STLJ

The Hastings Science & Technology Law Journal (STLJ) is a multidisciplinary journal created to enrich the discourse at the nexus of science, technology, and the law. Specifically, STLJ focuses on the exciting legal issues surrounding startup technology companies, biotechnology, clean technology, intellectual property, data privacy, and health policy, while exploring the implications of technological advances on traditional legal fields, such as contracts, antitrust, and tax. For full journal issues visit us at our website: scienceandtechlaw.org.

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Ninth Circuit Doesn’t Recognize Common Sense Authorization Granted by Password Sharing in Nosal II and Won’t Rehear En Banc - Mark Javitch

In the first Ninth Circuit Nosal panel, the dissent criticized the majority’s interpretation of “exceeds authorized access” under 18 U.S.C. §1030(a)(4) of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) because of the danger that another section not at issue in Nosal, §1030(a)(2), would apply too broadly and potentially “make criminals out of millions.”[1]  

Subsequently, in Nosal I, the Ninth Circuit reheard the case en banc . . . 

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Apple v. Samsung - The Saga Continues - Irene Yousefi

The fierce litigation between Apple and Samsung began in 2011.  Considering these two companies sold more than half of the world’s smart phones as of July 2012,1 this inherently means that the end result of the litigation will have a substantial effect on the global market for consumer mobile communications.  Thus, it is easy to see why damages rulings are continuously appealed.

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Slow Bitcoin and Fast Etherium - By Sean Lee

Why I decided to invest in a new cryptocurrency called Ether, a cryptocurrency used in the Ethereum platform, over Bitcoin.

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I Spy a Drone! Are We Being Watched? - By Hiral Mehta

We hope that drones will soon deliver consumer products to us and our loved ones at home.  But will drones only do that?

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The Red, White, and Blue Scare: Are We Ready for Online Voting? - By Nima Mehranfar

In a digital age where cyber security may seem as vulnerable as it has ever been, the idea of online voting may seem disastrous to some.  Detractors of online voting have warned that there simply are no current methods of securing online voting in a way that would eliminate all possibility of compromise, and with the current reports of outside actors possibly manipulating our elections, voting accuracy is as important as it has ever been. [1] However, judging by trends both recent and not, it seems as if we are as close as we ever have been to having a national, online voting system being implemented. [2] 

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Fresh from the STLJ scavenger hunt that included the California Supreme Court!

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Thanks to the Cal Academy of Sciences.  Everyone at STLJ loved nightlife!

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Complications of the Right to Be Forgotten - By Yasaman Anvari

Have you ever searched for your name online?  The Internet has made it easy to know about any thing and everything, even the most private aspects of one’s life.  Today, people around the world create perpetual digital foot-prints on social networks such as Facebook, Google, Hotmail, and Instagram on a 24/7 basis.[1]  Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google, stated that we are creating the equivalent amount of information every other day as all of humanity created from the beginning of recorded history to 2003, and this is in large part due to the World Wide Web.[2]  Accordingly, modern information sharing technology has created significant challenges in maintaining previously accepted privacy norms, and the law is trying to keep pace.[3]  One specific challenge that lawmakers are trying to overcome is the eternal memory of the Internet.[4]  People tend to forget, but Internet never does.  Many job applicants are being judged based on their social networks.  Suppose you do not like the image that people see from you on the Internet.  Do you think you have the right to erase that information?  Do you think a public figure should have the right to do so?  Are politicians entitled to the “right to be forgotten”?[5]  Some believe that the right to be forgotten, a new digital privacy rule that aims to protect an individual’s right to shape how the internet can define her, is in direct conflict with the rights to free speech and public information.[6]

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Modernizing the Regulatory Maze for Biotechnology Food Products - By Jordyn Bishop

Genetically engineered (GE) foods have been the foundation of contentious global debate ever since the first product was introduced in the 1990s.[1] Supporters of agricultural biotech products believe that GE foods will significantly increase global crop yield and help feed the planet’s growing population.  Opponents believe that GE foods present considerable risks to human health and the environment.  Regardless of where you stand in the debate, it is worth knowing that some controversies surrounding GE foods in the United States are rooted in its inadequate regulatory system.[2]

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Goliath v. David: The Big Guy Shouldn’t Always Win - By Oscar Andre Coronado

Most students can relate to the hassle of buying books.  Every semester, without fail, students are assigned a laundry list of books that need to purchase.  If students are lucky, a couple of the assigned books will be under one hundred dollars.  These days we hardly visit bookstores.  Instead, we opt for buying our books over the Internet.  Most students compare quite a few book prices before making a purchase, and for the most part, books are sold at different prices on different sites.  We usually don’t bother thinking about the reasons why a book is cheaper on site X as opposed to site Y.  Most people are simply thankful they can save a few dollars.

