Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Let The Sunshine In: Crafting Constitutional Transparency Regulations For Content Moderation, Caitlin Ring Carlson

Seattle University Law Review

In response to public concern about the impact of social media, legislators in some U.S. states have developed laws to regulate the process of content moderation. Many include mandatory transparency and disclosure requirements, some of which courts have already deemed an unconstitutional infringement on social media platforms’ right to free expression. This article explores the parameters for crafting constitutional social media transparency regulations using existing U.S. media policy and insights from recent legal challenges. The resulting analysis identifies content neutral transparency requirements that mandate the disclosure of purely factual, non-controversial information as those most likely to withstand judicial scrutiny. Specifically, …

This Is Not A Game: The Addictive Allure Of Digital Companions, Nizan Geslevich Packin, Karni Chagal-Feferkorn

Seattle University Law Review

Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents have become an inescapable part of modern childhood, reshaping education, leisure activities, entertainment, and social interaction. From AI-powered tutors that adapt to individual learning styles to emotionally responsive chatbots that simulate human companionship, these systems promise unprecedented personalization, cognitive stimulation, and social support. However, these benefits mask significant risks that remain unregulated and inadequately addressed.

Although adults are also susceptible to forming deep emotional bonds with AI companions—often trusting them as if they possessed genuine understanding and empathy—children are particularly vulnerable. Their misplaced trust can more severely distort social development, weaken critical thinking, and foster unhealthy …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Re-Imagining Tomorrow: A Technology, Innovation Law, And Ethics Symposium On Addictive Technology And Children, Margaret Chon

Seattle University Law Review

In this Foreword, Professor Margaret Chon introduces Seattle University's Technology, Innovation Law, and Ethics (TILE) program, the 2024 TILE Symposium, and Dr. Gaia Bernstein’s Unwired: Gaining Control Over Addictive Technologies.

Keynote Address: The Movement To Protect Kids From Addictive Technologies, Gaia Bernstein

Seattle University Law Review

In this keynote address, I describe my personal journey starting with a school outreach program I created in 2017 to address technology overuse among kids. While I initially advocated for self-help methods, I grew to recognize that the tech industry bore responsibility. This realization led me to write Unwired: Gaining Control over Addictive Technologies, which focused on collective action to pressure the tech industry to redesign its addictive products.

I then describe the movement to control addictive technologies and protect kids, which has gained momentum since the end of the pandemic. This movement combines grassroots parent activism with legal-political action. …

Moral Panic Or Public Health Crisis? Lessons From Drugs And Gambling For “Addictive” Design, Matthew B. Lawrence, Haomin (Kevin) Yan

Seattle University Law Review

Alcohol, automobiles, guns, lottery, loot boxes, meat, music, opioid painkillers, processed foods, prop bets, slot machines, television, tobacco, violent video games. Over the last century each of these has been subject to concerns—some might even say “moral panics”—from parents and policymakers about avoidable harms to kids and adults. In some cases we look back with the benefit of hindsight and dismiss those concerns as naïve or moralistic. In others we look back at them as justified or as having come too late to check an expanding industry before it did unfathomable harm while growing so powerful that it became all …

Responding To Digital Addiction, Ned Snow

Seattle University Law Review

In Unwired: Gaining Control over Addictive Technologies, Professor Gaia Bernstein calls our attention to the growing problem of digital addiction. Digital addiction may sound like something out of a science-fiction novel or something that does not raise the same sort of real-life practical concerns as are present in a physical health crisis or an economic decline. But as Bernstein presents the evidence, we learn that the consequences of digital addiction can be just as harmful as a serious disease or a financial depression. Cognitive development disorders, anxiety, emotional depression, social isolation, and other mental health ills can be debilitating—as much …

The Ai Doppelgänger Dilemma: Cloned Voices In The Music Industry, Elizabeth Shields

Seattle University Law Review

With the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI), there has been an influx of “voice clones”—deep-learning algorithms that create synthetic speech to realistically mimic human voices. Celebrities and, in particular, music artists, have been subjected to the proliferation of AI voice clones on social media platforms like TikTok and streaming platforms such as Spotify. Despite music utilizing AI voice clones having amassed much popularity, this technology can be harmful and highly invasive to musicians whose livelihoods often depend on their distinct voices. While legal scholars have attempted to articulate various rights that could protect a person’s voice, individuals are largely …

