Internet Law Commons^™

Anonymity And The Supreme Court's Model Of Expression: How Should Anonymity Be Analysed Under Section 2(B) Of The Charter?, Peter Carmichael Keen

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

The first part of this article will discuss what anonymity is, and the costs and benefits that anonymity confers on expressive activity. I will demonstrate that anonymity is a double-edged sword in that it can both promote and harm free expression. In the second part, I will suggest that there is no doubt that anonymity can be protected under section 2(b) of the Charter. When I first began this article, I intended to examine ‘‘whether’’ anonymity can be constitutionally protected under section 2(b). As my research progressed, I quickly realised that I was asking the wrong question. I discovered that …

Student Protector, Internet Provider, Or Contractual Party? An Examination Of The Legal Relationship Between A University And Its Students, Anna Christine Milot

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

The legal relationship between a university and its students is becoming increasingly complex as the use of technology spreads. Accordingly, it is important to define a university’s responsibilities and legal boundaries in order to understand the liability universities can potentially incur when dealing with students. Each Canadian university is unique in its founding and enacting legislation, as will be discussed further later. The individuality of Canada’s universities means that the questions raised in this paper cannot be given answers that can necessarily be generalized across universities. The approach to analysis in this paper, however, is applicable to any of the …

Computer Law By George S. Takach (Toronto: Irwin Law Inc., 2000, 2nd Edition), David T.S. Fraser

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Banning Bans On New Reproductive And Novel Genetic Technologies, Matthew Herder

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Commentators argue that statutory prohibitions with the force of the criminal law should not be used to regulate new reproductive technologies (NRTs) and novel genetic technologies (NGTs). Bill C-13, the Assisted Human Reproduction Act, however, codifies 10 criminal bans. This paper considers the merits of the various arguments levied against Bill C-13, and the corollary claim that only a "non-prohibitive" model of legislation befits NRTs and NGTs. Three types of arguments are used to critique criminal bans: (1) "Structural" arguments hinge on the constraints of the Canadian legal system - legislation complete with prohibitions runs afoul of the Constitution Act …

Intellectual Property Laws In Harmony With Nafta: The Courts As Mediators Between The Global And The Local, Myra J. Tawfik

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This paper will argue that domestic courts can pro- vide a forum within which to mediate between these two extremes, to reconcile the ‘‘global’’ and the ‘‘local’’ — but that the courts themselves must adapt to meet the challenges that globalization places upon them. More specifically, the paper begins by setting out a framework for understanding harmonization of laws under NAFTA as one that encourages rather than eliminates diversity of law. The paper then studies the prevailing approaches to statutory interpretation that Canadian courts, most especially the Supreme Court of Canada and the Federal Court of Appeal, have been employing …

Technology And International Trade: Wille The Real Transformer Please Stand Up?, Todd Weiler

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

The primary driver of change in Canada’s cultural sector has not been some kind of contrived, neo- liberal plot imposed upon an unsuspecting public with the promise of ‘‘jobs, jobs, jobs.’’ Rather, it has been technology. The role for liberalised trade and investment treaties comes only in the form of a conditioning force, limiting the panoply of choices available to govern- mental officials who want to respond to the changes being wrought by technological advances.

This paper begins with some brief definitions, moving next to an elaboration of its thesis, and finally explaining the application of this thesis to some …

Disease And Cure?, L. A. Powe Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Sunstein uses Franklin's remark to make two related points. First, citizens bear the burden of maintaining the American republic as a healthy, vibrant place; being a citizen is decidedly different from being a consumer. The former has duties, the latter wants (pp. 113-23). Second, and this is the gist of the slender book, the republic is jeopardized by the possibilities of the Internet. Sunstein assumes the correctness of MIT technology specialist Nicholas Negroponte's conclusion that in the not-too-distant future we will be able to create a "Daily Me" on the Internet that will provide the personalized information (including news) that …

