Law Commons^™

E-Elections: Time For Japan To Embrace Online Campaigning, Matthew J. Wilson

Akron Law Faculty Publications

Asia has embraced the Internet and social media. Japan and South Korea rank among the world’s leaders in technological innovation and Internet penetration. China boasts over 420 million Internet users, and other Asian countries have experienced the widespread acceptance of online technologies. With the rapid ascendency of the Internet and social media, however, Asian countries have sometimes struggled with striking the proper balance between individual rights and the legal regulation of online activities. One prime example of such struggle involves the clash between Japan’s election laws and individual political freedoms.

Although Japan generally subscribes to democratic traditions and the principle …

"Smile, You're On Cellphone Camera!": Regulating Online Video Privacy In The Myspace Generation, Jacqueline D. Lipton

Akron Law Faculty Publications

In the latest Batman movie, Bruce Wayne’s corporate right hand man, Lucius Fox, copes stoically with the death and destruction dogging his boss. Interestingly, the last straw for him is Bruce’s request that he use digital video surveillance created through the city’s cellphone network to spy on the people of Gotham City in order to locate the Joker. Does this tell us something about the increasing social importance of privacy, particularly in an age where digital video technology is ubiquitous and largely unregulated?

While much digital privacy law and commentary has focused on text files containing personal data, little attention …

Who Owns "Hillary.Com"? Political Speech And The First Amendment In Cyberspace, Jacqueline D. Lipton

Akron Law Faculty Publications

In the lead-up to the next presidential election, it will be important for candidates both to maintain an online presence and to exercise control over bad faith uses of domain names and web content related to their campaigns. What are the legal implications for the domain name system? Although, for example, Senator Hillary Clinton now owns ‘hillaryclinton.com’, the more generic ‘hillary.com’ is registered to a software firm, Hillary Software, Inc. What about ‘hillary2008.com’? It is registered to someone outside the Clinton campaign and is not currently in active use. This article examines the large gaps and inconsistencies in current domain …

Combating Cyber-Victimization, Jacqueline D. Lipton

Akron Law Faculty Publications

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 …

Celebrity In Cyberspace: A Personality Rights Paradigm For Personal Domain Name Disputes, Jacqueline D. Lipton

Akron Law Faculty Publications

When the Oscar™-winning actress Julia Roberts fought for control of the domain name, what was her aim? Did she want to reap economic benefits from the name? Probably not, as she has not used the name since it was transferred to her. Or did she want to prevent others from using it on either an unjust enrichment or a privacy basis? Was she, in fact, protecting a trademark interest in her name? Personal domain name disputes, particularly those in the space, implicate unique aspects of an individual’s persona in cyberspace. Nevertheless, most of the legal rules developed for these disputes …

The Influence Of Abraham Lincoln On The Supreme Court’S Interpretation Of The Constitutional Principles Of Liberty And Equality, Wilson Huhn

Akron Law Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that the Supreme Court has embraced Abraham Lincoln’s transcendent understanding of the principles of liberty and equality – transcendent in the sense that these principles are considered to be timeless, universal, and morally binding. The article briefly summarizes the Transcendental Movement, sets forth Lincoln’s understanding of liberty and equality, and describes how, in the modern era, the Supreme Court has “constantly approximated” the principles that Lincoln believed that this country is dedicated to.

Same-Sex Divorce, Tracy A. Thomas

Akron Law Faculty Publications

Same-sex marriage is now legal in seventeen states and sixteen countries. The question increasingly being asked is how these couples can divorce. For those who remain in their home state or in a marriage equality state, the divorce process should be the same as for any other marriage. The problem arises because people are transient; couples often relocate for jobs or family, or they initially traveled out of their home state for the marriage. “In a highly mobile society, state bans on same-sex marriage have in many cases made untying the knot far harder than tying it in the first …