Law Commons^™

Licensing As Digital Rights Management, From The Advent Of The Web To The Ipad, Reuven Ashtar

Reuven Ashtar

This Article deals with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s anti-circumvention provision, Section 1201, and its relationship to licensing. It argues that not all digital locks and contractual notices qualify for legal protection under Section 1201, and attributes the courts’ indiscriminate protection of all Digital Rights Management (DRM) measures to the law’s incoherent formulation. The Article proposes a pair of filters that would enable courts to distinguish between those DRM measures that qualify for protection under Section 1201, and those that do not. The filters are shown to align with legislative intent and copyright precedent, as well as the approaches recently …

An Innovation-Centric Approach Of Telecommunications Infrastructure Regulation, Konstantinos Stylianou

Konstantinos Stylianou

This paper considers the mechanics and role of innovation in telecommunications networks, and explains how regulation can be designed to maximize innovation. To better focus on the relationship between innovation and regulation an effort is made to distinguish innovation from competition, although the two concepts are closely related, and several reasons are presented on why the fast changing, networked and technical nature of telecommunications offers a very favorable environment for innovation to thrive, as well as why innovation benefits from a large number of actors. Moreover, the paper further explains that even small players are useful in the innovation process …

The Privacy Bailout: State Government Involvement In The Privacy Arena, Corey A. Ciocchetti

Corey A Ciocchetti

In the midst of massive government involvement in the financial, real estate and automotive sectors, other important problems linger without sufficient governmental attention. This article focuses on one area where federal intervention has been particularly absent - the realm of individual privacy in the Information Age. The problem is that monitoring in the United States is increasingly powerful and takes many forms. Online, prominent Web sites collect, store and disseminate a great deal of personally identifying information (PII) without clearly and simply informing users. This is the case even though such notice is cheap and can be effective. Offline, technology …

Cyberclinics: Law Schools, Technology And Justice, Ronald W. Staudt

Ronald W Staudt

No abstract provided.

The Eavesdropping Employer: A Twenty-First Century Framework For Employee Monitoring, Corey A. Ciocchetti

Corey A Ciocchetti

The twenty-first century continues to usher in new and increasingly-powerful technology. This technology is both a blessing and a curse in the employment arena. Sophisticated monitoring software and hardware allow businesses to conduct basic business transactions, avoid liability, conduct investigations and, ultimately, achieve success in a competitive global environment. Employees can also benefit when monitoring provides immediate feedback, keeps the workforce efficient and focused and discourages unethical/illegal behavior. The same technology, however, allows employers to monitor every detail of their employees’ actions, communications and whereabouts both inside and outside the workplace. As more and more employers conduct some form of …

Workplace Consequences Of Electronic Exhibitionism And Voyeurism, William A. Herbert

William A. Herbert

The popularity of email, blogging and social networking raises important issues for employers, employees and labor unions. This article will explore contemporary workplace issues resulting from the related social phenomena of electronic exhibitionism and voyeurism. It will begin with a discussion of the international social phenomenon of individuals electronically distributing their personal thoughts, opinions, and activities to a potential worldwide audience while at the same time retaining a subjective sense of privacy. The temptation toward such exhibitionism has been substantially enhanced by the advent of Web 2.0. The article then turns to the legal implications of electronic voyeurism including employer …

An Illustration Of Hashing And Its Effect On Illegal File Content In The Digital Age, Stephen Hoffman

Stephen P. Hoffman

I aim to show, through practical examples, that computer forensics techniques such as the use of hash values are inherently flawed in tracking illegal computer files. First, I describe the underlying theory of hashing algorithms and hash values, as well as explain that several U.S. government agencies keep detailed file databases in order to track or detect illegal files, e.g. pirated media or child pornography. These databases include the file’s unique hash values. Then, I provide real examples of hash values using MD5 and SHA-1 hashing algorithms to show how extremely minor alterations to a computer file produce radically different …

Biometrics, Retinal Scanning, And The Right To Privacy In The 21st Century, Stephen Hoffman

Stephen P. Hoffman

Biometric identification techniques such as retinal scanning and fingerprinting have now become commonplace, but near-future improvements on these methods present troubling issues for personal privacy. For example, retinal scanning can be used to diagnose certain medical conditions, even ones for which the patient has no symptoms or has any other way of detecting the problem. If a health insurance company scans the retinas of potential clients before they purchase coverage, they could be charged higher premiums for conditions that do not present any issues. Not only is this unfair, but the ease with which these scans can be conducted—including scanning …

The Rise, Fall And Rise Again Of The Genetic Foundation For Legal Parentage Determination, Yehezkel Margalit

Hezi Margalit

Recently, we have witnessed dramatic changes in the formation of the family and parenthood. One of the results of those shifts is a growing number of children growing up outside of the traditional marriage framework. Therefore, the dilemma of determining a child's parentage, which was usually resolved by a legal fiction as to the child's legal parents, is becoming increasingly problematic. It is appropriate that any discussion of the establishment of legal parentage should start with a study of the rise of the most popular modern model, the genetic model.

