By: Bradley Bostwick On Friday, March 18, a Washington D.C. Superior Court judge dismissed Washington D.C.’s lawsuit alleging that Amazon had broken antitrust laws.  Antitrust laws ensure a free and open market by promoting competition and protecting consumers from anticompetitive business practices.  The complaint filed by D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine last year alleging antitrust… Read More An Untouchable E-commerce Giant? Amazon Wins First Ever U.S. Antitrust Lawsuit

By: Claire Remillard The age of self-regulation for Big Tech social media seems to be officially coming to an end.  On March 17, 2022, the Online Safety Bill, which would impose new regulatory requirements on tech companies, was introduced into the United Kingdom (“U.K.”) Parliament.  The proposed legislation was conceived in response to tech companies’… Read More Cracking Down: The U.K. Online Safety Bill Takes Aim at Big Tech

By: Christopher Kinney Hackers that have been extorting unexpecting victims out of millions of dollars by fabricating stories and convincing them to wire money have become increasingly sophisticated in their methods.  Specifically, the new scam is to trick parents into believing that their children have been kidnapped and need money for release.  This phenomenon is… Read More Virtual Kidnapping: The Internet’s New Favorite Scam

By: Jack Taylor Social media platforms’ influence over consumer behavior has exploded in recent decades.  While scrolling through their feeds or checking on their friends’ accounts, users of social media are exposed to various paid advertisements from companies in all sectors.  To catch the eye of the otherwise disinterested passerby, many of these advertisements include… Read More Protecting Consumers from False Endorsement Advertisements

By: Hunter A. Becker Robinhood Financial LLC is the parent company to the well-known Robinhood app.  Robinhood is a company claiming to be a technology for democratizing finance and providing equal access to all consumers through its innovative platform.  Although, it has been sanctioned with tremendous fines and penalties over its short history.  Founded in… Read More Another Robinhood Penalty: Vermont Regulators Settle the Dispute

By: Jennifer Pepin One of the largest patent infringement judgments in history against the tech giant Cisco, is in jeopardy of being reversed after the Federal Circuit court discovered the judge’s wife owned 100 shares of Cisco stock.  In 2020, Centripetal, a small startup company, won what eventually became a $2.7 billion patent infringement judgement.… Read More Show Me the Money: Judicial Stock Disclosure

By: Alexa Sullivan The warrantless search of a defendant’s email attachments after an automated system sent the emails to law enforcement is in violation of the Fourth Amendment, according to the most recent ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.  In United States v. Wilson, the Ninth Circuit ruled in favor of defendant Luke… Read More Digital Privacy and the Fourth Amendment: A look at the Ninth Circuit’s decision in United States v. Wilson

By: Taylor Sullivan On February 23, 2022, the European Union publicized its proposal of the Data Act, a piece of legislation drafted to increase transparency and consumer control over data.  The Act obligates third party manufacturers collecting data, to share the data.  Moreover, the Act works to provide new rules which allow customers to transfer… Read More The Data Act: One Step Towards Protecting Consumers from Data Giants

By:  Sarish Siddiqui Due to the rising costs of low carbon fuel, the Kazakhstani people actively vocalized their frustrations through protests, and consequently, their government leaders shut off Internet connection.  Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the President of Kazakhstan declared a two-week state of emergency after nationwide protests erupted over rising fuel prices.  The government banned access to… Read More The Cascade Effect of Kazakhstani’s Internet Shutdown Relating to the Russian-Ukrainian War

By: Eric Mulvey On February 25th, Satishkumar Kurjibhai Kumbhani, the founder of BitConnect, was indicted by a federal grand jury in California for his alleged role in a $2 billion cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme.  Kumbhani is alleged to have created a Ponzi scheme by soliciting bitcoins from investors who were wrongly told that their funds would… Read More BitConnect Founder Indicted in $2.4 Billion Ponzi Scheme

By: Tianyue Liao Have you heard of the novel Snow Crash?  Well, this novel is unlikely to be overlooked because it describes a virtual world in the 21st-century dystopia.  Written in 1992, Neal Stephenson coined the term “Metaverse.”  Interestingly, Stephenson wrote in this novel: “Like any place in Reality, the Street is subject to development.  Developers… Read More The Metaverse is Just Getting Started: Are we Stepping into an Unknown Legal Minefield?

