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SXSW South by Southwest Conference

As some of you already know, South by Southwest ®(SXSW) is one of the world’s premier events showcasing music, film and interactive media. This internationally-recognized event has live panels, special events, cinema and combines entertainment and educational activities in a conference and festival atmosphere.  The event takes place annually in Austin, Texas in the United States – this year between March 8th and 16th, 2024.

I have made a proposal to participate by making a presentation entitled “Legal Implications of AI: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and voting by the online community is now live!  That allows the public to help the organizers decide on ideas that are the most creative, innovative, and relevant for 2024.  Starting today and until August 20th (11:59 PM PT), you can see my proposal and vote using this link: Legal Implications of AI: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.  I hope you will vote to include my presentation in the event.

My objective is to make the presentation interactive and entertaining, including some potentially innovative uses of AI to make the point. What do I want to talk about? First, how does current law deal with the film, television, music, art, literary industries – what are the challenges and the opportunities. Second, how can celebrities, sports figures, creative artists and talented professionals protect themselves while also exploiting the evolving technology. Of course, last but not least, is it too soon to start regulating AI? If so, what are we waiting for? If not, how do we even suggest regulation when we can’t predict where we are going?

I won’t pretend to have all the answers, but I will try to provide an enlightening, stimulating and thought provoking presentation – and yes, entertaining!  Again, I would appreciate your vote:  Legal Implications of AI: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

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Avoiding Risk and Fostering Innovation with Blockchain Patent Communities

Legal Bytes is proud to announce Marc Kaufman, Partner at Rimon, P.C., is moderating and participating in a panel discussion about the risks and rewards of blockchain technology. Currently, there are over 30,000 patent families worldwide directed specifically to blockchain technologies.
As a consequence and despite the broad use of open source software in blockchain ecosystems, patents present a significant risk to blockchain innovators and their investors.  However, there are various patent communities which can reduce the risk of excessive patent litigation for blockchain projects.

This panel will discuss the tapestry of patent communities available to blockchain innovators and how each community balances the rights of patent owners with the need for freedom to operate within the blockchain community.

Perianne Boring, President and Founder of the Chamber of Digital Commerce will be introducing the panel, and in addition to Marc Kaufman as moderator, panelists will include, William Geary of MPEG-LA, Ken Seddon of LOT Network, Jed Grant of the Open Crypto Alliance and Matthew Poppe also a partner at Rimon.

If you are interested in registering, there will be two sessions one on March 22, 2021 and another on March 24, 2021. You can find out more and register at Live Webinar: Avoiding Risk and Fostering Innovation with Blockchain Patent Communities.  Of course, if you need more information, you can contact Marc Kaufman directly.

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California CPRA – CCPA 2.0

On Election Day in California, voters will not only be determining choices among candidates standing for election, but they will also be deciding the fate of Proposition 24, referred to as the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA).  Proposition 24 is intended to build upon the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) that came into force at the beginning of 2020. Among other things, the CPRA would create a California Privacy Protection Agency, a new regulatory agency that would ultimately take over privacy enforcement responsibility from the Office of the California Attorney General.

Among the areas that would be affected by the CPRA would be a clear ban on discrimination against anyone choosing to ask a company to delete their information and opt-out of marketing communications, stronger rights to prevent data sharing by companies (e.g., cross-context behavioral advertising), clearer mechanisms to enable consumers to correct information that is not accurate and a requirement that companies tell consumers how long they plan to retain the information.

Proposition 24 would also legitimize marketing and promotional schemes that offer consumers a discount or access to benefits in exchange for voluntarily disclosing personally identifiable information (e.g., in the context of rewards or loyalty programs).  Privacy and data protection proponents and opponents have long debated whether consumers should have an option to pay for privacy – viewed as a logical consequence of offering benefits in exchange for information that can be used for marketing and promotional purposes.

Since the CCPA came into force, companies have already been scrambling to comply.  If Proposition 24 passes and CCPA 2.0 comes into force, companies will again have to review and likely revamp their policies and practices to deal with the added new compliance obligations. Just as significantly, a separate California Consumer Privacy Agency would likely end up brining many more enforcement actions since protecting the privacy rights of California consumers will be its only mission.  Proponents of Proposition 24 say that may well be a good thing for California consumers, but they also argue that an agency solely focused on data protection will also mean more clarity, consistency and guidance surrounding some of the nuances of the California requirements.

Stay tuned. Election day is only a week away.

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Unsung Cyber Hero Adventures

On June 4, 2020, Steven Teppler and I (Joe Rosenbaum) were guests of Gary Berman, host of “Unsung Cyber Hero Adventures”.  You can watch the entire interview “The Judicial System & Cybersecurity” and many more on his “Unsung Cyber Hero Adventures” TV Network!

There is also a comic series and you can find out more by looking at  The CyberHero Adventures: Defenders of the Digital Universe.  The comic series, the streaming interview series and much more are all the brainchild of Gary L. Berman, a career marketing consultant and entrepreneur whose company – and the families it supported – fell victim to a prolonged series of insider cyber attacks.  Feeling powerless, Gary decided to educate himself about cybersecurity, attending conferences, listening to podcasts and learning from the real heroes, the cybersecurity experts in law enforcement, government, education, and business.