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Full-Text Articles in Internet Law

Trademark Infringement: The Likelihood Of Confusion Of Nfts In The Us And Eu, Sara Sachs Dec 2023

Trademark Infringement: The Likelihood Of Confusion Of Nfts In The Us And Eu, Sara Sachs

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

The immutability of non-fungible tokens has made it an invaluable tool for asset ownership and authentication across a variety of industries. With the proliferation of NFTs comes the need to protect trademarks and prevent consumer confusion in the digital age. This Note explores the existing legal framework for trademark law in the United States and European Union. This Note argues for a new trademark standard that reflects the interconnected nature of a global digital society.

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How (Not) To Deal With The Bubble Effect In Cyberspace: The Case Of The Eu And Digital Services Act, João Tornada Dec 2023

How (Not) To Deal With The Bubble Effect In Cyberspace: The Case Of The Eu And Digital Services Act, João Tornada

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Deliberative democracies are based on an ideal process of speech and dialogue that fosters an “uninhibited, robust, and wide-open” public discourse sphere. In cyberspace, social networks and search engine platforms largely operate with recommender systems that tailor content according to the users' interests and online behavior (“profiling”), thus segregating them from different points of view (“bubble effect”). While this personalization of content is particularly efficient to promote commercial goods and services, when it comes to information of common interest, especially on political matters, it undermines consensus-building dialogue and threatens democratic ideals. The theory of a free “marketplace of ideas” justifies …

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Enough Excuses On Drug Importation: A New Transnational Paradigm For Fda Regulation And Lower Us Drug Prices, Gabriel Levitt Dec 2023

Enough Excuses On Drug Importation: A New Transnational Paradigm For Fda Regulation And Lower Us Drug Prices, Gabriel Levitt

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which enforces drug safety laws, asserts that under most circumstances the importation of prescription drugs is illegal. Yet because of high drug prices in the United States, over the past couple of decades, tens of millions of Americans have imported prescription drugs for personal use. For many, this was their only way to afford them. A unique array of federal laws, regulations, and policies, including the de facto decriminalization of the practice of personal drug importation, have in effect permitted personal drug importation. The same exceptions, however, are not available for commercial drug …

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Towards A Strengthening Of Non-Interference, Sovereignty, And Human Rights From Foreign Cyber Meddling In Democratic Electoral Processes, Francesco Seatzu, Nicolás Carrillo-Santarelli Aug 2023

Towards A Strengthening Of Non-Interference, Sovereignty, And Human Rights From Foreign Cyber Meddling In Democratic Electoral Processes, Francesco Seatzu, Nicolás Carrillo-Santarelli

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

States have resorted to meddling in the elections of their counterparts throughout history. Recently, though, there has been an exponential increased in the use of the possibilities provided by technology. Attention to this phenomenon has deservedly grown quickly and exponentially. This has led to debates focusing on the adequacy of international legal rules and general principles to respond to foreign cyber election interference. In many of these debates some have expressed doubts and skepticism about the adequacy of current international law to confront foreign election interference through cyber means. There have also been disagreements about the applicable standards to fight …

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Deep Dive Into Deepfakes—Safeguarding Our Digital Identity, Yi Yan Aug 2023

Deep Dive Into Deepfakes—Safeguarding Our Digital Identity, Yi Yan

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Deepfake technology is becoming increasingly sophisticated, and with it, the potential to pose a significant threat to the digital community, democratic institutions, and private individuals. With the creation of highly convincing but entirely fabricated audio, video, and images, there is a pressing need for the international community to address the vulnerabilities posed by deepfake technology in the current legal landscape through unambiguous legislation. This Note explores the ethical, legal, and social implications of deepfakes, including issues of privacy, identity theft, and political manipulation. It also reviews existing international legal frameworks, i.e., the Convention on Cybercrime (“Budapest Convention”) and proposes a …

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Social Media Vigilantism, Joanne Sweeny May 2023

Social Media Vigilantism, Joanne Sweeny

Brooklyn Law Review

One of the most well-reported consequences of the #MeToo movement is the ramifications it has had for powerful men accused of engaging in sexual assault or harassment. As part of telling their stories, women (and some men) named their abusers, leading, in some cases, to their alleged abusers suffering legal repercussions. But, much more commonly, legal repercussions never follow, often due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for the crimes committed by the abuser. Instead, social or employment consequences were the only negative impact felt by these abusers. Still, the backlash against #MeToo includes the complaint that these …

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False Speech And The First Amendment: The Problem With Free Speech In A Fake News Crisis, Eliza J. Estrella May 2023

