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Full-Text Articles in Law

Does Legalzoom Have First Amendment Rights? Some Thoughts About Freedom Of Speech And The Unauthorized Practice Of Law, Catherine J. Lanctot Aug 2011

Does Legalzoom Have First Amendment Rights? Some Thoughts About Freedom Of Speech And The Unauthorized Practice Of Law, Catherine J. Lanctot

Working Paper Series

At a time of economic dislocation in the legal profession, it is likely that bar regulators will turn their attention to pursuing lay entities that appear to be engaged in the unauthorized practice of law. One prominent target of these efforts is LegalZoom, an online document preparer that has come under increasing pressure from the organized bar for its marketing and sale of basic legal documents. As regulatory pressure against LegalZoom and similar companies continues to mount, it is worth considering whether there may be unanticipated consequences from pursuing these unauthorized practice claims. In several well-known instances, lay people have …


Compliance With Advance Directives: Wrongful Living And Tort Law Incentives, Holly Lynch, Michele Mathes, Nadia Sawicki Feb 2011

Compliance With Advance Directives: Wrongful Living And Tort Law Incentives, Holly Lynch, Michele Mathes, Nadia Sawicki

Nadia N. Sawicki

Modern ethical and legal norms generally require that deference be accorded to patients' decisions regarding treatment, including decisions to refuse life-sustaining care, even when patients no longer have the capacity to communicate those decisions to their physicians. Advance directives were developed as a means by which a patient's autonomy regarding medical care might survive such incapacity. Unfortunately, preserving patient autonomy at the end of life has been no simple task. First, it has been difficult to persuade patients to prepare for incapacity by making their wishes known. Second, even when they have done so, there is a distinct possibility that …


Cyberclinics: Law Schools, Technology And Justice, Ronald W. Staudt Jan 2011

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

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Google Books Rejected: Taking The Orphans To The Digital Library Of Alexandria, Giancarlo Francesco Frosio Jan 2011

Google Books Rejected: Taking The Orphans To The Digital Library Of Alexandria, Giancarlo Francesco Frosio

Giancarlo Francesco Frosio

The idea of the Library of Alexandria has powerfully expanded over the centuries, embodying the dream of universal wisdom and knowledge centralized in one single place. Digitization projects, such as the Google books project, are reviving the hope that this dream may come true. Moreover, the ubiquity of the networked environment promises to open access to this aiber-library to everybody with an Internet connection. Today the entire collection of human knowledge may be only one click away. Whether the dream of the Library ofAlexandria will be achieved by the Google books project is highly debated. Recently, a court decision concluded …


Licensing As Digital Rights Management, From The Advent Of The Web To The Ipad, Reuven Ashtar Jan 2011

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 Jan 2011

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 Jan 2011

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 …


"Hot News": The Enduring Myth Of Property In News, Shyamkrishna Balganesh Jan 2011

"Hot News": The Enduring Myth Of Property In News, Shyamkrishna Balganesh

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Are Those Who Ignore History Doomed To Repeat It?, Peter Decherney, Nathan Ensmenger, Christopher S. Yoo Jan 2011

Are Those Who Ignore History Doomed To Repeat It?, Peter Decherney, Nathan Ensmenger, Christopher S. Yoo

All Faculty Scholarship

In The Master Switch, Tim Wu argues that four leading communications industries have historically followed a single pattern that he calls “the Cycle.” Because Wu’s argument is almost entirely historical, the cogency of its claims and the force of its policy recommendations depends entirely on the accuracy and completeness of its treatment of the historical record. Specifically, he believes that industries begin as open, only to be transformed into closed systems by a great corporate mogul until some new form of ingenuity restarts the Cycle anew. Interestingly, even taken at face value, many of the episodes described in the …


Cyberclinics: Law Schools, Technology And Justice, Ronald W. Staudt Dec 2010

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 Dec 2010

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 Dec 2010

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 …