Cyberdemons: Regulating A Truly World-Wide Web, Andrew P. Lycans

Michigan Law Review

In the decade leading up to the twenty-first century, the number of Internet-related legal disputes grew exponentially. This growth continues into the new millennium, introducing old problems in a new context. For instance, in the field of copyright, Eric Eldred, the operator of a website dedicated to posting literary works already in the public domain, challenged the Copyright Term Extension Act ("CTEA"). The CTEA blocked his plans to post works copyrighted in 1923, works which under the previous statute would have entered the public domain in 1999. Looking to trademark law, the field has become obsessed of late with providing …

Beyond Convergence And The New Media Decisions: Regulatory Models In Communications Law, Melanie Mortensen

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

While technological and economic changes have been the most influential factors in stimulating recent policy and regulatory reassessments in Canada with respect to telecommunications and broadcasting regulation, public interest and socio-political concerns should also remain significant in the design of new regulatory and policy responses to convergence and competition. When the CRTC announced that it would refrain from regulating broadcasting in new media for a period of five years, this occasion illustrated the increasing inapplicability of the sector-specific legislation from which the mandate of the CRTC is derived.

The first model addressed is the present sector-specific policy and regulatory treatment …

Patent First, Litigate Later! The Scramble For Speculative And Overly Broad Genetic Patents: Implications For Access To Health Care And Biomedical Research, Ikechi Mgbeoji, Byron Allen

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This paper will not directly address the ethical considerations of allowing patents on human genetic sequences, although this continues to be a controversial debate in itself. Rather, the aim is to consider the legality of such gene patents and the effects such patents have on biomedical research and health care delivery in definitive terms through an analysis of current developments and research relating to the subject. The operation of current intellectual property regimes regulating such patents will be examined, and amendments to these legal systems will be considered. An emphasis will be placed on identifying practical concerns rather than broad, …

Fast Track Trade Authority And The Free Trade Agreements: Implications For Copyright Law, Samuel Trosow

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

In 2002, Congress passed the Bipartisan Trade Promotion Authority Act, which restored the presidential fast-track trade-promotion authority that had lapsed in 1994. Fast-track trade promotion authority is a means by which Congress delegates to the president a portion of its constitutional authority over international trade policy. This paper reviews the development, scope, and application of fast-track trade-promotion authority, evaluates some of the copyright provisions in key Free Trade Agreements, and concludes that the process has been effectively captured by the information and entertainment industries. There are numerous negative consequences that flow from the resulting policy environment. Not only is an …

Rescuing The Balance?: An Assessment Of Canada's Proposal To Limit Isp Liability For Online Copyright Infringement, Scott Nesbitt

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This paper attempts both to explain the technological and legal imperatives pressing Canada to address the issue of ISP liability in reforms to the Copyright Act and to raise some concerns about the impact of the government’s proposed amendments in this area. The basic elements of copyright law, the impact of digital technology on copyright and the policy arguments surrounding ISP liability are briefly discussed to set the context for judicial treatment of and legislative action on this issue. Next, the paper focuses on the development of American jurisprudence with respect to limitation of ISP liability for third party copyright …

Fragmented Copyright, Fragmented Management: Proposals To Defrag Copyright Management, Daniel Gervais, Alana Maurushat

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

The collective management of copyright in Canada was conceived as a solution to alleviate the problem of inefficiency of individual rights management. Creators could not license, collect and enforce copyright efficiently on an individual basis. Requiring users to obtain permission from individual copyright holders for the use of a work was equally inefficient. Collectives, therefore, emerged to facilitate the clearance of rights between creators and users. Even with the facilitation of collectives in the process, clearing rights remains an inherently difficult and convoluted process. This is especially so in the age of the Internet where clearing rights for multimedia products …

Where's The Beef? Dissecting Spam's Purported Harms, 22 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 13 (2003), Eric Goldman

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

This article seeks to identify areas that truly require legislative intervention by examining the harms purportedly caused by spam. Identifying exactly what constitutes spam is an imprecise task since one e-mail may be junk to one and an important e-mail to another. The article attempts to analyze why consumers feel strongly against spam. This reaction is compared to consumers’ comparatively tolerant reaction to other unwanted advertisement in different mediums, such as billboards or magazine advertisements. Several factors are considered, such as the waste of time associated with sorting spam, the loss of consumers’ control over their in-boxes, and the annoyance …

Spam Legislation In The United States, 22 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 3 (2003), David E. Sorkin

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

This article examines the effect of spam legislation in the United States. It discusses state legislation and the common provisions of state spam legislation, such as disclosure and labeling requirements and opt-out provisions. It also analyzes the consequences of state anti-spam legislation. Federal legislation is analyzed, with a brief look at the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. The article concludes that legislation has not had a big impact on spam, and the CAN-SPAM Act is not likely to change or curb spam.