False Speech And The First Amendment: The Problem With Free Speech In A Fake News Crisis, Eliza J. Estrella

Brooklyn Law Review

Social media platforms are used daily by millions of Americans to connect with friends and family, shop from home, and stay attuned to current events. But the increasing ease and speed of accessing information on social media leaves its users exposed to misinformation, disinformation, and fake news that is designed to deceive. Because natural cognitive biases make individualized truth-filtering mechanisms unreliable, it is often difficult for the public to distinguish between fact and fiction. Widespread belief in viral fake news stories have caused serious and dangerous consequences to public health, safety, and democracy. However, because false speech remains categorically protected …

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Breaking Down Digital Walls: The Interface Of International Trade Law And Online Content Regulation Through The Lens Of The Chinese Vpn Measure, Neha Mishra Dec 2022

Breaking Down Digital Walls: The Interface Of International Trade Law And Online Content Regulation Through The Lens Of The Chinese Vpn Measure, Neha Mishra

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

The interface of international trade law and online content regulation is problematic and complex. This Article examines the consistency of the regulation pertaining to Virtual Private Network (VPN) services in China with WTO law. It argues that although WTO law may be effective in disciplining protectionist aspects of online content regulations, they can neither scrutinize domestic values underlying such regulations nor guarantee the free flow of online content. Thus, existing rules contained in international trade agreements play a limited role in balancing domestic socio-cultural and political values vis-à-vis online censorship with an open, globally interconnected internet enabling seamless digital flows. …

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If You Can’T Beat Them, Get Even: A Proposal To Level The Playing Field Between Social Media Platforms And Their Wrongfully Removed Users, Bernie Gabrielle Toledano Dec 2022

If You Can’T Beat Them, Get Even: A Proposal To Level The Playing Field Between Social Media Platforms And Their Wrongfully Removed Users, Bernie Gabrielle Toledano

Brooklyn Law Review

Millions of individuals in the United States maintain both personal and business accounts on social media platforms, a handful of which dominate the market for online content. However, if one of these platforms removes an account without cause, the affected user has little recourse because most platforms’ Terms of Service contain clauses allowing them to terminate user accounts for any reason. Nevertheless, as the power imbalance between platforms and users grows, scholars and judges are starting to believe that there is a need for greater regulation of these platforms. This note explores the ramifications of the social media regulatory gaps …

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The Internet Is For Porn…Or Is It? Fair Access To Financial Services And The Need For Onlyporn Legislation, Emily Pollak Dec 2022

The Internet Is For Porn…Or Is It? Fair Access To Financial Services And The Need For Onlyporn Legislation, Emily Pollak

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Historically, the pornography industry has been the target of countless attempts to delegitimize sex work, but it still endures as a legal industry. Nevertheless, financial service providers such as banks and third-party payment processors have circumvented providing the industry fair access to their services, under vague pretexts such as reputational risk. While porn is not the only marginalized industry affected by unfair treatment from financial service providers, it is among the most targeted. This note gives context to this issue and provides that access to the global marketplace should not be limited by financial institutions functioning as de facto legislators, …

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Hacking Copyright: Holding Cops Accountable For Abusing Youtube’S Copyright Filter System, Tyler Bloom Dec 2022

Hacking Copyright: Holding Cops Accountable For Abusing Youtube’S Copyright Filter System, Tyler Bloom

Journal of Law and Policy

This Note both explores the mechanisms and incentive structures that make “copyright hacking” possible and explains the legal system’s failure to provide recourse for victims of successful “copyright hacks” by police officers. Because the DMCA has failed to keep pace with the internet’s exponential growth, OSPs, such as YouTube, have developed filtering systems that can be exploited to “copyright hack” users and ultimately suppress their speech. A victim of “copyright hacking” by a police officer currently has no recourse; the doctrine of qualified immunity functionally precludes them from suing for violating their First Amendment rights. This Note proposes two possible …

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Standing In The Ether: Constitutional Standing In Data Breach Cases After Mcmorris, Andrew Ridge Dec 2022

Standing In The Ether: Constitutional Standing In Data Breach Cases After Mcmorris, Andrew Ridge

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

For some time, circuit courts have been ostensibly divided over the power of plaintiffs to maintain claims for injuries sustained from data breaches based merely on an increased risk of injury. However, in McMorris v. Carlos Lopez & Assocs., LLC, 995 F.3d 295 (2d Cir. 2021), the Second Circuit denied the existence of the circuit split, instead contending that its three-factor balancing test for determining standing for risk of future injury in data breach cases could be reconciled with the positions of both clusters of circuits. The three factors are “(1) whether the plaintiffs’ data has been exposed as the …

