In this post, I will take a look at an oft- discussed royalty payment method known as “user-centric” and compare it to the industry standard “pro-rata” formula. Both methods are complex and can’t easily be consolidated into a static sentence or two. Instead, by the end of this I hope you will understand the basic differences and why different parties might prefer one over the other.
AirTag helps users track their personal items, such as keys, wallets, purses, backpacks, luggage, and more. In February 2022, Apple released a statement regarding AirTag and unwanted tracking. AirTag was designed to help people find their personal belongings, but Apple’s statement addressed “reports of bad actors attempting to misuse AirTag for malicious or criminal purposes.”
eSports is on the rise and on the fast track to become one of the biggest industries in the world. eSports is — in the simplest terms — competitive, organized video gaming. Like traditional sports, eSports involves teams competing against one another. Additionally, different eSports players have different skillsets like traditional athletes or sports player, but in eSports, the skillset is the type of video game they play. This competitive gaming space has seen a growing industry rise with large gaming competitions that sell out arenas and stadiums. In 2020, the eSports industry raked in a revenue of about $1.1 billion and is projected to bring in $1.8 billion in 2022. However, with such a large industry, many different legal issues emerge.
Discrimination in hiring is an unfortunate historical fact that many employers have tried to distance themselves from since the passing of Title VII. Internal policies of discrimination aside, some employers have turned to a believed-to-be unbiased decision maker: big data. However, algorithms and AI might not be as infallible as could be expected from our technological advancements. Many factors might contribute to discrimination in data-driven decisions, such as errors in the underlying data, programmer coding choices, unrepresentative samples, or the selection of variables for exclusion or inclusion.
Genome editing is a powerful tool that can significantly benefit the medical field. CRISPR technology makes this tool more efficient, simple, and cheaper. The technology can be applied directly in embryos, which reduces the time required to modify target genes compared to other gene-targeting technologies. Eliminating genes that cause genetic diseases such as diabetes and cystic fibrosis is one of the uses CRISPR has the potential for. CRISPR-Cas9 is very programmable and allows for rapid prototyping of different therapeutic approaches. This leads to faster development cycles compared to other genome editing approaches.
You often hear the phrase, “if you’re not paying for the product, then you are the product,” but what does that really mean? Data and data privacy mean many things across different platforms, on social media your likes, searches, and interactions create an opportunity for targeted ads, so they are collected to be sold. However, other industries store your information as well; for example, a bank collects your social security number, phone number, email, and physical address, as well as a list of every transaction you make. What do the banks, or any other institutions, do with this information, and how do they protect it?
When you hear the phrase ‘fraud in technology,’ what do you think of? Do you think of simple spam emails promising you wealth, or maybe even a social media ‘bot’ trying to lure you into a scam? Perhaps you picture a suave conman who pulls you in with a convincing story. Although, most people might not associate prominent CEOs of mainstream and promising technology companies with such common swindlers and cheats, recent high-profile examples have shown that seeing is not always believing.
If you ask me, YouTube is the most incredible technological creation ever. I say that as someone who both creates content on YouTube and someone who spends way more hours on it per week than I am proud to admit. What was once a simple platform for sharing videos in 2005 has expanded to a billion-dollar platform. YouTube reported more than a 30% revenue growth in just four years. It generated $28.8 billion in 2021, a 46% increase from 2020. 3 Think about that the next time you watch your next How-To or gaming video.
With time passing and technology advancing, the duties of lawyers are ever changing. Specifically, some tasks lawyers normally perform, or tasks that people would normally go to lawyers for, can now be done by the average person at a less substantial price. This being said, what should or could people go to lawyers for, and what are these less expensive self-help alternatives that are now available for people to use?
Elon Musk, the moody, enigmatic billionaire who seems to find himself at the center of a new controversy every week, is a well-known figure in the technology industry. Popular for bringing electronic cars into the mainstream with Tesla, Inc., Musk has made headlines for most of 2022 concerning his offer to acquire Twitter, Inc., one of the most popular social media companies at the moment.
As artificial intelligence becomes more prevalent in our society, from self-driving cars to smart assistants, an interesting issue has emerged for the legal community to debate. Should robots receive legal personhood, and if so, what are the implications of that decision? One way to examine this is through an example of a robot that already has citizenship. The British Council published an article specifically about this robot, Should Robots be Citizens, detailing her origin, and perhaps the future of citizenship for robots.
As Hurricane Ian swept through Florida last week, around 1.5 million people were without power at one point. More outages continue as the hurricane ravages through the Carolinas. Warming waters from climate change and low vertical wind shear create stronger storms. An unprecedented number of hurricanes rated Category 4 or above have hit the United States since 2017. Although not much can be done to ensure the electrical grid can withstand over 150 mph winds and almost 20 inches of rain, decarbonization is necessary to further prevent destruction and handle other extreme weather events such as heatwaves, droughts, and cold snaps.
As social media becomes increasingly prominent, tech companies are presented with rising pressures from legislatures throughout the nation. Various public officials argue that conservative speech is unjustly limited on major platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. On the contrary, tech companies assert that censorship is necessary for the public benefit as the presence of hate speech and misinformation is vast on their platforms. While First Amendment arguments from both sides create a murky outlook concerning online speech, the Supreme Court of the United States is presumed to hear a case which may define the bounds of online speech for the coming decades.
