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Category Archives: Courts

Section 230 Won’t Protect ChatGPT

Lawfare, Matt Perault: “The emergence of products fueled by generative artificial intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT will usher in a new era in the platform liability wars. Previous waves of new communication technologies—from websites and chat rooms to social media apps and video sharing services—have been shielded from legal liability for content posted on their… Continue Reading

AI-created images lose U.S. copyrights in test for new technology

Reuters: “Images in a graphic novel that were created using the artificial-intelligence system Midjourney should not have been granted copyright protection, the U.S. Copyright Office said in a letter seen by Reuters. “Zarya of the Dawn” author Kris Kashtanova is entitled to a copyright for the parts of the book Kashtanova wrote and arranged, but… Continue Reading

Throughout the rich world, the young are falling out of love with cars

The Economist: “That could have big political ramifications. For Adah Crandall, a high-school student in Portland, Oregon, a daily annoyance is family members asking when she is going to learn to drive. Ms Crandall, who is 16, has spent a quarter of her life arguing against the car-centric planning of her city. At 12 she… Continue Reading

Publishers Want to End How Libraries Lend Books Online

Medium: “When the pandemic began and schools and libraries around the country were forced to close their doors, teachers and librarians were at a loss over how to get digital books into the hands of young readers and their families. The problem was so drastic that the Internet Archive (IA), a nonprofit digital library, declared… Continue Reading

Supreme Court justices discussed, but did not agree on, code of conduct

Washington Post: “…It remains an active topic at the court, these people said, and the court’s legal counsel Ethan Torrey prepared a working document of issues for them to consider. There is no timeline for the justices to act, however. Those familiar with the matter spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the situation.… Continue Reading

Far-right judges are crafting a theory that would empower courts to strike down trillions of dollars in federal spending

Slate: “…During his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Joe Biden criticized Republicans for proposing to “sunset” Medicare and Social Security every five years. In response, many Republican lawmakers booed the president, prompting him to quip, “So, folks, as we all apparently agree: Social Security and Medicare is off the books now.” Perhaps… Continue Reading

Supreme Court justices used personal emails for work and ‘burn bags’ were left open in hallways

CNN: “Long before the leak of a draft opinion reversing Roe v. Wade, some Supreme Court justices often used personal email accounts for sensitive transmissions instead of secure servers set up to guard such information, among other security lapses not made public in the court’s report on the investigation last month. New details revealed to… Continue Reading

Some Are More Equal Than Others: U.S. Supreme Court Clerkships

George, Tracey E. and Yoon, Albert and Gulati, Mitu, Some Are More Equal Than Others: U.S. Supreme Court Clerkships (January 31, 2023). Virginia Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper No. 2023-10, Virginia Law and Economics Research Paper No. 2023-03, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4338222 – “The most elite and scarce of all U.S. legal credentials… Continue Reading

Supreme Court ruling on the Second Amendment sooner rather than later

@JacobDCharles, Assoc. Prof. of Law, @PeppLaw; Affiliated Scholar, @DukeFirearmsLaw. Researching firearms law. Teaching 2nd Am, Torts & PR. Papers: http://bit.ly/3HleQND – California, USA – “Looks like we’re going to get a new Supreme Court ruling on the Second Amendment sooner rather than later because this new Fifth Circuit ruling strikes down the federal law prohibiting… Continue Reading

At the Supreme Court, ethics questions over a spouse’s business ties

The New York Times: “After Chief Justice John Roberts joined the Supreme Court, his wife, Jane Sullivan Roberts, gave up her career as a law firm partner to become a high-end legal recruiter in an effort to alleviate potential conflicts of interest. Jane Roberts later recalled in an interview that her husband’s job made it… Continue Reading

How the Supreme Court ruling on Section 230 could end Reddit as we know it

MIT Technology Review: “February, all eyes will be on the biggest players in tech—Meta, Google, Twitter, YouTube. A legal provision tucked into the Communications Decency Act, Section 230 has provided the foundation for Big Tech’s explosive growth, protecting social platforms from lawsuits over harmful user-generated content while giving them leeway to remove posts at their… Continue Reading