Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Keyword
-
- Algorithm (2)
- Bitcoin (2)
- Blockchain (2)
- Copyright/Computer software (2)
- Cryptocurrency (2)
-
- Federal law (2)
- Hack (2)
- Identity theft (2)
- NFT (2)
- Personal data (2)
- Quantum computing (2)
- ALI (1)
- Advertising (1)
- Algorithms (1)
- American Law Institute (1)
- Artificial intelligence (1)
- Automated Fingerprint Identification (1)
- Bad Samaritan Laws (1)
- Breathalyzers (1)
- Bystander (1)
- Bystanderism (1)
- CDA (1)
- China (1)
- Cloud computing -- Law & legislation (1)
- Communications Decency Act (1)
- Communism (1)
- Communist party (1)
- Computer contracts (1)
- Computer data as evidence (1)
- Computer software licenses (1)
Articles 1 - 29 of 29
Full-Text Articles in Law
Digital Property Cycles, Joshua Fairfield
Digital Property Cycles, Joshua Fairfield
Washington and Lee Law Review
The present downturn in non-fungible token (“NFT”) markets is no cause for immediate alarm. There have been multiple cycles in both the legal and media focus on digital intangible property, and these cycles will recur. The cycles are easily explainable: demand for intangible property is constant, even increasing. The legal regimes governing ownership of these assets are unstable and poorly suited to satisfying the preferences of buyers and sellers. The combination of demand and poor legal regulation gives rise to the climate of fraud that has come to characterize NFTs, but it has nothing to do with the value of …
How The Blockchain Undermined Digital Ownership, Aaron Perzanowski
How The Blockchain Undermined Digital Ownership, Aaron Perzanowski
Washington and Lee Law Review
The shift from a market built around the sale of tangible goods to one premised on the licensing of digital content and services has done significant and lasting damage to the notion of individual ownership. The emergence of blockchain technology, while certainly not necessary to reverse these trends, promised an opportunity to attract investment and demonstrate consumer demand for marketplaces that recognize meaningful digital ownership. Simultaneously, it offered an avenue for alleviating worries about hypothetical widespread reproduction and unchecked distribution of copyrighted works. Instead, many of the most visible blockchain projects in recent years—the proliferation of new cryptocurrencies and the …
The Internet, Personal Jurisdiction, And Daos, Matthew R. Mcguire
The Internet, Personal Jurisdiction, And Daos, Matthew R. Mcguire
Washington and Lee Law Review
Global connectivity is at an all-time high, and sovereign state law has not fully caught up with the technological innovations enabling that connectivity. TCP/IP—the communications protocol allowing computers on different networks to speak with each other—wasn’t adopted by ARPANET and the Defense Data Network until January 1983. That’s only forty years ago. And the World Wide Web wasn’t released to the general public until August 1991, less than thirty-five years ago. The first Bitcoin block was mined on January 3, 2009, less than fifteen years ago.
Legal doctrine doesn’t develop that fast, especially in legal systems heavily based around judicial …
Mitigating The Legal Challenges Associated With Blockchain Smart Contracts: The Potential Of Hybrid On-Chain/Off-Chain Contracts, Niloufer Selvadurai
Mitigating The Legal Challenges Associated With Blockchain Smart Contracts: The Potential Of Hybrid On-Chain/Off-Chain Contracts, Niloufer Selvadurai
Washington and Lee Law Review
Tantamount with the increasing application of blockchain technologies around the world, the use of blockchain-based smart contracts has rapidly risen. In a “smart contract,” computer protocols automatically facilitate, verify, and enforce arrangements made between parties on a blockchain. Such smart contracts offer a variety of commercial benefits, notably immutability and increased efficiency facilitated by removing the need for a trusted intermediary. However, as discussed in recent legal scholarship, it is difficult for smart contracts to uphold certain fundamental principles of contract law. Translating concepts of individual intention and responsibility into the decentralized space of blockchain is problematic. Aggregating such individual …
Tax Reporting As Regulation Of Digital Financial Markets, Young Ran (Christine) Kim
Tax Reporting As Regulation Of Digital Financial Markets, Young Ran (Christine) Kim
Washington and Lee Law Review
FTX’s recent collapse highlights the overall instability that blockchain assets and digital financial markets face. While the use of blockchain technology and crypto assets is widely prevalent, the associated market is still largely unregulated, and the future of digital asset regulation is also unclear. The lack of clarity and regulation has led to public distrust and has called for more dedicated regulation of digital assets. Among those regulatory efforts, tax policy plays an important role. This Essay introduces comprehensive regulatory frameworks for blockchain-based assets that have been introduced globally and domestically, and it shows that tax reporting is the key …
Keynote Address, Sultan Meghji
Keynote Address, Sultan Meghji
Washington and Lee Law Review
Keynote address presented virtually at the Washington and Lee Law Review's 54th Annual Lara D. Gass Symposium: The Future of E-Commerce: Is It on a Blockchain? on Friday, March 17, 2023 in Lexington, Virginia.
