Science and Technology Law Commons^™

Blockchain Games And A Disruptive Corporate Business Model, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

Articles

This Article is the first to identify and theorize on a new disruptive corporate business model unfolding in the gaming industry that is larger than both the movie and music sectors combined. Corporations in blockchain gaming reject the old paradigm of amassing profits by turning the public into spenders for and consumers of corporate products. The new corporate business model transforms members of the public into producers and true owners of new corporate property while earning income and garnering governance voting rights. Through a case study of Axie Infinity, a blockchain game launched in 2021, this Article explores how the …

How To Get Away With Discrimination: The Use Of Algorithms To Discriminate In The Internet Entertainment Industry, Sumra Wahid

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

In July 2021, Ziggi Tyler posted a video on TikTok, a popular video sharing platform, where he expressed his frustration with being a Black content creator on TikTok. The video showed Ziggi typing phrases such as “Black Lives Matter” or “Black success” into his Marketplace creator bio, which the app would immediately flag as inappropriate content. However, when Ziggi replaced those words with “white supremacy” or “white success,” no inappropriateness warning appeared. Although a TikTok spokesperson responded to the video clarifying that the app had mistakenly flagged phrases without considering word order, Ziggi refused to let an algorithm absolve TikTok …

A Scientific Approach To Tech Accountability, David Choffnes, Woodrow Hartzog, Scott Jordan, Athina Markopoulou, Zubair Shafiq

Faculty Scholarship

The Federal Trade Commission can only do so much to hold tech companies accountable. Enforcement agencies and the people they protect need help. One problem is that the inner workings of large organizations and complex algorithmically driven systems remain obscure and opaque while their privacy representations are voluminous and vague. In this Essay, we propose a scientific approach to tech accountability, where academic researchers can play a larger role in privacy policy. This approach involves surfacing a company’s privacy representations and statements, as well as measuring the actual behavior of their systems with respect to algorithms, user interfaces, and data …

A Concrete Proposal For Data Loyalty, Neil Richards, Woodrow Hartzog, Jordan Francis

Faculty Scholarship

Congress and state legislators are finally experimenting with new privacy frameworks, rights, and duties to move past the thoroughly critiqued “notice and choice” model for data privacy. While many new privacy proposals seek a more fortified version of the fair information practices, some legislators have placed a duty of data loyalty at the heart of their proposed privacy bills. This is important because a duty of data loyalty has the potential to anchor American privacy law in a way analogous to how the European Union approach is grounded in fundamental rights of privacy and data protection.

Unfortunately, there remains some …

Reconnecting The Patient: Why Telehealth Policy Solutions Must Consider The Deepening Digital Divide, Laura C. Hoffman

Journal of Law and Health

This Article attempts to untangle the complicated web of providing telehealth to those populations it is potentially capable of further alienating from access to healthcare including: 1) race/minority populations, 2) aging adults, 3) individuals with disabilities, 4) non-English speakers, 5) individuals living in rural areas, 6) socioeconomic class, and 7) children, in order to advance the argument that telehealth can be successful in providing healthcare access to these populations. Rather than suggesting that telehealth simply “cannot work” for these populations, instead this Article considers how telehealth can and must meet the needs of these individuals through technology, access, and policy …

Don't Tread On My Ip Rights: A Law And Economics Analysis Of "March-In Rights" Under The Bayh-Dole Act, Caitlin Grow

Cleveland State Law Review

The Bayh-Dole Act has been imperative to the development of the United States’ dynamic pharma-biotech sector. However, the use of march-in rights under the Bayh- Dole Act has remained controversial. On the one hand, there is the idea of market equilibrium with a need to secure health care for the public. Many believe march-in rights should be used to create this balance by regulating the pricing of drugs that were developed using federally funded research. On the other hand, some advocates recognize that the current relationship between public-sector institutions and business as the developers of basic research, and private-sector biotechnology …

Defining Genetic Information Under Gina, Shane Padilla

Cleveland State Law Review

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) was enacted to prevent discrimination based on an employee’s genetic information. Although GINA undoubtedly provides employees protection from unjust genetic discrimination by employers, varying interpretations of what constitutes “genetic information” has raised legal uncertainties in how GINA is applied. Consequently, the genetic information of an employee’s family may be unduly placed at risk as a result of misinterpreting the statutory language and legislative intent of GINA. It is of the utmost importance that the definition of “genetic information” be construed with respect to the Act’s legislative history, which supports a broad interpretation and application …

Reforming Copyright Or Toward Another Science? – A Morehuman Rights-Oriented Approach Under The Rebspa Inconstructing A “Right To Research” For Scholarly Publishing, Klaus D. Beiter

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

This article identifies copyright impediments existing in the sphere of science, and then tentatively suggests how such impediments may be overcome. It focuses on scholarly publishing only, and here primarily on digital content, and specifically asks whether expensive commercial scholarly publishers continue to “add value” to research in the digital era. The deficits of copyright law and potential solutions thereto are assessed in the light of the right of everyone “to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications” (REBSPA), as laid down in Article 15(1)(b) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) of 1966. …

Breaking Down Digital Walls: The Interface Of International Trade Law And Online Content Regulation Through The Lens Of The Chinese Vpn Measure, Neha Mishra

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

The interface of international trade law and online content regulation is problematic and complex. This Article examines the consistency of the regulation pertaining to Virtual Private Network (VPN) services in China with WTO law. It argues that although WTO law may be effective in disciplining protectionist aspects of online content regulations, they can neither scrutinize domestic values underlying such regulations nor guarantee the free flow of online content. Thus, existing rules contained in international trade agreements play a limited role in balancing domestic socio-cultural and political values vis-à-vis online censorship with an open, globally interconnected internet enabling seamless digital flows. …

