Gregory M. Dickinson

Bottom line: Proceed with caution. Tech-specific enactments are likely to do more harm than good, and it's not as if we don't have a robust, general-purpose baseline in place (torts, contract, consumer-protection statutes, antitrust, FTC) to pick up the slack.

www.lawfaremedia.org/article/how-...

How to Regulate AI? Kevin Frazier and I have an essay out today with Lawfare that offers some suggestions, How Not to Embarrass the Future. #Innovation

I received a box of these in the mail today and couldn't be more excited. For my students in practice, it means you now have something to cite for that random thing you heard me say once upon a time in class! #lawstudents

Is Cryptocurrency a Racket? - ProMarket Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York reflects on the history of cryptocurrency and his experience adjudicating criminal cases involving it.

His basic take: Cryptocurrency is good for laundering money, speculating on widespread crypto adoption (unlikely), and pump-and-dump scams to trick people out of real, hard-earned money. (2/2)

www.promarket.org/2025/07/28/i...

I'd listen to just about anything SDNY Judge Jed Rakoff had to say. He's not always right, but he's always interesting. In a brief essay on ProMarket he offers his perspective on cryptocurrencies, formed by his years on the bench. #crypto (1/2)

It was a pleasure sharing my research on dark patterns and online consumer fraud at the annual NACCA symposium (National Association of Consumer Credit Administrators).

I came away with a list of scams to watch out for (plus examples special-interest fingers in the legislative mixing pot). #fraud

On my way to commencement to celebrate Nebraska Law's class of 2025! #lawstudents @unlcollegeoflaw.bsky.social

And my most recent thoughts on Section 230 (generally that internet immunity doctrine has drifted from the text and is an imperfect fit for the current internet) are here: law.stanford.edu/wp-content/u... (4/4)

X's complaint is here: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us... (3/4)

In my own use of Twitter I've found both features to be invaluable -- quickly alerting me to bogus stories (though I'm only human so would miss many false negatives and some false positives).

What have others encountered with Grok and Community Notes? Useful? False sense of security? (2/4)

X (Twitter) is challenging a Minnesota law that criminalizes knowing circulation of political deepfakes. The Section 230 and First Amendment issues get the attention.

But I'm most intrigued by X's argument that the Grok and Community Notes features already help police fake news. #technology (1/4)

Dan Lyons at AEI has a brief essay out that's a quick and worthy read (4/4): aei.org/technology-a...

But some costs are harder to quantify and easy to miss altogether: the innovations that might have been; the uses to which resources might have been put if not for liability risk; and the human capital that might have been deployed differently if not for compliance costs (sorry lawyers!). (3/4)

Restriction is a natural human response to the new and uncertain (who even knew what a deep fake was until recently?!) and the benefits are straightforward enough to measure—fewer of the strange, new harms, whatever they may be, e.g., deepfake-driven online scams. (2/4)

Evaluating the costs and benefits of regulation is notoriously tricky. One reason is the difficulty of estimating "the cost of that which is not seen," the evocative (but cumbersome!) phrase of 19th century economist Frédéric Bastiat. (1/4)

#technology @profdaniellyons.bsky.social

Now @microsoft.com is building AI features into *notepad*?! #technology

The end is truly near!

I don't mean to suggest that anyone is acting in bad faith. Professionals want to do top quality work and for others to do the same. But quality should be for the consumer to judge, not the government or industry incumbents -- at least where informational disparities are small. (2/2)

US Deregulation Should Target Occupational Delicensing Next - ProMarket State occupational-licensing requirements have ballooned over the past decades to cover seemingly nonsensical professions, raising barriers to entry and costs for consumers. Ray Ball, S.P. Kothari, an...

Why do 33 states require professional licensing examinations to become a shampooer? I'll give you a hint: The answer rhymes with "Cegulatory Rapture." #government (1/2)

www.promarket.org/2025/03/25/u...

The piece surveys the history of Section 230 internet immunity doctrine, from its roots in the tort law of defamation by telegraph to its development by courts in the early days of the internet, and offers some predictions of where the coming years (and likely SCOTUS review) may take us. (2/2)

Section 230: A Juridical History | Stanford Law School Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 is the most important law in the history of the internet. It is also one of the most flawed. Und

Hot off the virtual press! My latest article, just out with the Stanford Technology Law Review, is now available online, Section 230: A Juridical History. law.stanford.edu/publications... (1/2)

#technology @unlcollegeoflaw.bsky.social @stanfordlaw.bsky.social

The Patterns of Digital Deception | Blogs | Insights | Ballard Spahr

I joined Alan Kaplinsky of Ballard Spahr LLP to record a podcast on dangers to consumers of online fraud and the risk of poorly designed regulations intended to combat it.

Check it out here: www.ballardspahr.com/insights/blo...
#technology @unlcollegeoflaw.bsky.social

www.aei.org/technology-a... (2/2)

My take on Musk and DOGE? Turns out Jim Harper at AEI
already wrote up my thoughts exactly: "Intense ambivalence."

Haste breaks things, but it's not like the problems were being addressed some other way. #DOGE (1/2)

TL;DR: The #FTC should focus on widespread, but small-sum fraud where individual stakes are too small to support private litigation. (2/2)

Full essay here: lawliberty.org/countering-d...

My essay out today with Law & Liberty discusses the rise of online scams and suggests approaches to coordinate governmental enforcement efforts with private litigants. (1/2)

#fraud @unlcollegeoflaw.bsky.social

There should be a word for when you decide to click a button but the interface changes in the split second before your finger reaches the screen! #uxdesign

Gregory Dickinson on Preventing Online Fraud Ipse Dixit · Episode

Check out the podcast here: open.spotify.com/episode/5bYZ...

And the full article here: bclawreview.bc.edu/articles/10....
(3/3)

The basic points are (1) that online scammers' advantage over traditional fraudsters is the low cost of targeted scams; and (2) that to maximize scarce enforcement resources, the FTC should focus on those schemes against which private litigation is least effective. (2/3)

It was a pleasure returning to the Ipse Dixit legal scholarship podcast with Prof. Brian Frye this weekend to discuss my new paper, The Patterns of Digital Deception, 65 B.C. L. Rev. 2457 (2024). #fraud #ui @brianlfrye.bsky.social (1/3)

Want a quick shortcut to check your state's freedom index?

Does your state government prohibit you from typing your own eyeglass prescription into a Warby Parker form?! #freedom @warbyparker.bsky.social @cato.org