Law Commons^™

Will You Go To Jail For Copyright Infringement?, James Gibson

Law Faculty Publications

We’ve all seen it. Stick a movie in the DVD player, and up pops a scary message from law enforcement: if you infringe copyright, the feds will come after you. Indeed, this threat is so ubiquitous that it has worked its way into popular perception; as any copyright expert knows from cocktail party conversations, laypeople seem to view copyright infringement as mostly a criminal matter.

It’s certainly possible to go to jail for violating copyright law, as long as the violation is willful and involves specific kinds or amounts of infringement. And the good news for copyright owners is that …

Judicious Influence: Non-Self-Executing Treaties And The Charming Betsy Canon, Rebecca Crootof

Law Faculty Publications

Despite their seeming impotency, non-self-executing treaties play an important role in domestic jurisprudence. When a statute permits more than one construction, judges have a number of interpretive tools at their disposal. One of these is the Charming Betsy canon, which encourages judges to select an interpretation of an ambiguous statute that accords with U.S. international obligations -including those expressed in non-self-executing treaties. This Note concludes that the judicial practice of giving indirect force to all treaties through the Charming Betsy canon is both justified and beneficial.

Virginia Should Abolish The Archaic Tort Defense Of Contributory Negligence And Adopt A Comparative Negligence Defense In Its Place, Peter N. Swisher

Law Faculty Publications

The purpose of this essay is to argue that the time has now come for Virginia, by judicial or legislative action, to abolish its archaic common law tort defense of contributory negligence and replace it with a comparative negligence defense. Adopting a comparative negligence defense would more equitably and more fairly recognize and apportion damages according to the bedrock underlying tort legal principles of accountability, deterrence, and distribution of loss.

Narrative And The Origins Of Law, Allison Anna Tait, Luke P. Norris

Law Faculty Publications

In order to understand these distinct narratives of legal origin through the tools of narratology, we will proceed in several steps. First, we will define more precisely the set of social contract theories that we consider. We will discuss our decision to narrow the focus down to two social contract theorists in particular, one contemporary and one classical, John Rawls and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. These two theorists seem worlds apart in many respects—yet the tools of narratology will enable us to see their shared enterprise. Second, the tools of narratology will help us to identify and discuss the component parts that …

Mancession Or Momcession? Good Providers, A Bad Economy, And Gender Discrimination, Allison Anna Tait

Law Faculty Publications

Against this backdrop of precarious and disappearing work, two new elements became important: who was out of work, and how those still employed were navigating bad jobs. These questions laid the foundation for a flood of stories concerning unemployment and bad employment. Unsurprisingly, gender played a leading role in the debates. This article will discuss these two concerns--employment and workplace discrimination-as they intersect with gender and gender stereotypes.

Book Review: Beyond Intellectual Property: Matching Information Protection To Innovation, Kristen Osenga

Law Faculty Publications

William Kingston frames this book around a clearly stated premise: the focus of information protection regimes has shifted from benefiting the public to benefiting private individuals with interests in the game—and this shift is not good. Early on, protection of information was shaped by actors with no personal stake but rather a desire to encourage invention and innovation for the public good. These actors were primarily limited by constitutional provisions and bureaucratic inefficiencies. As time went on,and as information became a more important commodity, information protection schemes were fashioned, or perhaps twisted, by the parties that would derive the most …

A New Approach To Nineteenth-Century Religious Exemption Cases, Jud Campbell

Law Faculty Publications

Scholars frequently cite early nineteenth-century cases to ascertain the original meaning of the Free Exercise Clause. Previous studies, however, have ignored crucial trends in those decisions, thus leading to mistaken emphasis on the denial of religious accommodation claims. This Note argues that prevailing theological views, skepticism of courtroom declarations of religious belief, and contemporary notions of judicial deference better explain nineteenth-century cases than does a wholesale rejection of judicially enforceable religious exemptions. This novel approach clarifies previously unexplained tensions in early free exercise opinions. It also suggests that the Supreme Court’s holding in Employment Division v. Smith is inconsistent with …

Contracting Away Copyright Privileges, James Gibson

Law Faculty Publications

In copyright class, professors usually spend most of their time explaining the “public law” aspects of copyright – the exclusive rights that the law gives copyright holders (e.g., reproduction and public performance) and the privileges that the law gives to those who use copyrighted goods (e.g., fair use and first sale). But as they and their students know, many everyday encounters with copyrighted goods are governed not by this public law, but by the “private law” that sellers and buyers create through contracts.

Software provides the best example. If you somehow managed to legally purchase and install a computer program …

Mobile Legal Research: Do We Need An App For That?, Roger V. Skalbeck

Law Faculty Publications

A month after the conference, Thomson Reuters launched the WestlawNext iPad app. Current marketing touts mobile access to WestlawNext that is suitable on four major smartphone platforms. At right is a screen shot from the native iPad app as well as WestlawNext in Apple's Safari browser. The iPad app does not let you send documents to your Kindle, and in fact does not let you download or print items directly, as shown in the highlighted screen element in each.

