If a robot commits an act (either crime or tort) the creator did not intend – should the creator be held responsible? In January, 2015, Swiss police decided not to punish a group of “artists” whose robotic art installation purchased random items from the internet each week. The robot purchased a Hungarian passport, “fake Diesel …
In the past, the federal government proposed a national hike to the minimum wage, from $7.25 to $10.10, a 40% increase. More recently, Democratic lawmakers have proposed legislation to increase federal pay by 66% to $12 an hour by 2020. This would exceed the minimum wage of all states. The proposal would also gradually eliminate …
Suffixes of web domain names are sometimes used to give negative feedback for certain companies. For example, “.fail” and “.gripe” are two that are live on the internet currently, and someone pay purchase a domain name with a company she does not like with one of these suffixes, as long as the domain name has …
Stingrays are powerful surveillance tools that government agencies have been using for at least several years. Roughly the size of a small suitcase, Stingrays work by mimicking the operation of a cell tower. Unbeknownst to the user, a Stingray can convince a cell phone that it is a legitimate cell tower, receiving all of the …
Have you ever tried to visit a site online and received an error message saying that the website you’re trying to access isn’t trusted? Well, that is about to happen more frequently thanks to the recent fall-out between Google and the China Internet Network Information Center (“CNNIC”). Google recently announced that it will no longer …
Any good lawyer joke will tell you that the legal profession is facing its share of ethical hurdles, and the rise of social media lumps on a new set of challenges. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Snapchat have become some of the largest web-based companies in the market over the last several years. These massive social …
On Monday, March 30, 2015, the United States Supreme Court issued a ruling that satellite-based monitoring of sex offenders is considered a search under the Fourth Amendment. The case, Torrey Dale Grady v. North Carolina, was brought by petitioner, Grady, who was convicted of two sexual offenses, one in 1997 and one in 2006. After …
Game development engines are some of the most sophisticated software products available today, so why are so many manufacturers beginning to offer them to users for free? It takes a lot of different people to build a virtual world, including illustrators, programmers, designers, writers, and a myriad of other roles, each of which is vital …
On March 24, 2015, the National Organic Program (NOP) released a policy memo clarifying the status of nanotechnology in organic production and handling under the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) organic regulations at 7 C.F.R. Part 205. Nanotechnology is science, engineering, and technology conducted at the nanoscale, which is about 1 to 100 nanometers. One nanometer equals about 3-10 …
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard Michigan v. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”). This case, an extension of previous cases regarding the Clean Air Act, is an additional challenge the Obama Administration’s ability to propagate regulations in an increasingly divisive political environment. This challenge falls less than one month after a challenge to the Obama Administration’s …