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Category Archives: Courts

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, March 4, 2023

Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, March 4, 2023 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis  Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly… Continue Reading

DOJ – Trump can be sued for Jan. 6 riot harm

AP: “Former President Donald Trump can be sued by injured Capitol Police officers and Democratic lawmakers over the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the Justice Department said Thursday in a federal court case testing Trump’s legal vulnerability for his speech before the riot. In court papers, the Justice Department urged a federal… Continue Reading

Generative Artificial Intelligence and Copyright Law

CRS Legal Sidebar – Generative Artificial Intelligence and Copyright Law. February 24, 2023: “Recent innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) are raising new questions about how copyright law  principles such as authorship, infringement, and fair use will apply to content created or used by AI. So-called “generative AI” computer programs—such as Open AI’s DALL-E 2 and… Continue Reading

ABA – vast majority of criminal cases end in plea bargains

NPR: “In any given year, 98% of criminal cases in the federal courts end with a plea bargain — a practice that prizes efficiency over fairness and innocence, according to a new report from the American Bar Association. A task force that includes prosecutors, judges, defense attorneys and academics cited “substantial evidence” that innocent people… Continue Reading

Four ways the Supreme Court could reshape the web

MIT Technology Review – “Though we won’t probably know until summer, here are some scenarios for how cases on Section 230 and content moderation could resolve…We shouldn’t read too much into the oral arguments heard this week, and they’re not a firm indication of how the court will rule (likely by summer). However, the questions… Continue Reading

Law Clerk Selection and Diversity: Insights From Fifty Sitting Judges of the Federal Courts of Appeals

Fogel, Jeremy and Hoopes, Mary and Liu, Goodwin, Law Clerk Selection and Diversity: Insights From Fifty Sitting Judges of the Federal Courts of Appeals (November 30, 2022). Harvard Law Review, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4290102 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4290102 “Judicial clerkships are key positions of responsibility and coveted opportunities for career advancement. Commentators have noted that the… Continue Reading

Texas asks Trump judge to declare most of federal government unconstitutional

Vox: “Earlier this month, Texas’s Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit claiming that the $1.7 trillion spending law that keeps most of the federal government — including the US military — operating through September of 2023 is unconstitutional. Paxton’s claims in Texas v. Garland, which turn on the fact that many of the… Continue Reading

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