Blog
Growing Private Surveillance of Roads Suggests Further Questions for Fourth Amendment
Advances in ubiquitous computing allow private citizens to arm their automobiles with cameras to observe and record their surroundings continuously. For example, each Tesla automobile has “eight cameras and powerful vision processing [to] provide 360...
The Surrogate Parenting Act of 1988: Revisiting the Evolution of Assisted Reproductive Technology, Surrogacy, and Public Policy Concerns in 2023
The Surrogate Parenting Act of 1988: Revisiting the Evolution of Assisted Reproductive Technology, Surrogacy, and Public Policy Concerns in 2023 Assisted Reproductive Technology (“ART”) has dramatically changed the landscape of procreation and parenthood in the...
A critical solution to “fuel” global decarbonization
Investment into advanced nuclear technologies has become central to national and global efforts to achieve near-term decarbonization targets. The rationale is simple. Nuclear power – which currently constitutes 20% of the U.S. energy mix – produces no carbon emissions...
Clickbait: Can it Be an Unfair Competition Practice?
Imagine you are navigating on a specific social media and, suddenly, you see a post from a page you’re following with this attractive headline: “We have all the specifics of the new chapter of this series!”. Turns out that that is one of your favorite series and you...
Autonomous Vehicle Rollout: Moving Towards a State and Local Focus
In 2015, the University of Michigan excitedly announced MCity, a state-of-the-art test track for “connected and automated” vehicle technology and an exciting development for the prospect of a driverless transportation system. The expansive fake city, unique at the...
Gatekeeper and Competitor: Apple’s Roles Conflict in App Store Administration
Spotify’s recent media barrage against Apple for the phone maker’s app store policies reveals a glaring breach in American antitrust enforcement. Spotify, a subscription-based media streaming service, has taken to hurling complaints against Apple for its allegedly...
ChatGPT Can Supplement, Not Replace the Legal Profession
What is ChatGPT? If you’ve been on the internet at all in the past few weeks, you’ve probably heard about ChatGPT. ChatGPT, a project by OpenAI, is a conversational, human-sounding artificial intelligence model that responds to questions and commands....
A Gaping Tax Loophole: Crypto Wash Sales
A gaping hole in the tax code currently allows for a major tax-loss harvesting opportunity for cryptocurrency investors who are holding onto their crypto positions at a loss by allowing for wash sales (for now). But what does this all mean? What is tax loss...
The Futility of Patents on AAA Video Game Mechanics
The Medium by Bloober Team is a 2020 game known for its unique “Dual-Reality” mechanic, making full use of modern processing powers to generate two worlds at the same time. Bloober Team is now trying to extract the most use from this mechanic with its patent,...
The Animal Food and Research Industry: Can Technology pave a path towards Animal Welfare?
Peter Singer in his famous book “The Animal liberation” in the 1970s, wrote that the ability to feel pain and happiness is the prerequisite for the consideration of rights and not the ability to reason. If the ability to reason was the main criteria, then children who...
Defending Genomes
The Genome Defense by Jorge Contreras provides a road map for how to leverage creativity, ingenuity and hard work to advance civil rights. This nonfiction story covers the origins of the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) unprecedented patent law case....
Discrimination By Proxy: How Ai Uses Big Data To Discriminate
Countless State and Federal regulations and statutes—not to mention the U.S. Constitution—prohibit discrimination against protected groups. However, AI systems might slip discrimination past current laws through “proxy discrimination” without new regulatory and...
Copyright Beyond Borders: Moral Rights & the Implications of Fahmy v. Jay-Z
Short of recognizing the validity of an “international copyright,” American intellectual property law generally purports to offer protections to foreign literary and artistic works under a number of international conventions to which the United States has been a...
Online Harassment and Doxing on Social Media
Online harassment has been around as long as the internet. However, in recent years, online harassment has been on the rise in part because of the popularity and access to social media websites. A particularly dangerous form of online harassment is doxing. Doxing is...
Privacy Risks with using XR in Education
Online learning has become widespread and normalized during the pandemic. In a survey conducted from September to October 2020 of about 3,500 full-time college students, 72% of students were concerned about remaining engagedwhile learning remotely. Extended Reality...
Sovereign Digital Currency – A New Economic Foundation for Native American Tribes?
Before European settlers explored America, it is approximated that 18 million indigenous people called North America their home. Decades of war, disease, discrimination, removal, and termination rapidly brought those numbers to only 5.2 million today. Today, there are...
Automating Healthcare: Current Challenges that Must be Addressed
Artificial Intelligence has the potential to improve health care systems worldwide. For example, AI can optimize workflow in hospitals, provide more accurate diagnoses, and bring better medical treatments to patients. However, medical AI also creates challenges that...
Do We Need to Reconceptualize the Threat to Free Speech?
In the era of constitutional ratification, the Founders of the United States faced the task of creating a system of government that would not allow for potential tyranny. At this time, the world had seen widespread persecution and abuses by governments toward its...
Sony and Microsoft: An Arms race for Domination of the Video Game Industry and its Relevant Antitrust Concerns
It’s no secret that both Sony and Microsoft have been rivals in the video game industry for decades. This arms race between the two competitors has resulted in independent gaming studios releasing timed exclusive content on either Playstation or Xbox consoles....
Familial DNA Searches and Criminal Investigations
From 1975-1986 the notorious Golden State Killer committed 12 murders, 45 rapes, and 120 burglaries across 6 California counties. These crimes remained unsolved until 2018 when police arrested Joseph DeAngelo, a 73 year old United States Navy Veteran and police...
Shedding Light on the Data Ecosystem
Introduction The worldwide market for personal data is large and growing, but not widely understood by the average consumer. Consumers are generally unaware of how valuable their data is and there is no comprehensive set of tools to give people an idea of how much of...
§2G1.3(b)(3): Why is Criminal Sentencing Punishing the Use of Technology?
In recent years criminal sentencing has become the subject of criminal justice reform. After decades of politicians from both sides of the political aisle embracing tough on crime agendas, which included high incarceration rates and lengthy prison sentences, Americans...
Artificial Intelligence in Health Law
Introduction Artificial intelligence (AI) can be used in many different ways to improve the U.S. healthcare system. Many providers have already started implementing such technology into modern medical practice, and many more are expected to follow suit, as AI in...
Public Private Partnerships in National Cybersecurity
Introduction Our national infrastructure is undergoing a major digital migration. Physical infrastructure assets are merging with the digital world via the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies. 4IR technologies have the potential to make our infrastructure...
Posts on the MTLR Blog are editorial opinion pieces written by student-editors of the Michigan Technology Law Review. The opinions expressed in these editorial posts are not espoused or endorsed by the University of Michigan or its Law School. To view scholarly Articles and Notes published by the Michigan Technology Law Review, please visit the MTLR home page.