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Net Neutrality, Free Speech, And Democracy In The Internet Age, Dawn C. Nunziato
Net Neutrality, Free Speech, And Democracy In The Internet Age, Dawn C. Nunziato
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
Professor Nunziato's book explains why the growth of the Internet as the most open forum for free expression in history is now threatened by the privatization of the Internet, the gatekeeper control over expression exercised by a handful of corporate owners, and their power to censor what we say and read online. She sets forth how we got to this place and what must be done about it to guarantee meaningful free speech rights in the Internet age.
Law And Society Approaches To Cyberspace, Paul Schiff Berman
Law And Society Approaches To Cyberspace, Paul Schiff Berman
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
This is the introductory essay to an edited collection titled Law and Society Approaches to Cyberspace and published by Ashgate Publishing. Accordingly, the essay first considers what qualifies as a law and society approach to any particular subject. Then, I address questions about what it means to study cyberspace, surveying some of the academic literature on the subject and identifying three distinct waves of scholarship about the Internet since the mid 1990s. I also discuss some of the major theoretical fault lines that have emerged during this period. Finally, the essay summarizes each of the contributions to the volume, which …
The Globalization Of Jurisdiction, Paul Schiff Berman
The Globalization Of Jurisdiction, Paul Schiff Berman
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
This Article begins by surveying the myriad ways that increasing globalization of communication, travel, and trade, and in particular the rise of the Internet, have forced judges and legal scholars to "adapt" traditional rules for legal jurisdiction to the new economic and social environment. For example, if a person posts content online that is legal where posted but illegal in some place where it is viewed, can that person be subject to suit in the far-off location? How should the International Shoe "minimum contacts" test account for online contacts? Is online activity sufficient to make one "present" in a jurisdiction …
Access And Aggregation: Privacy, Public Records, And The Constitution, Daniel J. Solove
Access And Aggregation: Privacy, Public Records, And The Constitution, Daniel J. Solove
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
In this article, Professor Solove develops a theory to reconcile the tension between transparency and privacy in the context of public records. Federal and state governments maintain public records containing personal information spanning an individual's life from birth to death. The web of state and federal regulation that governs the accessibility of these records generally creates a default rule in open access to information. Solove contends that the ready availability of public records creates a significant problem for privacy because various bits of information when aggregated paint a detailed portrait of a person's life that Solove refers to as a …
Privacy And Power: Computer Databases And Metaphors For Information Privacy, Daniel J. Solove
Privacy And Power: Computer Databases And Metaphors For Information Privacy, Daniel J. Solove
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
Journalists, politicians, jurists, and legal academics often describe the privacy problem created by the collection and use of personal information through computer databases and the Internet with the metaphor of Big Brother - the totalitarian government portrayed in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. Professor Solove argues that this is the wrong metaphor. The Big Brother metaphor as well as much of the law that protects privacy emerges from a longstanding paradigm for conceptualizing privacy problems. Under this paradigm, privacy is invaded by uncovering one's hidden world, by surveillance, and by the disclosure of concealed information. The harm caused by such invasions …
Exit, Voice, And Values On The Net, Dawn C. Nunziato
Exit, Voice, And Values On The Net, Dawn C. Nunziato
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
Professor Lawrence Lessig makes the (rather dire) prediction in Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace that the Internet will be transformed from an unregulated medium into a highly regulated one. Lessig posits that the Net will largely be regulated not by the government but by commercial entities - in particular, by the software (or code) written by entities such as AOL and IBM. While the government's regulatory power is limited by the Constitution, regulation by commercial entities is not. For example, Internet service providers can censor "indecent" speech on the Net largely free of constitutional constraints. The "Net libertarians" applaud …