Law Commons^™

Coca-Cola Curses: Hate Speech In A Post-Colonial Context, Brittan Heller

Michigan Technology Law Review

Hate speech is a contextual phenomenon. What offends or inflames in one context may differ from what incites violence in a different time, place, and cultural landscape. Theories of hate speech, especially Susan Benesch’s concept of “dangerous speech” (hateful speech that incites violence), have focused on the factors that cut across these paradigms. However, the existing scholarship is narrowly focused on situations of mass violence or societal unrest in America or Europe.

This paper discusses how online hate speech may operate differently in a postcolonial context. While hate speech impacts all societies, the global South—Africa in particular—has been sorely understudied. …

Cloud Gaming Demystified: An Introduction To The Legal Implications Of Cloud-Based Videogames, Mitchell Longan, Gaetano Dimita, Johan David Michels, Christopher Millard

Michigan Technology Law Review

In this paper, we “demystify” cloud-based videogaming and its legal implications, in two stages. First, we describe the videogame sector; explain the basics of cloud computing and traditional videogame technologies and set out how the two converge in cloud-based videogame systems. Based on this analysis, we distinguish three separate models for cloud gaming services: (i) the “layered” model of Gaming-as-a-Service (‘GaaS’); (ii) the ‘integrated’ model of GaaS; and (iii) the ‘consumer infrastructure-as-a-service’ model. We argue that these three models are key to analyzing how intellectual property rights, contractual rights, and regulatory issues will develop in this novel environment for videogame …

The Best Data Plan Is To Have A Game Plan: Obstacles And Solutions To Reaching International Data Privacy Agreements, James Y. Wang

Michigan Technology Law Review

The modern digital world relies on the instantaneous transfer of data. This digital highway is essential for the growth of the modern digital economy and contributes to the rise of globalization. In order to facilitate these data transfers, ground rules must first be put into place. To date, there are few, if any, binding international data privacy agreements. This is in part due to practical considerations, such as high administrability costs, inadequate enforcement agencies, and complex jurisdictional procedures. More fundamentally, however, this is due to competing incentive structures, as countries are incentivized to protect their own digital sovereignty by limiting …

Content Moderation Remedies, Eric Goldman

Michigan Technology Law Review

This Article addresses a critical but underexplored aspect of content moderation: if a user’s online content or actions violate an Internet service’s rules, what should happen next? The longstanding expectation is that Internet services should remove violative content or accounts from their services as quickly as possible, and many laws mandate that result. However, Internet services have a wide range of other options—what I call “remedies”—they can use to redress content or accounts that violate the applicable rules. This Article describes dozens of remedies that Internet services have actually imposed. It then provides a normative framework to help Internet services …

Individuals As Gatekeepers Against Data Misuse, Ying Hu

Michigan Technology Law Review

This article makes a case for treating individual data subjects as gatekeepers against misuse of personal data. Imposing gatekeeper responsibility on individuals is most useful where (a) the primary wrongdoers engage in data misuse intentionally or recklessly; (b) misuse of personal data is likely to lead to serious harm; and (c) one or more individuals are able to detect and prevent data misuse at a reasonable cost.

As gatekeepers, individuals should have a legal duty to take reasonable measures to prevent data misuse where they are aware of facts indicating that the person seeking personal data from them is highly …

Taking It With You: Platform Barriers To Entry And The Limits Of Data Portability, Gabriel Nicholas

Michigan Technology Law Review

Policymakers are faced with a vexing problem: how to increase competition in a tech sector dominated by a few giants. One answer proposed and adopted by regulators in the United States and abroad is to require large platforms to allow consumers to move their data from one platform to another, an approach known as data portability. Facebook, Google, Apple, and other major tech companies have enthusiastically supported data portability through their own technical and political initiatives. Today, data portability has taken hold as one of the go-to solutions to address the tech industry’s competition concerns.

This Article argues that despite …

The Contribution Of Eu Law To The Regulation Of Online Speech, Luc Von Danwitz

Michigan Technology Law Review

Internet regulation in the European Union (EU) is receiving significant attention and criticism in the United States. The European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) judgment in the case Glawischnig-Piesczek v. Facebook Ireland, in which the ECJ found a take-down order against Facebook for defamatory content with global effect permissible under EU law, was closely scrutinized in the United States. These transsystemic debates are valuable but need to be conducted with a thorough understanding of the relevant legal framework and its internal logic. This note aims to provide the context to properly assess the role the ECJ and EU law play …

From Inactivity To Full Enforcement: The Implementation Of The "Do No Harm" Approach In Initial Coin Offerings, Marco Dell'erba

Michigan Technology Law Review

This Article analyzes the way the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has enforced securities laws with regard to Initial Coin Offerings (“ICOs”). In a speech held in 2016, the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) Chairman Christopher Giancarlo emphasized the similarities between the advent of the blockchain technology and the Internet era. He offered the “do no harm” approach as the best way to regulate blockchain technology. The Clinton administration implemented the “do no harm” approach at the beginning of the Internet Era in the 1990s when regulators sought to support technological innovations without stifling them with burdensome rules.

This …