Digital Commons Network^™

Molecular Targets For Diabetes Mellitus-Associated Erectile Dysfunction, Elizabeth Yohannes, Jinsook Chang, Mark R. Chance

Faculty Scholarship

Protein expression profiles in rat corporal smooth muscle tissue were compared between animal models of streptozotocin-induced diabetes mellitus (STZ-DM) and agematched controls (AMCs) at 1 week and 2 months after induction of hyperglycemia with STZ treatment. At each time point, protein samples from four STZ-DM and four AMC rat corpora tissues were prepared independently and analyzed together across multiple quantitative two-dimensional gels using a pooled internal standard sample to quantify expression changes with statistical confidence. A total of 170 spots were differential expressed among the four experimental groups. A subsequent mass spectrometry analysis of the 170 spots identified a total …

Digital Copyright Reform And Legal Transplants In Hong Kong, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

Since the mid-1990s, countries have struggled to respond to copyright challenges created by the internet and new communications technologies. Although the law and policy debate in recent years has focused primarily on the entertainment industry’s aggressive tactics toward individual end-users, online service providers, and other third parties, a recent wave of legislative actions and lobbying efforts has rejuvenated the debate on the proper legal response to the digital copyright challenges.

Like many other jurisdictions, Hong Kong, in the past few years, has been busy exploring copyright law reform to respond to challenges created by the internet and new communications technologies. …

The Political Economy Of Data Protection, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

Information is the lifeblood of a knowledge-based economy. The control of data and the ability to translate them into meaningful information is indispensable to businesspeople, policymakers, scientists, engineers, researchers, students, and consumers. Having useful, and at times exclusive, information improves productivity, advances education and training, and helps create a more informed citizenry. In the past two decades, those who collected or obtained access to a large amount of data began to explore ways to use the collected data as an income stream. Because the then-existing laws did not offer adequate protection for that particular purpose, they actively lobbied for stronger …

How We Lost The High-Tech War Of 2020: A Warning From The Future, Charles J. Dunlap Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

An Integrative -Omics Approach To Identify Functional Sub-Networks In Human Colorectal Cancer, Rod K. Nibbe, Mehmet Koyutürk, Mark R. Chance

Faculty Scholarship

Emerging evidence indicates that gene products implicated in human cancers often cluster together in "hot spots" in protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks. Additionally, small sub-networks within PPI networks that demonstrate synergistic differential expression with respect to tumorigenic phenotypes were recently shown to be more accurate classifiers of disease progression when compared to single targets identified by traditional approaches. However, many of these studies rely exclusively on mRNA expression data, a useful but limited measure of cellular activity. Proteomic profiling experiments provide information at the post-translational level, yet they generally screen only a limited fraction of the proteome. Here, we demonstrate that …

Fulfilling Government 2.0'S Promise With Robust Privacy Protections, Danielle Keats Citron

Faculty Scholarship

The public can now “friend” the White House and scores of agencies on social networks, virtual worlds, and video-sharing sites. The Obama Administration sees this trend as crucial to enhancing governmental transparency, public participation, and collaboration. As the President has underscored, government needs to tap into the public’s expertise because it doesn’t have all of the answers. To be sure, Government 2.0 might improve civic engagement. But it also might produce privacy vulnerabilities because agencies often gain access to individuals’ social network profiles, photographs, videos, and contact lists when interacting with individuals online. Little would prevent agencies from using and …

From The Greenhouse To The Poorhouse: Carbon Emissions Control And The Rules Of Legislative Joinder, David A. Super

Faculty Scholarship

Pending legislation to address carbon emissions would include large subsidies for existing emitters. These subsidies make little sense economically or politically. Worse, they divert resources needed to address two crucial issues that the proposed legislation largely ignores: the impact of raising carbon costs on low-income people and the massive structural federal deficit. A carbon tax or cap-and-trade system would increase costs substantially not only for transportation but for food and housing. With poverty rising even before the current economic downturn, these price increases’ consequences could be dire. The structural deficit will require deflationary tax increases or spending cuts. Combining carbon …

