The Fate of Section 230 - Abstract For years Section 230 has operated as the Internet Giants’ shield from liability for user content posted on their platforms, regardless of the extent of harm to the public. The Supreme Court’s decisions in Gonzalez v. Google and Twitter v. Taamneh inform that the law’s broad protections may stay for now, but the Court… ...
A Long Way from Brady: The Impact of Digital Infrastructure & E-Discovery Practices on State Discovery Obligations in Criminal Cases - Abstract The protection of a defendant’s rights in the criminal justice system is often balanced against concerns of judicial efficiency and accuracy, as well as the ability of prosecutors’ offices to effectively pursue convictions. In many jurisdictions, the obligations of prosecutors to turn over evidence remain largely unaltered from constitutional minimums. Such conservative approaches exist… ...
Applying the Brain-Computer Interface Discourse to Negligence - Abstract The incorporation of brain-computer interface (“BCI”)—sophisticated bio-digital neural interface technologies—into the human body introduces new complexity in attributing liability for acts and omissions. This article argues that the BCI discourse in the science and philosophy disciplines, including ethics, psychology, technology, and artificial intelligence, will assist the courts in applying the law of negligence where… ...
AI Cannibalism and the Law - Excerpt Lawyers are already using—and misusing—large language models (“LLMs”) like ChatGPT in their daily lives as they practice law. Despite recent headlines pointing out the very real downsides of misusing the technology, it is all but certain that lawyers will use LLMs with increasing frequency in the coming years. Indeed, many law schools, recognizing that… ...
Beyond the Iudex Threshold: Human Oversight as the Conscience of Machine Learning - Abstract Artificially intelligent machines do not need to rise to the level of human cognition, a fête popularized in science fiction, to cause irreversible harm. Due to the speed at which machines consume data and the automated programming that allows machines to “learn” from that data, machines do not simply surpass human computational abilities but… ...
Response to The Future of Startup Finance: A Symposium on “Investment Crowdfunding” - Excerpt At the outset, let me offer my sincere thanks to the scholars who contributed an essay to the present symposium on my book, Investment Crowdfunding: Abraham Cable, Douglas Cumming, Mirit Eyal-Cohen, and Todd Zywicki. In this Response, I will reply to their thoughtful essays and share some recently reported data on the financial returns… ...
Consumer Protection and Investment Crowdfunding: Comments at the Future of Startup Finance: A Symposium on “Investment Crowdfunding” - Excerpt My background is in consumer protection. I’ve worked at the Federal Trade Commission. I worked at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”). And so that’s what I’m going to talk about in my lens here. This is a great book. This is a really powerful, great book. I just want to make that really… ...
Tax Incentives for Investment Crowdfunding: A Comparative Analysis - Abstract When comparing investment crowdfunding activity in the United States (“U.S.”) and other countries such as Australia, Canada, and the European Union, Professor Andrew Schwartz theorizes in his recent book Investment Crowdfunding that perhaps the fact that the United Kingdom (“U.K.”) has special tax benefits, though not specific to crowdfunding, is the reason for the… ...
Crowdfunding and Intellectual Property - Abstract This paper explores the critical role of intellectual property (“IP”) rights in crowdfunding, particularly how public disclosure at early entrepreneurial stages affects campaign success. We present novel data indicating a positive correlation between robust IP regimes and increased global crowdfunding activities (per capita), a link not extensively examined in existing literature. The study also… ...
Psychic Income & Democratized Investing - Abstract It is increasingly difficult to distinguish investing from entertainment or other consumer experiences. Perhaps the ultimate symbols of this convergence are new sports betting sites that emulate the stock market by depicting teams, athletes, or prop bets as tradable “stocks” like shares of Apple or GM. By borrowing the imagery of the stock market… ...