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Communications Law Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Communications Law

Legal Responses To Commercial Transactions Employing Novel Communications Media, John Robinson Thomas Mar 1992

Legal Responses To Commercial Transactions Employing Novel Communications Media, John Robinson Thomas

Michigan Law Review

This Note analyzes contemporary business practices and specific characteristics of the new media, and suggests a judicial response consonant with courts' approaches to the earlier technologies of telegraphy and teletype. Part I examines the effect of the Statute of Frauds and rules of authentication upon contracts formed using these media. It concludes that documents produced by telefacsimile and electronic mail systems should be considered ordinary writings. Part II considers the Best Evidence Rule and argues that telefacsimiles and electronic mail transmissions should be considered the best evidence of the contract they memorialize. Part III evaluates doctrines of liability allocation in …


Securities Regulation-Applicability Of Exchange Act Section 10(B) To Transaction Effected By Means Of Intrastate Telephone Call, Michael A. Warner Apr 1964

Securities Regulation-Applicability Of Exchange Act Section 10(B) To Transaction Effected By Means Of Intrastate Telephone Call, Michael A. Warner

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff alleged that he had been defrauded in a sale of securities to the defendant. Plaintiff attempted to invoke section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1984, which prohibits various fraudulent practices in securities trading. In order to state a cause of action under 10(b), it was necessary for plaintiff to allege that a means or instrumentality of interstate commerce had been used directly or indirectly in connection with the sale. The sale in this case had been effected through telephone conversations over wires located within the city of Philadelphia. However, the wires carrying the calls could be used …


Space Communications And The Law: Adequate International Control After 1963?, Samuel D. Estep, Amalya L. Kearse May 1962

Space Communications And The Law: Adequate International Control After 1963?, Samuel D. Estep, Amalya L. Kearse

Michigan Law Review

During the current year, a space event of legal and technological significance will occur. The American Telephone and Telegraph Company (A.T. & T.), using the launching facilities of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), will launch its first satellite for research in the area of commercial communications.† The A.T. & T. sphere will be the first tested by a private, commercial organization specifically for business purposes- to implement a plan eventually to provide increased and improved telecommunications on a grand scale at a lower cost. The satellite will relay television signals from the United States to England, Germany, and …


Civil Procedure - Jurisdiction - Service Of Process On Foreign Television Corporation, Arnold Henson S.Ed. Dec 1958

Civil Procedure - Jurisdiction - Service Of Process On Foreign Television Corporation, Arnold Henson S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant, a West Virginia corporation, operated a television station in Huntington, West Virginia. Its telecasts regularly reached into Boyd County, Kentucky, where part of its customary viewing audience was located. During a twelve-month period in 1954-1955 the corporation derived $71,310.30 in advertising revenue from Kentucky firms, although the contracts for this advertising were made outside Kentucky. In the course of a newscast defendant published an alleged libel against plaintiff, and suit was brought in Boyd County Court. Substituted service of process was made on the Secretary of State in accordance with the Kentucky "doing business" statute, and defendant then removed …


Libel And Slander - Privilege Of "Fair And Accurate Report'' Of Judicial Proceedings-Non-Liability Of Vendor Of Newspaper, Ralph E. Helper Jun 1939

Libel And Slander - Privilege Of "Fair And Accurate Report'' Of Judicial Proceedings-Non-Liability Of Vendor Of Newspaper, Ralph E. Helper

Michigan Law Review

Defendant newspaper published a false account of plaintiff's testimony in a criminal trial. In an action for damages for libel against the newspaper and the local distributor of the papers who had no knowledge that libels were contained therein, held (1) privilege to report judicial proceedings applies only to a correct report, even though the inaccuracy be the result of an unintentional mistake; and ( 2) that the vendor is not liable in absence of knowledge that the newspaper contained libelous matter or knowledge of extraneous facts to put him on guard. Bowerman v. Detroit Free Press, 287 Mich. …


Libel And Slander - Slander Of Title As A Protection Against Unfair Interference With Sale Of Literary Work, James W. Mehaffy May 1938

Libel And Slander - Slander Of Title As A Protection Against Unfair Interference With Sale Of Literary Work, James W. Mehaffy

Michigan Law Review

In a slander of title action, the complaint alleged that defendant requested plaintiffs to write a motion picture scenario based on historical events, but after plaintiffs submitted the scenario, defendant rejected it. Thereafter defendant announced its intention, by filing a statement with a voluntary association of motion picture producers, to produce a picture based on the same plot as that contained in plaintiffs' scenario. As a result, plaintiffs were unable to sell their scenario to any other producer. Held, that the complaint was insufficient in the absence of an allegation of special damages. Carrol v. Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. …


Injunctions - Defamation - Injury To Business, Charles E. Nadeau May 1938

Injunctions - Defamation - Injury To Business, Charles E. Nadeau

Michigan Law Review

A complaint praying for an injunction alleged that plaintiff, a retail dealer in automobiles, sold defendant an automobile in good condition; that defendant complained of the steering and demanded a replacement of the parts; that upon inspection, the steering apparatus was found to be in good condition and defendant's request was refused; that thereafter defendant carried signs on the car indicating that it was defective and that plaintiff would do nothing about it; and that he did this, knowing that his claims were false, solely for the purpose of injuring plaintiff and to extort money from him. On overruling a …


Note And Comment, Michigan Law Review Mar 1905

Note And Comment, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The Federal Safety Appliance Act as a Regulation of Interstate Commerce; Liability of Christian Science Healer for Negligence and Deceit; Iowa and the Rule in Shelley's Case; Are Conditions Imposed by the Vendor of Chattels Binding on Subsequent Purchasers? Necessity for the Personal Presence of the Accused Upon Arraignment; Unconstitutional Aids to Local Industries; Damages for Mental Suffering Unaccompanied by Physical Injury