Blog

Hello and welcome to the site. This is a companion blog/website to my newsletter on legaltech and techlaw issues, Lawyer Ex Machina. Every week, I post a list of articles I think are interesting in areas such as artificial intelligence, blockchain and cryptocurrency, data analytics, cybersecurity, social media, innovation in the legal industry, and more.

The newsletter is very well-sustained on a nice platform called Buttondown. But I wanted to have a complementary site for things that may not fit the newsletter. And having the newsletters archived elsewhere also appealed to me, so each newsletter will be republished as a blog post, usually within 48 hours of going public.

As mentioned on the About Us page, the newsletter is largely devoted to the law community at UCLA Law, but it is open to all for reading. I’ve tried to indicate where items may be behind a paywall, although I do also attempt to find a non-paywalled version of the information to link to, if available.

(First published July 6, 2022)

(Editorial note: I worked with Eric Goldman at SCU and I am admittedly biased due to his scholarship, the passion he brings to the issues of Internet law and all of its quirks, and generally being an interesting person to work with.)

For those of you interested in Internet privacy issues, Prof. Eric Goldman of Santa Clara University School of Law has a long breakdown of a California bill, AB 2273, the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act. Goldman refers to this as one of the “dangerous Internet bills in the California legislature.”

From The Artificial Lawyer: “Is Legal Tech Facing a VC Funding Crunch?”

  • Exhibit A: California-based litigation analytics firm Gavelytics (among the first to tackle CA state court analytics) has ceased operations as of June 30, 2022.

Protocol has an interview with writer Ben Tarnoff, author of the new book Internet for the People, which touches on why he doesn’t think the Biden Administration’s “Internet For All” initiative will work and whether Web3 will solve any of the problems arising from centralized Internet services.

Law Professor and Librarian Kenton Brice of Oklahoma University College of Law is interviewed on The Digital Edge podcast about training the next generation of lawyers and the future of legal technology.

Will the current downturn in cryptocurrency derail the deployment of Web3?

On July 5th, the European Parliament passed two major pieces of legislation aimed at regulating tech companies: the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Marketing Act (DMA) [European Commission: Press Release and FAQs]

Events

UCLA’s Institute for Technology, Law & Policy is hosting a webinar via Zoom on Tech Policy in the Shadow of Dobbs. Friday, July 8th at 10 am. Register here.

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(First published June 29, 2022)

Meta (FKA Facebook) is facing eight lawsuits in different jurisdictions on the same subject – whether the algorithms on FB and Instagram causes addictive behavior and have deleterious effects on young users – arguing that the coding does not fall under the same safe harbor for user-generated content created by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. [Today’s General Counsel]

Two attorneys at Holland & Knight, representing a crypto exchange, have deployed a non-fungible token (NFT) to officially serve a temporary restraining order (TRO) on anonymous defendants in a hacking case, with the approval of the court. [Law.com $ | CryptoNews]

From the NY Times: “Microsoft Plans to Eliminate Face Analysis Tools in Push for ‘Responsible A.I.’; The technology giant will stop offering automated tools that predict a person’s gender, age and emotional state and will restrict the use of its facial recognition tool.”

The Digital Defense Fund has published a guide to protect digital privacy around reproductive issues.

Various_Bored_Ape.jpg

Yuga Labs, creator of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection (try saying that 5 times fast) is suing conceptual artist Ryder Ripps and others for trademark infringement, arguing that Ripps et al created fake Bored Ape NFTs to scam consumers. [Docket on CourtListener]

In addition to co-sponsoring the Health and Location Data Protection Act of 2022 put forward by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D. – MA) earlier this month, Sen. Ron Wyden (D. – OR) is sponsoring the My Body, My Data Act to specifically protect reproductive health data. [Bill Summary | Bill text]

Upsolve, the legaltech provider of self-service bankruptcy software, was successful in New York State, winning a preliminary injunction against the Attorney General’s office with the court finding that “the First Amendment protects their legal advice as speech.” However, in Maryland, the company ran into trouble when a court found that a portion of its software “did engage in the unauthorized practice of law.” [Law.com ($)]

First published June 22, 2022

 

Hello and welcome to Lawyer Ex Machina!

  • Lawyers are optimistic about legal technology in general, but may not like the tech tools they’ve been given to use. [Law.com | $]
  • For those of you monitoring the efforts of the California State Bar to establish a paraprofessional licensing program, as well as a regulatory sandbox for non-law firm entities to provide legal services to consumers: The Bar may be prohibited from spending funds on either program if AB2958 passes with amendments recently added to the bill. [Law.com | $]
  • Speaking of the Cal Bar, it is a defendant in a proposed class action arising from a data breach of disciplinary records, where the website JudyRecords was able to access and publish over 250,000 confidential records. [Bloomberg | $]
  • Lots going on with data, mobile apps and reproductive issues as we wait on the Dobbs opinion:
    • “Facebook and Anti-Abortion Clinics Are Collecting Highly Sensitive Info on Would-Be Patients” [The Markup]
    • “Period-tracking apps store users’ most private data. What will that mean in a post-Roe world?” [Protocol]
    • “Sweeping Legislation Aims to Ban the Sale of Location Data” [Motherboard | Congress.Gov page | Bill text (PDF) ]
  • Beyond the location data bill, there is also a discussion draft of a general data privacy bill released by the House Committee on Energy and Commence. The Sub-Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce held a hearing on the subject on June 14th. Commentary on the provisions of the bill and likelihood of passage include:

Thank you for reading.