Creativity Without Ip? Vindication And Challenges In The Video Game Industry, Bj Ard
Creativity Without Ip? Vindication And Challenges In The Video Game Industry, Bj Ard
Washington and Lee Law Review
This Article intervenes in the longstanding debate over whether creative production is possible without exhaustive copyright protection. Intellectual property (IP) scholars have identified “negative spaces” like comedy and tattoo art where creativity thrives without IP, but critics dismiss these examples as niche. The video game industry allows for fresh headway. It is now the largest sector in entertainment—with revenues greater than Hollywood, streaming, and music combined—yet IP does not protect key game elements from duplication. Participants navigate this absence using non-IP strategies like those identified in negative-space industries: AAA developers invest in copy-resistant features while indie game developers rely on …
The Three Laws: The Chinese Communist Party Throws Down The Data Regulation Gauntlet, William Chaskes
The Three Laws: The Chinese Communist Party Throws Down The Data Regulation Gauntlet, William Chaskes
Washington and Lee Law Review
Criticism of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) runs a wide gamut. Accusations of human rights abuses, intellectual property theft, authoritarian domestic policies, disrespecting sovereign borders, and propaganda campaigns all have one common factor: the CCP’s desire to control information. Controlling information means controlling data. Lurking beneath the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) tumultuous relationship with the rest of the world is the fight between nations to control their citizens’ data while also keeping it out of the hands of adversaries. The CCP’s Three Laws are its newest weapon in this data war.
One byproduct of the CCP’s emphasis on controlling …
Data Breach Notification Laws And The Quantum Decryption Problem, Phillip Harmon
Data Breach Notification Laws And The Quantum Decryption Problem, Phillip Harmon
Washington and Lee Law Review
In the United States, state data breach notification laws protect citizens by forcing businesses to notify those citizens when their personal information has been compromised. These laws almost universally include an exception for encrypted personal data. Modern encryption methods make encrypted data largely useless, and the notification laws aim to encourage good encryption practices.
This Note challenges the wisdom of laws that place blind faith in the continued infallibility of encryption. For decades, Shor’s algorithm has promised polynomial-time factoring once a sufficiently powerful quantum computer can be built. Competing laboratories around the world steadily continue to march toward this end. …
Comment: The Necessary Evolution Of State Data Breach Notification Laws: Keeping Pace With New Cyber Threats, Quantum Decryption, And The Rapid Expansion Of Technology, Beth Burgin Waller, Elaine Mccafferty
Comment: The Necessary Evolution Of State Data Breach Notification Laws: Keeping Pace With New Cyber Threats, Quantum Decryption, And The Rapid Expansion Of Technology, Beth Burgin Waller, Elaine Mccafferty
Washington and Lee Law Review
The legal framework that was built almost two decades ago now struggles to keep pace with the rapid expansion of technology, including quantum computing and artificial intelligence, and an ever-evolving cyber threat landscape. In 2002, California passed the first data breach notification law, with all fifty states following suit to require notice of unauthorized access to and acquisition of an individual’s personal information.1 These data breach notification laws, originally designed to capture one-off unauthorized views of data in a computerized database, were not built to address PowerShell scripts by cyber terrorists run across thousands of servers, leaving automated accessed data …
The Digital Samaritans, Eldar Haber
The Digital Samaritans, Eldar Haber
Washington and Lee Law Review
Bystanderism is becoming largely digital. If being subjected to perilous situations was once reserved almost solely for the physical world, individuals now might witness those in peril digitally from afar via online livestreams. New technological developments in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) might also expand bystanderism to new fields, whereby machines—not just humans—are gradually positioned to better compute their surroundings, thus potentially being capable of reaching a high statistical probability that a perilous situation is currently taking place in their vicinity. This current and future expansion of bystanderism into the digital world forms a rather new type of digital …
Taxation Of Electronic Gaming, Bryan T. Camp
Taxation Of Electronic Gaming, Bryan T. Camp
Washington and Lee Law Review
At a doctrinal level, the subject of this Article is timely. During this time of the coronavirus pandemic, casinos have been closed and large populations have been subject to stay-home orders from local and state authorities. One can reasonably expect a large increase in electronic gaming and thus an increased need for proper consideration of its taxation. This Article argues for a cash-out rule of taxation.
