Blog
AI v. Lawyers: Will AI Take My Legal Job?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the global workforce, generating fears that it will put masses of people out of work. Indeed, some job loss is likely as computers, intelligent machines, and robots take over certain tasks done by humans. For example, passenger...
Deep-Fake, Real Pain: The Implications of Computer Morphing on Child Pornography
The proliferation of “deep-fake” internet videos—in which a person in an existing video is replaced with the likeness of another—has called into question our most basic method for perceiving the world: using our own eyes. While the definition of deep-fake transforms...
Patent Trolls Show Immunity to Antitrust: Patent Trolls Unscathed by Antitrust Claims from Tech-Sector Companies
Patent trolls have become a prominent force to be reckoned with for tech-sector companies in the United States, and tech-sector companies’ recent failure in using antitrust law to combat patent trolls indicates a continuation of that prominence. Patent trolls have...
Apple vs. Facebook: The Demand of Growing Data Ethics
In January, WhatsApp announced the release of a new privacy policy that allows the messenger service to share user data with its parent company Facebook. The policy has been met with public outcry and resulted in many users flocking to rival companies such as...
Limitations on AI in the Legal Market
In the last 50 years, society has achieved a level of sophistication sufficient to set the stage for an explosion in AI development. As AI continues to evolve, it will become cheaper and more user friendly. Cheaper and easier to use AI will provide an incentive for...
Waive or enforce? The Debate over Intellectual Property Issues in Covid-19 Vaccines
In December of 2020, the long-awaited coronavirus vaccines began to slowly roll out across the world. The vaccines give people some hope of taming the virus, but the logistical hurdles of the vaccines seem worrisome. The daunting task of manufacturing, delivering, and...
Intellectual Property Considerations for Protecting Autonomous Vehicle Technology
Autonomous vehicle technology has progressed significantly in the past decade, and a growing number of automotive and electronics organizations are working to create these self-driving vehicles. While the race to autonomy is heating up, so is the race to own IP rights...
Law Enforcement’s Newest Witness, Alexa
On July 12, 2019, Adam Reechard Crespo and his girlfriend, Silvia Galva, got into an argument at Crespo’s home in Hallandale Beach, Florida. What happened next remains unclear, but it ended with Galva stabbed through the chest. Crespo said he pulled the blade...
Zooming in on Children’s Online Privacy
An era of remote learning raises questions about children’s data privacy. As COVID-19 spread through the United States this spring, school districts across the country scrambled to find a way to teach students remotely. Many turned to Zoom, the videoconferencing...
Anti-Discrimination Laws and Algorithmic Discrimination
Machine algorithms can discriminate. More accurately, machine algorithms can produce discriminatory outcomes. It seems counterintuitive to think that dispassionately objective machines can make biased choices, but it is important to remember that machines are not...
Data in the Post-Pandemic Era: Zoom Video’s Security and Censorship Controversies
As the use of Zoom Video Conferencing has skyrocketed since the start of the Coronavirus Pandemic, the company’s security infrastructure and alleged interference in virtual events over the platform have come under fire multiple times since the beginning of global...
Tracking COVID-19 on College Campuses: False Starts, Missteps, and Considerations for the Future
As colleges and universities reopened campuses to students last fall, a number of schools across the United States turned towards the use of location tracking apps, wearable technology, and other surveillance tools in the hope that they would facilitate contact...
Privacy, a Group Effort – Approaches to International Data Privacy Agreements
The modern, digital world has made the world smaller and faster, with information and data transferred within an instant, ignoring any and all physical borders. While this digital highway is an essential pillar for our Internet age, it is also not without its problems. One such area of concern rests with data protection and privacy enforcement laws.
Caught in a Media and Legal Firestorm: The Inevitable Regulation of Facial Recognition Technology
Facial recognition technology continues to experience an onslaught of complications and backlash.
HOW TO USE MEDIA TO SUPPORT YOUR MEDIA (AKA HOW NOT TO GET REPORTED)
Social media influencers need to stay abreast of intellectual property laws so their content does not violate them. This post explores the relevant U.S. legal issues implicated by every video or post creation.
Privacy in the Golden State
Are you a resident of California? Or are you a business owner whose business reaches consumers in California? If your answer to either of these questions is “yes,” then you should familiarize yourself with the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”).
The CRISPR War Drags On: How the Fight to Patent CRISPR-Cas9 Creates Uncertainty in the Biotechnology Sphere
On September 10, 2018, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals (“Federal Circuit”) affirmed the ruling of the United States Patent Trial and Appeals Board (“the Board”) in Regents of the University of California v. Broad Institute, finding that there was no interference-in-fact between competing patents that claimed methods of using CRISPR-Cas9 to modify cellular DNA. Rather than settling the patentability issue, however, exhaustive litigation has continued, as both parties seek to protect the results obtained from costly research.
The Watchers Still Aren’t Being Watched: Body Cameras and the Continued Problems of Police Accountability
The number of people shot and killed by police officers in the past several years is disturbingly consistent: 987 in 2017, 992 in 2018, 1004 in 2019. People of color and those with mental illnesses are disproportionately the victims.
Justice is Blind(ed): The Issue with Proprietary Algorithms in Criminal Investigations
After serving seven years in prison, Lydell Grant was released on bond in November 2019 as a result of exonerating DNA evidence. Grant was convicted of murder in 2012 primarily based on eyewitness testimony, despite the fact that Houston police could not conclude the mixture of DNA found on the victim belonged to Grant.
Three Strikes and You’re Cancelled – What to Do If You Receive a DMCA Takedown Notice
If you are a digital content creator in the US, whether it be through YouTube, Instagram or blogs, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is important to you, as it governs what happens if you post content that may infringe on another person’s copyright.
Patchwork Privacy: The Need for a Uniform Approach to Data Protection
When implemented in 2018, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) represented the most comprehensive privacy and data protection laws to date in the world. Its territorial scope is quite staggering.
Methuselah’s Third Strike: How Advances in Anti-Aging Technology Could Present Novel Challenges to the Criminal Justice System
Anti-aging researchers and their investors are beginning to make bold claims about the future of their field. Bank of America predicted that the market for anti-aging products will grow to $610 billion by 2025, roughly six times what the market is today.
The Rise and Fall of a Patent Boomtown
Plano, Texas used to be home to the third oldest Apple store ever built. This Dallas suburb’s median household income of $92,121 is 55% above the national average. The eventual construction of Apple’s 500 locations worldwide was in some ways a result of its early success in Plano.
The Future of Autonomous Vehicles and the Fourth Amendment
Level 4 autonomous vehicles, vehicles that do not require human interaction in most circumstances, are predicted to be on the road as soon as 2021. Experts believe that as autonomous vehicles grow in popularity and availability, the prevalence of car ownership will dramatically decrease.
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.