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.

Digital Discrimination, Danielle Citron

Danielle Keats Citron

Social network sites and blogs have increasingly become breeding grounds for anonymous online groups that attack women and minorities. The attacks include rape threats, privacy invasions, defamation, and technological attacks that silence victims. Victims go offline or assume pseudonyms to prevent future attacks, impoverishing online dialogue and depriving victims of the social and economic opportunities associated with a vibrant online presence. Although social and legal norms have dampened offline discrimination, the internet’s Wild West culture and architecture invites bigots to move their hatred to cyberspace. The Internet facilitates anonymity, loosening social norms that constrain noxious behavior. It brings people together …

The Corporatization Of Communication, Eric Chiappinelli, Adam Candeub, Jeffrey Chester, Lawrence Soley

Lawrence Soley

Our next panel discusses the corporatization of communication.

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 …

Free Speech And The Myth Of The Internet As An Unintermediated Experience, Christopher S. Yoo

All Faculty Scholarship

In recent years, a growing number of commentators have raised concerns that the decisions made by Internet intermediaries — including last-mile network providers, search engines, social networking sites, and smartphones — are inhibiting free speech and have called for restrictions on their ability to prioritize or exclude content. Such calls ignore the fact that when mass communications are involved, intermediation helps end users to protect themselves from unwanted content and allows them to sift through the avalanche of desired content that grows ever larger every day. Intermediation also helps solve a number of classic economic problems associated with the Internet. …

Ending The Power To Say No: The Case For Extending Compulsory Licensing To Cover Digital Music Reproduction And Distribution Rights, Patrick A. Mckay

Patrick A McKay

This paper argues that the recording industry has abused its power to deny uses of copyrighted music and has failed to satisfy the constitutional purpose of copyright of providing for the public benefit. As a result, this power should be removed and replaced with a compulsory license system similar to the Section 115 Reform Act of 2006 (SIRA), which would create a blanket collective license covering digital reproduction and distribution rights for musical works. Additionally, in order to remove the cloud of uncertainty which surrounds music used in user-generated videos, Congress should consider extending the compulsory license regime to cover …

Acta And The Specter Of Graduated Response, Annemarie Bridy

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

This short paper, prepared for a workshop on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and the Public Interest at American University’s Washington College of Law, considers the draft Internet provisions of ACTA in the context of concerns raised in the media that the treaty will require signatories to mandate graduated response regimes (à la France’s controversial HADOPI system) for online copyright enforcement. Although the Consolidated Text of ACTA, released in late April, confirms that mandatory graduated response is off the table for the treaty’s negotiators, the treaty in its current form both accommodates and promotes the adoption of graduated response. Moreover, …

La Libertad De Expresión En Internet Y Sus Garantías Constitucionales En El Control De Contenidos De Páginas Web, Germán M. Teruel Lozano

Germán M. Teruel Lozano

Master's thesis about freedom of speech in Internet and the constitutional guarantees in the control of websides content.

Jury 2.0, Caren Myers Morrison

Caren Myers Morrison

When the Framers drafted the Sixth Amendment and provided that the accused in a criminal case would have the right to a speedy and public trial by an “impartial jury,” it is unlikely that they imagined the members of that impartial jury becoming Facebook friends during deliberations, or Googling the defendant’s name during trial. But in the past few years, such cases have increasingly been making headlines. The impact of the Internet on the functioning of the jury has generated a lot of press, but has not yet attracted scholarly attention. This article is the first to focus legal discourse …

Jury 2.0, Caren Myers Morrison

Caren Myers Morrison

When the Framers drafted the Sixth Amendment and provided that the accused in a criminal case would have the right to a speedy and public trial by an “impartial jury,” it is unlikely that they imagined the members of that impartial jury becoming Facebook friends during deliberations, or Googling a defendant’s name during trial. But in the past few years, such cases have increasingly been making headlines. The impact of the Internet on the functioning of the jury has generated a lot of press, but has not yet attracted scholarly attention. This article is the first to focus legal discourse …

Jurors In The Digital Age, Thaddeus Hoffmeister

Thaddeus Hoffmeister

ABSTRACT: Improper use of new technology by jurors inside and outside the courtroom has become so pervasive that commentators have coined new phrases to describe it: “Google Mistrials,” the “Twitter Effect,” and “Internet-Tainted Jurors.” Yet, despite the attention garnered, few legal scholars, to date, have examined this area in-depth. The articles addressing this topic primarily focus on the benefits of technology and how to harness it to aid in juror comprehension. This dearth of legal scholarship may be due in large part to the fact that the Digital Age is fairly new and still evolving and juror misconduct is historically …

The Law And Policy Of Online Privacy: Regulation, Self-Regulation Or Co-Regulation?, Dennis D. Hirsch

Dennis D Hirsch

The Internet poses grave new threats to information privacy. Search engines collect and store our search queries; Web sites track our online activity and then sell this information to others; and Internet Search Providers read the very packets of information through which we interact with the Internet. Yet the debate over how best to address this problem has ground to a halt, stuck between those who call for a vigorous legislative response and those who advocate for market solutions and self-regulation. In 1995, the European Union member states began to build a third approach into their data protection laws, one …