Corporate Innovation: One Path To More Sustainable Big Business, David Nows

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Invasions Of Dicamba Particles: Holding States Accountable For Taking Offsite Property Owners' Right To Exclude, Terence J. Centner

University of Cincinnati Law Review

In 2017, special formulations of dicamba herbicides known as over-the-top products were marketed for post-emergent use on genetically engineered soybeans and cotton. The use of these products was accompanied by considerable herbicide drift and volatilization that harmed millions of acres of nearby crops. In 2018, the EPA added requirements to the products’ labels to preclude offsite injuries. However, for each growing season during 2018-2021, unacceptable offsite injuries were reported in the major soybean and cotton producing states. Because they received reported injuries, state agencies issuing new registrations for dicamba products in 2018 and 2020 knew offsite spray drift and volatilization …

Regulating The Autonomous Ocean, Annie Brett

Brooklyn Law Review

The rapid rise in aerial drone use and the future deployment of self-driving cars have both spurred extensive legal and social debate. Autonomous vessels on the ocean, on the other hand, have largely escaped detailed scrutiny, even as they are reshaping the landscape of human interactions with the ocean and creating novel challenges for national and international legal regimes. Autonomous vessels are being captured while spying on other countries, raising concerns about national security and surveillance regimes. The Coast Guard is using enforcement loopholes to justify abandoning many of their autonomous vessels at sea, in flagrant violation of national and …

Voice Shoppers: From Information Gaps To Choice Gaps In Consumer Markets, Noga Blickstein Shchory, Michal S. Gal

Brooklyn Law Review

Recent years have seen exponential growth in the use of voice shoppers – artificial intelligence–based algorithms installed on digital voice assistants, such as Alexa and Google Assistant, that buy products based on verbal requests received from consumers. This game-changing switch to semi-automated shopping is shaking up markets by reshaping consumer–supplier relationships, as well as the business models of suppliers and search services. Voice shoppers benefit consumers by offering speedier and more sophisticated transactions while reducing search and transaction costs. At the same time, consumers’ voluntary delegation of their search powers and product selection creates what we call a “choice gap,” …

Ministerial Decision On The Trips Agreement (Wto), Ana Santos Rutschman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Wrongful Improvers As A Guiding Principle For Application Of The Ftc’S Ip Deletion Requirement, Emma Elder

Washington Law Review

The 2021 Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation into cloud storage app developer Everalbum resulted in a consent decree that required Everalbum to delete not only unlawfully collected data, but also algorithms created using that data. The FTC had imposed this kind of penalty only once before. Questions remain about how the FTC will apply this so-called intellectual property (IP) deletion requirement in the future. This Comment argues that situations where companies develop intellectual property from misappropriated consumer data are analogous to cases where courts seek to apply the property law rule of the wrongful improver, i.e., where one party knowingly …

Beware What You Google: Fourth Amendment Constitutionality Of Keyword Warrants, Chelsa Camille Edano

Washington Law Review

Many Americans have potentially had their privacy rights invaded through invisible, widespread police searches. In recent years, local and federal governments have compelled Google and other search engine companies to produce the personal information of users who have conducted a search query related to a crime. By using keyword warrants, the government can conduct a dragnet search for suspects, imposing suspicion on users and exposing their personal information. The keyword warrant is a symptom of the erosion of the Fourth Amendment protection against suspicionless searches. Not only is scholarship scarce on keyword warrants, but also instances of these warrants are …

Legal Reform To Enhance Global Text And Data Mining Research: Outdated Copyright Laws Around The World Hinder Research, Sean M. Fiil-Flynn, Brandon Butler, Michael Carroll, Or Cohen-Sasson, Carys Craig, Lucie Guibault, Peter Jaszi, Bernd Justin Jütte, Ariel Katz, João Pedro Quintais, Thomas Margoni, Allan Rocha De Souza, Matthew Sag, Rachael Samberg, Luca Schirru, Martin Senftleben, Ofer Tur-Sinai, Jorge L. Contreras

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Juridical Discourse For Platforms, Thomas E. Kadri

Articles

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has created a private "Supreme Court," or so he says. Since 2021, his company's Oversight Board has issued verdicts on a smattering of Facebook's decisions about online speech. Cynics frame the Board as a Potemkin village, but defenders invoke analogies to separation of powers to claim that this new body empowers the public and restrains the company. Some are even calling for a single "platform supreme court" to rule over the entire industry.

Juridical discourse for platforms is powerful, but it can also be deceptive. This Response explores how juridical discourse has legitimized and empowered Facebook's …

Compliance Through Model Checking, Avishkar Mahajan, Strecker Martin, Seng Joe Watt, Meng Weng (Huang Mingrong) Wong

Centre for Computational Law (2022-2025)

In this short note, we describe part of a case study about Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act, which we first presented in-formally, then formally as interacting Timed Automata. From these, we derive desiderata on a language and verification framework for reasoning about compliance.

The Private Law Of Stablecoins, Kara J. Bruce, Christopher K. Odinet, Andrea Tosato

Faculty Scholarship

Stablecoins are one of the cornerstones of the crypto world. They’ve attracted significant attention over the past few years, ranging from Wall Street to kitchen table investors, and even the White House. As a less volatile alternative to crypto-assets like bitcoin, stablecoins have the potential to change the way we make payments, unlock the groundwork needed for more blockchain-based applications, and even reorient the economy toward private money. But how stable are these stablecoins, really? Can they be relied upon in the way their many proponents claim? And how much of the popular beliefs about stablecoins match their realities? That’s …