Computer Law Commons^™

Hacking The Internet Of Things: Vulnerabilities, Dangers, And Legal Responses, Sara Sun Beale, Peter Berris

Duke Law & Technology Review

The Internet of Things (IoT) is here and growing rapidly as consumers eagerly adopt internet-enabled devices for their utility, features, and convenience. But this dramatic expansion also exacerbates two underlying dangers in the IoT. First, hackers in the IoT may attempt to gain control of internet-enabled devices, causing negative consequences in the physical world. Given that objects with internet connectivity range from household appliances and automobiles to major infrastructure components, this danger is potentially severe. Indeed, in the last few years, hackers have gained control of cars, trains, and dams, and some experts think that even commercial airplanes could be …

Pirate Tales From The Deep [Web]: An Exploration Of Online Copyright Infringement In The Digital Age, Nicholas C. Butland, Justin J. Sullivan

University of Massachusetts Law Review

Technology has seen a boom over the last few decades, making innovative leaps that border on science fiction. With the most recent technological leap came a new frontier of intellectual property and birthed a new class of criminal: the cyber-pirate. This Article discusses cyber-piracy and its interactions and implications for modern United States copyright law. The Article explains how copyright law, unprepared for the boom, struggled to adapt as courts reconciled the widely physical perceptions of copyright with the digital information being transferred between billions of users instantaneously. The Article also explores how cyber-piracy has made, and continues to make, …

Data Localization The Unintended Consequences Of Privacy Litigation, H Jacqueline Brehmer

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

Social Media And The Government: Why It May Be Unconstitutional For Government Officials To Moderate Their Social Media, Alex Hadjian

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

No abstract provided.

Oversharenting: Is It Really Your Story To Tell?, 33 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 121 (2018), Holly Kathleen Hall

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

Social media is about sharing information. If you are a parent, often the tendency is to relate every aspect of your children’s lives. Most of the time, children do not consent to postings about them and will have a permanent digital shadow created by their parents that follows them the rest of their lives. The purpose of this article is to analyze the current status and potential future of children’s online privacy from a comparative legal approach, highlighting recent case law in the United Kingdom, which is trending toward carving out special privacy rights for children. This contrasts with the …

Are “Evan’S Law” And The Textalyzer Immediate Solutions To Today’S Rapid Changes In Technology Or Encroachments On Drivers’ Privacy Rights?, 33 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 143 (2018), Aggie Baumert

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

Nothing Personal, It’S Just Business: How Google’S Course Of Business Operates At The Expense Of Consumer Privacy, 33 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 187 (2018), Kayla Mckinnon

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

Borders And Bits, Jennifer Daskal

Vanderbilt Law Review

Our personal data is everywhere and anywhere, moving across national borders in ways that defy normal expectations of how things and people travel from Point A to Point B. Yet, whereas data transits the globe without any intrinsic ties to territory, the governments that seek to access or regulate this data operate with territorial-based limits. This Article tackles the inherent tension between how governments and data operate, the jurisdictional conflicts that have emerged, and the power that has been delegated to the multinational corporations that manage our data across borders as a result. It does so through the lens of …

United States V. Ammons, Rebecca Ruffer

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Differential Privacy: A Primer For A Non-Technical Audience, Alexandra Wood, Micah Altman, Aaron Bembenek, Mark Bun, Marco Gaboardi, James Honaker, Kobbi Nissim, David R. O'Brien, Thomas Steinke, Salil Vadhan

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Differential privacy is a formal mathematical framework for quantifying and managing privacy risks. It provides provable privacy protection against a wide range of potential attacks, including those currently unforeseen. Differential privacy is primarily studied in the context of the collection, analysis, and release of aggregate statistics. These range from simple statistical estimations, such as averages, to machine learning. Tools for differentially private analysis are now in early stages of implementation and use across a variety of academic,industry, and government settings. Interest in the concept is growing among potential users of the tools, as well as within legal and policy communities, …

Corporate Cybersecurity: The International Threat To Private Networks And How Regulations Can Mitigate It, Eric J. Hyla