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The "Worst Law In Technology": How The Computer Fraud And Abuse Act Allows Big Businesses To Collect And Sell Your Personal Information, Alicia Nakhjavan Apr 2022

The "Worst Law In Technology": How The Computer Fraud And Abuse Act Allows Big Businesses To Collect And Sell Your Personal Information, Alicia Nakhjavan

Brooklyn Law Review

For years, big businesses have been collecting and selling users’ personal information without permission. In attempts at preventing this practice, users have brought civil actions under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), alleging a loss of personal privacy. As currently enacted, “personal privacy” is not included in the statutory definition of loss. Further, courts have been reluctant to interpret the CFAA broadly to cover loss of personal privacy claims. This note proposes that an amendment to the CFAA is necessary to close this gap in the statute’s coverage and better protect users’ right to privacy.

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From The Golden Gate To London: Bridging The Gap Between Data Privacy And The Right Of Publicity, Kristin Kuraishi Dec 2021

From The Golden Gate To London: Bridging The Gap Between Data Privacy And The Right Of Publicity, Kristin Kuraishi

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Currently, there is no global standard or recognition for the right of publicity. Even within the United States, the recognition, scope, and protections vary by state. As the world becomes increasingly reliant on social media for news, information, communication, and recommendations, micro-influencers and non-celebrities require a way to control their developed and curated name, image, and likeness from unauthorized commercial uses by others. Advertising is occurring more frequently online, and brands recognize the power that micro-influencers have on commerce. Some countries, like the United Kingdom, do not recognize the right of publicity, potentially leaving many individuals without recourse for the …

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Protecting Internet Access: A Human Rights Treaty Approach, Harpreet Kaur Dec 2021

Protecting Internet Access: A Human Rights Treaty Approach, Harpreet Kaur

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

With the evolution of the internet, the world has also seen a marked increase in government-ordered internet shutdowns and restrictions, sometimes with dubious justifications and sometimes with no justification at all. As people have become increasingly reliant on the internet for their day-to-day activities and to keep up with important news, internet restrictions often disrupt lives and violate people’s civil and human rights. While no international law directly protects internet access, it is implicitly advocated for under the freedom of opinion and expression. The upward trend of internet restrictions, however, suggests that an implied protection of access to a necessary …

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Section 230 And The Problem Of Social Cost, Stanley M. Besen, Philip L. Verveer Dec 2021

Section 230 And The Problem Of Social Cost, Stanley M. Besen, Philip L. Verveer

Journal of Law and Policy

This Article employs, with certain modifications, the framework developed in Ronald Coase’s classic article, “The Problem of Social Cost,” to analyze the current debate over Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. This provision absolves interactive computer services, also known as platforms, from liability when they disseminate materials that cause “harm” to third parties, “harm” that can take the form of compensable damage of a sort found in ordinary tort cases but also can include broader injuries to social order and cohesion in the form of such things as hate speech and misinformation. The Article begins by pointing out that, …

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Digital Privacy Rights And Cloud Act Agreements, Tim Cochrane Dec 2021

Digital Privacy Rights And Cloud Act Agreements, Tim Cochrane

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

The United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK) will soon bring into force a new international law enforcement data sharing ‘CLOUD Act agreement’ (US-UK Agreement), the first of its kind under the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act 2018 (CLOUD Act). These agreements enable law enforcement in one state to directly request data from service providers based in the other state. They respond to long-standing concerns with the main mechanism for obtaining overseas data, mutual legal assistance (MLA). The US and UK claim the US-UK Agreement will significantly speed up data access relative to MLA while “respecting privacy and …

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Prosecuting The Phone Scammer When Extradition Fails And Concurrent Jurisdiction Exists, Michelle Lepkofker Dec 2021

Prosecuting The Phone Scammer When Extradition Fails And Concurrent Jurisdiction Exists, Michelle Lepkofker

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Advancements in technology allow people to place phone calls half a world away via the internet. This technology has made it easier and cheaper for consumers to communicate, but it has also made it easier for scammers to reach more unsuspecting victims. In 2020, TrueCaller, an app designed to block scam phone calls, successfully blocked, and identified 31.3 billion spam calls in 20 countries. In the same year, Americans alone lost a total of USD $ 29.8 billion to scam calls. This Note argues that phone scams continue to be lucrative, in part, because criminal prosecutions of transnational crimes are …

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Copystrikes And Meme Bans: Social Media And Copyright Protections In The Digital Age, Angelina Sanchez Dec 2021

Copystrikes And Meme Bans: Social Media And Copyright Protections In The Digital Age, Angelina Sanchez