Combating Cyber-Victimization, Jacqueline Lipton

Jacqueline D Lipton

In today’s interconnected society, high profile examples of online victimization abound. Cyber-bullies, stalkers and harassers launch attacks on the less powerful, causing a variety of harms. Recent scholarship has identified some of the more salient damage, including reputational harms, severe emotional distress, loss of employment, and physical assault. Extreme cases of online abuse have resulted in death through suicide or as a result of targeted attacks. This article makes two major contributions to the cyber-victimization literature. It proposes specific reforms to criminal and tort laws to address this conduct more effectively. Further, it situates those reforms within a new multi-modal …

Decentralizing Culture: The Effect Of Digital Networks On Copyright And Music Distribution, Benjamin Gibert

Benjamin Gibert

The advance of technology profoundly impacts how people interact with culture as the proliferation of digital networks transforms the effects of copyright in modern societies. This paper argues that the oligopolistic conditions of content markets and the legal discourse of intellectual property law have historically enabled copyright holders to promote a limited conception of art and obscure the complexities of copyright theory. While conceptual ambiguity is inevitable in the construction of aesthetic legal categories, current practices impose too many restrictions. The practical choices made concerning copyright in cyberspace will determine the evolution of culture in increasingly networked societies. The music …

Barricading The Digital Frontier: Copyright, Technology And The War On Music Piracy, Benjamin Gibert

Benjamin Gibert

The Internet is changing the way vast numbers of people experience culture today. Providing tools to interact with, manipulate and freely redistribute content, technology is dissolving conventional divisions between creators and consumers of cultural artefacts. As new technological and legislative mechanisms are deployed to stop digital piracy, there is a need to reflect on the meaning of copyright, piracy and culture in the context of digital technologies. This paper discusses the relationship between copyright and cultural participation. It refers to the music industry in order to depict the changing patterns of consumption behavior precipitated by the rise of digital networks …

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 …

Facebook, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Fascínios, possibilidades e perigos do Facebook e de tecnologias afins e seu uso. Sobretudo, a pseudo-democracia electrónica, tentação dos demagogos.

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.

Net Neutrality Regulation: The Economic Evidence, Vernon Smith, Jerry Brito, Martin Cave, Robert Crandall, Larry Darby, Jeffrey Eisenbach, Jerry Ellig, Henry Ergas, David Farber, Gerald Faulhaber, Robert Hahn, Alfred Kahn, Wayne Leighton, Robert Litan, Glen Robinson, Hal Singer, William Taylor, Timothy Tardiff, Leonard Waverman, Dennis Weisman

Vernon L. Smith

In the authors' shared opinion, the economic evidence does not support the regulations proposed in the Commission’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Regarding Preserving the Open Internet and Broadband Industry Practices (the “NPRM”). To the contrary, the economic evidence provides no support for the existence of market failure sufficient to warrant ex ante regulation of the type proposed by the Commission, and strongly suggests that the regulations, if adopted, would reduce consumer welfare in both the short and long run. To the extent the types of conduct addressed in the NPRM may, in isolated circumstances, have the potential to harm competition …

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.

Fighting Homogenization: The Global Infiltration Of Technology And The Struggle To Preserve Cultural Distinctiveness., Saptarishi Bandopadhyay

Saptarishi Bandopadhyay

While technology and globalization continue to pervade every aspect of the world, the scope for the sustenance of national or regional culture is rapidly disappearing. This paper will seek to use the lessons and experiences obtained through the controversies in the use of Direct Broadcasting Satellites in its more initial years and apply the same to the Internet to assess its effect on the culture of developing States. The eventual thesis proposed here argues that the freedom of information upheld through technology, and the human right to culture need not be seen as perpendicular interests, but that the latter may …

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 …

Proving Fair Use: Burden Of Proof As Burden Of Speech, Ned Snow

Faculty Publications

Courts have created a burden of proof in copyright that chills protected speech. The doctrine of fair use purports to ensure that copyright law does not trample rights of speakers whose expression employs copyrighted material. Yet those speakers face a burden of proof that weighs heavily in the fair use analysis, where factual inquiries are often subjective and speculative. Failure to satisfy the burden means severe penalties, which prospect quickly chills the free exercise of speech that constitutes a fair use. The fair-use burden of proof is repugnant to the fair use purpose. Today, copyright holders are exploiting the burden …

Virtual Intermediaries: Consumption Tax Problems In Japan, Europe, And The United States - The Case Of The Virtual Travel Agent, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

Marketplace technology is (inadvertently) chipping away at the effectiveness of consumption taxes – the Japanese Consumption Tax (CT), the European value added tax (VAT), and the American sales tax (ST) are all affected. Frequently a technology-patch or a law change can repair the tax-damage, but sometimes even though a patch or a change is known the design of the levy (or the politics behind the design) impedes application. This paper assesses these consumption taxes by considering the impact that virtual travel agents have had on revenue yields. The paper draws specific conclusions for the Japanese CT, because this consumption tax …

Cyberspace Is Outside The Schoolhouse Gate: Offensive Online Student Speech Receives First Amendment Protection, Joseph Tomain

Joseph A Tomain

Doctrinal and normative analysis show that schools do not possess jurisdiction over offensive online student speech, at least when it does not cause a substantial disruption of the school environment. This article is a timely analysis on the limits of school jurisdiction over offensive online student speech.

On February 4, 2010, two different Third Circuit panels issued opinions reaching opposite conclusions on whether schools may punish students based on online speech created by students when they are off-campus; one of these cases may be heard en banc. Another case addressing this same issue is currently pending before the Second Circuit. …