Digital Commons Network^™

The Google Book Search Settlement: Ends, Means, And The Future Of Books, James Grimmelmann

Faculty Scholarship

For the past four years, Google has been systematically making digital copies of books in the collections of many major university libraries. It made the digital copies searchable through its web site--you couldn't read the books, but you could at least find out where the phrase you're looking for appears within them. This outraged copyright owners, who filed a class action lawsuit to make Google stop. Then, last fall, the parties to this large class action announced an even larger settlement: one that would give Google a license not only to scan books, but also to sell them.

The settlement …

Lincoln's Populist Sovereignty: Public Finance Of, By, And For The People, Timothy A. Canova

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Harmless Use: Gleaning From Fields Of Copyrighted Works, Wendy J. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

I will first provide a brief comment about what I think brings us all together. Second, I will talk about a particular project - something that has preoccupied me ever since I entered the field - namely, the distinction between what I will call, for sake of abbreviation, harmful use and harmless use.

United States Response To Questionnaire, June M. Besek, Jane C. Ginsburg, Caitlin Grusauskas

Faculty Scholarship

ALAI-USA is the U.S. branch of ALAI (Association Littèraire et Artistique Internationale). ALAI-USA was started in the 1980's by the late Professor Melville B. Nimmer, and was later expanded by Professor John M. Kernochan.

Enhancing The Fighting Force: Medical Research On American Soldiers, Catherine L. Annas, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

During President Barack Obama's first primetime press conference, reporters asked primarily about the state of the economy and terrorism. Wedged between questions on these two vital issues was a query from the Washington Post's Michael Fletcher:

Question: What is your reaction to Alex Rodriguez's admission that he used steroids as a member of the Texas Rangers?

Obama: You know, I think it's depressing news.... And if you're a fan of Major League Baseball, I think it - it tarnishes an entire era, to some degree. And it's unfortunate, because I think there are a lot of ballplayers who played it …

Introduction: Symposium On Remedies For Exonerated Prisoners, Jack M. Beermann

Faculty Scholarship

Exoneration of wrongfully convicted prisoners is not a new thing, but it seems to be more common with advances in the availability and utility of DNA evidence. Given the number of exonerations that have occurred in recent years, it is increasingly difficult to dismiss inmates’ ubiquitous claims of innocence. Is it still a safe assumption that the vast majority of claims of innocence are false? Do we trust that post-conviction and appellate procedures will sort the wheat from the chaff?

Regardless of how we answer the questions raised above, there is one question society must answer—how should the wrongfully convicted …

Changes To The Czech Republic's Vat Act: The Use And Enjoyment Rules, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

On January 1, 2009 a minor change in the Czech Republic VAT became effective. A use and enjoyment standard was added to modify the sourcing of certain service transactions. Traditional proxy-based rules, derived from Articles 43 and 56(1) of the Recast VAT Directive (RVD), are set aside by this modification when the customer receiving the services has a permanent establishment (PE) in the Czech Republic. The modification is authorized by RVD 58.

This change is a limited adoption of RVD 58(b), and functions like a full force of attraction principle in direct taxation. If caught by these rules, transactions that …

In Search Of The Information Commons Model In Arts Libraries: A Library Travelogue And Discussion, Margaret D. Ericson, Janette Blackburn

Faculty Scholarship

This presentation offers a new model for art and music libraries spaces using the precepts of the information commons.

Albuquerque Journal Interviews Moore About U.S. Detention Camps, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Jennifer Moore of the University of New Mexico School of Law said her work in international law led her to concerns that treatment of Guantanamo prisoners has created people more likely to commit acts of terrorism against the United States.

Moore, who worked with refugees of the Rwandan genocide, said that in dealing with the remaining Guantanamo prisoners, "We should keep in mind not just legality, but the legacy of how the U.S. is looking to prevent terrorism. Due process may be the strongest tool."

Concerning Theory For Performance Studies, Richard Schechner, Timothy K. Beal, William E. Deal

Faculty Scholarship

In 2007, Routledge published Theory for Performance Studies as part of its Theory 4 series, listing Philip Auslander as author. When, in August, The Chronicle of Higher Education revealed that much of the book was lifted word-for-word from the template for the series, Theory for Religious Studies by Timothy K. Beal and William E. Deal, TDR editor Richard Schechner convened via email and phone conversations a “TDR Forum,” asking leaders in the field to respond to the book and the series. Schechner and other respondents address issues of plagiarism, corporate takeovers of academic publishing, and the dumbing down of performance …

Water Scarcity, Conflict, And Security In A Climate Change World: Challenges And Opportunities For International Law And Policy, Gabriel Eckstein

Faculty Scholarship

Although climate change is expected to have major consequences that affect the global environment in its broadest sense, one of the earliest and most direct impacts will be on Earth’s fresh water systems. While some regions will experience increased precipitation, others will suffer serious scarcity. Among others, consequences are likely to include severe flooding, extreme droughts, and meandering border-rivers. This, in turn, will affect human migration patterns, population growths, agricultural activities, economic development, and the environment. This article explores the impact that climate change will have on regional and global freshwater resources and the resulting legal and policy implications that …

Quebec's Module D'Enregistrement Des Ventes (Mev): Fighting The Zapper, Phantomware And Tax Fraud With Technology, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

On January 28, 2008 the Quebec Minister of Revenue, Jean-Marc Fournier, announced that by late 2009 the MRQ will begin testing a device, the module d'enregistrement des ventes (MEV) that is projected to substantially reduce tax fraud in the restaurant sector. By 2010 or 2011 MEVs will be mandatory in all Quebec restaurants, where they will assure accuracy and retention of business records within electronic cash registers (ECRs).

