Colorado Technology Law Journal

Hacking the SEAMs: Elevating Digital Autonomy and Agency for Humans Richard S. Whitt[1]* “Certainty hardens our minds against possibility.” –Ellen Langer The time has come to challenge the predominant paradigm of the World Wide Web. We need to replace controlling “SEAMs” with empowering “HAACS.” Over the past two decades, Web platform ecosystems have been employing the SEAMs paradigm—Surveil users, Extract data, Analyze for insights, and Manipulate for impact. The SEAMs paradigm is embedded as reinforcing feedback cycles in computational systems that mediate, and seek to Continue reading →

Employment in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: A Call for a Statutory Solution Brandon Ward[1]* Introduction Like the automobile, computer, and the internet defined the twentieth century, artificial intelligence (AI) will come to define the twenty-first century as it branches out to influence all aspects of humanity. One area that undoubtably will be shaped by AI is employment. Companies are racing to integrate automation, machine learning, and deep learning, all sub-processes of artificial narrow intelligence, into routine tasks or into the analysis of large data Continue reading →

Masters of Their Own Domains: Property Rights as a Bulwark Against DNS Censorship Nicholas Nugent[1]* It is increasingly becoming the practice of domain name system (DNS) intermediaries to seize domain names used by lawful websites for violating acceptable use policies related to offensive content or hate speech. Website hosting companies and social media platforms, entities that use but do not operate core Internet infrastructure, have long reserved and exercised their rights to gate their offerings, leaving booted speakers free to migrate to other providers. But Continue reading →

Bridging the Coasean Divide: A Shared Economic Lexicon for Antitrust and Worker Protection Law By Conor J. May[1]* Uber, the most prolific of a new breed of transportation network companies, has in recent years been the target of two distinct strands of litigation that expose a question at the heart of the company’s business model. On one hand, drivers have sued Uber for intentionally misclassifying them as contractors to dodge employer obligations. On the other, passengers have taken Uber to court for violating antitrust laws Continue reading →

Cybersecurity and the U.N. Charter: A Square Peg in a Round Hole Slate Herman[1]* Since its inception, the United Nations has struggled with balancing the interests of States acting to preserve their sovereignty. This balance was as much a problem in 1945, at the creation of the United Nations, as it is today. Now, in the age of drones, covert action, and non-state actors, the lines between the appropriate use of force and self-defense begin to blur significantly. Cyberwarfare is arriving on the scene just Continue reading →

Enlisting Useful Idiots: The Ties between Online Harassment and Disinformation Brittan Heller[1]* Online harassment has been a blind spot for major platforms for many years. The problem became mainstream with Gamergate in 2014, the first public reckoning with intimidation of women in the online gaming community. This problem is still plaguing social media, with progress being made in fits and starts after publicized incidents of bullying or silencing of minority voices.[2] However, the problem has grown beyond these applications to new harms. Online harassment has Continue reading →

Innovating Like an Optimist, Preparing Like a Pessimist: Ethical Speculation and the Legal Imagination by Casey Fiesler[1]* “Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not.” – Isaac Asimov[2] Introduction We all tell stories—to ourselves, and to others—about the future. These stories typically draw us in two opposite directions: to an optimist utopia, where we imagine how things might be better than they are today, or to a pessimist dystopia where aggressive innovation leads to our destruction.[3] Continue reading →

from the editor With much thanks to our incredible editors, it is my pleasure to introduce Volume 19, Issue 1 of the Colorado Technology Law Journal. As we continue our virtual lives in the “new normal,” we have seen firsthand the massive role of technology—with its importance and its impacts on full display. While I am grateful for the opportunities that technology has enabled this past year—Zoom School of Law, FaceTime Thanksgiving, and Mario Kart 8—the same technology that has allowed us to maintain productivity Continue reading →