Law Commons^™

Why Copyright Falls Behind The Requirement For Protecting Graphic User Interfaces: Case Studies On Limitations Of Copyright Protection For Guis In China, Ling Jin, Yihong Ying

IP Theory

No abstract provided.

Access For All: A Review Of “Law Libraries, Government Transparency, And The Internet,” A Presentation By Daniel Schuman Of The Sunlight Foundation At The All-Sis Meeting, July 22, 2012, Susan David Demaine

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Attendees at the ALL-SIS Breakfast and Business Meeting at the AALL Annual Meeting had the pleasure of hearing from Daniel Schuman of the Sunlight Foundation speak on “Law Libraries, Government Transparency, and the Internet.” The Sunlight Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization whose mission is to increase access to federal government information resources through advocacy and the development of information technology tools.

Wikileaks And The First Amendment, Geoffrey R. Stone

Federal Communications Law Journal

FCBA Distinguished Speaker Series

In November 2010, Julian Assange's WikiLeaks collaborated with major media organizations to release thousands of classified U.S. State Department documents. American soldier Bradley Manning stands accused of leaking those documents to the website. In response, Congress introduced the SHIELD Act to amend the Espionage Act of 1917, making it a crime for any person to disseminate any classified information concerning American intelligence or the identity of a classified informant. Such sweeping language, while possibly constitutional as applied to government employees like Manning, is plainly unconstitutional as applied to those like Assange and WikiLeaks who subsequently publish …

Law And The Open Internet, Adam Candeub, Daniel Mccartney

Federal Communications Law Journal

The FCC has issued a new set of Internet access regulations and policies (namely Preserving the Open Internet Broadband Industry Practices, Report and Order, FCC 10-201, rel. Dec. 23, 2010), which would prohibit broadband service providers like AT&T or Comcast from discriminating against unaffiliated content providers. The FCC's proceedings, and the network neutrality debate, concentrate on two economic questions: (1) whether to broadband service providers can or will steer traffic to affiliated content limiting consumer access, and (2) how to preserve the Internet's capacity for creativity and innovation. Yet despite the prominence of economics in the debate, economic theory cannot …

Bart Cell Phone Service Shutdown: Time For A Virtual Forum?, Rachel Lackert

Federal Communications Law Journal

The balancing act between protecting First Amendment rights and the necessity of law enforcement to maintain the public order is not simple under normal circumstances. On August 11, 2011, San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit ("BART") created a paradigm embodying the very essence of this problem by shutting down cell phone and Internet service to prevent citizens from organizing and planning a protest. Both the constitutional and telecommunications law implications of BART's cell phone and Internet shutdown beg for analysis and reform, especially in an age of rapidly advancing technology. This Note analyzes the legal implications of BART's shutdown, and …

Should Cyber Exploitation Ever Constitute A Demonstration Of Hostile Intent That May Violate Un Charter Provisions Prohibiting The Threat Or Use Of Force?, Anna Wortham

Federal Communications Law Journal

More and more, the United States and other countries rely on complex infrastructures that are primarily controlled by information technology. Although extremely destructive cyber threats and attacks against nations are a reality, the laws governing cyber exploitation have not kept pace with this threat. Because the United States and other nations may use cyber capabilities offensively as well as defensively, it is important that the laws for engaging in such cyber conflict be well defined. Currently, it seems unlikely that cyber exploitation can ever be regarded as a threat or use of force under the UN Charter because it is …

Behavioral Advertising: The Cryptic Hunter And Gatherer Of The Internet, Joanna Penn

Federal Communications Law Journal

In an era where three out of every four Americans have Internet access, the term "surfing" has transformed from riding waves into running the risk of having private information gathered, stored, and disseminated-all without the user's knowledge or permission. This new found online practice, known as "behavioral advertising," is a veritable goldmine for those companies that know the game. But will the FTC or Congress soon make new rules concerning how to play? This Note begins by explaining the differences between behavioral targeting and retargeting and the techniques that the two methods use to collect data. This Note then explores …

An End To End-To-End? A Review Essay Of Barbara Van Schewick’S Internet Architecture And Innovation, Adam Candeub

Federal Communications Law Journal

Amidst much controversy, the FCC released its landmark "network neutrality" order in December 2010. This regulation prohibits Internet service providers, such as Verizon or Comcast, from discriminating in favor of traffic or content that they own or with which they are affiliated. Professor Barbara van Schewick's recently published book, Internet Architecture and Innovation, could not be timelier. Employing a variety of economic and technical arguments, van Schewick defends the type of regulation the FCC passed as necessary to preserve the Internet's potential for innovation. My central critique of Internet Architecture is its deployment of economic theories on one side of …