Adopting Permissioned Blockchain Models To Enhance Consumer Protection And Comply With Consumer Protection Laws, Erika Buenrostro

Featured Student Work

Blockchain technology enables decentralized, peer-to-peer transactions and data management, offering transparency while raising data privacy and consumer protection concerns. As the current administration promotes blockchain adoption, including cryptocurrency, more users and businesses will likely integrate the technology. This thesis provides a framework to help businesses adopt blockchain while ensuring compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). To prevent data mishandling and legal penalties, consumers and businesses must stay informed about the risks and evolving state privacy laws.

A CCPA-compliant approach retains blockchain’s benefits through a permissioned model, storing only non-personal (neutral) data on-chain while keeping personal information off-chain in …

The Ai Doppelgänger Dilemma: Cloned Voices In The Music Industry, Elizabeth Shields

Seattle University Law Review Online

With the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI), there has been an influx of “voice clones”—deep-learning algorithms that create synthetic speech to realistically mimic human voices. Celebrities and, in particular, music artists, have been subjected to the proliferation of AI voice clones on social media platforms like TikTok and streaming platforms such as Spotify. Despite music utilizing AI voice clones having amassed much popularity, this technology can be harmful and highly invasive to musicians whose livelihoods often depend on their distinct voices. While legal scholars have attempted to articulate various rights that could protect a person’s voice, individuals are largely …

The Future Of Money: How The Digital Revolution Is Transforming Currencies And Finance, Sohini Banerjee Ms, Pratik Datta Mr

Indian Journal of Law and Technology

The book ‘The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution is Transforming Currencies and Finance’, written by Eswar Prasad, and published in 2021 by the Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, is timely and thought-provoking. It provides a bird’s eye view of the noteworthy developments in finance in the past few decades, and predicts that we are on the verge of an even more dramatic transformation having significant economic, political, and social ramifications. For this reason, it is richly deserving of a review. This paper aims to critically analyse the same.

The Right To Receive Information: Conceptual Problems, Shrutanjaya Bhardwaj Mr

Indian Journal of Law and Technology

This article studies the “right to receive information” or the “right to know”, a judicially-recognised right under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. It attempts to show, through an analysis of judgments of the Supreme Court and High Courts, that the right rests on a shaky philosophical foundation and that there are inconsistencies in how the right is judicially treated in terms of its structure and content.

First, the article questions the logic that the “right to know” is implicit in Article 19(1)(a) merely because it makes the exercise of free speech more meaningful. Such a logic was authoritatively rejected by …

Antitrust Concerns Vis-A-Vis Disruptive Innovation – Takeaways For Competition Commission Of India, Sudhanshu Kumar Dr, Garima Gupta Ms

Indian Journal of Law and Technology

In the era of innovation, market dynamics have evolved demanding a more nuanced analysis of market competition. Innovation in digital economy does promise new products and services but it can be an amiable reality only if it is directed towards ensuring consumer welfare and a free markets space for players. Since digital markets attract innovators and disruptors, it is important for antitrust regulators to differentiate between efforts directed towards value-creation and ones aimed at destroying or impeding the same. This paper aims at theorizing around the idea of ‘disruptive innovation’ and its implications for competition policy for India. The paper …

Continuing Discrimination In The Times Of Technology: Women, Work, Algorithms And Law In India, Sejal Chandak Ms

Indian Journal of Law and Technology

Human societies are discriminatory. So, it has been an unrelenting effort to eliminate what divides us. While there have been leapfrog developments in this regard, we need to consider newer challenges now that technology is taking over public and private spaces. The author, in this article, discusses gender-based algorithmic discrimination in workplaces and argues that there is an urgent need to enforce laws for regulating algorithmic discrimination. India is in a precarious position. It has been consistently faring poorly when it comes to the gender gap in work. It lacks a comprehensive and codified anti-discriminatory law; and lacks laws to …

Conceptualising India’S Safe Harbour In The Era Of Platform Governance, Vasudev Devadasan Mr.

