Can a victim of a later crime use New Jersey product liability law to sue a private foundation over alleged flaws in the alternative-to-bail algorithm it had developed for the state’s use? No, a federal district court has ruled, because 1) the algorithm isn’t a product, 2) proximate causation is lacking; and 3) it’s speech so the First Amendment acts as a bar [Eugene Volokh]
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An algorithm may not fit the definition of a product that is pertinent to this case, but it can certainly be a product in other contexts (ex., ITAR). Just stuck out enough to me in the summary that I had to go read the Reason article, since non-tangible “products” come up all the time in my industry.