The Decline Of Investment Banking: Preliminary Thoughts On The Evolution Of The Industry 1996-2008, Robert J. Rhee

Faculty Scholarship

In this paper, I provide a basic, preliminary financial analysis of several prominent, independent investment banks: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, and Bear Stearns. I provide the following data: (1) segmentation of net revenue by products and services, (2) return on average equity, (3) leverage ratio, and (4) debt to equity ratio. Although the data analysis here is very basic, it still tells an interesting narrative of the evolution of the investment banking industry. The investment banking industry has undergone significant change in the twelve-year period 1996 to 2008. In the mid-1990s, banks had a balance mix …

Cognition-Enhancing Drugs: Can We Say No?, Frank Pasquale

Faculty Scholarship

Normative analysis of cognition-enhancing drugs frequently weighs the liberty interests of drug users against egalitarian commitments to a "level playing field." Yet those who would refuse to engage in neuroenhancement may well find their liberty to do so limited in a society where such drugs are widespread. To the extent that unvarnished emotional responses are world-disclosive, neurocosmetic practices also threaten to provide a form of faulty data to their users. This essay examines underappreciated liberty-based and epistemic rationales for regulating cognition-enhancing drugs.

Beyond Innovation And Competition: The Need For Qualified Transparency In Internet Intermediaries, Frank Pasquale

Faculty Scholarship

Internet service providers and search engines have mapped the web, accelerated e-commerce, and empowered new communities. They also pose new challenges for law. Individuals are rapidly losing the ability to affect their own image on the web - or even to know what data are presented about them. When web users attempt to find information or entertainment, they have little assurance that a carrier or search engine is not biasing the presentation of results in accordance with its own commercial interests.

Technology’s impact on privacy and democratic culture needs to be at the center of internet policy-making. Yet before they …

Trusting (And Verifying) Online Intermediaries' Policing, Frank A. Pasquale

Faculty Scholarship

All is not well in the land of online self-regulation. However competently internet intermediaries police their sites, nagging questions will remain about their fairness and objectivity in doing so. Is Comcast blocking BitTorrent to stop infringement, to manage traffic, or to decrease access to content that competes with its own for viewers? How much digital due process does Google need to give a site it accuses of harboring malware? If Facebook censors a video of war carnage, is that a token of respect for the wounded or one more reflexive effort of a major company to ingratiate itself with the …

D Is For Digitize: An Introduction, James Grimmelmann

Faculty Scholarship

This brief introductory essay reviews the history of D is for Digitize conference on the Google Books settlement and provides an overview of the seven articles in the symposium issue.

The Internet Is A Semicommons, James Grimmelmann

Faculty Scholarship

The Internet is a semicommons. Private property in servers and network links coexists with a shared communications platform. This distinctive combination both explains the Internet's enormous success and illustrates some of its recurring problems.

Building on Henry Smith's theory of the semicommons in the medieval open-field system, this essay explains how the dynamic interplay between private and common uses on the Internet enables it to facilitate worldwide sharing and collaboration without collapsing under the strain of misuse. It shows that key technical features of the Internet, such as its layering of protocols and the Web's division into distinct "sites," respond …

Some Skepticism About Search Neutrality, James Grimmelmann

Faculty Scholarship

In the last few years, some search-engine critics have suggested that dominant search engines (i.e. Google) should be subject to “search neutrality” regulations. By analogy to network neutrality, search neutrality would require even-handed treatment in search results: It would prevent search engines from playing favorites among websites. Academics, Google competitors, and public-interest groups have all embraced search neutrality.

