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September 27th, 2022
Metaverse IRL: Tackling Privacy Amid the Rampant Hype and Burst of Deals
Privacy & Data Security Chair Daniel M. Goldberg and Interactive Entertainment Co-Chair Gregory Boyd are quoted in Cybersecurity Law Report’s article, “Metaverse IRL: Tackling Privacy Amid the Rampant Hype and Burst of Deals.” The article discusses privacy issues that lawyers have encountered during real-life metaverse dealmaking and counseling.
Daniel is quoted saying, “Higher sales of headsets and the rise of platforms in 2022 raises the possibility of a mobilization to provide metaverse app experiences. Within the platforms, there will be opportunities for developers to release and be part of that. I see this as most comparable to the app gold rush of the early 2010s when Apple’s App Store opened.” Apple is working on a headset and platform, and has obtained trademarks for Reality One and Reality Pro. “When Apple opens its Reality Whatever, a number of companies can rush out and try to build the first apps for that Reality metaverse,” Daniel said.
The emergence of this new tech market follows the pattern that innovation darts ahead of careful privacy planning. Daniel says, “A lot of these metaverse companies start off scrappy and small, and their goal is just to get the product out there. They’re not always thinking about the privacy issues when they explode. Then they have to retroactively figure it out.” Over half the young tech companies that Gregory Boyd encounters have run up a so-called privacy debt. Greg is quoted saying, “It’s probably seven out of ten. ‘We have a product making a lot of money. Can you help us shove some privacy in here?’”
Daniel says, “Metaverse privacy work, at core, involves upholding longstanding principles.” “Privacy is supposed to be technology agnostic.” Immersive worlds, for example, have faced COPPA restrictions since 1998, he observed.
Full article here. (Behind paywall)
Other Quoted
4 Takeaways From 1st Opinion on AI Training and Fair Use
Law 360 quotes Jacqueline Charlesworth on the Third Circuit ruling granting summary judgment to Thomson Reuters, in a case alleging tech startup ROSS Intelligence infringed copyrighted material from Thomson Reuters’ Westlaw platform to create a competing legal research tool. Ms. Charlesworth stated the ruling is significant because many AI companies are asserting transformative use, in interpreting The Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith case. (Behind paywall) View Article
February 13 2025
Thomson Reuters Prevails in Copyright Battle with AI Company
MediaDailyNews quotes Jeremy S. Goldman on the federal court decision that Ross Intelligence infringed Thomson Reuters’ copyright by training its services using Westlaw summaries, known as “headnotes.” Mr. Goldman states the ruling could impact lawsuits by other copyright owners over the use of their material to develop AI. However, he distinguishes some of the high-profile cases such as those against OpenAI in training ChatGPT. He notes OpenAI argues it did not copy material to compete with authors and publishers but to create its language model and technology. View Article
February 12 2025
What a Character
Boston College Law School Magazine quotes Jeffrey A. Greenberg in a profile of Michael Schiffer, founder of S2 Advertising Law, and the former legal director at Twitter. The article titled "What a Character" notes that Mr. Greenberg was on the hiring committee that recruited Mr. Schiffer to join Frankfurt Kurnit’s Advertising group, where he worked for more than 10 years. View Article
February 11 2025
