Jeremy Malcolm

I am Jeremy Malcolm, a tech-savvy attorney who was admitted to the New York Bar in 2009. I offer legal services remotely, covering all areas of law with a particular focus on intellectual property, Internet, and AI law. My deep understanding of emerging technologies allows me to provide strategic guidance on complex legal issues that arise at the intersection of law and innovation. My practice includes copyright, trademarks, privacy, cybersecurity, and regulatory compliance in the digital landscape... but I thrive on the diversity of my practice, so yes I can also handle your divorce, will, or criminal defense.

I am adept at advising startups, creators, and tech companies, combining legal acumen with technical insight to deliver effective solutions in an evolving legal environment. I am also the founder of AskLex.ai, a unique AI-enabled online legal advice service that allows you to have AI legal answers reviewed by a real lawyer.

I was first admitted to practice law in Australia in 1996 and later in New York in 2009. I am the author of "Multi-Stakeholder Governance and the Internet Governance Forum" (2008), and I serve as the Chair of the Center for Online Safety and Liberty.

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New York

New York State Office of Court Administration

Since 2009

High Court of Australia

Since 2006

Supreme Court of Western Australia

ID Number: 2507786

Since 1995

Murdoch University

Ph.D. (2008) | Law

2006 - 2008

Activities: Thesis on "Multi-Stakeholder Public Policy Governance and its Application to the Internet Governance Forum"

Murdoch University

LL.D. (1994) | Law

1990 - 1994

Honors: Honors

Australian Open Source Award

Australian Unix and Open Systems Users Group (AUUG)

2004

For outstanding contribution to the understanding of para-technical and legal issues.

Center for Online Safety and Liberty

Chair

2018 - Current

Multi-Stakeholder Governance and the Internet Governance Forum

Terminus Books

January 1, 2008

Certified Payments & Fraud Prevention Professional

Merchant Risk Council (MRC)

2023

Q. Legal considerations of sharing fanfiction depicting sensitive topics on AO3 including real people like celebrities.

August 15, 2025

A: Fictional stories that depict abuse or underage sex are generally constitutionally protected speech. This even applies to real person fiction. Of course the ethics of writing fiction that a real person might read about themselves, particularly if they are a minor, are a separate issue. Visual materials are much more likely to be found to contravene federal obscenity law. The criteria are that the work, taken as a whole, it appeals to prurient sexual interest, depicts sexual conduct in a patently offensive way, and lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. This has seldom been found for written works, and never for those published non-commercially.

Q. Legal implications of OnlyFans content in New York

August 7, 2025

A: For a precise answer you would need to be more specific about the actions or content that you are asking about. Like most other platforms of its size, OnlyFans' Trust & Safety team takes a very precautionary approach towards the content that they allow. This is partly due to legal limits, but also due to the dictates of payment processors. For this reason any sexual content that even alludes towards non-consent or underage themes, even as a fantasy, is typically disapproved by the OnlyFans automated systems and moderators. Most other 18+ sexual content online is allowed in New York and on OnlyFans.

Q. Can written fictional content depicting minors in sexual situations be prosecuted under U.S. or New York obscenity laws?

July 30, 2025

A: I have some expertise in this area so I am happy to help you with this question. There is some precedent for obscenity charges to be laid over written stories. The most recent such case concerned a man in Texas who was charged over a commercial website that included stories of the kind that you are describing. He was ultimately sentenced to an astounding 40 years imprisonment - which is twice as long as Ghislaine Maxwell received for sex trafficking.

However, there are a number of differences here - first, unlike AO3 the site was commercial in nature, second there were illustrations accompanying the stories some of which were found to be obscene by the court, third the case was brought in Texas, and fourth the defendant was also accused of other sexual crimes which seemed to have been taken account in his sentencing.

In my opinion it is less likely that stories on AO3 could be the subject of a successful prosecution, due to the absence of those four factors. With a few outlying exceptions such as the Texas case, in recent case law written fiction has always been held to be protected by the First Amendment, as there is always found to be an element of artistic merit. It is certain that the Organization for Transformative Works - the organization that hosts AO3 - would mount a strong defence if any such charges were brought.

So in summary while in theory written fiction could amount to an obscenity crime, there is no precedent outside of Texas for charges to be brought over fiction alone, especially when shared non-commercially. With that said, tolerance towards sexual content in general, and especially sexual content referencing children, is approaching a new low in the United States so it is not impossible to conceive that an aggressive prosecutor could bring such charges, which would then throw First Amendment arguments back into the spotlight. ... Read More