That whistling sound you hear may not be an old-school newspaper walking past a graveyard—it may well be an AI industry-killing asteroid. On December 27, 2023, the New York Times filed a groundbreaking suit against OpenAI and Microsoft. The Times alleged copyright infringement, vicarious copyright infringement, contributory copyright infringement, violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright
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ALPHV/Blackcat Ransomware Group Announces New Rule: No Rules…Anything, Anywhere
The Department of Justice recently announced a “disruption campaign” against the Blackcat ransomware group (aka ALPHV or Noberus), including seizing the group’s darknet website and releasing a decryption tool for victim entities to recover their systems.…
Biden’s Executive Order and Its Possible Effects on Companies Developing and Deploying AI Systems
On October 30, 2023, President Biden signed an Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence (the “Order”). The Order is the most comprehensive federal policy on AI to date and covers a wide range of topics. It sets new standards for AI safety and security, addresses how AI…
Security State of Mind: Amendments to NYDFS’s Cybersecurity Regulation Go Live
The Big Apple now demands big commitments from financial institutions regarding cybersecurity practices. Yesterday, the New York State Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) adopted its second set of amendments to its 2015 “Cybersecurity Requirements For Financial Services Companies” (“Amended Cybersecurity Regulation”), with some amendments immediately going into effect. The law requires “covered entities,” including but…
SEC Enforcement Against SolarWinds and Its CISO: Time to Freak Out?
The SEC has been on a cybersecurity tear in 2023, instituting new rules on disclosures of cybersecurity events and threat assessments. But not wanting to let go of the past, it brought suit on October 30 in the Southern District of New York against SolarWinds and its Chief Information Security Officer, Timothy Brown. The SEC…
Start Your Website Spring Cleaning – This Fall
Many businesses think their websites, like a spacecraft following Newton’s laws of motion, should just keep going once established. What may be reasonable in deep space is not particularly safe in the galaxy of data privacy, which is choked with debris, asteroids, and radiation. This fall is as good a time as any to make…
Employers Beware – New Life for an Old Statute: Cook County Class Action Litigation Under the Genetic Information Privacy Act
This year, the Cook County docket has seen an influx of class action claims seeking redress under an older Illinois privacy statute, the Genetic Information Privacy Act (GIPA), no doubt due to the statute’s extreme statutory damage provisions. GIPA, enacted in 1998, provides a private right of action and permits recovery for actual damages or…
An Overview of AI
In a very short time, AI has evolved from an abstract idea to a practical tool. This demands legal thinking that can account for its use. AI as a concept began in the 1950s when well-known mathematician and scientist Alan Turing conceptualized using computers to simulate intelligent behavior and critical thinking. However, even though labs…
Don’t Forget to Rewind: Replaying Video Privacy Laws.
One of today’s litigation hot spots has its roots among the cobwebs of ancient data privacy law. The United States today has a patchwork of national data privacy laws, all of which deal with sectors, be it ages of data subjects (like the Children’s Online Protection Act), healthcare patients (the Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability…
Focusing on the “G” in ESG: Why it Makes the Most Money Sense for the Short and the Long Haul
In data privacy and security, we might have a “forest for the trees” moment right now. And they may not be the trees we expected. By now, you are familiar with the term ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance). Although the term itself can induce political and social tensions today, it is a shorthand for a…