When he invented the Internet, Al Gore imagined borderless broadband freely flowing without restriction. Okay, maybe Al Gore did not invent the Internet. But that myth sure is memorable folklore. The inconvenient truth, however, is that the Internet evolved into something different. It is now the Splinternet: a balkanized ecosystem where the sands are continually …
In an industry characterized by roller-coaster fluctuations, the sudden downfall of one of cryptocurrency’s biggest stars might have been anticipated. Yet, even seasoned crypto enthusiasts and experts were taken aback by the swift and shocking collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried who, as the former CEO of FTX, ran what was once the third-largest crypto exchange in the world. …
Last summer, UNC’s law journals tasked prospective student staff members with writing a note. The subject was to be State v. Gaddis, a criminal case involving a finding of harmless error. The harmless error doctrine holds that when a trial court errs, but the error does not affect the case’s outcome, an appellate court will not reverse the …
Understanding Litigation Finance Litigation finance is when a third-party invests in a lawsuit in hopes of sharing in the profits of a successful verdict. A recent survey found that more than forty U.S. litigation finance companies exist. This survey, conducted over the course of one calendar year, found that these firms invested $2.33 billion in capital to litigation matters. …
In January 2024, for the first time, a National Football League (“NFL”) playoff game was broadcast exclusively on a streaming service. Much to the disdain of fans, the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins during the NFL’s “Super Wildcard Weekend” was only available with a paid subscription to NBC’s Peacock. Despite public outrage, however, over …
Generative AI certainly challenges our traditional notions of intellectual property rights, especially within copyright law. Novel AI tools such as Midjourney and Chat GPT raise new questions about whether works created with artificially intelligent machines can be copyrighted. While the U.S. Copyright Office announced that works created by AI without human intervention or involvement still cannot be copyrighted, …
The New York Times (“NYT”) recently filed complaints against Microsoft and OpenAI, alleging copyright infringements in their use of the Times’ copyrighted materials to train ChatGPT. First, NYT alleged that the defendants engaged in copying substantial NYT content when building their Large Language Models. OpenAI incorporates internal corpus such as WebText, WebText 2, and external sources like Common Crawl …
In the polarized political climate of the United States one can feel hard-pressed to find a topic that all sides can champion. The Senate’s hearing this past week, where they grilled five of the biggest names in social media regarding kids’ online safety, seemed to do just that. Representatives from Meta, TikTok, Discord, X, and Snapchat were …
As online payment methods have become more popular, so have virtual credit and debit cards, many of which can be connected to mobile phones and used with just a tap. One of the most popular forms of this virtual wallet is Apple Pay, the main form of payment used by IPhone and IPad owners. To …
Chinese fast fashion “etailer” Shein has officially surpassed Zara and H&M as the world’s largest fashion retailer after only 15 years in existence. The online retailer jumped in sales from $10 billion in 2020 to $100 billion in 2022, surpassing the sales of both Zara and H&M combined. On the surface, it seems like Shein cracked the code for …
