The €1.2 billion fine that the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) against Meta marks a new record for violation of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), but it is the DPC’s order that the company to shut off its transatlantic flow of user data that will have the most far-reaching consequences for international trade, privacy policy, and the rule of law.

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The federal government is set to award more than $42 billion in new grants to state governments this summer, with the goal of expanding high-speed internet access in areas that currently lack it.

But as this new Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program ramps up, it is crucial that states spend the money wisely.

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It appears that the emergence of ChatGPT and other artificial-intelligence systems has complicated the European Union’s efforts to implement its AI Act, mostly by challenging its underlying assumptions. The proposed regulation seeks to govern a diverse and rapidly growing AI landscape. In reality, however, there is no single thing that can be called “AI.” Instead, the category comprises various software tools that employ different methods to achieve different objectives. The EU’s attempt to cover such a disparate array of subjects under a common regulatory framework is likely to be ill-fitted to achieve its intended goals.

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ICLE Director of Innovation Policy Kristian Stout was interviewed by RFD-TV for a story item about the challenges involved in connecting rural areas to broadband internet.

One of the threats that could affect the efficacy of this program could be different state authorities not necessarily focusing on people who have traditionally been very difficult to connect to the internet but looking at lower hanging fruit that it’s easier to connect, like people who

might have slower than extremely fast but are faster than what we consider nonexistent broadband service. There are a number of hurdles that have just traditionally existed everywhere in the United States for broadband deployment. These include things like municipal permitting, getting rights of way, and then one of the largest drivers cost is access to utility poles across the United States. There are some more complicated problems that go into accessing these poles around whether they’re privately-owned or whether they’re owned by municipalities and co-ops, which can easily explode costs for a particular deployment and make it so that the money that the federal government is directing to reach these remote areas is not being fully-used to reach these people but is instead being wasted.

ICLE Director of Innovation Policy Kristian Stout appeared on the Mornings with Brian Haldane radio show in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to discuss what the emergence of generative AI systems means for copyright. The full audio is embedded below.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) directs the Federal Communications Commission to prevent discrimination in broadband access. In addition to preventing racial, ethnic, or religious discrimination, the law seeks to remedy income discrimination. At the same time, the IIJA orders the FCC to take account of economic and technical feasibility of preventing the proscribed discrimination. These provisions of the IIJA raise complex legal and economic questions. Should the FCC focus on discriminatory intent or disparate impacts? How can the FCC prevent income discrimination while simultaneously accounting for economic feasibility?

This webinar discussion on the topic was recorded Feb. 13, 2023 with Rob McDowell (former commissioner of the FCC), Eric Fruits (ICLE), and Jessica Melugin (CEI), and was moderated by Kristian Stout (ICLE). Due to technical difficulties with the video feed of this event, only the audio is embedded below.

Not only have digital-image generators like Stable Diffusion, DALL-E, and Midjourney—which make use of deep-learning models and other artificial-intelligence (AI) systems—created some incredible (and sometimes creepy – see above) visual art, but they’ve engendered a good deal of controversy, as well. Human artists have banded together as part of a fledgling anti-AI campaign; lawsuits have been filed; and policy experts have been trying to think through how these machine-learning systems interact with various facets of the law.

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What should a government do when it owns geese that lay golden eggs? Should it sell the geese to fund government programs? Or should it let them run wild so everyone can have a chance at a golden egg?

That’s the question facing Congress as it considers re-authorizing the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) authority to auction and license spectrum. Should the FCC auction spectrum to maximize government revenue? Or, should it allow large portions to remain unlicensed to foster innovation and development?

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Sens. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) recently introduced the Credit Card Competition Act, which would effectively enable merchants to route credit card transactions over a network other than the main one affiliated with the card. The sponsors say that this will increase “competition” and reduce costs for merchants, who will pass on the savings to consumers.

But are Durbin and Marshall being overly optimistic? Have they perhaps missed some predictable but unintended consequences that might cause their act to harm rather than help consumers?

The International Center for Law & Economics hosted an Oct. 25, 2022, webinar panel to offer a timely discussion of the proposed legislation, moderated by ICLE Director of Innovation Policy Kristian Stout and featuring Senior Scholar Julian Morris and Academic Affiliate Todd Zywicki.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugcvlFwq2IU