Law Commons^™

Mining The Nft Goldrush: A Prospective Guide To Drafting Nft Contracts, Dejuawn "Dj" Griffin

Mercer Law Review

Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) are an emerging digital asset class that present unique and innovative means of commercialization. Artists and creators “minted” and sold NFTs without much notice until they boomed into the public consciousness in March 2021, hitting an inflection point when Christie’s, a world-leading art and luxury online auction business, made history with the monumental sale of artist Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days for $69.3 million. This monumental sale sparked an NFT craze by celebrities, creators, and athletes exploring ways to commercialize their brand, image, or content. Even former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey sold his first-ever tweet for …

To Be Seen But Not Heard: How The Internet’S Negative Impact On Minors’ Constitutional Right To Privacy, Speech, And Autonomy Creates A Need For Empathy-By-Design, Jon M. Garon

Mercer Law Review

This Article reviews the rights of individuals younger than eighteen to engage in their daily activities, now often mediated through online service providers, learning management systems, and other technological intermediaries. Unlike prior generations, modern adolescents must navigate the complex world of online society in addition to their family life, school day, and the time they spend away from school at work or in social activities.

This project includes concerns over bullying and harassment, contractual rights, social media policies, child pornography laws, revenge pornography laws, and end-user license agreements.

Social Media, Section 230, And Free Expression, Russell L. Weaver

Mercer Law Review

Throughout history, as new communications technologies have been developed, they have been controlled by “gatekeepers” who had the power to decide who could access those technologies. Although Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in the Fifteenth century was revolutionary and ultimately led to major innovations in science and technology, as well as to dramatic societal changes, Gutenberg’s invention was not accessible by everyone. Because printing presses were expensive, only wealthy individuals could afford to own and operate them, and those few individuals had the power to control who could use their technologies to mass communicate. Many of the technologies …

The Protection Of Freedom Of Expression From Social Media Platforms, András Koltay

Mercer Law Review

Social media platforms have overturned the previously known system of public communication. As predicted at the outset, the spread of the public Internet that started three decades ago has resulted in a paradigm shift in this field. Now, anyone can publish their opinion outside the legacy media, at no significant cost, and can become known and be discussed by others. Due to the technological characteristics of the Internet, it might also be expected that this kind of mass expression, with such an abundance of content, would necessitate the emergence of gatekeepers, similar in function to the ones that existed earlier …

Social Media And Democracy After The Capitol Riot, Or, A Cautionary Tale Of The Giant Goldfish, Seth Oranburg

Mercer Law Review

Lately, people have been finding giant pet goldfish in lakes across America. You may see these tiny fish swimming in bowls at the county fair, but left alone in a lake or large pond, where they are dropped perhaps by a well-meaning child, they can grow to 20 pounds or more—and destroy ecosystems. The goldfish is a cautionary tale that has been told time and again in different forms, like Pandora’s box.

On January 6, 2021, a somewhat organized group of rioters overran and briefly took control of the U.S. Capitol. Social media clearly played a role in the riots …

Section 230 Of The Communications Decency Act: The “Good Samaritan” Law Which Grants Immunity To “Bad Samaritans”, Josh Slovin

Mercer Law Review

In 1989, the “world wide web” launched in the public domain, creating what we call today the “internet.” However, the internet was slow to catch on. In 1996, there were only 20 million American users on the internet. As the adoption of the internet by Americans slowly increased so did the development of internet websites and internet services. The United States Congress quickly began to see the pitfalls of the internet unfolding before its own eyes. In effect, the internet created a new venue for the dissemination of defamatory and elicit content.

Beginning in 1991, litigation commenced when individuals sought …

Clicks, Bricks, And Politics: Website Accessibility Under Title Ii And Title Iii Of The Americans With Disabilities Act, Elliza Guta

Mercer Law Review

The Internet’s role in modern society is constantly expanding. While only a few thousand websites were in existence in the early 1990s, there are almost two billion active websites today. Every major business, news source, health care provider, and government entity has an online presence and the nation’s reliance on the Internet is growing. The role of the Internet in Americans’ daily lives is not a new phenomenon, but in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of the Internet and online technology has dramatically increased. Whether it’s grocery shopping, zoom-school, or checking local infection rates, the pandemic has …

Social Media Platforms And Free Expression: An Introduction, Eric J. Segall

Mercer Law Review

On Friday, October 8, 2021, the Mercer Law Review hosted a virtual Symposium on “Social Media Platforms and Free Expression.” This important topic could not be timelier. With the Right calling for regulation of Facebook and Twitter in order to stop the removal of conservatives from their platforms, to the direct effect of social media on our elections and our politics, the worldwide spread of this technology has brought with it new and difficult legal issues regarding freedom of expression and social harms. Congratulations to the Mercer Law Review for addressing these controversial and complex questions.