At a deeper level, the subject of this Article is timeless. Tax law is wickedly complex for a reason. This Article explores that complexity using the example of electronic gaming. It grapples with the …
Reinvesting In Rico With Cryptocurrencies: Using Cryptocurrency Networks To Prove Rico’S Enterprise Requirement, Andrew Robert Klimek
Reinvesting In Rico With Cryptocurrencies: Using Cryptocurrency Networks To Prove Rico’S Enterprise Requirement, Andrew Robert Klimek
Washington and Lee Law Review
This Note received the 2019 Roy L. Steinheimer Law Review Award.
This Note argues that the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) may be suited to cryptocurrency prosecutions. RICO subsection 1962(a) addresses the infiltration of an enterprise by investing proceeds from racketeering activities and this Note contends that a cryptocurrency network could serve as the “enterprise” required by the statute. Instead of having to investigate and prove the relationships in an underlying criminal enterprise, proponents of a RICO case against crypto-criminals could rely on well-documented and publicly available information about the cryptocurrency network to prove the enterprise and the …
Secret Conviction Programs, Meghan J. Ryan
Secret Conviction Programs, Meghan J. Ryan
Washington and Lee Law Review
Judges and juries across the country are convicting criminal defendants based on secret evidence. Although defendants have sought access to the details of this evidence—the results of computer programs and their underlying algorithms and source codes—judges have generally denied their requests. Instead, judges have prioritized the business interests of the for-profit companies that developed these “conviction programs” and which could lose market share if the secret algorithms and source codes on which the programs are based were exposed. This decision has jeopardized criminal defendants’ constitutional rights.
Reaching Through The “Ghost Doxer:” An Argument For Imposing Secondary Liability On Online Intermediaries, Natalia Homchick
Reaching Through The “Ghost Doxer:” An Argument For Imposing Secondary Liability On Online Intermediaries, Natalia Homchick
Washington and Lee Law Review
Imagine you have decided to run for office, to speak out publicly against an injustice, to enter the job market, or even to join a new online forum. Now, imagine after starting your chosen endeavor, you go online to discover that someone who disagrees with your position posted your personal information on the internet and called for others to harass you. To make matters worse, you realize that you cannot determine who posted your personal data. You have been doxed. Because you cannot identify the person who posted your information, where can you turn for recourse? The next logical party …
A Commercial Law For Software Contracting, Michael L. Rustad, Elif Kavusturan
A Commercial Law For Software Contracting, Michael L. Rustad, Elif Kavusturan
Washington and Lee Law Review
Since the 1980s, software is at the core of most modern organizations, most products and most services. Part II of this Article examines how the U.C.C. evolved as the primary source of law for the first generation of computer contracts during the mainframe computer era. Part III examines how courts have overextended U.C.C. Article 2, as the main source of law for software licensing, to the limits. Part IV argues that the ALI and the NCCUSL should propose a new Article 2B for software licensing. Part V recommends a new Article 2C for “software as a service.”
Text Messages Are Property: Why You Don’T Own Your Text Messages, But It’D Be A Lot Cooler If You Did, Spence M. Howden
Text Messages Are Property: Why You Don’T Own Your Text Messages, But It’D Be A Lot Cooler If You Did, Spence M. Howden
Washington and Lee Law Review
This Note proceeds as follows: Part II offers a brief overview of what text messages are and what they are not. Part III covers the history of intangible personal property law and reviews the evolution of “cybertrespass” claims. Part IV explores the judiciary and the Fourth Amendment’s failure to protect text messages. Finally, Part V evaluates whether text messages constitute property and the practical implications of this finding.
