Law Commons^™

Hidden Contracts, Shmuel I. Becher, Uri Benoliel

BYU Law Review

Transparency is a promising means for enhancing democratic values, countering corruption, and reducing power abuse. Nonetheless, the potential of transparency in the domain of consumer contracts is untapped. This Article suggests utilizing the power of transparency to increase consumer access to justice, better distribute technological gains between businesses and consumers, and deter sellers from breaching their consumer contracts while exploiting consumers’ inferior position.

In doing so, this Article focuses on what we dub “Hidden Contracts.” Part I conceptualizes the idea of hidden contracts. It first defines hidden contracts as consumer form contracts that firms unilaterally modify and subsequently remove from …

Byte A Carrot For Change: Uprooting Problems In Data Privacy Regulations, Sarah Terry

BYU Law Review

There is a growing gap between technology advancement and a lagging regulatory system. This is particularly problematic in consumer data privacy regulating. Companies hold collected consumer data and determine its use largely without accountability. As a result, ethical questions that carry society-shaping impact are answered in-house, under the influence of groupthink, and are withheld from anyone else weighing in.

This Note poses a solution that would address multiple data privacy regulation issues. Namely, an incentive approach would help even out the information-imbalanced system. Incentives are used as tools throughout intellectual property law to foster commercial progress, discourage trade secrets, and …

Updating The Berne Convention For The Internet Age: Un-Blurring The Line Between United States And Foreign Copyrighted Works, Ethan Schow

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

John Naughton, notable journalist and academic, has asserted that “[common sense] should also revolt at the idea that doctrines about copyright that were shaped in a pre-Internet age should apply to a post-Internet one.” And yet, in crucial aspects of international law, this is the situation in which the world finds itself today. The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (the “Berne Convention” or the “Convention”) is one of the most important multinational agreements concerned with copyright law, but it has not been amended since September 28, 1979. Although the internet technically existed in an early …

Instigator And Proxy Liability In The Context Of Information Operations, Carolyn Sharp

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

The Internet Immunity Escape Hatch, Gregory M. Dickinson

BYU Law Review

Internet immunity doctrine is broken, and Congress is helpless. Under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, online entities are absolutely immune from lawsuits related to content authored by third parties. The law has been essential to the internet’s development over the last twenty years, but it has not kept pace with the times and is now deeply flawed. Democrats demand accountability for online misinformation. Republicans decry politically motivated censorship. And all have come together to criticize Section 230’s protection of bad-actor websites. The law’s defects have put it at the center of public debate, with more than …

Intellectual Property In E-Commerce Retail Arbitrage: An Analysis Of The Legality Of Using Intellectual Property In Drop-Shipping, Kara J. Bloomer

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Moderating From Nowhere, Gilad Abiri

BYU Law Review

We are living in the midst of a battle over online hate speech regulation, and the stakes could not be higher. Hate speech not only harms its intended victims, be they individuals or groups, but it also polarizes and divides society in ways that undermine the health of democratic regimes. While there is widespread agreement that the current situation of online discourse is untenable, scholars and policymakers are deeply divided on the best way to improve it.

Until recently, American free speech norms have dominated the content moderation policies of digital media platforms. First Amendment norms are extremely resistant to …

Cybersecurity Spillovers, Mark Verstraete, Tal Zarsky

BYU Law Review

This Article identifies and analyzes a previously unrecognized source of positive externalities within cybersecurity, which we term "cybersecurity spillovers". Most commentators have focused on negative externalities and market failures, leading to a pervasive pessimism about the possibility of adequate cybersecurity protections. In response, this Article demonstrates that unique dynamics from the world of cloud computing – most notably, indivisibility – may force cloud service firms to generate spillovers. These spillovers are additional security protections provided to common cloud users: clients who may not have been willing or able to acquire these security services otherwise. Furthermore, this additional source of security …

Conflict Of Laws For The Age Of Cybertorts: A Game Theoretic Study Of Corporate Profiteering From Choice Of Law Loopholes And Interstate Torts, Yunsieg P. Kim

BYU Law Review

This Article identifies a choice of law loophole that corporations can exploit to commit interstate torts against individuals without paying damages by inducing victims to sue in a state where they are guaranteed to lose. The Second Restatement effectively requires plaintiffs bringing interstate tort claims to allege which state has the most significant relationship to their injury, because most federal courts rely on plaintiffs allegations to choose a state law for the purpose of resolving motions to dismiss. However, when torts are committed over state lines (for example, over the internet), plaintiffs can be misinformed or misled as to where …

Reputation Systems Bias In The Platform Workplace, E. Gary Spitko

BYU Law Review

Online reputation systems enable the providers and consumers of a product or service to rate one another and allow others to rely upon those reputation scores in deciding whether to engage with a particular provider or consumer. Reputation systems are an intrinsic feature of the platform workplace, in which a platform operator, such as Uber or TaskRabbit, intermediates between the provider of a service and the consumer of that service. Operators typically rely upon consumer ratings of providers in rewarding and penalizing providers. Thus, these reputation systems allow an operator to achieve enormous scale while maintaining quality control and user …

Copyright’S Memory Hole, Eric Goldman, Jessica Silbey

BYU Law Review

There is growing interest in using copyright to protect the privacy and reputation of people depicted in copyrighted works. This pressure is driven by heightened concerns about privacy and reputation on the Internet, plus copyright’s plaintiff-favorable attributes compared to traditional privacy and reputation torts.