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Cyberattacks are occurring at an accelerating pace. Foreign nations are increasingly utilizing hacking as a tool for economic gain, acts of aggression, or international political expression. At risk are US consumers'personal data, private firms' bottom line, and the economies'integrity. In response, federal and state lawmakers have issued a series of disparate, uncoordinated policies seeking to strengthen cybersecurity practices. However, recent events indicate that these policies are less than ideal. This Note suggests that a unified response to cybersecurity is required and calls for the establishment of a single, central federal agency with authority over all cybersecurity regulations. Such an agency …

Virtual Reality Exceptionalism, Gilad Yadin

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Virtual reality is here. In just a few years, the technology moved from science fiction to the Internet, from specialized research facilities to living rooms. These new virtual reality environments are connected, collaborative, and social-built to deliver a subjective psychological effect that believably simulates spatial physical reality. Cognitive research shows that this effect is powerful enough that virtual reality users act and interact in ways that mirror real-world social and moral norms and behavior.

Contemporary cyberlaw theory is largely based on the notion that cyberspace is exceptional enough to warrant its own specific rules. This premise, a descendant of early …

The Bot Legal Code: Developing A Legally Compliant Artificial Intelligence, Edmund Mokhtarian

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The advent of sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) agents, or bots, raises the question: How do we ensure that these bots act appropriately? Within a decade, AI will be ubiquitous, with billions of active bots influencing nearly every industry and daily activity. Given the extensiveness of AI activity, it will be nearly impossible to explicitly program bots with detailed instructions on permitted and prohibited actions, particularly as they face unpredictable, novel situations. Rather, if risks to humans are to be mitigated, bots must have some overriding moral or legal compass--a set of "AI Laws"--to allow them to adapt to whatever scenarios …

The Missing Hyperlink — An Empirical Study: Can Canadian Laws Effectively Protect Consumers Purchasing Online?, Mariella Montplaisir

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Canadian consumer protection legislation applicable to online transactions generally works by a two-pronged method: first, private international law rules ensure that in most cases, consumers can sue in their home province under that province’s law; and, second, a wide range of substantive obligations are imposed on merchants, and failure to comply with these obligations provides consumers with a right of cancellation. This study considers the private international law rules applicable to online consumer contracts, and discusses the unique jurisdictional challenges presented by online transactions. This study also provides an overview of Canadian legislation applicable to online consumer transactions, and examines …

Social Media Threats: Examining The Canadian Criminal Law Response, Benjamin Perrin

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This article begins by discussing the legislative history, essential elements, and purpose of the threats offence in s. 264.1(1) of the Criminal Code. It then analyzes major reported Canadian judicial decisions dealing with social media threats, based on the five themes identified above. Finally, this article concludes by highlighting the implications and limitations of this study, as well as areas for future research.

Public Authority Liability And The Regulation Of Nanotechnology: A European Perspective, Nina Natalia Baranowska

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This paper argues that in certain circumstances public authorities should be liable for regulating nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is an emerging field of technology that enables to control shape and size of various structures, devices and systems at nanometer scale on which one nanometer is equal to one-billionth of a meter. In spite of being a nascent field of science and technology, its scope of application – in the food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, construction, textile, electronics, and agricultural industries – is expanding rapidly. The risks associated to nanotechnology, however, and its long-term consequences are still largely unknown, particularly in regards to its health …

Back To The Future: Reviving The Use Of Video Link Evidence In Canadian Criminal Courts, Helena Gluzman

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Section 714.1 of the Criminal Code of Canada allows for witnesses and victims to testify remotely via video link, within Canada. The legal test embedded within this provision — “appropriate in all the circumstances” — has led to inconsistent application across the country. Some jurists have embraced the flexibility provided by the video link process. Others have expressed reluctance, articulating the position that in-court testimony is to be preferred and permitting the use of video link evidence only in exceptional circumstances. R. v. S.D.L. is the first treatment of s. 714.1 by an appellate court. The Nova Scotia Court of …