Using this as a starting point, below I suggest arguments for and against using apps for mobile legal research. The focus …

Review Of George Athan Billias, American Constitutionalism Heard Round The World, 1776-1989: A Global Perspective., John Paul Jones

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Rescuing The Strong Precautionary Principle From Its Critics, Noah M. Sachs

Law Faculty Publications

The Strong Precautionary Principle, an approach to risk regulation that shifts the burden of proof on safety, can provide a valuable framework for preventing harm to human health and the environment. Cass Sunstein and other scholars, however, have consistently criticized the Principle, rejecting it as paralyzing, inflexible, and extreme.

In this reassessment of the Strong Precautionary Principle, I highlight the significant benefits of the Principle for risk decision making, with the aim of rescuing the Principle from its dismissive critics. The Principle sends a clear message that firms must research the health and environmental risks of their products, before harm …

A Penguin's Defense Of The Doctrine Of Equivalents, Kristen Jakobsen Osenga

Law Faculty Publications

There is no dearth of commentary about the doctrine of equivalents in patent law. Many articles proclaim the doctrine's death, often noting its passage with unbridled delight. Some articles provide empirical evidence to support the assertion that the doctrine of equivalents is dead. Others simply yearn for the doctrine to fade from use, pointing out that no court has "articulated a convincing rationale" for the doctrine's continued use. But maybe these scholars have it wrong. It may be true that the instances of doctrine of equivalents analysis in patent cases are on the decline and successful outcomes based on the …

Filling The Fourth Circuit Vacancies, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Federal judicial selection has become increasingly controversial. Allegations and recriminations, partisan division, and incessant paybacks have accompanied the appeals court appointments process for decades. These phenomena were pervasive in the administration of President George W. Bush as well as in nominations and confirmations to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, particularly with respect to judgeships assigned to North Carolina.

The protracted vacancies have eroded the Fourth Circuit's delivery of justice, as operating without the fifteen circuit judges whom Congress authorized has exacted a toll. Across two and a half recent years, the court functioned absent a …

The New Energy Geopolitics?: China, Renewable Energy, And The "Greentech Race", Joel B. Eisen

Law Faculty Publications

The issue of China's support for renewables has taken center stage in the United States, thanks to an investigation by the United States Trade Representative (USTR) that commenced in October 2010. That investigation began with a complaint alleging that China unfairly subsidizes its greentech industries, in violation of its obligations as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Well before that investigation began, numerous Americans believed the United States was less engaged in greentech promotion than China. China has come very far in a short amount of time to promote renewables, and many feel the United States is falling …

The Dmca And Repeat Infringers, James Gibson

Law Faculty Publications

The recent agreement between big media companies and big Internet service providers (ISPs) concerning online copyright infringement has the law and technology world abuzz. ISPs like Comcast, Verizon, and Time Warner Cable have agreed to implement a system under which subscribers who repeatedly and illegally download copyrighted content will have their Internet access impeded and maybe even terminated.

This is big news, and it will probably receive more attention in this IP Viewpoints series. But the purpose of this column is to put this agreement in context, because much of what the companies have agreed to do appears to be …

Gray-Market Goods And Copyright's Gray Area, James Gibson

Law Faculty Publications

Copyright law generally gives authors no control over the aftermarket for their goods. Suppose I write a book, and I sell you a copy of it. You are free to resell the book, or lend it to a friend, or give it away. That’s because as long as your copy is “lawfully made under this title” (that is, made with my authorization under U.S. law), then copyright has nothing to say about its further distribution – who owns it, who sells it to whom, etc.

This notion is known as the first sale doctrine. It is so named because at …

Whiskey, Soldiers, And Voting: Western Virginia Elections In The 1790s, Jud Campbell

Law Faculty Publications

Editor's Note: Elections in eighteenth-century Virginia were conducted quite differently than current elections. In this article, the author presents revealing descriptions of early elections in Montgomery County, Virginia immediately following the birth of the United States. The behavior and motivations of the electorate, as well as the candidates, provide interesting insight regarding the social structure o/that era.

The Irony Of International Business Law: U.S. Progressivism And China's New Laissez Faire, Andrew B. Spalding

Law Faculty Publications

As the financial crisis draws U.S. business overseas and developing countries rise in influence, the regulation of international business has never figured so prominendy in federal law. But the dominant paradigm through which academics and policymakers continue to view that law-the so-called Washington Consensus-proves deeply misleading. A more accurate account of the components, origins, and aims of U.S. international business law reveals two striking ironies.

First, in discrete but critical ways, the United States no longer represents the comparatively laissez-faire approach to federal business regulation. Rather, owing to its origins in the Progressive Era, U.S. federal law directs corporations toward …