Despite this sudden interest, the case for search neutrality is too muddled to be convincing. While “neutrality” is an appealing-sounding principle, it lacks a clear definition. This essay explores no fewer than eight different meanings that search-neutrality advocates have given the term. …

Thinking Like A Public Interest Lawyer: Theory, Practice, And Pedagogy, Jocelyn Simonson

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Wiki Authorship, Social Media And The Curatorial Audience, Jon M. Garon

Faculty Scholarship

Wikis have become an important source of information and a go-to destination on the Internet. The shared authorship and social editing represents an increasingly influential model for content creation and dissemination which will continue growing in prominence for education, training, news gathering and entertainment. Wiki authors undertake their participation based on their agreements regarding the ownership, attribution and integrity of the copyrighted material they contribute. To accomplish the goals of the wiki, both copyright law and contractual licenses are needed allow unlimited republication, editing (or creation of derivative works), and waiver of control (or integrity) over the resulting publication. Wikis …

Searching Inside Google: Cases, Controversies And The Future Of The World's Most Provocative Company, Jon M. Garon

Faculty Scholarship

For a company whose motto is "Do No Evil," Google certainly has its share of detractors. The company is at the center of numerous controversies that will determine how people use the Internet, find information, and communicate with each other. Professor Jon Garon explores the cases that will shape Google’s future and the implications for copyright and trademark owners, including: the latest AdWords’ case Rescuecom v. Google, the proposed Book Search settlement, the Viacom v. YouTube copyright infringement case, and looming antitrust investigations. He also will speculate about the future of Google as it consolidates its control over online search …

Content, Control, And The Socially Networked Film, Jon M. Garon

Faculty Scholarship

The influences of digital distribution of content have begun to redefine the music industry in a highly-visible battle between record producers and consumers which has left musicians standing at the sidelines. Given the high cost of production and relatively limited number of theatrically distributed feature films each year, motion picture producers are exposed to much greater risk from digital piracy than other media. At the same time, changing technology has created new opportunities for film producers, filmmakers and audiences to interact. These same trends may grow to subsume the traditional notion of prime-time television entertainment as well. All the parties …

American Airpower In The 21st Century: Reconciling Strategic Imperatives With Economic Realities, Charles J. Dunlap Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

“Vexing” is certainly the right word to describe the state of resource allocation in the national security community. Despite still sizable defense budgets, serious economic constraints combine with a wide range of complicated threats to create extremely difficult choices for policy makers. To help them work through the decision-making process, Congress mandates Quadrennial Defense Reviews (QDRs). QDRs “are intended to guide the services in making resource allocation decisions when developing future budgets.” The 2010 QDR rightly insists that “America’s interests and role in the world require armed forces with unmatched capabilities.”6 Recent resource decisions, however, do not provide much comfort …

Leverhulme Lecture: The Global Financial Crisis And Systemic Risk, Steven L. Schwarcz

Faculty Scholarship

Lecture given November 9, 2010, is the first of three delivered by Prof. Schwarcz as Leverhulme Visiting Professor of Law, Oxford University. Prof. Schwarz examines the causes of the global financial crisis, showing it was triggered by market failures, not by financial institution failures, and arguing that any regulatory framework for managing systemic risk must address markets as well as institutions. The lecture also analyzes how regulation should be designed under that broader framework to mitigate systemic risk and its consequences. Finally, the lecture examines the potential systemic effects of sovereign debt crises, demonstrating how regulation can mitigate those effects.

Teaching Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Theory, Practice, And Assessment, Linda Morton, Howard Taras, Vivian Reznik

Faculty Scholarship

In this article, we offer our own theory-based methodology for teaching interprofessional collaboration to law students and we present our preliminary data on its effectiveness. Part I explicates the definition and development of interdisciplinary collaboration. Part II describes how we have grounded our course in current theory, and Part III explains the extent to which our efforts have been successful. Finally, in Part IV, we offer additional thoughts regarding the teaching of interdisciplinary collaboration and pose questions and ideas for future data collection.

