What do you do for lodging when you are going to visit a new place? If you are like most people, you may go onto a booking website like Expedia or call a hotel directly. Either way, you’ll end up in some hotel for a reasonable price. Since 2008, Airbnb has been offering the traveling… Read More Airbnb Presents a Challenge to Balance Regulation Against Innovation
POSTED BY Marion Goodsell The Consumer Electronics Association hailed the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend as a key to innovation in 2013. BYOD has long been in practice and has been gaining acceptance from employers, who seek the benefits of lower connectivity costs and increased productivity. However, there are potential legal and operational concerns for both employers… Read More Avoiding the Down-Sides of BYOD
POSTED BY Edwin Batista Police have been using a device called Stingray to intercept phone calls and text messages to aid in their police work. However, privacy issues have been raised due to police refusing to elaborate on the details of their surveillance operation. Little is known about how police use Stingray and the rules… Read More Police Are Keeping Mum About Their Cell-Tracking Technology
POSTED BY Hillary Cheng Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is responsible for locating and deporting immigrants who have not complied with laws governing immigrants. These statutes regulate the criminal activity of aliens, their entry into the U.S., their health, their dependence on public welfare, and various other activities… Read More Profiling “Criminal Aliens”
POSTED BY Kayla Morency On February 19, 2014, Facebook publicly announced that it was acquiring one of the world’s most popular and fastest growing mobile phone messaging applications, WhatsApp, for an astounding $19 billion in cash and stock. In particular, the app is widely known around the globe due in part to its easy accessibility… Read More New Partnership Raises Privacy Concerns
POSTED BY Travis Bortz Recent reports claim that the United States infiltrated Huawei servers headquartered in China to spy on both the company and government officials. The news was generated from classified NSA documents that were released by whistle-blower Edward Snowden. The claim reports NSA has been hacking into the tech giant’s emails servers since… Read More Cyberspace: United States v. China
POSTED BY Veronica LaClair In 2009 Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were convicted, by an Italian court, of the gruesome stabbing murder of Knox’s roommate, Meredith Kercher. In 2011 the two were acquitted of Kercher’s murder due to a lack of evidence, after being in custody for nearly four years. The Italian Supreme Court, in… Read More Knox Guilty Again: The Evidence Might Not Always Be What It Is
POSTED BY Bridget Sarpu Many people have attended events where they must sport the “Hello, My Name is…” nametags, in order for other guests to be able to easily identify one another. With new advancements in technology, traditional nametags may be obsolete, replaced with a much creepier, smartphone or Google Glass application. NameTag is a… Read More NameTags Like Never Before
POSTED BY Kayla Morency In the 1970’s, biologists began experimenting with genetics and biotechnology, which ultimately resulted in genetically engineered DNA. This new process involved the crossbreeding of various animal, plant, viral, and bacterial genes, which would not naturally occur in the environment. In fact, the first patented genetically modified organism (GMO) was used by… Read More How Natural is All Natural?
POSTED BY Abner Pinedo Imagine a scenario where a blind man is operating a vehicle by himself on a freeway and is able to arrive safely to his destination. This far-fetched scenario only once imagined in Sci-Fi films is one of many possibilities that Google Inc. illustrates as possible in a YouTube video they posted… Read More Autonomous Vehicles are the Future or Not?
POSTED BY Travis Bortz In a legal world that some perceive to be in a tailspin amidst a less than thriving economy, effectiveness and efficiency have become very important. As law firms search for new ways to operate more leanly, the question arises whether or not there is a demand for law librarians. Law librarians… Read More The Beginning of a New Era for Law Librarians – Out With the Old, In With the New
POSTED BY Hillary Cheng Common technologies in wide use such as the USB and Bluetooth are patented, and thus, market participants are required to acquire licenses should they want to use these patented technologies in their innovative pursuits. In the field, these are known as standard-essential patents (SEPs). According to a recent Forbes article, “[s]tandards… Read More Reducing Smartphone Patent Litigation
POSTED BY Marion Goodsell On January 31, 2014, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick announced the final regulations for the statewide commercial food waste disposal ban. The ban goes into effect on October 1, 2014, and it will cover about 1,700 businesses and institutions producing a ton or more of food waste per week. The ban helps… Read More Massachusetts Leading in Waste Reduction and Renewable Energy Generation
POSTED BY Hillary Cheng In conjunction with the Rappaport Center, Suffolk Law Professor Jessica Silbey is organizing a program to teach online privacy to Boston-area middle schoolers with the help of law student volunteers. The program’s curriculum was developed at Fordham Law School, a project funded by a cy pres award in a settlement. The… Read More Educating Middle School Students on Internet Privacy
POSTED BY Micah Kesselman One of the most important steps, and one where the footing is never as solid as would be hoped, a content creator makes along the journey to putting a product to market is signing with a publisher. Be it game development, music, video, or any other sort of media product, it… Read More Aspiring Media Creators and a Basic Contractual Pitfall
POSTED BY Veronica C. LaClair It is a concept as foundational and intuitive as science itself: survival of the fittest. In order to survive one must learn to adapt and evolve within a changing world. Darwin’s principle does not just hold true for the evolution of species, but has a strong correlation to the evolution… Read More Survival of the Fittest: The Doctrine of Hearsay Under The Federal Rules of Evidence v. Social Media and Networking Technology
POSTED BY Andrew Clark Airline passengers may soon be able to make phone calls and receive text messages in air if the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopts a new proposal. The FCC is considering raising the ban on the use of cellular phones during flight. At the December 12, FCC meeting, they will address the… Read More Can You Hear Me Now? FCC Considers Allowing Use of Cell Phones in Flight
POSTED BY Lloyd Chebaclo Although the growing awareness of the NSA’s expansive domestic and international surveillance program may inure you to any further notions of invasions of electronic privacy, whenever you take advantage of the free Wi-Fi perks at your local brick and mortar stores, consider that you may be awash in retailers tracking you… Read More Retailers Track Customers via Wi-Fi
POSTED BY Alexander D. Schultheis The Telecommunications Act of 1996 (TCA), codified at 47 U.S.C. § 222, was a major step forward in improving competition for Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs) in their respective marketplaces. A recent ruling by the SecondCircuit in Southern New England Telephone Co. v. Comcast Phone of Connecticut, Inc., 718 F.3d… Read More YOU, ME, and the LECs
POSTED BY Meghan Bonk No one can sell a brand quite like a superstar athlete. Most of these athletes aren’t born superstars, however, and many of them partake in some lower-tier endorsement deals before they hit the peak and sign with companies like Nike or Under Armour. Unfortunately, when athletes sign enter into endorsement contracts,… Read More Bad Breakups: First Refusal Provisions in Endorsement Contracts