Law Commons^™

Technology Convergence And Federalism: Who Should Decide The Future Of Telecommunications Regulation?, Daniel A. Lyons

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article critically examines the division of regulatory jurisdiction over telecommunications issues between the federal government and the states. Currently, the line between federal and state jurisdiction varies depending on the service at issue. This compartmentalization might have made sense fifteen years ago, but the advent of technology convergence has largely rendered this model obsolete. Yesterday's telephone and cable companies now compete head-to-head to offer consumers the vaunted "triple play" of voice, video, and internet services. But these telecommunications companies are finding it increasingly difficult to fit new operations into arcane, rigid regulatory compartments. Moreover, services that consumers view as …

Struggling With Sunshine: Analyzing The Impact Of Technology On Compliance With Open Government Laws Using Florida As A Case Study, Sandra F. Chance, Christine M. Locke

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Google-Nsa Alliance: Developing Cybersecurity Policy At Internet Speed, Stephanie A. Devos

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Internet Publications And Defamation: Why The Single Publication Rule Should Not Apply, Odelia Braun

Golden Gate University Law Review

This vast use of the Internet changes the scope of harm associated with defamation. Communications on the Internet are more pervasive than print. For this reason, they have tremendous power to damage a person's reputation. Once a message enters cyberspace, millions of people worldwide can gain access to it. Any posted message or report can be republished by printing, or more commonly, by forwarding it instantly to a different location, leading to potentially endless replication. The power to defame others over the Internet is extraordinary.

It's Just Another Little Bit Of History Repeating: Ucita In The Evolving Age Of Information, Thomas J. Murphy

Golden Gate University Law Review

This article will address the procedural and substantive reasons why UCITA is, in fact, overly ambitious. With regard to procedure, Part II.A of this comment will outline the historical naissance and development of the highly successful Uniform Commercial Code and contrast that with the development of UCITA. With regard to substance, Part II.B will address what many practitioners have cited as key objections to UCITA. Further, Part II.B discusses examples of terms used in UCITA and compares them to those of common, established practice. Differentiating UCITA from the UCC in these ways will illustrate how UCITA misses the mark it …

Nowhere To Run ... Nowhere To Hide: Trademark Holders Reign Supreme In Panavision Lnt'l, L.P. V. Toeppen., Scott D. Sanford

Golden Gate University Law Review

This note discusses the procedural history of Panavision. Part III surveys the evolving application of personal jurisdiction in the various courts as applied to the Internet through minimum contacts and the Calder "effects test." Part IV outlines the Ninth Circuit's analysis of personal jurisdiction in Panavision. Part V critiques the Ninth Circuit's analysis, focusing particularly on several flaws in the court's reasoning. Part VI summarizes the effect that the decision in Panavision will have on future suits involving the Internet.

A Pig In The Parlor: An Examination Of Legislation Directed At Obscenity And Indecency On The Internet, Andrew Spett

Golden Gate University Law Review

The Internet, or ARPAnet, was originally developed by the U.S. Defense Department to support military research. As academics were invited to use the system, word of the system's research utility quickly spread. As the popularity of the computer increased, public consumer demand for access to the Internet increased. Consequently, the Internet quickly became a household word, no longer confined to government or academic circles. Currently, the Internet accommodates million users, and the numbers increase daily. In light of the expanse and growing importance of the Internet, this Comment will discuss the history and application of obscenity laws. This Comment will …

Possessing Trademarks: Can Blackstone Or Locke Apply To Fast Food, Grocery Stores, And Virtual Sex Toys?, Jesse R. Dill

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Trademark law has evolved extensively over time and is justified today for different reasons than when American law first recognized it. Scholars today question whether trademarks should now be accepted as a form of real property. Two examples of trademark problems in the global economy demonstrate that the time has come for marks to be recognized as property. Whether business entities are entering new territories or consumers are crossing borders to new jurisdictions with greater ease than ever before, trademark must adapt to the demands of modern commercial competitors. This Comment takes the position that these demands require treating trademarks …

State Regulation Of Resale Price Maintenance On The Internet: The Constitutional Problems With The 2009 Amendment To The Maryland Antitrust Act, Katherine M. Brockmeyer

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Technology Law - Great Google-Y Moogley: The Effect And Enforcement Of Click Fraud And Online Advertising, Amy Tracy

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Internet Governance And Democratic Legitimacy, Oliver Sylvain

Federal Communications Law Journal

Even as the Internet goes pop, federal policymakers continue to surrender their statutory obligation to regulate communications in the first instance to extralegal nongovernmental organizations comprised of technical experts. The FCC's adjudication of a dispute concerning a major broadband service provider's network management practices is a case in point. There, in the absence of any enforceable legislative or regulatory rule, the FCC turned principally to the transmission principles of the Internet Engineering Taskforce, the preeminent nongovernmental Internet engineering standard-setting organization. This impulse to defer as a matter of course to such an organization without any legal mechanism requiring as much …

Can Newspapers Be Saved? How Copyright Law Can Save Newspapers From The Challenges Of New Media, Keiyana Fordham

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Everything In Its Right Place: Social Cooperation And Artist Compensation, Leah Belsky, Byron Kahr, Max Berkelhammer, Yochai Benkler

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

The music industry's crisis response to the Internet has been the primary driver of U.S. copyright policy for over a decade. The core institutional response has been to increase the scope of copyright and the use of litigation, prosecution, and technical control mechanisms for its enforcement. The assumption driving these efforts has been that without heavily-enforced copyright, artists will not be able to make a living from their art. Throughout this period artists have been experimenting with approaches that do not rely on technological or legal enforcement, but on constructing web-based business models that engage fans and rely on voluntary …

Ill Telecommunications: How Internet Infrastructure Providers Lose First Amendment Protection, Nicholas Bramble

