Today, we continue our focus on blockchain technology and surrounding rules and regulations. It is a nascent area and the subject of much debate. Last week, we discussed the jurisdictional issues this technology poses, as well as questions of liability, contract, and intellectual property. Today, we narrow our focus to one…
This week our focus shifts to a topic buzzing about the modern world. We have written on numerous occasions about cryptocurrency, but we have not discussed more pointedly the technological mechanism that yields it – i.e., the blockchain. A complex, decentralized technology with the power, accuracy, and security to replace…
This week’s article explores the European Union’s brewing copyright law and its possible effects on the internet. Proponents intend for the law to modernize and suit copyright law for the digital age. Critics say the law will make the internet substantially less free. Today we discuss the Directive on Copyright…
In the accelerating information frenzy of the modern world, the specter of hacking has become more threatening as technology progresses. For example, information is more accessible and vulnerable especially when it is valuable. Public and private institutions rely heavily on electronic communications and storage, which raises the stakes of a…
On April 10, 2018, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and chief executive of Facebook, took a chair beneath an array of Senators to answer for the uneasiness his company’s behavior had been giving the public. The testimony comprised a broad variety of concerns – from user privacy to election meddling, to misinformation…
Most, if not all, of our readers are familiar with e-commerce websites and related transactions. Notably, Amazon.com’s empire, as well as other forms of e-commerce such as iTunes subscription services or purchasing an e-Book are part of these transactions. In recent news, one of China’s largest e-commerce websites is being…
Do you monitor what personal information companies access and store when you visit a website? Do you wish you had more ability to know what companies do with such data? In 2018, user data privacy rights have become a major topic for discussion. Starting with Europe’s enactment of the General…
In this article, we plan to discuss the Fifth Amendment implications of requirements to digitally identify oneself, for example by facial or thumbprint recognition. The spread of data-encryption services has made the retrieval of information more difficult for law enforcement officials. Over half the attempts the FBI made to unlock…
Do the courts have the ability to subpoena user identity information from Instagram? Can a person file a lawsuit against the operators of an Instagram page for defamation? An advertising executive was fired after being posted about on an Instagram account, Diet Madison Avenue. The account is known for outing sexual harassment…
Is a warrant required for law enforcement to access a suspect’s location information generated by the suspect’s cell phone? Would obtaining such data violate a person’s Fourth Amendment rights? In this blog, we will be discussing whether a warrant is required for law enforcement to access a user’s location information…