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Social media is a pervasive and ever-present aspect of many peoples’ lives. Its use permeates nearly every aspect of our existence – there truly is an app for everything. Most notably, social media operates internationally both in scope and usage allowing for the creation of an astounding global society that shares cultures and perspectives in a way unprecedented in human history. Never before have societies been as interconnected as they are now. Unfortunately, such interconnectedness comes with the issue of globalizing enforcement of copyright laws. Infringement runs rampant online and forces creators to struggle against a seemingly faceless foe in …

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The Rise Of Ada Title Iii: How Congress And The Department Of Justice Can Solve Predatory Litigation, Sarah E. Zehentner Sep 2021

The Rise Of Ada Title Iii: How Congress And The Department Of Justice Can Solve Predatory Litigation, Sarah E. Zehentner

Brooklyn Law Review

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was enacted in 1990 to afford equal opportunities for individuals with disabilities. Title III of the ADA, specifically, was enacted to afford disabled individuals equal access to places of public accommodation. When the ADA was enacted, the internet was still in its infancy and Congress did not contemplate the need for governing accessibility to websites of public accommodations. Today, the internet has become embedded in virtually every aspect of our lives, yet there are still millions of disabled individuals who are unable to equally access the websites of American businesses. With the ADA being …

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Throw The Book At Them: Why The Ftc Needs To Get Tough With Influencers, Christopher Terry, Eliezer Joseph Silberberg, Stephen Schmitz Jun 2021

Throw The Book At Them: Why The Ftc Needs To Get Tough With Influencers, Christopher Terry, Eliezer Joseph Silberberg, Stephen Schmitz

Journal of Law and Policy

The Federal Trade Commission is an administrative agency that has traditionally been aggressive when deploying its delegated authority. At the core of these actions is the FTC’s interpretive definition of deception as based upon a reasonable consumer standard. Specifically, the commission has regularly used Section 5(a) of the FTC Act, in tandem with its interpretive definition of deception, as a sword in a variety of contexts, including enforcement actions for deceptive advertising, endorsements, and claim substantiation against a range of industries. These include successfully brought actions or consent decrees obtained in enforcement proceedings against powerful economic entities, including Google and …

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The Commodification Of Personal Data And The Road To Consumer Autonomy Through The Ccpa, Blaire Rose May 2021

The Commodification Of Personal Data And The Road To Consumer Autonomy Through The Ccpa, Blaire Rose

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

The internet has transformed into a museum of personal information collected through the digital footprint we leave behind after each act performed on the web. Businesses have monetized this collection of personal data in various ways. For instance, many companies analyze this information through predicting analytics and data profiling to identify consumer interests that they can exploit as a means to generate revenue. Though user data promotes many benefits for businesses and consumers alike, the recent data breaches of massive companies, coupled with hazy privacy disclosures that beget consent disputes, have left both users and businesses perturbed and exposed to …

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Data Governance And The Elasticity Of Sovereignty, Roxana Vatanparast Dec 2020

Data Governance And The Elasticity Of Sovereignty, Roxana Vatanparast

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Traditionally, the world map and territorially bounded spaces have dominated the ways in which we imagine how states govern, make laws, and exercise their authority. Under this conception, reflected in traditional international law principles of territorial sovereignty, each state would have exclusive authority to govern and make laws over everything concerning the land within its borders. Yet developments like the proliferation of data flows, which are based on divisible, mobile, and interconnected components of data, are not territorially bounded. This presents a challenge to the traditional bases for territorial sovereignty and jurisdiction under international law, which some scholars claim is …

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Easing The Burdens Of A Patchwork Approach To Data Privacy Regulation In Favor Of A Singular Comprehensive International Solution—The International Data Privacy Agreement, Scott Resnick Dec 2020

Easing The Burdens Of A Patchwork Approach To Data Privacy Regulation In Favor Of A Singular Comprehensive International Solution—The International Data Privacy Agreement, Scott Resnick

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Data privacy has become one of the premier hot-button issues in today’s increasingly digital human experience. Legislatures around the globe have attempted to act swiftly in an effort to safeguard the highly coveted personal information of their citizens and combat misuse at the hands of international businesses operating with an online presence. Since the European Union’s enactment of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018, countries around the globe have been grappling with how best to replicate the EU’s leading data privacy regulation while providing the same or greater level of transparency into data collection practices. While a mere …

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Symposium: Consumer Welfare Market Structure And Political Power, Edward J. Janger Dec 2020

Symposium: Consumer Welfare Market Structure And Political Power, Edward J. Janger