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Progeny/Possession: The Implications of Personhood on Reproductive Technology - By Juliana Franco

I would often see Facebook ads asking if I would consider being an egg donor while I was an undergraduate at UC Berkeley. Lately, I have been observing more ads promoting egg freezing and In Vitro Fertilization (“IVF”).  Over the past few years, a debate has ensued over whether employers offering egg-freezing as a benefit to employees is actually beneficial to women.[1] While this debate continues, the public has yet to consider the fundamental issues surrounding the risks of reproductive technology.

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Super Bowl 50 and Cyber Security - By Michelle Geronimo

Who can forget those awkward 34 minutes when the lights went out at the Superdome during Super Bowl XLVII?[1]  This certainly wasn’t football’s first brush with power outages. In 2011, our very own San Francisco 49ers’ experienced two power outages due to a transformer exploding at Candlestick Park.[2]  Though it was later determined that the causes of these periods of darkness were merely power surges or blown up transformers, many spectators couldn’t help but think nervously that some sort of terrorist attack was underway.[3]

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Who Doesn’t Like Free Internet? - By Richard (RJ) Lang

Everyone deserves access to the Internet.[1] That is the basic idea behind Facebook’s Free Basics app, which offers free but limited access to the Internet in developing countries.[2]  In the 2016 World Development Report, the World Bank stated that developing countries should make the Internet universal, affordable, open and safe, in order to accelerate development of the digital economy.[3]

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Who Doesn’t Like Free Internet? - By Richard (RJ) Lang

Everyone deserves access to the Internet.[1]  That is the basic idea behind Facebook’s Free Basics app, which offers free, but limited access to the Internet in developing countries.[2]  In the 2016 World Development Report, the World Bank stated that developing countries should make the Internet universal, affordable, open and safe, to accelerate development of the digital economy.[3]

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Legal Analytics: How Legal Tech Will Help a New Generation of Lawyers - By Cara Miller

           A major shift is happening in IP litigation tactics. A wealth of information that was once only available through archaic methods like court records requests and physical research is now digitized and searchable. Greg Lambert, Chief Knowledge Services Officer at Jackson Walker LLP notes that, “leveraging huge amounts of data, computer processing, analytics, advanced algorithms, and human interaction is slowly creeping into the legal research market.”[1] Today’s attorneys, consultants and corporations are making more informed decisions in the litigation process, expediting work and benefiting clients through the use of new tools.

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The Implications of In Re Microsoft to the Technology Industry - By Omar Vaquero

Cloud computing is the delivery of IT resources on demand, via the Internet.[1] Cloud computing has revolutionized the technology industry by allowing people and companies of all sizes to access IT resources that were out of their reach only a few years ago.[2]  Cloud computing has moved IT resources away from the hard drive to outside servers. This is mainly due to the dissemination of high speed Internet.[3]  For example, only a few years ago, it was common to back up photos into a hard drive.  Today, cloud service providers allow users to  automatically save photos from their  phone or computer without a personal hard drive.  In the past, it was common to save important documents into a flash drive. Today, people are likely to back up their documents into Dropbox, or a similar cloud storage service.  The cloud has helped  eliminate the threat of losing personal information by preserving data in a virtual storage system.

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Ashley Madison: The Wake of Moral Activism - By Genna Promnick

Ashley Madison became infamous as an outlet for cheaters. The website marketed towards individuals who were seeking affairs, gained national attention when it was hacked, and the information of 32 million users was released.[1] This was an attack conducted in the name of morality. The hackers, known as the Impact Team, criticized the basic function of Ashley Madison as well as its business practices. The site required users to pay $19 to have their data deleted. But as the hack illustrated, the users would pay and the data remained.[2] Much of the early narrative around the story was that the site’s users got what they deserved. This prompted some to question whether the attackers moral high ground allowed them to escape the pitchforks of the masses.

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