This paper moves beyond a discussion of the variety of sales suppression programs in use - zappers and phantom-ware. The concern here is on enforcement efforts, particularly the MEV. The intent is …

Cyber Civil Rights, Danielle K. Citron

Faculty Scholarship

Social networking sites and blogs have increasingly become breeding grounds for anonymous online groups that attack women, people of color, and members of other traditionally disadvantaged groups. These destructive groups target individuals with defamation, threats of violence, and technology-based attacks that silence victims and concomitantly destroy their privacy. Victims go offline or assume pseudonyms to prevent future attacks, impoverishing online dialogue and depriving victims of the social and economic opportunities associated with a vibrant online presence. Attackers manipulate search engines to reproduce their lies and threats for employers and clients to see, creating digital "scarlet letters" that ruin reputations. Today's …

Pick Your Poison: Responses To The Marketing And Sale Of Flavored Tobacco Products, Kathleen Hoke Dachille

Faculty Scholarship

This law synopsis explores legal approaches for addressing the marketing and sale of flavored tobacco products to youth.

California Biometrics: A Second Proposal For California's Commission On The 21st Century Economy, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

This proposal takes a long view to revenue reform. It seeks to fundamentally align the sales tax with the digital foundation of the 21st Century economy.

The core policy question is whether California is willing to change the way it defines sales tax exemptions; is it willing to move from product-centric to person-centric exemptions. Certified tax determination systems can be relied upon. A key element in this proposal is the encryption of exemption certificates in IDs (smart cards with biometric identifiers that will allow the poor or handicapped to make certain purchases tax free).

This proposal suggests that (for example) …

Unveiling Raphaelle Peale's "Venus Rising From The Sea -- A Deception", Lauren K. Lessing, Mary Schafer

Faculty Scholarship

New technical information uncovered by conservator Mary Schafer has revealed an earlier, unfinished composition beneath the margins of Raphaelle Peale’s circa 1822 trompe l’oeil painting “Venus Rising from the Sea—a Deception.” The earlier version of the painting featured a partial copy of Charles Willson Peale’s 1817 portrait of Raphaelle seemingly concealed behind the same white kerchief that now appears to hide a copy of James Barry’s 1772 painting “The Birth of Venus.” Schafer and art historian Lauren Lessing reinterpret Peale’s painting in light of these findings, describing its complex nature as both a physical object and a dark visual joke.

From Greed To Grievance: The Shifting Political Profile Of The Colombian Paramilitaries, Winifred Tate

Faculty Scholarship

On June 28, 2004, indicted drug trafficker and paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso, wearing a fashionable Italian suit and tie, addressed the Colombian Congress from the podium. "The judgment of history will recognize the goodness and nobility of our cause," he told the assembled legislators and press. The day before, Mancuso, along with two other paramilitary leaders, had traveled in an official air force plane from the small northern Colombia hamlet where paramilitary leaders had assembled to begin talks with the Colombian government. After almost a decade of fighting outside the law, Mancuso was now addressing the heart of the state, …

More Pedagogic Techniques: Online Exercises & (And) Integrating Skills Into Different Kinds Of Courses, Leslie Larkin Cooney

Faculty Scholarship

The Business Practice Clinic is an externship program that sends third-year students out to work either full-time or part-time in an agency or law firm. The externs are trained in the clinical program and during a biweekly class. There is also a three-credit class that students complete before they go into extern placement. It was a big challenge to complete the placement class in only two weeks because of the students’ busy schedules, so we began offering pieces of it online. We are moving more and more of this course to our online platform. This article discusses our experience in …

Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back: Lessons To Be Learned From How Florida's Initiatives To Curtail Confidentiality In Litigation Have Missed Their Mark, Roma Perez

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Judging The Judges - Daytime Television's Integrated Reality Court Bench, Taunya Lovell Banks

Faculty Scholarship

Critics of reality daytime television court shows remain divided over whether the possible educational benefits of these shows outweigh their distorted images of judicial proceedings. .... few pay much attention to the shifting demographics of the reality court judges.... In 2008, women judges outnumber their male counterparts.... four judges are Latina/o and another four are black. Only Judy Sheindlin of Judge Judy, the best known and most popular reality court judge, and David Young of Judge David Young, an openly gay man, are white. There are no Asian American judges on reality court shows...., nevertheless, the judicial world of daytime …

Students Schooling Students: Gaining Professional Benefits While Helping Urban High School Students Achieve Success, Susan P. Leviton, Justin A. Browne