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Two competing visions dominate the fields of antitrust and consumer protection: neo-liberal and progressive. The neo-classical approach is associated with Robert Bork and the Law and Economics Movement. The progressive strand is older, identified with Brandeis and early 20th Century social reform. As a matter of chronology the Brandeisian view dominated into the 1970s, but from 1980, until recently, the Borkian law and economics approach has been in ascendancy in Congress, the academy, and in the courts. Technological change and events in the broader economy have caused the politics and the academic focus to shift. The financial crisis of 2008-09 …

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Your Uber Driver Is Here, But Their Benefits Are Not: The Abc Test, Assembly Bill 5, And Regulating Gig Economy Employers, Brian A. Brown Ii Dec 2020

Your Uber Driver Is Here, But Their Benefits Are Not: The Abc Test, Assembly Bill 5, And Regulating Gig Economy Employers, Brian A. Brown Ii

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

In September 2019, California passed Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5) which adopts the ABC test as the standard for determining whether an individual worker is an employee or an independent contractor. This legislation is aimed at gig economy employers, such as Uber, whose workers are arguably misclassified as independent contractors, ultimately denying them access to benefits and the ability to unionize. This Note will discuss AB 5 by identifying the successes and pitfalls of the legislation. While AB 5 is a step in the right direction, the bill still needs to be refined to avoid gaps in enforcement. Further, this …

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Cyber-Insecurity: The Reasonableness Standard In Internet Of Things Device Regulation And Why Technical Standards Are Better Equipped To Combat Cybercrime, Chynna Rose Foucek Dec 2020

Cyber-Insecurity: The Reasonableness Standard In Internet Of Things Device Regulation And Why Technical Standards Are Better Equipped To Combat Cybercrime, Chynna Rose Foucek

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

While the Internet of Things (IoT) has created an interconnected world via phones, laptops, and even household devices, it is not infallible. As cyber-attacks increase in frequency, affecting companies of all sizes and industries, IoT device manufacturers have become particularly vulnerable, due in large part to the fact that many companies fail to implement adequate cybersecurity protocols. Mass data breaches occur often. However, these companies are not held accountable due to the use of the reasonableness standard in existing cybersecurity legislation, which is flexible and malleable. In 2019, the California Legislature enacted a cybersecurity law specific to IoT device manufacturers. …

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Consumers' Declining Power In The Fintech Auto Loan Market, Pamela Foohey Dec 2020

Consumers' Declining Power In The Fintech Auto Loan Market, Pamela Foohey

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Automobiles have become part of America’s infrastructure. For most people, having access to a car is crucial to their livelihoods and they will take on significant amounts of debt to purchase vehicles. Auto debt is unlike any other consumer debt, both in its structure, which allows creditors to easily seize collateral, and in its lack of regulation. The unique and lucrative nature of auto debt has not gone unnoticed by lenders or by companies leveraging fintech to offer people new ways to purchase cars and car loans. This Article assesses the evolving marketplace for auto sales, leasing, and loans to …

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Warranty, Product Liability And Transaction Structure: The Problem Of Amazon, Edward J. Janger, Aaron D. Twerski Dec 2020

Warranty, Product Liability And Transaction Structure: The Problem Of Amazon, Edward J. Janger, Aaron D. Twerski

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Amazon, and other internet sales platforms, have revolutionized the manner in which goods are purchased and sold. The obligations undertaken by Amazon in those sales are unclear, both as a matter of transparency, and as a matter of legal doctrine. Is Amazon a store? Is it a shipper? Is it a telephone? In various transactions Amazon can play some or all of these roles. Choosing the right metaphor has consequences. Amazon knows this and has done everything it can to deploy the metaphors selectively to its best legal and practical advantage, even when the chosen characterizations are inapt or even …

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Door Shut And Ears Plugged: How Consumer Reporting Casts Identity Theft Victims Out Of Financial Society And How The Law Can Be Harmonized To Bring Them Back In, Ryan Bolger Dec 2020

Door Shut And Ears Plugged: How Consumer Reporting Casts Identity Theft Victims Out Of Financial Society And How The Law Can Be Harmonized To Bring Them Back In, Ryan Bolger

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs) are the gatekeepers to the American economy. As the chief informants for prospective lenders, landlords, and employers, they exert immense power over the day-to-day decisions of who gets what. Despite these high stakes, the CRAs run consumer reporting as an automated electronic process that causes a lot of reporting errors, disqualifying consumers from essential goods, services, and opportunities. This is painfully true in the context of identity theft, where perverse incentives pollute the integrity of consumer reporting, piling undue harm onto identity theft victims. The law provides a remedy for this problem, but circuit courts are …

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