Indian Journal of Law and Technology

The push for greater regulation of online platforms has led to calls to re-evaluate the statutory immunities granted to online intermediaries for hosting unlawful third-party content (i.e., safe harbour). This paper argues that greater accountability for online platforms need not interfere with existing (and indeed strengthened) safe harbour protections. However, to achieve this outcome, legislators must recognise the difference in enforcement approaches between secondary liability and platform governance regimes. This paper argues the types of obligations that can be imposed as pre-conditions to safe harbour are different from those that can be imposed as direct statutory obligations. This is because …

The Compact Clause And Cyberwar, Josie Laing

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

This article seeks to bring attention to the potential modern utility of Article 1, Section 10, Clause 3: the Compact Clause. This section of the Constitution has historically been archived. However, given cyberspace’s ever-growing prominence, the Compact Clause should be reconsidered as cyber warfare presents a novel opportunity for states to exercise their sovereign rights.

Section 10 restricts states’ powers to engage with foreign entities. Without the consent of Congress, states cannot enter into agreements with foreign powers or engage in war. These restrictions on states were necessary when the Constitution was drafted. To navigate foreign affairs nimbly, the United …

The Paradoxical Solution To Enforce Resale Royalties And Keep The Nft Market Decentralized, Katelyn Holcomb

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

This article examines the role of resale royalties in maintaining decentralization in the NFT ecosystem and supporting financial sustainability for artists. Although resale royalties, also known as creator royalties, are widely valued by NFT artists, they have been frequently undermined by the centralized policies of large NFT marketplaces. These include zero-royalty policies that are driven by the competitive pressure to gain market share, where platforms allow buyers and sellers to bypass creator royalties. This behavior has led to a destructive race to the bottom and the overall erosion of resale royalties. To address this problem in the NFT market, this …

Carano V. Disney: The First Amendment Right Of Expressive Association As A Defense To Firing Employees For Their Political Speech, Joel Timmer

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

Following a series of controversial social media posts by actress Gina Carano, a cast member of the Disney+ Star Wars series, The Mandalorian, Disney terminated her employment on the show and announced that Carano would not appear in any future Star Wars projects. According to Disney, Carano was terminated because the views expressed in her posts did not align with the company’s values. Carano filed suit against Disney, claiming Disney violated California state labor laws that generally prohibit employers from sanctioning employees for their political activities. In response, Disney claims that the First Amendment right of expressive association provides …

"Reasonable [Cybersecurity] Measures" For Digital Trade Secrets: Lessons From Marketing, Raj Sachdev

Law Faculty Scholarship

The loss of digital trade secrets in marketing and beyond, often the source of competitive advantage, can have disastrous impacts on brands and companies. Bad actors want to get their digital hands on digital trade secrets, and other actors and factors may also cause a risk to their secrecy. The Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) makes clear that “reasonable measures” must be taken to maintain the secrecy of a trade secret. Likewise, the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA) requires “reasonable steps.” However, in a digital age, the definition of what is “reasonable” is even more unclear than in offline settings. …

Voting Matters: Materiality Considerations And The Shareholder Vote, Renee M. Jones

Seattle University Law Review

For the shareholder franchise to have meaning, shareholders must have access to relevant information to inform their voting decisions. The securities laws’ disclosure requirements play an essential role in informing the shareholder vote.

This Essay focuses on the question of the materiality of information in the context of shareholder voting. It addresses the question of whether ESG-related information is material, positioning the materiality inquiry within the context of shareholders’ voting decisions. It explores the definition of materiality with a focus on the “reasonable investor” concept embedded within the definition. The Essay argues that the implicit expectations of many commentators that …

Through A Glass Darkly: How Securities Disclosures Give A Distorted View Of The Economy, Gerald F. Davis

Seattle University Law Review

Our understanding of the American economy often relies on stylized facts derived from mandatory disclosures by listed corporations. Data vendors like Standard & Poor’s vacuum up 10Ks and proxy statements into databases, and scholars distill these into tentative maps. This may have been adequate for a postwar economy centered on asset-heavy manufacturers, but it is increasingly out of step with an information-based economy. Companies listed on the stock market are fewer in number and less representative than they were, light in tangible assets and people, and heavy on IP. Basic facts such as what industry they are in are increasingly …

