Law Commons^™

The Supreme Court Performs The Right Notes For Dish In Aereo, Lee B. Burgunder

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

In American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. v. Aereo, Inc., the Supreme Court addressed whether a company publicly performs copyrighted works when it allocates separate antennas on its property to customers who individually decide what shows they each want to watch. This case was hotly debated because it provided a new opportunity for the Court to identify the responsible actors when copyrighted materials are transmitted over the Internet. Unfortunately, the Court ruled against Aereo without clearly articulating governing standards that might inform future decisions, relying instead on what the dissent called a "looks-like-cable-TV" approach. The deficiency has already provided additional ammunition for …

Initial Interest Confusion "Internet Troika" Abandoned? A Critical Look At Initial Interest Confusion As Applied Online, Connie D. Nichols

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The Ninth Circuit's opinion in Brookfield Communications, Inc. v. West Coast Entertainment Corp. seemingly created a standard to be applied in trademark infringement cases on the Internet. Despite the cautions contained within the Ninth Circuit's holding, Brookfield ushered in an era in which many courts placed emphasis on three factors of the "likelihood of confusion" test finding initial interest confusion in many online infringement cases based solely on these three factors. For over a decade, inconsistent application within the Ninth Circuit and other jurisdictions created a disjointed body of case law on initial interest confusion online. The Ninth Circuit's opinion …

Domain Name Allocation And Government Super-Prioritization, Heather A. Forrest

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Governments' growing awareness of the Domain Name System (DNS), the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), and its stewardship of DNS policy development fuel recent attempts to steer Internet domain name allocation toward policies that prioritize government interests ahead of all other rights and interests, including trademark rights. As the DNS expands, the top level in its hierarchical structure (the level of domains such as ".com" and ".uk") assumes the characteristics and attributes, and therefore also the conflicts and challenges, of its second level (the level of public-registered names). This Article argues that these developments necessitate a new, …

Who Is Reading Whom Now: Privacy In Education From Books To Moocs, Jules Polonetsky, Omer Tene

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

This Article is the most comprehensive study to date of the policy issues and privacy concerns arising from the surge of ed tech innovation. It surveys the burgeoning market of ed tech solutions, which range from free Android and iPhone apps to comprehensive learning management systems and digitized curricula delivered via the Internet. It discusses the deployment of big data analytics by education institutions to enhance student performance, evaluate teachers, improve education techniques, customize programs, and better leverage scarce resources to optimize education results.

This Article seeks to untangle ed tech privacy concerns from the broader policy debates surrounding standardization, …

Invisible Labor, Invisible Play: Online Gold Farming And The Boundary Between Jobs And Games, Julian Dibbell

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

When does work become play and play become work? Court shave considered the question in a variety of economic contexts, from student athletes seeking recognition as employees to professional blackjack players seeking to be treated by casinos just like casual players. Here, this question is applied to a relatively novel context: that of online gold farming, a gray-market industry in which wage-earning workers, largely based in China, are paid to play fantasy massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) that reward them with virtual items that their employers sell for profit to the same games' casual players. Gold farming is clearly a …