Law Commons^™

Lawyers And Social Media: The Legal Ethics Of Tweeting, Facebooking And Blogging, Michael E. Lackey Jr., Joseph P. Minta

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Building Bridges To Remedies For Consumers In International Conflicts, Amy J. Schmitz

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

This essay addresses the lack of consumer remedy mechanism, and attempts to open consideration of expanded use of online processes for resolving business-to-consumer (B2C) eConflicts. Specifically, the essay attempts to highlight the problems created by problematic and uncertain enforcement of B2C arbitration, and proposes the use of the Internet to create fair and globally enforceable Online Dispute Resolution and Online Arbitration (OArb) mechanisms. These mechanisms would capitalize on the growth and efficiency of the Internet while protecting consumers from burdensome and/or expensive procedures that render existing remedies meaningless.

The essay begins by discussing the importance of fair and accepted B2C …

Symposium: Cyberbullying: Emerging Realities And Legal Challenges: Foreword , Christina E. Wells

Missouri Law Review

Bullying and its effects concern many of us in the United States. As many as thirty percent of students in grades five through ten have experienced at least one bullying incident in a given year.] Studies further show that up to thirty-five percent of students have been the victims of cyberbullying - i.e., the use of online mediums to bully others. Most observers agree that this number is likely to rise. Such bullying physically and psychologically affects students. It can disrupt their education and cause depression, anxiety, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, and suicide attempts. After several highly publicized suicides, there appears …

Cyberbullying From Psychological And Legal Perspectives, Philip C. Rodkin, Karla Fischer

Missouri Law Review

In this Article, we begin Part II by a brief exploration of the history of bullying in social science research. Part III is a description of the ways that social scientists have attempted to define bullying, and by extension, cyberbullying. We pay particular attention to understanding the roles that the intentionality of the bully, the repetition of the problematic behavior, and the power asymmetry of the bully-victim dyad play in distinguishing bullying from other negative behavior. In Part IV, we track the relationship between bullies and their social worlds, noting that some bullies are marginalized within a broader peer culture …

Regulating Student Cyberspeech, Barry P. Mcdonald

Missouri Law Review

Part I of this Article will provide the First Amendment background for thinking about these disputes. It will explain how the Court has interpreted that amendment to provide primary and secondary students in American public schools with free speech rights, albeit not as broad as they enjoy in their capacities as ordinary citizens of our country. It has given public school administrators special power to regulate student speech as necessary to achieve the task the people have assigned them - the effective education of their children. When cyberbullying occurs then, as it often does, completely or partially off of school …

Cyberbullying Victimization: Associations With Other Victimization Forms And Psychological Distress, Melissa K. Holt, Dorothy L. Espelage

Missouri Law Review

Cyberbullying has gained increasing attention over the past decade, in part driven by significant media coverage on this topic.' While media attention has increased, prevalence rates derived from national and local surveys indicate that cyberbullying is a less common experience among youth than traditional bullying. Nonetheless, a significant number of youth experience both cyberbullying and its deleterious effects, and additional research is needed to guide nascent prevention and intervention efforts. In particular, existing research does not clarify the extent to which cyberbullying overlaps with traditional bullying or other forms of victimization that children might encounter in their schools, homes, and …

Corporate Criticism On The Internet: The Fine Line Between Anonymous Speech And Cybersmear, Scot Wilson

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

International Dispute Settlement At The Trademark-Domain Name Interface, Laurence R. Helfer

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

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 …

Mediating On The Internet Today And Tomorrow , James C. Melamed

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This paper will examine Internet opportunities for mediators and mediation participants. We will examine current Internet opportunities as well as where all of this may be taking us. The author suggests that there are unique qualities and opportunities for mediators on the Internet, including cost and convenience.

Internet Dispute Resolution (Idr): Bringing Adr Into The 21st Century , Richard Michael Victorio

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

It was only a matter of time before ADR hit the Interet. The Internet has sweepingly transformed society just as ADR has wrought tremendous change in our society, by enabling the swift and economical settlement of disputes, and unclogging the legal system in the process. The application of alternative dispute resolution methods to the Internet, termed "iDR" in this comment, has the potential to impact the landscape of both traditional ADR and the Internet itself. It brings the communication technology of the Internet to the practice of traditional, non-virtual, "real world" ADR, reducing costs and speeding up the exchange of …

The Future Of Cybertravel: Legal Implications Of The Evasion Of Geolocation, Marketa Trimble

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Although the Internet is valued by many of its supporters particularly because it both defies and defeats physical borders, these important attributes are now being exposed to attempts by both governments and private entities to impose territorial limits through blocking or permitting access to content by Internet users based on their geographical location — a territorial partitioning of the Internet. One of these attempts, for example, is the recent Stop Online Piracy Act (“SOPA”) proposal in the United States. This article, as opposed to earlier literature on the topic discussing the possible virtues and methods of raising borders in cyberspace, …

Building Universal Digital Libraries: An Agenda For Copyright Reform, Hannibal Travis

Pepperdine Law Review

This article proposes a series of copyright reforms to pave the way for digital library projects like Project Gutenberg, the Internet Archive, and Google Print, which promise to make much of the world's knowledge easily searchable and accessible from anywhere. Existing law frustrates digital library growth and development by granting overlapping, overbroad, and near-perpetual copyrights in books, art, audiovisual works, and digital content. Digital libraries would benefit from an expanded public domain, revitalized fair use doctrine and originality requirement, rationalized systems for copyright registration and transfer, and a new framework for compensating copyright owners for online infringement without imposing derivative …

Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panels And The Webcasting Controversy: The Antithesis Of Good Alternative Dispute Resolution, Jeremy Delibero

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

Music is becoming increasingly synonymous with big business and corporate influence. The advent of Internet radio and streaming webcasts are simply one example of this shift. Organizations such as the Radio Industry Association of America ("RIAA") have discovered a new way to receive royalties from the performance of musical works, and have fought vigorously to obtain favorable rates to achieve the maximum profit. On the other hand, small webcasters have fought equally hard to avoid these large rates. Although arguments for each side are equally persuasive, neither is persuasive enough to force a compromise. In attempting to solve these disputes, …

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 …

The Future Of Free Expression In A Digital Age, Jack M. Balkin

Pepperdine Law Review

In the twenty-first century, at the very moment that our economic and social lives are increasingly dominated by information technology and information flows, the judge-made doctrines of the First Amendment seem increasingly irrelevant to the key free speech battles of the future. The most important decisions affecting the future of freedom of speech will not occur in constitutional law; they will be decisions about technological design, legislative and administrative regulations, the formation of new business models, and the collective activities of end-users. Moreover, the values of freedom of expression will become subsumed within a larger set of concerns that I …

Exploring The First Amendment Rights Of Teens In Relationship To Sexting And Censorship, Julia Halloran Mclaughlin

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article explores child pornography law in relation to teen sexting conduct. Recently, some teens who engaged in teen sexting have been convicted under child pornography laws and have been required to register as sexual predators. The criminalization of teens for developmentally typical behavior, mimicking the conduct of adults, can result in grave harm to most teens. Furthermore, the application of child pornography laws to teen sexting conduct demonstrates the constitutional overbreadth of the current definition of child pornography. Photographs have an emblematic role in society-capturing and celebrating youth. Moreover, the creation of teen sexting images accompanies a teen's developmental …

The Need To Prevent Employers From Accessing Private Social Network Profiles, Brett Novick

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Caveat

In March 2012, social network privacy became a conversation topic after news reports of the story of Justin Bassett, a job applicant who withdrew his application in the middle of an interview when the interviewer asked him for the username and password of his private Facebook account. Although the issue has received much attention from the public and media, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has stated that it has no interest in prosecuting employers for asking for social networking account information. Fortunately, legislation that would make it illegal for employers to ask for the username and passwords for social networking …

"Like" Your President: A Case For Online Voting, Jeremy Garson

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Caveat

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, New Jersey allowed displaced residents to vote in the 2012 elections by email. The option to vote online has been available to military members stationed overseas since 2009. New Jersey’s decision to open online voting to civilians raises the question of why this shift didn’t take place sooner. Assuming New Jersey’s system holds up under post-election scrutiny, why not utilize it to the fullest extent possible? Online voter registration is already permitted by eleven states, including the liberal, infrastructure-rich, population-heavy California and the conservative, sparsely populated Alaska. Extending the registration system to voting itself …

Viewer Discretion Is Advised: Disconnects Between The Marketplace Of Ideas And Social Media Used To Communicate Information During Emergencies And Public Health Crises, Peter Maggiore

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

In a sense, social media has become the ideal manifestation of the "Marketplace of Ideas" (hereinafter "Marketplace") that Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes articulated. The Marketplace concept will be discussed in greater detail below, but in brief, it is the theory that truth will surface over falsehoods when all opinions and ideas are freely expressed, because the value or worth of that opinion or idea will be determined on the market of public opinion. Part I of this Note will examine the Marketplace concept through the works of various legal and philosophical theorists. Chief among them is Frederick Schauer's work …

Privacy Policies, Terms Of Service, And Ftc Enforcement: Broadening Unfairness Regulation For A New Era, G. S. Hans

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

This Note examines website privacy policies in the context of FTC regulation. The relevant portion of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. § 45(a), uses the following language to define the scope of the agency's regulatory authority: "Unfair methods of competition in or affecting commerce, and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce, are hereby declared unlawful." Specifically, this Note analyzes the FTC's power to regulate unfair practices (referred to as the FTC's "unfairness power") granted by Section 5, and also discusses the deception prong of Section 5, which allows the agency to …

Fighting The First Sale Doctrine: Strategies For A Struggling Film Industry, Sage Vanden Heuvel

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

The first sale doctrine, codified at 17 U.S.C. § 109, grants the owners of a copy of a copyrighted work the right to sell, rent, or lease that copy without permission from the copyright owner. This doctrine, first endorsed by the Supreme Court in Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus, was established at a time when the owner of a good necessarily had to forego possession in order to sell or lease the item to another.[...] The changes in technology and industry over the past two decades threaten to upend this balance. In today's digital world, an owner of a copy of …

Enhancing Public Access To Online Rulemaking Information, Cary Coglianese

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

One of the most significant powers exercised by federal agencies is their power to make rules. Given the importance of agency rulemaking, the process by which agencies develop rules has long been subject to procedural requirements aiming to advance democratic values of openness and public participation. With the advent of the digital age, government agencies have engaged in increasing efforts to make rulemaking information available online as well as to elicit public participation via electronic means of communication. How successful are these efforts? How might they be improved? In this article, I investigate agencies’ efforts to make rulemaking information available …

Dangerous Desires, Irina Tarnovsky

Marquette Elder's Advisor

This article advocates a change to the media’s current portrayal of women. In doing so, this article advocates regulations to the kinds of advertisements which may appear in teen magazines. Currently, teen magazines feature pictures of women which are both: unnaturally thin and digitally altered to unnatural proportions. Consequently, the viewing of these advertisements encourages adolescent women to engage in dangerous behaviors associated with eating disorders.

Over seven million American women are affected by, or suffer from, an eating disorder, the majority of which are between the ages of thirteen and nineteen. Although there are a number of factors that …

Layshock Ex Rel. Layshock V. Hermitage School District, Matthew Beatus

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Very Quiet Revolution: A Primer On Securities Crowdfunding And Title Iii Of The Jobs Act, Thaya Brook Knight, Huiwen Leo, Adrian A. Ohmer

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

This essay introduces the complex regulatory regime that governs the public sale of all securities, no matter how small the offeror. It is intended as a rudimentary roadmap for the start-up or its counsel and will, hopefully, help to illuminate the traps for the unwary while providing an overview of the regulatory universe in which securities crowdfunding will operate.

Defamation In The Internet Age: Missouri’S Jurisdictional Fight Begins With Baldwin V. Fischer-Smith, Stephen W. Bosky

Saint Louis University Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Technology Convergence And Federalism: The Case Of Voip Regulation, Daniel A. Lyons

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Caveat

The Vermont Supreme Court may soon consider whether federal law permits the Public Service Board to regulate certain voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) services. Across the Hudson, Governor Andrew Cuomo recently sought to bar the New York Public Service Commission from adopting similar regulations. And these states are not alone: from Maine to Florida, several states are considering whether their jurisdiction over traditional telephone service encompasses this new technology, through which nearly one-third of American landline households receive telephone service. If so, nationwide VoIP providers could face up to fifty new legal regimes with which they must comply before offering service. If not, …

Chopping Down The Rainforest: Finding A Solution To The "Amazon Problem", Eric Andrew Felleman

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Caveat

Current economic conditions in the United States have led to a dramatic decrease in state tax revenue. Without these funds, states will be unable to support important public services, and hundreds of thousands of jobs in the public and private sectors are at risk of being cut, as states work to close $103 billion in budget gaps. Accomplishing that will involve overcoming many hurdles, such as the unpopularity of raising taxes during times of economic trouble, but one largely untapped source could provide a significant amount of income to states. States currently lose around $23 billion annually in uncollected use …