The Do-Not-Call Registry Model Is Not The Answer To Spam, 22 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 79 (2003), Richard C. Balough

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

This article discusses why a system to combat unwanted Internet spam, or junk e-mail, should not be modeled after the Do-Not-Call registry developed to curtail telemarketing phone calls. The Do-Not-Call registry is an "opt-out" system where consumers must place their phone numbers on a list that designates them as consumers unwilling to accept telemarketing calls. In the Internet spam context, this article argues that to force Internet users to place their e-mail addresses on a similar do-not-spam list could lead to potential problems. For example, if a would-be spammer was to get a hold of that list, she or he …

After Can-Spam, How States Can Stay Relevant In The Fight Against Unwanted Messages:How A Children's Protection Registry Can Be Effective And Is Not Preempted, Under The New Federal Anti-Spam Law, 22 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 29 (2003), Matthew B. Prince

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

The recipe for success to combat unsolicited and unwanted e-mail, otherwise known as spam, has not yet been formulated by the thirty-six states that have tried by enacting their own versions of anti-spam laws. Only two state prosecutions were ever successfully brought against spammers, and only one was able to enforce its law against an out-of-state spammer. Now, on the federal level, with the passing of the CAN-SPAM act, which essentially rehashes what states have attempted to do, the failure to provide any significant measure of national success against spam seems likely. However, a careful reading of the language of …

Spamming For Legal Services: A Constitutional Right Within A Regulatory Quagmire, 22 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 97 (2003), William E. Hornsby, Jr.

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

This article addresses the regulatory schemes applied to lawyers who advertise their legal services to consumers through electronic communications. Concerns have arisen about lawyers using electronic communications to offer their services to their targeted communities. Since the Supreme Court’s 1977 decision in Bates, lawyers have been able to advertise their services without state permission. However, states have imposed ethical regulations in an effort to ensure that lawyers do not over reach their boundaries during such advertising efforts. The question is raised as to whether states’ spam rules also apply to lawyers who choose to advertise over the Internet. This article …

Vendor Liability For Advertising In Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail, 22 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 137 (2003), Anne P. Mitchell

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

This article discusses whether vendors should be held liable for spam. Vendors are those companies whose products or services are being peddled in spam advertising. Yet, vendors disclaim responsibility for the issuance of spam because they were not the ones who actually sent the spam in the first place. This article takes the stance that because vendors contribute and or benefit from the wrongful acts of the actual spammers, vendors should not be able to escape liability by blaming the primary actors, the spammers. Further, if vendors were to be held liable for spam, they would be an easier entity …

Examination Of The Model Rules Of Professional Conduct Pertaining To The Marketing Of Legal Services In Cyberspace, 22 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 113 (2003), Matthew T. Rollins

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

Advancements in technology have allowed lawyers to reach new and bigger audiences. As a result, the American Bar Association (ABA) modified the Model Rules of Professional Conduct to provide a guideline lawyers can follow regarding the propriety of marketing their legal services over the Internet. This article examines the changes in the Model Rules and the effects of these changes on lawyers advertising their legal services on the Internet. Also discussed are the issues of whether anti-spam laws are binding on lawyers and whether it is proper for lawyers to advertise over the Internet. The ban on chat room solicitation …

Spam And Beyond: Freedom, Efficiency, And The Regulation Of E-Mail Advertising, 22 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 141 (2003), Richard Warner