Coping With Metadata: Ten Key Steps, Steven C. Bennett, Jeremy Cloud

Mercer Law Review

Nearly every electronic document contains "metadata," information that typically does not appear in the paper form of the document but that can be retrieved from electronic files. Metadata is often harmless and irrelevant, but in some cases, it can reveal much about the creation, alteration, and transmission of a document. Metadata, moreover, may contain privileged and confidential information. In some instances, electronic documents cannot be reviewed or used efficiently without metadata. Because modern businesses and law firms depend heavily on electronic communication, data management, and word processing, lawyers must learn to cope with metadata and its legal implications.

This Article …

The Americans With Disabilities Act In Cyberspace: Annlving The "Nexus" Approach To Private Internet Websites, Richard E. Moberly

Mercer Law Review

In recent years, the increasing importance of the Internet has drawn attention to the exclusion of certain parts of society from participating fully in the advantages brought about by the Internet's technological advances. This "digital divide," as some have labeled it, particularly excludes some individuals with disabilities, such as those with visual, auditory, or muscular impairments, who are unable to access many features of today's Internet. Although private efforts encourage websites to adopt voluntary standards to make the Internet more accessible to these individuals, no clear governmental directive specifically aimed at privately-owned websites currently requires broad accessibility for the disabled. …

Dinner Speech - Reading Too Much Into Nothing: The Metaphor Of Place And The Internet, David Hricik

Mercer Law Review

When I was asked to speak at this dinner, I realized I was doing something I had never done before. Normally, I am given the task of speaking for ninety minutes early in the morning at Continuing Legal Education (CLE) conferences for patent lawyers. The challenge is always first, how to wake them up, especially when they are often tired and may have had a heavy dinner and drinks the night before with other attendees and, next, how do I keep them awake for ninety minutes?

Screen-Scraping And Harmful Cybertrespass After Intel, George H. Fibbe

Mercer Law Review

The topic for this Symposium, "The Internet: Place, Property, or Thing-All or None of the Above," touches on a debate that has existed since the early days of the Internet. There is no question that people commonly understand their experience using the Internet with the help of spatial metaphor--e.g., "sites" and "addresses" that we "visit," and programs called "robots," "crawlers," and "spiders." Leaving metaphor aside, many of the constituent parts of the Internet, especially computer servers, are items of private personal property.

Indeed, the debate over metaphor is reminiscent of the scene from the movie Field of Dreams in which …

Filtering Software In Public Libraries: Traditional Collection Decision Or Congressionally Induced First Amendment Violation?, Christopher Harne

Mercer Law Review

In United States v. American Library Ass'n, the United States Supreme Court held that filtering provisions of the Children's Internet Protection Act ("CIPA" or "Act") are constitutional and are a valid exercise of Congress's spending power because they do not induce public libraries to violate their patrons' First Amendment rights. The Court also held that CIPA does not place unconstitutional conditions upon public libraries' receipt of federal funding.

Poking Along In The Fast Lane On The Information Super Highway: Territorial-Based Jurisprudence In A Technological World, Brian E. Daughdrill

Mercer Law Review

When Icarus slipped the surly bonds of Earth for the boundless expanses of heaven, he suffered the limitation of wings made of wax. Every school child knows the story of how, enamored with the power and freedom of soaring with the gods, Icarus flew closer and closer to the sun until its heat melted the wax and he fell into the sea.' Though he had transcended the territorial boundaries of Earth, he was limited by the man-created materials with which he escaped.

Today, Icarian adventurers slipping the bonds of a world defined by territories and countries via their departure into …

Reno V. American Civil Liberties Union: First Amendment Free Speech Guarantee Extended To The Internet, Rafic H. Barrage

Mercer Law Review

In Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, the United States Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of two provisions of the Communications Decency Act ("CDA") of 1996. At issue was the validity of the "indecent" transmission and "patently offensive" display provisions of the CDA that attempted to regulate Internet content with the objective of protecting minors from harmful material. The Court struck down both provisions as violative of the First Amendment right to free speech.