Front Matter

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

Online Businesses Beware: Ada Lawsuits Demand Website Accessibility For Blind Plaintiffs, Ricardo Alvarado

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

Perfecting Bitcoin, Kevin V. Tu

Georgia Law Review

Bitcoin is still here. The price of Bitcoin rebounded-
setting a record high of $19,783.21 per Bitcoin in
December 2017 before dropping to a price of $8,690 per
Bitcoin as of March 22, 2018. Moreover, legal and
regulatory developments, like New York's BitLicense and
federal taxation of virtual currency as property, can be
viewed as legitimizing its use. The normalization of
virtual currency is evidenced by its increasingly
mainstream applications. Virtual currency can be used
as a faster and lower cost method of transferringfunds
domestically and internationally. A growing number of
retailers now accept virtual currency as a method of …

A Free Ride: Data Brokers'rent-Seeking Behavior And The Future Of Data Inequality, Krishnamurty Muralidhar, Laura Palk

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Historically, researchers obtained data from independent studies and government data. However, as public outcry for privacy regarding the government's maintenance of data has increased, the discretionary release of government data has decreased or become so anonymized that its relevance is limited. Research necessarily requires access to complete and accurate data. As such, researchers are turning to data brokers for the same, and often more, data than they can obtain from the government. Data brokers base their products and services on data gathered from a variety of free public sources and via the government-created Internet. Data brokers then recategorize the existing …

Linking The Public Benefit To The Corporation: Blockchain As A Solution For Certification In An Age Of "Do-Good" Business, Margaret D. Fowler

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

As part of its now-infamous emissions scandal, Volkswagen spent tens of millions of dollars on advertising geared toward environmentally conscious consumers. The scandal is an example of "greenwashing," which, along with the corresponding term "fairwashing," represents the information asymmetry present in product markets that involve claims of social and environmental responsibility in companies' production practices. As consumers and investors demand responsible production practices from both traditional corporations and entities organized under the newer corporate form known as public benefit corporations (PBCs), it becomes even more important to verify that those entities' supply chains are, in fact, meeting standards for the …

Government Surveillance Accountability: The Failures Of Contemporary Canadian Interception Reports, Christopher Parsons, Adam Molnar

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Real time electronic government surveillance is recognized as amongst the most intrusive types of government activity upon private citizens’ lives. There are usually stringent warranting practices that must be met prior to law enforcement or security agencies engaging in such domestic surveillance. In Canada, federal and provincial governments must report annually on these practices when they are conducted by law enforcement or the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, disclosing how often such warrants are sought and granted, the types of crimes such surveillance is directed towards, and the efficacy of such surveillance in being used as evidence and securing convictions.

This …

The Aleph Bet: Debating Metaphors For Information, Data Handling And The Right To Be Forgotten, Chris Prince, Micheal Vonn, Lex Gill

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Court rulings in the European Union (EU) have now established that individuals may seek erasure of personal information posted online. Typically, this involves de-indexing a website from search results, and in some instances the removal of content from primary sources sites. This has, in turn, led to debate around both the logistics and the unintended consequences of removing information online, and subsequent discussions have grappled with a range of images and metaphors to map that new legal reality. This essay surveys that debate, the imagery it employs, and the various logics associated with these metaphors.

The Tipping Point – Reevaluating The Asnef-Equifax Separation Of Competition Of Data Privacy Law In The Wake Of The 2017 Equifax Data Breach, Olivia Altmayer

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Contrary to the Court of Justice for the European Union’s decision in the Asnef-Equifax case, in a world of big data, it is inefficient and ineffective to treat EU competition law and EU data protection law as entirely separate legal considerations. Reevaluating this stance is critical in sectors where customer data is highly sensitive, and therefore highly valuable to those who steal it, particularly for the financial and healthcare sectors. Looking forward, companies that store and use biometric data will have to be similarly scrutinized. To correct this problem, the EU has numerous paths it can take: (a) continue as …

United States V. Lambis: A Good Call For Cellphones, Cell-Site Simulators, And The Fourth Amendment, Kathryn E. Gardner

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.