It is relevant to point out that from the beginning …

An Evolutionary Study Of Cloud Computing Services Privacy Terms, Konstantinos Stylianou

Konstantinos Stylianou

This paper presents an empirical study on the evolution of privacy terms of cloud computing services. The purpose is to see whether the transition to cloud computing also means that users are bound by more intrusive terms of use that pose a greater threat to their privacy. In that direction several typical cloud services (e.g. GoogleDocs, Amazon EC2) are examined from their start of operation till today and numerous versions of their privacy terms are juxtaposed in an effort to pinpoint and interpret the differences between them. The paper concludes that with the spread of cloud computing services more and …

A Defense Of Stem Cell Research, Gregory Dolin

Gregory Dolin

Isolation of human embryonic stem cells in 1998 simultaneously caused great excitement and concern in the scientific community and the population at large. The great promises that the discovery held were viewed with suspicion by many, because the isolation of these stem cells involved destruction of an embryo, and thus, according to some, destruction of innocent human life. Full ten years later, the debate still rages. The present Article proposes a solution to this debate.The solution concedes that the embryo is a human being entitled to full moral protection. Having made that concession, however, the Article proceeds to argue that …

Fiber Optic Foxes: Virtual Objects And Virtual Worlds Through The Lens Of Pierson V. Post And The Law Of Capture, John W. Nelson

John W. Nelson

Virtual worlds are more successfully blurring the lines between real and virtual. This tempts many to try and equate virtual property with tangible property. Such an equation creates problems when the common law of property is applied to virtual objects over which users can not possess complete dominion and control. The result is a conversion of the tangible resources that support virtual worlds into a virtual commons. Accordingly, the common law of contracts, rather than that of property, should be used to govern transactions between a user and owner of a virtual world.

International Harmonization Of Regulation Of Nanomedicine, Gary E. Marchant, Douglas J. Sylvester, Kenneth W. Abbott, Tara Lynn Danforth

Gary E. Marchant

Nanomedicine holds enormous promise for the improved prevention, detection and treatment of disease. Yet, at the same time, countervailing concerns about the potential safety risks of nanotechnologies generally, and nanomedical products specifically, threaten to derail or at least delay the introduction and commercial viability of many nanomedicine applications. All around the globe, national governments are struggling with balancing these competing benefits and risks of nanotechnology in the medical and other sectors. It is becoming increasingly clear that reasonable, effective and predictable regulatory structures will be critical to the successful implementation of nanotechnology. The question examined in this paper is whether …

International Harmonization Of Regulation Of Nanomedicine, Gary E. Marchant, Douglas J. Sylvester, Kenneth W. Abbott, Tara Lynn Danforth

Gary E. Marchant

Nanomedicine holds enormous promise for the improved prevention, detection and treatment of disease. Yet, at the same time, countervailing concerns about the potential safety risks of nanotechnologies generally, and nanomedical products specifically, threaten to derail or at least delay the introduction and commercial viability of many nanomedicine applications. All around the globe, national governments are struggling with balancing these competing benefits and risks of nanotechnology in the medical and other sectors. It is becoming increasingly clear that reasonable, effective and predictable regulatory structures will be critical to the successful implementation of nanotechnology. The question examined in this paper is whether …

Of Mice And Men: Why An Anticommons Has Not Emerged In The Biotechnological Realm, Chester J. Shiu

Chester J Shiu

In 1998 Michael Heller and Rebecca Eisenberg posited that excessive patenting of fundamental biomedical innovations might create a “tragedy of the anticommons.” A decade later, their dire predictions have not come to pass, an outcome which calls much of the legal scholarship on the topic into question. This Article proposes that legal commentators’ theoretical arguments have largely ignored two very important factors. First, the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—the single most important actor in the biomedical research industry—has played an active role in keeping the biomedical research domain open. In particular, regardless of what the current patent regime may theoretically …