Law Commons^™

Piracy, Policy, And Pandora: Outdated Copyright In A Digital World, Stephanie Caress

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This project examines how current copyright laws and digital distribution practices in music can be improved for both the creator and the consumer. The laws that govern our digital atmosphere, and thus a large portion of music distribution, are outdated and cause a wide variety of problems for both artists and fans. To create a comprehensive picture and establish the scope of this problem, I start by outlining the process a song goes through from when it is written to when it is in the hands, or rather ears, of listeners. From there, copyright laws are entwined with this process. …

A Vatcoin Proposal Following On The 2017 Eu Vat Proposals - Mtic, Vatcoin, And Blockchain, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Musaad Alwohaibi, Michael Cheetham, Camille Tirand

Faculty Scholarship

The following proposal for an EU VATCoin was presented at the Digital Tax Transformations Conference, December 18 & 19, 2017 in Vienna, Austria at WU Global Tax Policy Center (WU GTPC) at the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law of Vienna University of Business and Economics.

The EU Commission has proposed “far-reaching reforms” to solve some of the fraud in the EU VAT. It hopes to capture €50 billion lost annually to MTIC fraud in goods. It hopes to do this without addressing tradable services, a MTIC mutation which by all accounts is running strong.

Fortunately, the Commission is …

Not So Fast--Risks Related To The Use Of A "Saft" For Token Sales, Aaron Wright, Patrick Berarducci, Matthew Corva, Lewis Cohen, Rachel Epstein, Joyce Lai, Joshua Ashley Klayman, Gabe Shapiro, Lee Schneider, Jonathan Rohr

Blockchain Project Reports

On October 2, 2017, Cooley LLP and Protocol Labs released a whitepaper entitled “The SAFT Project: Toward a Compliant Token Sale Framework” (the “Whitepaper”), purporting to develop “a new, compliant framework” for engaging in the sale of blockchain-based tokens. The Whitepaper acknowledged that the framework has limitations, and invited a conversation within the blockchain and legal community. In that spirit, the below report analyzes the framework proposed in the Whitepaper and highlights a number of risks related to the use of a Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (a “SAFT”) for token sales.

As explained below, while the framework proposed in …

Contracts Ex Machina, Kevin Werbach, Nicolas Cornell

Articles

Smart contracts are self-executing digital transactions using decentralized cryptographic mechanisms for enforcement. They were theorized more than twenty years ago, but the recent development of Bitcoin and blockchain technologies has rekindled excitement about their potential among technologists and industry. Startup companies and major enterprises alike are now developing smart contract solutions for an array of markets, purporting to offer a digital bypass around traditional contract law. For legal scholars, smart contracts pose a significant question: Do smart contracts offer a superior solution to the problems that contract law addresses? In this article, we aim to understand both the potential and …

Blockchain's Treacherous Vocabulary: One More Challenge For Regulators, Angela Walch

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

The First Real-Time Blockchain Vat - Gcc Solves Mtic Fraud, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Musaad Alwohaibi

Faculty Scholarship

Following years of study the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) appears ready to adopt the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and put in place a tax system that will stabilize revenue. A value added tax (VAT) and corporate income tax (CIT) are considered. A VAT Framework Agreement, that functions like the VAT Directive in the EU, has been agreed.

Although new, the GCC VAT is very worthy of attention. From a tax policy perspective, it is making notable improvements to EU VAT design. The GCC VAT is (potentially) the world’s first real-time, blockchain-secured, multi-jurisdictional VAT. This is a remarkable …

Blockchain Receipts: Patentability And Admissibility In Court, Angela Guo

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

The Path Of The Blockchain Lexicon (And The Law), Angela Walch

Faculty Articles

The terminology around blockchain technology is notoriously confusing, with disputes over whether a blockchain is the same as a distributed ledger or whether an appcoin is the same as a protocol token. In this article, I examine the difficulties the rapidly shifting, contested vocabulary poses for regulators seeking to understand, govern, and potentially use blockchain technology, and I offer suggestions for how to fight through the haze of unclear language.

I provide examples of the fluctuating, contested language in the blockchain technology space and describe the forces at play in shaping the language. I then lay out the problems the …

Payroll Tax & The Blockchain, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Ville Viitasaari

Faculty Scholarship

Bitcoin is an application that runs on blockchain technology. Blockchain is a foundational technology that is bringing in the second era of the Internet – the era where value can be transferred, rather than just information.

Blockchain is developing along a four-stage path similar to that which TCP/IP took. Both are foundational technologies. TCP/IP brought the Internet, and eventually brought significant (transformational) technological changes in business like Amazon.com and Skype. These are changes that could not have been forecast at the beginning of the Internet age.

Blockchain is an immutable distributed ledger. It replaces the inefficient use of multiple centralized …

Trump & Vat: Nafta, Trade Barriers & Retaliatory Tariffs, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

During the first presidential debate President-elect Donald J. Trump argued that the value added tax (VAT) operated as a trade barrier to American business everywhere. He particularly pointed to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Mexico was a special concern. China was also a concern, but in this instance Trump was troubled both by China’s VAT and by China’s alleged currency manipulation.

This paper can only consider the VAT aspect of Trump’s trade policy. There appears to be some confusion about the operation of the VAT, particularly the border adjustment mechanism, and how US tariffs could “level the playing …

Blockchain, Bitcoin, And Vat In The Gcc: The Missing Trader Example, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Musaad Alwohaibi

Faculty Scholarship

Blockchain is coming to tax administration and will cause fundamental change. This article considers the potential for blockchain technology as it applies to the introduction of a value added tax in the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Blockchain technology disrupts centralized ledgers. Blockchain improves efficiency, security and transparency. Perhaps no centralized ledger system presents more challenges than that of the modern tax administration. The central data storage system of a modern tax authority contains all return, payment, and audit activity for all taxpayers arranged tax-by-tax for three years or longer periods of time.

It is likely that blockchain will come first to …

Conceptualizing Cryptolaw, Carla L. Reyes

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Sweden transfers its real property recording system to the blockchain, a software protocol that enables public, cryptographically secure transaction verification without reliance upon a trusted third party. Dubai plans to issue blockchain-based government documents. The United States Department of Health and Human Services investigates blockchain-based systems for managing health data. Illinois explores blockchain-based applications for use in the Illinois government. News of governments and public-private partnerships developing blockchain-based legal applications increasingly splash across the headlines; however the law-makers using blockchain and other Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) systems to implement legal processes do not systematically consider the broader implications of their …

2016-2017 Oxford Business Law Blog Round-Up: Most Read Opinion Pieces, Maurice Stucke

Scholarly Works

On 14 March 2017, the Oxford Business Law Blog (OBLB) marked its first anniversary. One year ago, we set out to create a leading and truly international forum for the exchange of ideas and reporting of new developments in business law. Since then, we have published over 530 posts from academics and practitioners from across the world and have reached readers from over 150 countries.

The OBLB is now a firmly entrenched part of the Oxford Law Faculty’s Business Law Hub. The purpose of this collection is to celebrate submissions created especially for publication on the OBLB. As such, this …