Law Commons^™

Digital Colonialism: The 21st Century Scramble For Africa Through The Extraction And Control Of User Data And The Limitations Of Data Protection Laws, Danielle Coleman

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

As Western technology companies increasingly rely on user data globally, extensive data protection laws and regulations emerged to ensure ethical use of that data. These same protections, however, do not exist uniformly in the resource-rich, infrastructure-poor African countries, where Western tech seeks to establish its presence. These conditions provide an ideal landscape for digital colonialism.

Digital colonialism refers to a modern-day “Scramble for Africa” where largescale tech companies extract, analyze, and own user data for profit and market influence with nominal benefit to the data source. Under the guise of altruism, large scale tech companies can use their power and …

Technology, Ethics, And Access To Justice: Should An Alogrithm Be Deciding Your Case?, Anjanette H. Raymond, Scott J. Shackelford

Michigan Journal of International Law

At a time of U.S. budget cuts, popularly known as the “sequester,” court systems across the nation are facing financial shortfalls. Small claims courts are no exception. Among the worst hit states is California, which is suffering staffing cutbacks that result in long delays prompting consideration of the old maxim, “justice delayed is justice denied.” Similar problems, albeit on a larger scale, are evident in other nations including India where the Law Commission has argued that the millions of pending cases combined with the lagging uptake of technological best practices has impeded judicial productivity, leading to “disappointment and dissatisfaction among …

Google Adwords: Trademark Infringer Or Trade Liberalizer, Ashley Tan

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

Google is the world's most preferred search engine, with an audience share of eighty percent of Internet users worldwide. With so many people browsing its search results, Google is a natural advertising vehicle, and it has exploited this quality to become one of the most profitable Internet companies in U.S. history. However, success has not come without controversy, and one of the most significant concerns Google AdWords, which displays keyword-triggered ads and sponsored links alongside non-sponsored search results. AdWords has come under attack in the United States and in the European Union ("EU") for its role in trademark infringement on …

Festo: A Case Contravening The Convergence Of Doctrine Of Equivalents Jurisprudence In Germany, The United Kingdom, And The United States, Katherine E. White

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

Despite differences in patent law jurisprudence in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, the fundamental principles underlying each system serve the same basic purpose: to encourage technological innovation and dissemination of knowledge. In granting exclusive patent rights, it is important that the scope of patent protection not be so broad as to remove existing knowledge from the public domain. The scope of protection should strike a balance between granting adequate patent rights while preserving the public's ownership in the public domain or the prior art. To encourage innovation patentees must attain significant exclusive rights, while potential infringers receive …

Japan's High Technology Industries: Lessons And Limitations Of Industrial Policy, Steven R. Englund

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Japan's High Technology Industries: Lessons and Limitations of Industrial Policy edited by Hugh Patrick

Performer's Rights And Digital Sampling Under U.S. And Japanese Law, Jessica D. Litman

Articles

A year or two ago, one of my copyright students called to my attention a problem that seemed to him to pose unique difficulties for the copyright statute. The problem arises because of a technology called digital sampling.' Digital sampling is a new threat to performers' rights that has grown out of the combination of digital recording technology with music synthesizer technology. This threat is a very recent one. Indeed, the digital sampling problem is so new that copyright lawyers haven't yet figured out how to think about it.

The Limitations On The Protection Of Program Works Under Japanese Copyright Law, Dennis S. Karjala

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article examines these problems in the light of the program language, rule, and algorithm limitations on program protection under the Japanese Copyright Act. Section II sets forth the relevant statutory language, and Sections III and IV apply the program language and rule limitations to operating systems software and microcode. Section V considers the scope of protection under Japanese law in applications programs under the algorithm limitation on program protection. Finally, Section VI takes up the problem of whether copying for purposes of reverse engineering can be justified under the Act.

Computer Technology And Copyright- A Review Of Legislative And Judicial Developments In Japan, Teruo Doi

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article discusses and evaluates the legislative and judicial developments after the enactment of the Copyright Law which apply to computer programs and other computer-related technology. It examines: (1) the 1985 amendment to the Copyright Law enacted to protect computer programs, including the history of discussions by government agencies and judicial determinations that led to the amendment; (2) the 1986 Program Registration Law which supplements the existing provisions of the Copyright Law concerning registration; (3) the protection of databases under a new amendment to the Copyright Law; (4) the regulation of software rental business by the establishment of a public …

Recognition Of Proprietary Interests In Software In Korea: Programming For Comprehensive Reform, Byoung Kook Min, Gary Sullivan

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article will review the legal environment and major issues concerning software protection in the Republic of Korea, and will describe the existing applicable laws and regulations and the trend towards software protection in the region. In addition, the implications of Korea's pending accession to the Universal Copyright Convention will be analyzed. Finally, this article will conclude with a discussion of the current reforms and their implications for Korean international trade law.

Some Problems Of Legal Regulation Of The Use Of Computer Technology In Czechoslovakia, Viktor Knapp

Michigan Journal of International Law

Technical progress is one of the most important elements of social development which necessarily causes change in the law. In the past few decades computer technology has become very important. As a component of technical progress, computer technology has given rise to new social relations which require legal regulation. Such regulation, however, is not provided adequately by existing legal rules in the contemporary Czechoslovak legal system.

Whither The Future Of Japanese Industrial Development Policies?, Merit E. Janow

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article describes past and present Japanese industrial policies. After discussing the evolution of Japanese industrial policies generally, it addresses the specific instruments of those policies including those intended to assist declining industries as well as those intended to promote the development of new industries. Finally, this article suggests that government guidance of Japan's industrial sector has decreased and is likely to decrease further still in the future.

Technology Diffusion And The Performance Of American Manufacturing: A Propsal For An Industrial Extension Service, Frank Ostroff

Michigan Journal of International Law

The purpose of this article is to propose an Industrial Extension Service modeled upon the Agricultural Extension Service, and suggest how it might effectively address certain fundamental problems hindering the performance of the American manufacturing sector. Part I highlights some probable causes of American manufacturing's declining relative performance. Part II discusses why firms may adopt new technology more slowly than would be optimal. Part III considers the model of the Agricultural Extension Service, pointing out those features that make it attractive and those features that would have to be changed in applying it to the industrial sector. Part III also …