Information Privacy And Data Control In Cloud Computing: Consumers, Privacy Preferences, And Market Efficiency, Jay P. Kesan, Carol M. Hayes, Masooda N. Bashir
Information Privacy And Data Control In Cloud Computing: Consumers, Privacy Preferences, And Market Efficiency, Jay P. Kesan, Carol M. Hayes, Masooda N. Bashir
Washington and Lee Law Review
So many of our daily activities now take place “in the cloud,” where we use our devices to tap into massive networks that span the globe. Virtually every time that we plug into a new service, the service requires us to click the seemingly ubiquitous box indicating that we have read and agreed to the provider’s terms of service (TOS) and privacy policy. If a user does not click on this box, he is denied access to the service, but agreeing to these terms without reading them can negatively impact the user’s legal rights. As part of this work, we …
Applying The Stored Communications Act To The Civil Discovery Of Social Networking Sites, Rudolph J. Burshnic
Applying The Stored Communications Act To The Civil Discovery Of Social Networking Sites, Rudolph J. Burshnic
Washington and Lee Law Review
No abstract provided.
Lord Of The Files: International Secondary Liability For Internet Service Providers, Emerald Smith
Lord Of The Files: International Secondary Liability For Internet Service Providers, Emerald Smith
Washington and Lee Law Review
No abstract provided.
The Law Of Unintended Consequences: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act And Interoperability, Jacqueline Lipton
The Law Of Unintended Consequences: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act And Interoperability, Jacqueline Lipton
Washington and Lee Law Review
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has been criticized for many reasons, including its impact on the fair use defense to copyright infringement, and its potential to chill the free exchange of scientific, technical, and educational information. Law professors and special interest groups have opposed elements of the DMCA from its inception and continue to lobby for reform. One of the more recent concerns about the DMCA involves the incorporation of copyrightable software code into tangible goods for purposes related to the functionality of those goods. Some manufacturers of such products recently have attempted to use the DMCA to prevent …
Script Kiddies Beware: The Long Arm Of U.S. Jurisdiction To Prescribe, John Eisinger
Script Kiddies Beware: The Long Arm Of U.S. Jurisdiction To Prescribe, John Eisinger
Washington and Lee Law Review
No abstract provided.
Computer Network Trespasses: Solving New Problems With Old Solutions, Susan M. Ballantine
Computer Network Trespasses: Solving New Problems With Old Solutions, Susan M. Ballantine
Washington and Lee Law Review
No abstract provided.
Allocating Discovery Costs In The Computer Age: Deciding Who Should Bear The Costs Of Discovery Of Electronically Stored Data, Corinne L. Giacobbe
Allocating Discovery Costs In The Computer Age: Deciding Who Should Bear The Costs Of Discovery Of Electronically Stored Data, Corinne L. Giacobbe
Washington and Lee Law Review
No abstract provided.
World Wide Web Advertising: Personal Jurisdiction Around The Whole Wide World?, Christopher W. Meyer
World Wide Web Advertising: Personal Jurisdiction Around The Whole Wide World?, Christopher W. Meyer
Washington and Lee Law Review
No abstract provided.
Consumer Meets Computer: An Argument For Liberal Trademark Protection Of Computer Hardware Configurations Under Section 43(A) Of The Lanham Trademark Act
Washington and Lee Law Review
No abstract provided.
The Scope Of Copyright Protection For Computer Programs: Exploring The Idea/ Expression Dichotomy*
The Scope Of Copyright Protection For Computer Programs: Exploring The Idea/ Expression Dichotomy*
Washington and Lee Law Review
No abstract provided.
The Protection Of Computer Software Through Shrink-Wrap License Agreements
The Protection Of Computer Software Through Shrink-Wrap License Agreements
Washington and Lee Law Review
No abstract provided.
Computers And The Law, Robert P. Bigelow, Ed.
Computers And The Law, Robert P. Bigelow, Ed.
Washington and Lee Law Review
No abstract provided.