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently proposed an Internet nondiscrimination rule: "Subject to reasonable network management, a provider of broadband Internet access service must treat lawful content, applications, and services in a nondiscriminatory manner." Among other requests, the FCC sought comment on whether the proposed nondiscrimination rule would "promote free speech, civic participation, and democratic engagement," and whether it would "impose any burdens on access providers' speech that would be cognizable for purposes of the First Amendment." The purpose of this Article is to suggest that a wide range of responses to these First Amendment questions, offered by telecommunications providers …

Media-Rich Input Application Liability, David R. Krohn, Pekarek

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

Until recently, media-rich online interactions were mostly unidirectional: multimedia content was delivered by the service provider to the user. Input from the user came almost exclusively in the form of text. Even when searching the Internet for images or audio, a user typically entered text into a search engine. In addition, search engines indexed multimedia content by analyzing not the content itself but the text surrounding it. This is rapidly changing. With the rise of multimedia-capable smartphones and wireless broadband, applications that allow users to search using non-textual inputs are quickly becoming popular. These applications go much further than simply …

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 …

Notice, Takedown, And The Good-Faith Standard: How To Protect Internet Users From Bad-Faith Removal Of Web Content, Benjamin Wilson

Saint Louis University Public Law Review

No abstract provided.

You Can Have It, But Can You Hold It?: Treating Domain Names As Tangible Property, Daniel Hancock

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Online Auction House Liability For The Sale Of Trademark Infringing Products, Allison N. Ziegler

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

With the rise of the Internet, trademark owners have seen an increase in online trademark infringement. This Comment examines online auction house liability for the sale of trademark infringing products and the methodology used by courts in making this determination. The author outlines contributory trademark jurisprudence in the United States and France and the application of this jurisprudence in Tiffany v. EBay and LVMH v. EBay, respectively. The article then evaluates the implications of the two approaches to determine which approach is more practical and effective. The author concludes that online auction houses should not be liable for trademark infringement …

Comparacion Historica Y Contemporanea De Los Esfuerzos Legales De Brasil Y Los Estados Unidos Para Acorralar La Piratedria De Musica Digital Y Software P2p, Nolan Garrido

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

Hoy en dia las compras legales de mfisica en linea han subido notablemente.

Settling For Less? An Analysis Of The Possibility Of Positive Legal Precedent On The Internet If The Google Book Search Litigation Had Not Reached A Settlement, Brooke Ericson

Intellectual Property Brief

No abstract provided.

Policing The Information Super Highway: Custom's Role In Digital Piracy, Andrew Haberman

Intellectual Property Brief

No abstract provided.

Online Auction Sites And Inconsistencies: A Case Study Of France, China, And The United States, Won Hee Elaine Lee

Intellectual Property Brief

No abstract provided.

Settling For Less? An Analysis Of The Possibility Of Positive Legal Precedent On The Internet If The Google Book Search Litigation Had Not Reached A Settlement, Brooke Ericson

Intellectual Property Brief

No abstract provided.

Online Auction Sites And Inconsistencies: A Case Study Of France, China, And The United States, Won Hee Elaine Lee

Intellectual Property Brief

No abstract provided.

Creating Effective Broadband Network Regulation, Daniel L. Brenner

Federal Communications Law Journal

The Internet is central to the business and pastimes of Americans. Calls for increased regulation are ongoing, inevitable, and often justified. But calls for "network neutrality" or "nondiscrimination" assume with little hesitation federal agency competence to give predictable and accurate meaning to these terms and create regulations to implement them. This Article's chief contribution to Internet policy debate is to focus attention on the likelihood of successful FCC Internet regulation-a key assumption of some advocates.

The Article analyzes three characteristics that hobble the FCC, which is the likeliest federal agency to provide prescriptive rules. First, the record for the agency …

Virtually Enabled: How Title Iii Of The Americans With Disabilities Act Might Be Applied To Online Virtual Worlds, Joshua Newton

Federal Communications Law Journal

The rise and popularity of online virtual worlds, such as World of Warcraft and Second Life, holds significant promise for people with disabilities. For people who are unable to easily leave home or travel, virtual worlds provide a public venue, wherein people may interact freely without the social stigma that accompanies disability. However, access to these virtual worlds may be inhibited by physical, visual, or aural impairments, and virtual-world developers can be hostile to modifying their products to mitigate these difficulties. Thus, some disability advocates have turned to Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, arguing that places of …

Update: Coppa Is Ineffective Legislation! Next Steps For Protecting Youth Privacy Rights In The Social Networking Era, Lauren A. Matecki

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

In 1998, Congress passed the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in response to growing concerns over the dissemination of children's personal information over the Internet. Under COPPA's provisions, websites are prohibited from collecting personal information from children under the age of twelve without "verifiable parental consent." While in theory COPPA sought to provide parents the control over their children's personal information on the Internet, its practical effect causes websites to attempt to ban children through age screening mechanisms that remain largely ineffective.Twelve years after the passage of COPPA, the landscape of the Internet is dramatically changed. Social networking websites …

Whose Burden Is It Anyway? Addressing The Needs Of Content Owners In Dmca Safe Harbors, Greg Janson

Federal Communications Law Journal

Much of today's network neutrality debate addresses concerns that cable providers will limit access to competing Web-based services delivering multimedia content. While proposals to mandate nondiscrimination for all Internet traffic surely will help create a competitive environment where online entertainment providers can prosper, ISP interference is not the only threat. Online entertainment sites that relay user-generated content are threatened by crippling litigation brought by copyright holders for actions taken by third parties using their services. Reliance on the safe harbors provided in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act has, in most cases, proved unsuccessful. This Note addresses the concerns of both …

Margae, Inc. V. Clear Link Technologies, Jonathan Goodman

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.