The Constitution authorizes copyright law because its exclusive rights benefit society by increasing our knowledge. But copyright law is being misdeployed by suppressing socially valuable works in a counterproductive attempt to advance privacy and reputation interests. This results in “memory holes” in society’s knowledge, analogous to those discussed in George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984.

This Article …

“My Computer Is My Castle”: New Privacy Frameworks To Regulate Police Hacking, Ivan Škorvánek, Bert-Jaap Koops, Bryce Clayton Newell, Andrew Roberts

BYU Law Review

Several countries have recently introduced laws allowing the police to hack into suspects’ computers. Legislators recognize that police hacking is highly intrusive to personal privacy but consider it justified by the increased use of encryption and mobile computing—both of which challenge traditional investigative methods. Police hacking also exemplifies a major challenge to the way legal systems deal with, and conceptualize, privacy. Existing conceptualizations of privacy and privacy rights do not always adequately address the types and degrees of intrusion into individuals’ private lives that police hacking powers enable.

Traditional privacy pillars such as the home and secrecy of communications do …

Kill Me Through The Phone: The Legality Of Encouraging Suicide In An Increasingly Digital World, Sierra Taylor

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Saving The Internet: Why Regulating Broadband Providers Can Keep The Internet Open, Emma N. Cano

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Upping The Ante: Rethinking Anti-Slapp Laws In The Age Of The Internet, Andrew L. Roth

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Establishing Russia's Responsibility For Cyber-Crime Based On Its Hacker Culture, Trevor Mcdougal

Brigham Young University International Law & Management Review

No abstract provided.

Cybercrime And Punishment: The Russian Mafia And Russian Responsibility To Exercise Due Diligence To Prevent Trans-Boundary Cybercrime, Daniel Ortner

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Off-Campus Cyberbullying: First Amendment Problems, Parameters, And Proposal, David R. Hostetler

Brigham Young University Education and Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Trade-Off That Becomes A Rip-Off: When Schools Can't Regulate Cyberbullying, Stacie A. Stewart

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Not Lol: Legal Issues Encountered During One High School's Response To Sexting, R. Stewart Mayers Ph.D., Mike F. Desiderio Ph.D.

Brigham Young University Education and Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Defamation Is More Than Just A Tort: A New Constitutional Standard For Internet Student Speech, Reesa Miles

Brigham Young University Education and Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Digitally Unknown: Why The Ninth Circuit Should Wish To Remain Anonymous In In Re Anonymous Online Speakers, Brandon T. Crowther

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Searching For A Trademarks Test: The Ninth Circuit’S Query In Network Automation, R. Gregory Israelsen

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Can Students Be Disciplined For Off-Campus Cyberspeech?: The Reach Of The First Amendment In The Age Of Technology, Allan G. Osborne Jr., Charles J. Russo

Brigham Young University Education and Law Journal

No abstract provided.

(Un)Reasonable Expectation Of Digital Privacy, Brandon T. Crowther

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Unwrapping Shrinkwraps, Clickwraps, And Browsewraps: How The Law Went Wrong From Horse Traders To The Law Of The Horse, Cheryl B. Preston, Eli W. Mccann

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

This Article starts with the famous "horse trades" (typically between A and B and for 10£) from early discussions of contract law, and proceeds through Judge Burrough's enduring "unruly horse" and Karl Llewellyn's Across Sales on Horseback and The First Struggle to Unhorse Wares, to provide background for a critique of the recent judicial liberality in enforcing online contracts. We then focus on role of Judge Frank Easterbrook, who has personally insulted the place of the horse in law, and his infamous opinion in ProCD v. Zeidenberg. This case fueled the enforcement of clickwrap and browsewrap contracts by decaying assent …

Adverse Publicity By Administrative Agencies In The Internet Era, Nathan Cortez

BYU Law Review

Nearly forty years ago, Ernest Gellhorn documented the potentially devastating impact that can occur when federal agencies issue adverse publicity about private parties. Based on his article, the Administrative Conference of the United States recommended that courts, Congress, and agencies hold agencies to clear standards for issuing such publicity. In the decades since, some agencies have adopted standards, but most have not, and neither the courts nor Congress has intervened to impose standards. Today, agencies continue to use countless forms of publicity to pressure alleged regulatory violators and to amplify their overall enforcement powers—all without affording due process or other …

Teacher Facebook Speech: Protected Or Not?, Rachel A. Miller

Brigham Young University Education and Law Journal

No abstract provided.

School Response To Cyberbullying And Sexting: The Legal Challenges, Nancy Willard

Brigham Young University Education and Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Data Protection: The Challenges Facing Social Networking, Daniel B. Garrie, Maureen Duffy-Lewis, Rebecca Wong, Richard L. Gillespie

Brigham Young University International Law & Management Review

No abstract provided.