Ai-Driven Branding: Trademark Law Implications Of Automated Creativity, David J. Looney

Touro Law Review

The rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence (“AI”), particularly generative AI systems like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and DALL-E, has introduced novel challenges to trademark law, which have remained largely unchanged since the Lanham Act of 1946. While trademark law has evolved to address such issues as dilution, international registration, and cybersquatting, the emergence of AI-generated con[1]tent capable of producing words, phrases, logos, and symbols raises significant concerns about infringement and dilution of existing trademarks. This Note examines the intersection of AI and trademark law, exploring the historical and current frameworks of both fields, the legal dilemmas posed by AI’s ability to generate …

Boden Lecture: Taxation Of Autonomous Artificial Intelligence, Reuven Avi-Yonah, Lucas Brasil Salama, Herbert Snitz, W. Robert Thomas

Marquette Law Review

This Article proposes that tax can be a useful supplement to other measures to regulate Autonomous Artificial Intelligence (AAI) and limit its potential harmful effects. This proposal differs from command-and-control regulation of AAI along the lines of European Union legislation that may unduly limit the development of AAI. It also differs from existing proposals to tax AAI to generate revenue to help workers displaced by AAI programs, or to tax the data used by AAI. The proposal is based on granting AAI programs like ChatGPT separate legal personhood, like corporate personhood, while incentivizing or requiring their corporate owner to place …

An Impossible Task: Enforcing Disclosure Requirements In A Multi-Billion Dollar Industry, Keelin Ferris

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

Users of the first global social network, MySpace, could have never imagined that a mere twenty years later, teenagers could be millionaires making thirty-second videos out of their parents’ basement. Social media platforms have blossomed and advanced to an unpredictable level in a short amount of time. The growth of TikTok, surpassing one billion users, has been one of the most substantial contributors to the change in landscape.[1] In 2025, “social media influencers” come in all shapes and sizes.[2] Social media users can scroll through Instagram reels and stumble upon their fellow PTA member, co-worker, or grandmother promoting …

Table Of Contents

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

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Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

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Smart Contracts Are Neither Smart Nor A Contract: The Case Against Smart Contract Utilization In Everyday Consumer Or Commercial Transactions, Jim Moye

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No doubt, most of us have gone into a local electronics store or ordered a new gadget from an online provider. After purchasing the gadget, we are eager to start operating the new purchase. Before fully utilizing the gadget, however, there are a series of screens requiring the user to read, acknowledge, and consent to, various clauses. If this process is not completed, the user is denied full access to the gadget. Thereafter, entry is granted, and the user is free to utilize the electronic device. This is a prime example of utilizing technology to automate a process that would …

Green Dividends: A Case Study In Green Dividends And The Conditions For Private Ordering Solutions, Anne M. Tucker

Seattle University Law Review

This Essay introduces a novel private ordering solution to facilitate corporate investments in pro-social and environmental initiatives: Green dividends. Green dividends are an optional increase in shareholder dividends that are returned to the company to be reinvested in environmental initiatives or kept by a shareholder.

Green dividends pose an alternative to the current gridlocked debate that corporations can’t, won’t, shouldn’t, and shouldn’t even try to act in pro-social or environmental ways. Turning the common refrains on their head converts each narrative into an element for a successful private ordering solution: authority, accountability, shareholder buy-in, and government- backed enforcement. With Green …

Does Climate Disclosure Work To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions? Emerging Evidence Suggests Cautious Optimism, Cynthia A. Williams

Seattle University Law Review

Significant regulatory resources have been spent developing global, voluntary climate and sustainability disclosure standards, such as the TCFD, TNRD, and ISSB’s Sustainability and Climate Disclosure standards, or domestically required disclosures, such as in the EU and in the U.S. Thus, it is important to evaluate whether this disclosure, particularly voluntary, qualitative disclosure, will have the power to shift the allocation of capital, will have a significant effect on the management of climate risk within firms, and ultimately will reduce climate change risk and biodiversity loss.

In this Article, several interrelated questions will be discussed. First, what does the empirical evidence …

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead