Law Commons^™

Freedom Of Speech And True Threats, Jennifer E. Rothman

All Faculty Scholarship

This article proposes a new test for determining what is a true threat - speech not protected by the First Amendment. Despite the importance of the true threats exception to the First Amendment, this is an underexplored area of constitutional law.

Even though the Supreme Court has made clear that true threats are punishable, it has not clearly defined what speech constitutes a true threat. To make this determination circuit courts have adopted inconsistent and inadequate tests including a reasonable listener test. The Supreme Court has never granted certiorari to resolve the issue.

The law surrounding threats has gained recent …

The Copyrightability Of New Works Of Authorship: 'Xml Schemas' As An Example, I. Trotter Hardy

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Trusting And Non-Trusting On The Internet Symposium: Trust Relationships, Tamar Frankel

Faculty Scholarship

The Puzzle: The Internet is a wonderful innovation, allowing people around the world to communicate, trade, and obtain services. Convenient and rich in choices and opportunities, the Internet is tremendously attractive to buyers. Naturally, businesses are flocking to the Internet. The warning has been sounded that those who do not stake a claim in this incredible new communication medium will be left behind to perish. Yet, with all the enthusiasm, many buyers hesitate to take a serious plunge. Businesses are told repeatedly that they must obtain their customers' trust, yet find it more difficult to gain this trust in cyberspace …

Current Developments In Cyberspace, Eric Easton

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Towards A Hybrid Regulatory Scheme For The Internet, Henry H. Perritt Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Piracy, Prejudice, And Perspectives: An Attempt To Use Shakespeare To Reconfigure The U.S.-China Intellectual Property Debate, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

Since the mid-1980s, the U.S.-China intellectual property conflict has entered into the public debate. It was frequently debated in Congress and was widely covered by the mass media. Despite the importance of this issue, the debate thus far has been one-sided, focusing primarily on the unfair competition aspect. While there are undeniably some greedy Chinese who are eager to free ride on the creative efforts of Western authors and inventors, greed alone cannot explain the century-old U.S.-China intellectual property conflict. To understand the roots of this conflict, one must focus on the significant political, social, economic and cultural differences between …

Juries And Technology: Equipping Jurors For The Twenty-First Century (Symposium), Nancy S. Marder

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Regulatory Initiatives And The Internet: A New Era Of Oversight For The Securities And Exchange Commission, Roberta S. Karmel

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Regulation Of Securities And Security Exchanges In The Age Of The Internet, Roberta S. Karmel

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Symposium Précis, Thomas E. Baker

Faculty Publications

This article is an introduction to and overview of the Drake University Law School symposium The Constitution and the Internet, held in February of 2001. It highlights important issues including the Constitution and the Internet, civil liberty and the application of a 200 year old document to the modern age of rapidly changing technology.

The Cooperation Of States With The International Criminal Court, Valerie Oosterveld

Law Publications

This Article explores the various cooperation obligations included within the Rome Statute related to arrest and surrender; investigation and evidence gathering; privileges and immunities of Court officials; witness protection; enforcement of ICC sentences, fines, and forfeiture orders; and offenses against the administration of justice. The nature of each obligation will be discussed within the context of the Rome Statute itself, its negotiation history, and a comparison of how Canada, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom have implemented their obligations to cooperate with the ICC into their domestic law, to the end of providing technical assistance to States undertaking the important task …

Cybergossip Or Securities Fraud? Some First Amendment Guidance In Drawing The Line., Lyrissa Lidsky, Michael Pike

Faculty Publications

Fifteen-year-old Jonathan Lebed, the youngest person ever pursued by the SEC in an enforcement action, made over $800,000 in six months by promoting stocks on Internet message boards. Using several fictitious screen names, Jonathan posted hundreds of messages on Yahoo! Finance, hyping selected over-the-counter stocks and then promptly selling his pre-purchased shares as soon as the stock prices rose.

Publicly, the SEC painted a picture-perfect case of securities fraud. Yet, the SEC forced disgorgement of only $285,000 of Jonathan's profits, leaving many observers to wonder why the resolution of this supposedly clear-cut case left its teenaged perpetrator with over $500,000. …

Judicial Review Of Icann Domain Name Dispute Decisions, 18 Santa Clara Computer & High Tech. L.J. 35 (2001), David E. Sorkin

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Payment Methods For Consumer-To-Consumer Online Transactions, 35 Akron L. Rev. 1 (2001), David E. Sorkin

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Technical And Legal Approaches To Unsolicited Electronic Mail, 35 U.S.F. L. Rev. 325 (2001), David E. Sorkin

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

May The Child Online Protection Act Rely On Community Standards To Identify Material That Is Harmful To Minors?, Susanna Frederick Fischer

Scholarly Articles

The Communications Decency Act, the government's previous attempt to protect minors from online pornography, was struck down in 1997 on the grounds that it required Internet content to be judged by the standards of the community most likely to be offended by it. Now the Court has agreed to review the constitutionality of the new Child Online Protection Act, which seeks to address the Court's free-speech concerns by regulating Web communications in a manner similar to existing laws restricting minors' access to print pornography.

The Emperor's New Clothes: The Shocking Truth About Digital Signatures And Internet Commerce, Jane K. Winn

Articles

This Article critiques a specific set of assumptions about specific application of digital signature technology: that contracts will be formed over the Internet among parties with no prior relationships through reliance on digital signature certificates issued by trusted third parties to establish the identity of the parties. This application for digital signature technology was once seen as both its most ambitious and most promising application because, for parties with no prior knowledge of each other, there is not yet a reliable system of online identities in Internet commerce.

Parties with an ongoing commercial relationship can absorb the cost of offline …

Chasing Bits Across Borders, Patricia L. Bellia

Journal Articles

As computer crime becomes more widespread, countries increasingly confront difficulties in securing evidence stored in electronic form outside of their borders. These difficulties have prompted two related responses. Some states have asserted a broad power to conduct remote cross-border searches - that is, to use computers within their territory to access and examine data physically stored outside of their territory. Other states have pressed for recognition of a remote cross-border search power in international fora, arguing that such a power is an essential weapon in efforts to combat computer crime. This Article explores these state responses and develops a framework …

Copyright And Control Over New Technologies Of Dissemination, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

The relationship of copyright to new technologies that exploit copyrighted works is often perceived to pit copyright against progress. Historically, when copyright owners seek to eliminate a new kind of dissemination, and when courts do not deem that dissemination harmful to copyright owners, courts decline to find infringement. However, when owners seek instead to participate in and be paid for the new modes of exploitation, the courts, and Congress, appear more favorable to copyright control over that new market. Today, the courts and Congress regard the unlicensed distribution of works over the Internet as impairing copyright owners' ability to avail …

Internet Governance, Standard Setting, And Self-Regulation, Philip J. Weiser

Publications

No abstract provided.

What's My Copy Right?, Michael J. Madison

Articles

This piece consists of an early 21st century whimsy, a dialogue that borrows and blends history and humor to illustrate some puzzles of copyright law in the context of digital technology (with references to Folsom v. Marsh and Abbott & Costello).

Transmissions Of Music On The Internet: An Analysis Of The Copyright Laws Of Canada, France, Germany, Japan, The United Kingdom, And The United States, Daniel J. Gervais

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article examines the status of copyright laws in several countries as they pertain to transmissions of music on the Internet. Because the exact legal ramifications of music transmissions over the Internet are currently unclear, the Author compares copyright laws of six major markets and examines the potential application of the copyright laws and other rights that may apply. The Article also discusses rules concerning which transborder transmissions are likely to be covered by a country's national laws, as well as specific rules applying to the liability of intermediaries. Next, the Article summarizes the comparative findings and discusses the relevant …

On Trademarks, Domain Names, And Internal Auctions, Gideon Parchomovsky

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

E-Commerce And Trans-Atlantic Privacy, Joel R. Reidenberg

Faculty Scholarship

For almost a decade, the United States and Europe have anticipated a clash over the protection of personal information. Between the implementation in Europe of comprehensive legal protections pursuant to the directive on data protection and the continued reliance on industry self-regulation in the United States, trans-Atlantic privacy policies have been at odds with each other. The rapid growth in e-commerce is now sparking the long-anticipated trans-Atlantic privacy clash. This Article will first look at the context of American e-commerce and the disjuncture between citizens' privacy and business practices. The Article will then turn to the international context and explore …

Yahoo And Democracy On The Internet, Joel R. Reidenberg

Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the French court order requiring Yahoo to prevent French Internet users from accessing images of Nazi memorabilia available for auction on the company's American web site. The article uses the French case to challenge the popular belief that an entirely borderless Internet favors democratic values. The article starts from the premise that while the Internet enables actors to reach a geographically dispersed audience, the Internet should not change the accountability of those actors for their conduct within national borders. The article shows that Yahoo's extensive business in France justifies the application of France's democratically chosen law and …

Cybercoverage For Cyber-Risks: An Overview Of Insurers' Responses To The Perils Of E-Commerce, Robert H. Jerry Ii, Michele L. Mekel

UF Law Faculty Publications

Insurers' responses to the risks inherent in e-commerce and the demand for coverage have been anything but uniform. Instead, the solutions are a patchwork of stop-gap measures and niche offerings, including: (1) exclusions to coverage; (2) modifications to existing policies in order to extend or to limit coverage; and (3) the creation of new policies that specifically target Internet-related liabilities and losses. These various measures have been applied in both the first- and third-party settings. This article presents an overview of some of the risks involved in the new "e-economy" and surveys how insurers are responding to these new risks.

Minor Distractions: Children, Privacy And E-Commerce, Anita L. Allen

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Cybercoverage For Cyber-Risks: An Overview Of Insurers' Responses To The Perils Of E-Commerce, Robert H. Jerry Ii, Michele L. Mekel

Faculty Publications

With nearly seven percent of the world's population currently online and e-commerce forecast to hit $6.8 trillion by 2004, one need not be Nostradamus to predict that the Internet means great change for all industries - including the insurance industry. Presently, however, the proverbial cart is leading the horse as the insurance industry struggles to develop strategies to quantify, cover, and contain "cyber-risks." Policyholders also face new challenges as they confront the possibility that their traditional insurance coverages are woefully inadequate either to secure their electronic and intellectual property assets or to guard against their potential e-commerce liabilities to third …

Privacy, Ideology, And Technology: A Response To Jeffrey Rosen, Julie E. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This essay reviews Jeffrey Rosen’s The Unwanted Gaze: The Destruction of Privacy in America (2000).

Rosen offers a compelling (and often hair-raising) account of the pervasive dissolution of the boundary between public and private information. This dissolution is both legal and social; neither the law nor any other social institution seems to recognize many limits on the sorts of information that can be subjected to public scrutiny. The book also provides a rich, evocative characterization of the dignitary harms caused by privacy invasion. Rosen’s description of the sheer unfairness of being “judged out of context” rings instantly true. Privacy, Rosen …

The Soul Of A New Political Machine: The Online, The Color Line And Electronic Democracy, Eben Moglen, Pamela S. Karlan

Faculty Scholarship

In this Essay, we want to suggest two ways in which people's experience with the Internet may affect how they think politics ought to be organized, and to consider the consequences for the political aspirations of minority communities. First, the notion of "virtual communities” – that is, communities that affiliate along nongeographic lines – may provide new support for alternatives to traditional geographic districting practices. As Americans become more comfortable with the idea that people can belong to voluntarily created, overlapping, fluid, nongeographically defined communities, which may be as important as the physical communities in which they live, they may …