Is It Time To Recreate The E-Rate Program?, Lynne Holt, Mary Galligan

Federal Communications Law Journal

The Schools and Libraries program, commonly known as the "E-rate" program, was created by the FCC in 1997, as authorized by the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996. The E-rate program provides eligible schools and libraries with discounts of 20 to 90 percent from the rates charged by providers of telecommunications services, Internet access, and internal network connections. These discounts are paid from the federal Universal Service Fund under the regulatory oversight of the FCC. The FCC has modified certain aspects of the program since its inception but has not modified its highest programmatic funding priorities-support for telecommunications and Internet access. …

Wiretapping The Internet: The Expansion Of The Communications Assistance To Law Enforcement Act To Extend Government Surveillance, Christa M. Hibbard

Federal Communications Law Journal

Criminal use of the Internet to circumvent traditional government phone wiretaps has inspired the Obama Administration to create a proposal to expand the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act ("CALEA"). CALEA was passed in 1994 to regulate telephone and broadband companies to ensure compliance with standards to enable government wiretapping. The proposed amendment of CALEA would allow the government to require all communications service providers to meet technical standards necessary to comply with a wiretap order. The expansion of CALEA would likely widen its scope to social networking sites, instant messaging, gaming consoles that allow conversation among multiple players, and …

From Betamax To Youtube: How Sony Corporation Of America V. Universal City Studios, Inc. Could Still Be A Standard For New Technology, Veronica Corsaro

Federal Communications Law Journal

Internet technological innovations, particularly the development of Peer-to-Peer ("P2P") networks and the proliferation of user-generated content sites, have introduced considerable challenges for the application of copyright law and infringement liability. The response from the courts and Congress has been mixed, with severe legal curtails being applied to P2P technology while usergenerated content sites have been afforded a level of protection against infringement claims as part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's section 512 "safe harbor" provisions. However, these provisions have raised concerns about the issue of secondary copyright liability, a matter that has still been left undefined. This Note will …

Legal Ethics In The Digital Age, Susan David Demaine, Andrew R. Falk, Catherine A. Lemmer, Cheryl L. Niemeier

Books & Book Chapters by Maurer Faculty

Ms. deMaine's contribution to the seminar is: "Legal Ethics in the Digital Age"

How Jon Stewart And Lady Gaga Made Congress Less Lame: The Impact Of Social Media On The Passage Of Bills Through The "Lame Duck" Session Of The 111th Congress And Beyond, Onika K. Williams

Indiana Law Journal

The lame duck 111th Congress saw tremendous action in a relatively short period of time, and it was also witness to a phenomenon of social media. Users on websites such as Facebook and Twitter employed social media to send messages to their representatives and to actively participate in the lame duck session. Jon Stewart used television to advocate for Congress’s passing of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, and Lady Gaga employed Twitter to support the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010. Both bills subsequently passed Congress. The social media phenomenon did not end with the …

Openness, Intellectual Property And Standardization In The European Ict Sector, Carl Mair

IP Theory

No abstract provided.

Friends, Gangbangers, Custody Disputants, Lend Me Your Passwords, Aviva Orenstein

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Whenever parties seek to introduce out-of-court statements, evidentiary issues of hearsay and authentication will arise. As methods of communication expand, the Rules of Evidence must necessarily keep pace. The rules remain essentially the same, but their application vary with new modes of communication. Evidence law has been very adaptable in some ways, and notoriously conservative, even stodgy, in others. Although statements on Facebook and other social media raise some interesting questions concerning the hearsay rule and its exceptions, there has been little concern about applying the hearsay doctrine to such forms of communication. By contrast, such new media have triggered …

A Better Way Forward For State Taxation Of E-Commerce, David Gamage, Devin J. Heckman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

We propose a novel solution for states that wish to tax interstate e-commerce – based on fully and adequately compensating remote vendors for all tax compliance costs. We argue that our proposed solution is compatible with the Quill framework for when states can constitutionally impose burdens on remote vendors. We argue that unlike our proposed solution, the recent state attempts to tax interstate e-commerce through so-called “Amazon laws” are unconstitutional, ineffective, or both. We thus urge the states to adopt our proposed approach as the best way forward for state taxation of interstate e-commerce.