Within the core of President Roosevelt’s New Deal was a visionary plan to electrify rural America. The Rural Electrification Act (REA), passed on May 20, 1936, provided federal funding to build a network of electrical infrastructure to serve America’s growing agrarian heart. Instead of funding large utility companies to tackle this unique problem, the act allowed the farmers themselves to form co-ops that received the REA funding and handled construction. The co-ops and the REA were a huge success, with nearly 900 of the original co-ops still serving their customers to this day.
Employees attempting to unionize or organize via their company email account should tread carefully. Under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), employers cannot interfere with an employees’ right to self-organize or their ability to discuss matters related to their employment status. However, in 2019, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) under the Trump administration, ruled that private employees do not have a statutory right to discuss self- organization matters using their work email accounts unless there are no other viable options. Stated another way, an employer generally can restrict an employee’s use of their work email concerning union-related activities.
To the chagrin of backyard nuclear energy enthusiasts, there are instances where national security interests outweigh the interests of intellectual property rights. The United States Patent and Trademark Office grants patent rights to qualifying inventions, but the government limits the patenting and intellectual property rights of technologies sensitive to national security interests through secrecy orders. Secrecy order restrictions prevent patenting, related patent publications, and limit foreign filing.
Federal and State governments commonly set a variety of goals to address the volume of carbon emissions produced by gas-powered vehicles. One goal typically found in executive orders and legislative initiatives is to curb the sale of gas-powered vehicles and to promote the purchase of electric or zero-emission vehicles. Until late August 2022, many initiatives were just that, goals. Taking a key step forward to reduce auto emissions, California has codified an effective ban on the selling of gas-powered cars by 2035, and the seventeen states that typically adopt California’s auto-emissions standards are expected to follow suit.
On September 18, 2022, Rockstar Games fell victim to a massive leak of its highly anticipated video game, Grand Theft Auto 6, when a hacker uploaded dozens of videos of the game’s early production footage online. Rockstar Games subsequently confirmed the veracity of the leak in a press release stating that they had fallen victim to an unauthorized network intrusion. While Rockstar has said they do not anticipate long-term harm caused by the intrusion, the leak should serve as a wake-up call to companies of the risks associated with weak cybersecurity measures.
For some, nothing compares to getting the latest Air Jordan 1 Retro, or Travis Scott x Nike collaboration. The hype surrounding certain sneakers, brands, and styles has consumers waiting in line for hours, or creating multiple profiles on the SNKRS app (Nike’s shoe app) just to try and get their hands on the latest sneaker drop. The rise of social media has only fueled the hype around collectible sneakers as consumers are eager to post their success of “copping” the latest sought after shoe for the world to see. Before the creation of online platform apps, consumers would wait in line for hours or try to stay informed about where and when the latest sneaker drop was going to take place.
Emerging developments in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) field have the potential to solve many existing global healthcare challenges. In 2019, the World Medical Association acknowledged the broad potential of AI and suggested “augmented intelligence” as a narrow form of AI to emphasize its support. In addition, recent studies regarding the intersection of AI and the medical field have shown “promising results in dermatological diagnosis of skin cancer, in predicting the risk of emergency admissions, or in detecting breast cancer, outperforming radiology practitioners.” However, it is outwardly difficult to develop ethical and regulatory frameworks as healthcare AI progresses.
As a professional musician, you will find no love lost between myself and music streaming services. In my opinion, it is wonderful that more people can experience more music more conveniently. But as digital consumption becomes the overwhelming consumer preference, it is crucial that creatives get a fair deal.
Online privacy is an issue often discussed but rarely acted upon. A majority of Americans are concerned about the collection and use of their personal data. However, how many people actually go out of their way to protect their online presence?
The metaverse is the new wave of technology. This virtual landscape has expanded drastically in the past few years as it extends to all aspects of our lives, even the legal industry. The metaverse can be described as a mix of different virtual reality spaces, each with “its own access, avatars, interactions and currency.” Out of all industries that have tapped into this new real estate, one industry has been on the forefront: fashion.
While this new Intel manufacturing site is extremely beneficial for Ohio and the US semiconductor field, there is an environmental concern for New Albany and Jersey Township. Semiconductor chips permeate almost every facet of modern life, and the current shortage emphasizes the need for a new manufacturing site. However, for this new site to be built, the Ohio EPA needs to grant multiple permits including a wetlands permit and a draft air permit.
Internet users often click and accept their fair share of user agreements, privacy policies, and cookie policies. By agreeing to these often one sided policies, users are likely blindly agreeing to their data being stored, shared, or sold without a complete understanding of the process. What happens to consumer data, and who is responsible when it ends up in the hands of bad actors? The California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) attempts to answer these questions and help consumers understand their rights when it comes to their personal data.
Back in 2020, when advancements in technology and science weren’t the most pressing issue that faced the United States, the Biden-Harris Administration implemented an industrial strategy to revitalize domestic manufacturing. This strategy was projected to create good-paying American jobs, strengthen American supply chains, and accelerate future industries. Fast forward to August 2022, this plan is set to come into effect with President Biden signing into law the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Acts of 2022.
In a world changing daily, staying at the forefront of technology and innovation is key for most major industries. The legal field may not be seen as a leader in implementing new technology, but new technology, such as blockchain technology, can still be implemented in the legal field. Through the use of blockchain technology, the legal field can not only save time and money but also improve overall operational efficiency.
Legislators are combatting the climate crisis head-on through means that some may find to be unconventional: codified tax credits.