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

Traditional forms of mailing advertisers bear the full cost of delivering advertisements to consumers. However, this is not true in the form of all e-mail advertisement, spam or not. E-mail users subsidize part of any e-mail advertisement, thereby splitting costs between advertiser and the consumer who receives the e-mail advertisement. This article takes the position that the subsidization that occurs in e-mail advertisement should be eliminated because it unjustifiably violates individual freedom. The article discusses why the delivery charges between sender and recipient are divided, why such cost-division violates freedom, and whether the violation is justified. The article also defines …

Intel V. Hamidi: Spam As A Trespass To Chattels - Deconstruction Of A Private Right Of Action In California, 22 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 205 (2003), J. Brian Beckham

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

This casenote analyzes and critiques the decision reached by the California Supreme Court in Intel v. Hamidi. Intel v. Hamidi runs contrary to other cases that have found a cause of action for trespass to chattels where harm was caused by unwanted electronic communications: Thrifty-Tel, Inc. v. Benezek, eBay v. Bidder’s Edge, and CompuServe v. Cyber Promotions. The California Supreme Court in Intel v. Hamidi suggested other causes of action Intel could have brought instead of trespass to chattels. The casenote looks at each proffered alternative and concludes that none of the alternatives were feasible and that Intel should have …

Wireless Spam This Way Comes: An Analysis Of The Spread Of Wireless Spam And The Present And Proposed Measures Taken To Stop It, 22 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 229 (2003), Bridget O'Neill

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

Spam in the form of unsolicited unwanted e-mail is already a recognized concern in the United States. However, a different type of spam, wireless spam, is starting to make its way to the United States. Wireless spam targets items cell phones with text messaging capabilities, pagers, and personal digital assistants (PDAs). These devices tend to be heavily relied on by their respective owners who bring these devices wherever they go, so to receive wireless spam represents a greater level of privacy intrusion. This article analyzes the various legislative measures that have been considered to regulate spam. It recognizes that most …

A Further Darkside To Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail? An Assessment Of Potential Employer Liability For Spam E-Mail, 22 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 179 (2003), Ben Dahl

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

This article looks at employer liability for pornographic spam in the workplace. It begins with an analysis of the risks and unique problems posed by employees’ Internet use while at work. The article makes note of some trouble areas where employers may be held vicariously liable for sexual harassment. It is suggested that employers protect themselves by taking steps to: 1) reduce the prevalence of unsolicited commercial e-mail in the workplace; 2) mute the potential harm of offensive e-mail; and 3) create a paper trail indicating diligence in the fight to protect employees. Employers may reach these goals by the …

2003 John Marshall International Moot Court Competition In Information Technology And Privacy Law: Brief For The Petitioner, 22 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 301 (2003), Daniel Crespo, Ryan Levine, Brian Walters

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

2003 John Marshall International Moot Court Competition In Information Technology And Privacy Law: Brief For The Petitioner, 22 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 261 (2003), Abby K. Lill, Leopold E. Wetula, Nathan J. Wills

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

2003 John Marshall International Moot Court Competition In Information Technology And Privacy Law: Bench Memorandum, 22 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 247 (2003), Terry Fernbach

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

2003 John Marshall International Moot Court Competition In Information Technology And Privacy Law: Brief For The Respondent, 22 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 335 (2003), Steven Anderson, Chad Edgington, Shannon Goss

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

Trade Secret Reclamation: An Equitable Approach In A Relative World, 21 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 227 (2003), William L. O'Brien

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

The only possible IP protection is a trade secret. However, trade secrets are inadvertently disclosed in investment disclosures or to prospective customers. The article offers a solution to this dilemma by creating emphasis on the continued retention of the secret, even though confidentiality of it could have been dissipating.

Limiting Exposure For Internet Vendors: Separating The Wheat From The Chaff, 21 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 207 (2003), Todd V. Mackey

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

This article explains how using the Internet to market products may subject a vendor to exposure in unanticipated jurisdictions. The author includes a proposal to minimize those risks by suggesting the use of contracts of adhesion, including mandatory forum selection clauses, and having them executed by the customer in the course of the transaction so that the vendor may insulate itself from those jurisdictional risks.