By: David Lally Task Force KleptoCapture is a new interagency law enforcement task force, created by the United States Justice Department.  The task force was formed in an effort to enforce the sweeping sanctions, export restrictions, and economic countermeasures that the United States has imposed in response to Russia’s unprovoked military invasion of Ukraine.  The… Read More The Hunt for Russian Assets: DOJ Assigns Deputy Attorney General and Veteran Corruption Prosecutor to Go After Billionaire Oligarchs

By: Megan Fistori Social media has changed the way people engage personally and professionally.  Platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and most recently, TikTok have embedded themselves into the success of people’s professional lives.  For lawyers, the use of social media is helpful as a marketing tool, however, lawyers must understand how to engage in… Read More The Social Media Lawyer – Helpful or Harmful?

By: Brooke Gary Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) has become increasingly prevalent in the art world, as computers are now able to write poems, paint portraits, and produce music.  Originally, computer-generated works of art relied heavily on the creative input of the programmer and acted simply as a tool similar to that of an artist’s paintbrush or… Read More The Need for Human Creativity: The U.S. Copyright Office Says Artificial Intelligence Can’t Copyright its Art

By: Alex D’Aloisio A basic and oft-recited conventional wisdom is to never put something in writing— nowadays, typing—that you do not want a record of.  Written or typed statements are typically viewed as the holy grail of authenticity, and even in the legal field, certain agreements are required to be physically written out.  However, with… Read More Self-Deleting Messages, Self-Inflicting Sanctions: The Legal Consequences of Ephemeral Messaging

By: Kathryn Barber Professional adult entertainers have recently sued Meta Inc., the parent company of Facebook, and the owner of OnlyFans in a class-action suit alleging these companies illegally blacklisted them from advertising on Instagram and Facebook to favor OnlyFans performers.  The complaint alleges these companies blacklisted the performers in an effort to destroy their businesses… Read More A Monopoly on Adult Entertainment: Suit Claims OnlyFans Blacklisted Adult Entertainers Who Do Not Work Exclusively for the Platform

By: Emily Balzano In a recent complaint filed in New York state court, Cartier maintains that Tiffany & Co. (“Tiffany”), is guilty of trade secret misappropriation and breach of contract.  The complaint alleges that the defendant, former Cartier employee Megan Marino, was “lured” from her role at Cartier to share confidential company information with Tiffany.… Read More The Girls are Fighting! Cartier and Tiffany Battle Over Trade Secrets

By: Jeffrey Almonte Information is power in the age of instant-access news coverage.  Commonly, information is collected and used to sell an individual a product, recommend a service, or participate in community activities.  Although information is often sought as something sacred and should be protected–like in the world of data privacy and protections–little exists to… Read More Psych-Ops: 21st-Century Warfare Through the Use of Misinformation and Disinformation on Social Media

By: Christopher Kinney After months of speculation and significant lobbying on both sides of the aisle, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld California’s net neutrality law.  While the decision does not signal an end to the debate over the enforceability of the state’s law, it does allow the law to stay in effect and… Read More All Data Created Equal: What Net Neutrality In California Signals Moving Forward

By: Alexa Sullivan Facebook, which has now adopted the name Meta, has been accused of breaching anti-money laundering laws by not taking sufficient steps to prevent false cryptocurrency advertisements used to scam innocent Australians.  Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest has filed a lawsuit against the social media company for using his likeness and image to con… Read More False Advertising: Analyzing the Criminal Lawsuit Initiated Against Meta by Australian Billionaire Andrew Forrest for the Circulation of Click-Bait Ads Using His Likeness