technology – Page 2 – Boston College IPTF Journal

Eighty Degrees in Boston, in April: A Problem Best Suited for Intellectual Property?

Alice Yoon Humanity is currently losing the fight against climate change. As temperatures continue to rise, immediate and affirmative action must be taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The development and implementation of technology that can mitigate climate change, known as “green technology,” will be critical moving forward. A commonly proposed method for incentivizing the development of green technology is strengthening intellectual property rights for companies who develop such technology. Nevertheless, considering the recent harmful role intellectual property rights played during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is unclear whether emphasizing increased access to patent rights for green technology will actually lead...

2023 Copyright Technology Law

Keeping the Good Faith: YouTube, Fair Use, and the DMCA

Alexandra M. Even YouTube is an important platform for user-generated content and serves as a positive space for creativity on the internet. Nevertheless, there are some glaring problems with the way YouTube handles copyright infringement. Congress enacted the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) before the internet had taken shape into the vast and complex body we know today. Copyright holders are given far more leniency than the creators accused of infringement, largely due to a subjective good faith standard imposed by the courts. This article proposes the good faith standard in § 512(c) of the DMCA be amended to incorporate...

2023 Healthcare Law Technology Law

iSpy Someone Getting an Abortion: The Use of Personal Data in the Post-Dobbs Era

Rebecca Horton In the wake of the Supreme Court’s June 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, personal data has become a means of investigating and prosecuting individuals who seek or provide abortion services. With little federal oversight into the collection and disclosure of users’ personal data, third parties have significant latitude to sell or profit from sensitive information. The recent use of location and personal data implicates the privacy of millions of individuals and raises significant questions around health care and technology laws in states where abortion is now illegal. In the absence of sweeping federal regulations around...

2023 Blog Post

BLOG POST: One Step Forward or One Step Back: Artificial Intelligence Increases Accessibility but Limits Copyright Protection for Artists with Disabilities*

*This writing is a blog post. It is not a published IPTF Journal article. Josephine Meier In 2018, artist Sean Aaberg suffered a debilitating stroke, severely affecting the left side of his body.[1] Prior to his stoke, Aaberg was a boardgame designer who found success drawing colorful, vivid images and spinning classic “fantasy tropes” into something more engaging and modern for players.[2] After his stroke, Aaberg found a way to continue his craft by turning to artificial intelligence software Midjourney for assistance in rendering the drawings he was no longer capable of making independently.[3] The Midjourney program allows users to...

2023 Blog Post

BLOG POST: Controller in the Courtroom: The Struggle of Collegiate ESports Under the Athletic Banner*

*This writing is a blog post. It is not a published IPTF Journal Article. Noah DeRossi-Goldberg I. Working Without a Basic Understanding A. The Misstep of Navarro Decisions about Collegiate Esports are made without judges ever taking the time to pick up a controller.[1] A recent opinion by a Florida District Court has created a roadblock for any college seeking to establish a competitive, fully funded Esports program within their athletics department.[2] The Florida Institute of Technology (“FIT”) disbanded its men’s rowing team to comply with Title IX’s mandate that men’s and women’s sports receive equal funding.[3] In determining...

2023 Healthcare Law Technology Law

Transparency is a Misplaced Regulatory Focus for Holding Adaptive Software as Medical Devices (SaMDs) Accountable

Quy Mai Adaptive Software as Medical Devices (SaMDs) play an increasingly critical role within clinical settings, assisting physicians with illness detection, diagnosis, and analysis. Use of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) techniques, such as deep machine learning and neural networks, lends adaptive SaMDs unparalleled analytical power, but not without risks. Adaptive SaMDs are typically “black-box,” meaning that they compute data such that no one can determine how it rendered outputs. “Transparency,” in the form of explainability, is frequently raised in policy discussions as a solution to track when the SaMD has erred in computing outputs. The FDA, in seeking to uphold...

2023 Technology Law

“Your Honor, the Car Crashed Itself”: Navigating Autonomous Vehicle Liability in an Age of Innovation

Julia Doskoch Autonomous vehicles are increasingly permeating the consumer marketplace. This trend has caused a conundrum in tort liability law. It is standard in product liability law for manufacturers to be held strictly liable for defective products, but there is a gray area when autonomous vehicles are involved in car accidents due to defects. This Article dissects various proposals concerning how the legal system should proceed regarding autonomous vehicle liability. This Article also advocates for federal regulation to define the legal personhood of autonomous vehicles in the eyes of the law. Read Full Text Here

2023 Copyright Technology Law

The Secret Life of Platform Intellectual Property Adjudication

Shih-wei Chao An emerging trend in intellectual property law is e-commerce platforms adjudicating infringement disputes. When platforms receive right holder complaints and decide whether to remove product listings, suspend the seller, or destroy the infringing inventory—intentional or not—they are acting as “courts,” applying unique “laws” and granting platform-style “remedies.” To provide a peek into this nascent realm of intellectual property alternative dispute resolution, this article first compiles what is known about platforms’ adjudication mechanisms, from complaint to decision, from enforcement to “appeals,” covering both platforms’ basic complaint systems and Amazon’s UPNEP/APEX program. Normatively, however, there are concerns that platforms are...

2022 Technology Law

The CCPA: A Bargain for Data Transparency

Sonia Brunstad The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), aims to increase consumer transparency regarding businesses’ use of personal data. Within the bargained-for-exchange relationship between companies and consumers, consumers benefit from data-collecting platforms while unknowingly paying the “price” of sharing personal data. The CCPA assumes that equipping consumers with increased transparency regarding such data-for-service transactions will place consumers in a better bargaining position. In so doing, the CCPA adopts an individualist framework, providing consumers with primarily self-management mechanisms to protect personal data. This essay argues that legislation such as the CCPA may more...

2022 Technology Law

Make “Space” for Innovation

John Thurston As space exploration becomes increasingly privatized, archaic regulations based on Cold-War era treaties are proving unduly burdensome—they threaten to hinder private innovation and handicap a great societal benefit. Although space is best regulated through international treaties, Congress can take the lead in ushering global space law into the modern era by establishing preferred, and hopefully influential, standards here in the United States. Congress ought to amend the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015 to centralize regulatory authority, streamline authorization processes, allocate more risk to the private sector, and proclaim limited support for private property rights in space....

Tag: technology