Faculty Scholarship

This article looks at the educational plight of urban low income children and explores the opportunities for success that small urban high schools provide. It then distills commonalities among successful small schools to demonstrate three central points: 1) that small is essential but not sufficient; 2) that small schools offer an opportunity for urban school districts to help improve educational opportunities for disadvantaged students by providing a fertile environment where individualized instruction, more class time, better-trained teachers, and a curriculum that prepares students psychologically and emotionally, as well as intellectually can help them overcome the adverse effects of poverty; and …

Indigenous Peoples And The Law - Ancient Customs: Modern Dilemmas, David S. Bogen

Faculty Scholarship

Indigenous people have a variety of complex relationships to law in nations such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States where non-indigenous people constitute the majority of the population. Customary law has been recognised in each of these nations as a source of domestic law, but this recognition has created various tensions. For instance, Native Title looks to customary law for its definition, but non-indigenous society demands that Native Title be managed by modern Indigenous institutions created under non-indigenous law. Issues of federalism and international law influence the interaction of Indigenous and non-indigenous law against a background of …

Outsider Citizens: Film Narratives About The Internment Of Japanese Americans, Taunya Lovell Banks

Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the conflicting film narratives about the internment from 1942 through 2007. It argues that while later film narratives, especially documentaries, counter early government film narratives justifying the internment, these counter-narratives have their own damaging hegemony. Whereas earlier commercial films tell the internment story through the eyes of sympathetic whites, using a conventional civil rights template … Japanese and other Asian American documentary filmmakers construct their Japanese characters as model minorities — hyper-citizens, super patriots. Further, the internment experience remains largely a male story. With the exception of Emiko Omori’s documentary film memoir, Rabbit in the Moon (2004), …

Law's Expressive Value In Combating Cyber Gender Harassment, Danielle Keats Citron

Faculty Scholarship

The online harassment of women exemplifies twenty-first century behavior that profoundly harms women yet too often remains overlooked and even trivialized. This harassment includes rape threats, doctored photographs portraying women being strangled, postings of women’s home addresses alongside suggestions that they should be sexually assaulted and technological attacks that shut down blogs and websites. It impedes women’s full participation in online life, often driving them offline, and undermines their autonomy, identity, dignity, and well-being. But the public and law enforcement routinely marginalize women’s experience, deeming it harmless teasing that women should expect, and tolerate, given the Internet’s Wild West norms …

Laboratories Of Destitution: Democratic Experimentalsim And The Failure Of Antipoverty Law, David A. Super

Faculty Scholarship

Democratic experimentalism, the procedural component of the “new governance” movement, has won widespread acceptance in calling for decentralization, deliberation, deregulation, and experimentation. Democratic experimentalists claim that this approach offers pragmatic solutions to social problems. Although the democratic experimentalist movement formally began only a decade ago, antipoverty law has reflected its major principles since the 1960s. This experiment has gone badly, weakening antipoverty programs. Key elements of this participatory approach to antipoverty law – decentralization, privatization, and the substitution of ad hoc problemsolving for individual rights – all contributed to the calamity that low-income people suffered during and after Hurricane Katrina. …

For Both Love And Money: Viviana Zelizer's "The Purchase Of Intimacy", Martha M. Ertman

Faculty Scholarship

Viviana Zelizer’s recent book, The Purchase of Intimacy (2005) presents an innovative theory of how social and legal actors negotiate rights and obligations when money changes hands in intimate relationships--a perspective that could change how we understand many things, from valuations of homemaking labor to the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund. This essay describes Zelizer’s critique of the reductionist “Hostile Worlds” and “Nothing But” approaches to economic exchange in intimate relationships, then explains her more three-dimensional approach, “Connected Lives.” While Zelizer focuses on family law, the essay goes beyond that context, extending Zelizer’s approach to transfers of genetic material, and concluding …

In The Wake Of Reinvigorated U.S. Supreme Court Activity In Patent Appeals, Lawrence M. Sung

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Multilayered Racism: Courts' Continued Resistance To Colorism Claims, Taunya Lovell Banks

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Prosecuting Doctors For Trusting Patients, Deborah Hellman

Faculty Scholarship

In an escalating phase of our country’s war on drugs, doctors treating patients in pain are being prosecuted for drug trafficking under the Controlled Substances Act. While doctors surely can be guilty of drug trafficking when they sell drugs for money, lately some doctors have been prosecuted for violations of a statute that requires knowingly distributing or dispensing controlled substances in an unauthorized manner for simply being willfully blind to the fact that their patients were reselling the drugs. While willful blindness may be an apt substitute for knowledge in the traditional drug courier scenario, doctors in these cases are …

Here Comes The Judge! Gender Distortion On Tv Reality Court Shows, Taunya Lovell Banks

Faculty Scholarship

In the judicial world of television court shows women constitute a majority of the judges and where non-white women and men dominate. In real life most judges are white and male. This essay looks at the gender and racial composition and demeanor of these television reality judges. It asks whether women TV reality judges behave differently from their male counterparts and whether women’s increased visibility as judges on daytime reality court shows reinforces or diminishes traditional negative stereotypes about women, especially non-white women.