DFARS Excessive Pass-Through Cost Rule Modified
Client Alert | 1 min read | 05.13.08
Effective May 13, 2008 (73 Fed. Reg. 27464), the widely-criticized interim DFARS rules about "excessive pass-through costs" published last April were modified in yet another interim rule to address the confusion created by the interim rules. The most important features of the new interim rules are in the prefatory comments, which emphasize repeatedly that the requirement for reporting when subcontract effort will exceed 70 percent applies both before and after award, but is only a reporting requirement, not a threshold for coverage, and that the rules do not apply to any contract, no matter what the subcontract content, where the contractor demonstrates "added value," a term that is defined in the interim regulations to include performance of "subcontract management functions that the Contracting Officer determines are a benefit to the Government (e.g., processing orders of parts or services, maintaining inventory, reducing delivery lead times, managing multiple sources for contract requirements, coordinating deliveries, performing quality assurance functions)."
Insights
Client Alert | 6 min read | 08.03.26
The Pipe, Not the Posts: How Section 230’s Protections Extend to Generative AI Platforms
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (“Section 230”) protects online platforms from liability for user-generated speech. Based on the premise that platforms generally do not create original content but instead curate their users’ own speech, Section 230’s protections have historically applied to a platform’s algorithmically assembled, selected or sequenced content; algorithms or features that amplified or directed user generated speech to particular users were generally protected. Indeed, the old rule of thumb was the more a platform used algorithms or automation, the more likely user generated speech remained user generated speech. GenAI has the potential to change that calculus. A platform that ingests user generated content and publishes a transformed output, can blur Section 230’s line between publication and creation. The central question is whether Section 230 protects GenAI, which analyzes, but does not alter, user-created content to produce an outcome, and its corresponding outputs.
Client Alert | 4 min read | 07.31.26
Client Alert | 3 min read | 07.31.26
Client Alert | 5 min read | 07.28.26
Data Centers in the Crosshairs: The Plaintiffs' Bar Has Begun Filing New Claims Using Old Tricks
