Photo by Thomas Laukat on Pexels.com By: Bethany Butler 2022 Olympic Women’s Singles Figure Skating Doping Controversy  The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing were overshadowed by an intense doping scandal in the women’s singles figure skating event. In February 2022, Kamila Valieva, a 15-year-old Russian figure skater (competing under the ROC “Russian Olympic Committee” due to Russia’s previous doping issues), participated in the Olympic figure skating team event. With the help of Valieva’s top scores, the ROC placed first in this event, followed by the United States in second, Japan in thi ..read more

By: Karina Paup Byrnes On March 24,2024, Washington’s State Governor, Jay Inslee, signed into law the “Strippers’ Bill of Rights” (SB 6105/ HB 2036), which provides adult dancers with increased safety protections in the workplace. Adult entertainers employed at strip clubs across Washington state are now legally entitled to safeguards such as keypad entrances to dressing rooms, panic buttons in private room where employees are alone with customers, mandatory sexual harassment training for all employees, and security guard staffing on site. However, this bill represents more than just a win fo ..read more

By: Kevin Vu Nintendo, the developer of various beloved video games and consoles, was recently in the news for its lawsuit against, and subsequent settlement with, Tropic Haze, the developers of the Nintendo Switch emulator “Yuzu.” In the initial complaint, Nintendo alleged that “[w]ith Yuzu in hand, nothing stops a user from obtaining and playing unlawful copies of virtually any game made for the Nintendo Switch, all without paying a dime to Nintendo or any of the hundreds of other game developers and publishers making and selling games for the Nintendo Switch. In effect, Yuzu turns general ..read more

Exploring Alternate Avenues to Patent Protection of AI-Designed Pharmaceuticals By: Anushka Parihar Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to revolutionize industries worldwide. A rapidly evolving application of AI is now emerging in the pharmaceutical industry, resulting in AI-designed pharmaceuticals.  Many businesses use AI and machine learning algorithms as a tool to sift through large databases of data to identify potential drug targets and design molecules that interact with those targets. AI is also utilized to promote the efficiency of clinical trials by predicting the efficacy o ..read more

Photo by Perfecto Capucine on Pexels.com By: Zachary Blinkinsop The opening chapter: COVID-19 and the National Emergency Library. With the COVID-19 lockdowns of early 2020 slamming library doors shut, students and researchers found themselves struggling to access critical educational materials. Libraries, like many institutions, scrambled to adapt to the unprecedent challenges posed by the pandemic.Many librarians responded by espousing the use of copyrighted materials in remote education and research. They cited the doctrine of fair use which protects certain unlicensed uses of copyrighted ma ..read more

Photo by Google DeepMind on Pexels.com By: Bethany Butler Gene editing technologies have the potential to greatly influence medicine and impact future therapies to treat debilitating conditions. Gene editing research seeks to “modify genes of living organisms to improve our understanding of gene function and develop ways to use it to treat genetic or acquired diseases.” One gene editing tool is the CRISPR/Cas-9 system, which allows for precision genome editing by cutting DNA in targeted locations for replacement. The first gene editing therapy utilizing CRISPR/Cas-9, called Casgevy, was approv ..read more

By: Stella Haynes Kiehn While George R.R. Martin remains hard at work on the final installments in the critically acclaimed A Song of Ice and Fire series; in July 2023, one tenacious fan used ChatGPT to finish the series in a fraction of the time. For fans who don’t feel the urge to read speculations, ChatGPT can also write entirely new stories set in the style and world of any author whose work exists on the internet. These AI-generated novels are only part of a growing issue about the use of copyrighted works to train Large Language Models (LLM) such as ChatGPT. Now, the authors are looking ..read more

By: Anushka Parihar Though we are arguably not in a “Post-Covid” era, with more than 32,800 new Covid-19 hospitalizations from January 7-13, 2023, public health measures have been greatly loosened following the official end to the federal Covid-19 public health emergency in May 2023. Unfortunately, even as Americans have stopped wearing masks and social distancing, the prevalence of online health misinformation continues to rise.  Health misinformation is defined as false, inaccurate, or misleading medical information according to the best available evidence at the time. Due to the unpar ..read more

By: Drew Carlson What does it take to release a copyrighted work into the public domain? On September 15, 2023, writer Bill Willingham decided to test just that, releasing his comic book series Fables into the public domain after years of fighting with his publisher, DC Comics (“DC”). Can an author release a work into the public domain before the copyright protection expires? If the author is the legal owner of the copyright, then he or she may do so, but this is often not the case. Willingham will need to prove he is the sole owner of the Fables copyright.  Once Upon a Time Willingham i ..read more

Photo by Skitterphoto on Pexels.com By: Kevin Vu Nearly 100 years ago, Walt Disney released “Steamboat Willie,” showcasing Mickey Mouse’s first adventure. That mouse would kickstart what is now one of the world’s biggest companies, Disney. Today, Disney does a variety of things: it operates its own streaming services, runs a majority of the world’s most popular theme parks, and releases some of the world’s highest grossing movies. At the center of all that success is Mickey Mouse, who’s been dubbed “the world’s most famous cartoon character.” But Mickey is no longer just Disney’s to parade aro ..read more