods to combat a neural network’s lack of transparency: globally or locally interpretable post-hoc explanatory models.3 However, the threat of such measures usually does not bar an actor …

A Loaded God Complex: The Unconstitutionality Of The Executive Branch’S Unilaterally Withholding Zero-Days, Brendan Gilligan

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

The Exigency And How To Improve And Implement International Humanitarian Legislations More Advantageously In Times Of Both Cyber-Warfare And Cyberspace, Shawn J. Lalman

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This study provides a synopsis of the following topics: the prospective limiters levied on cyber-warfare by present–day international legislation; significant complexities and contentions brought up in the rendering & utilization of International Humanitarian Legislation against cyber-warfare; feasible repercussions of cyber-warfare on humanitarian causes. It is also to be contended and outlined in this research study that non–state actors can be held accountable for breaches of international humanitarian legislation committed using cyber–ordnance if sufficient resources and skill are made available. It details the factors that prosecutors and investigators must take into account when organizing investigations into major breaches of humanitarian legislation …