Expanding The Scope Of The Principles Of The Law Of Software Contracts To Include Digital Content, Nancy Kim

Faculty Scholarship

The Principles of the Law of Software Contracts, or the "Principles," seek to "unify and clarify" the law of software transactions. The drafters, however, excluded "digital content" from the scope of their project. This Essay explains why the scope of the Principles should encompass digital content. The exclusion of digital content creates two different but related problems. The first problem is that it creates what I refer to as "classification confusion." Given the complexity and speed of technological innovation, the task of distinguishing digital content from software may be difficult for courts. The second problem is that it fails to …

The Complicated Relationship: A Snapshot Of The U.S.-Mexico Border, James Cooper

Faculty Scholarship

This report will detail some of the major issues concerning the U.S.-Mexico border and the interconnected nature of the problems. It first examines the violence between narcotraficantes, that which has resulted in the crackdown against them by the Mexican Government through mobilization of the military. The resulting violence and kidnappings have brought about minimal confidence in civilian authorities, the administration of justice, and democratic governance. This report discusses the resulting public insecurity that has afflicted Mexico in the last few years. This report explores the economic contours along the U.S. border, and the reactions of the U.S. Government to what …

Transborder Licensing: A New Frontier For Job Creation, Andrea L. Johnson

Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores why entrepreneurs should consider transborder licensing as a way to increase markets and create jobs. While transborder licensing can involve both goods and services, this Article focuses on exporting nondefense, non-security-related services and intellectual capital, and it explores how the U.S. government can facilitate the development of an industry of support professionals to help U.S. companies navigate through the regulatory complexities.

Part II of this Article will discuss exports generally and explain the life cycle of a typical patent. Part III will show how current population and foreign business ownership trends necessitate studying how trade is conducted …

Gaming The Past: The Theory And Practice Of Historic Baselines In The Administrative State, James Salzman, J.B. Ruhl

Faculty Scholarship

Goals based on absolute targets, risk, technology, or cost are found throughout the administrative state. “Historic baselines,” a point in the past used to ground a policy goal, are just as commonplace, yet remain unexamined. Whether in budgeting or tax, criminal sentencing or environmental protection, historic baselines direct a wide range of agency activities. Their ubiquity begs some important questions. What makes baselines more attractive than other approaches for implementing regulatory goals? Conversely, when are other standard setting methods such as absolute targets and risk-based, technology-based, and cost-based standards more useful to policy makers than historic baselines? Unless one believes …

The Politics Of Nature: Climate Change, Environmental Law, And Democracy, Jedediah Purdy

Faculty Scholarship

Legal scholars’ discussions of climate change assume that the issue is one mainly of engineering incentives, and that “environmental values” are too weak, vague, or both to spur political action to address the emerging crisis. This Article gives reason to believe otherwise. The major natural resource and environmental statutes, from the acts creating national forests and parks to the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, have emerged from precisely the activity that discussions of climate change neglect: democratic argument over the value of the natural world and its role in competing ideas of citizenship, national purpose, and the role and …

Climate Change, Dead Zones, And Massive Problems In The Administrative State: A Guide For Whittling Away, James Salzman, J.B. Ruhl

Faculty Scholarship

Mandates that agencies solve massive problems such as sprawl and climate change roll easily out of the halls of legislatures, but as a practical matter what can any one agency do about them? Serious policy challenges such as these have dimensions far beyond the capacity of any single agency to manage effectively. Rather, as the Supreme Court recently observed in Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, agencies, like legislatures, do not generally resolve massive problems in one fell swoop, but instead whittle away over time, refining their approach as circumstances change and they develop a more nuanced understanding of how best …

Narratives Of Diversity In The Corporate Boardroom: What Corporate Insiders Say About Why Diversity Matters, Kimberly D. Krawiec, Lissa Lamkin Broome, John M. Conley

Faculty Scholarship

Over the last generation, the concept of diversity has become commonplace and taken-for-granted in discourses ranging from law to education to business. In higher education, for example, it is hard to imagine a faculty job search or a student admissions discussion that was not heavily laden with talk of diversity, in the sense of the representative inclusion of women and racial and ethnic minorities in a group or organization. In this paper we present the results of an interview-based study of the discourse of diversity in a particular business setting: the corporate boardroom. Our principal observation is that—thirty-one years after …

Leveraging A Library Collection Through Collaborative Digitization Ventures, Femi Cadmus, Fred Shapiro

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Extending Due Process Protections To Unadmitted Aliens Within The U.S. Through The Functional Approach Of Boumediene, Charles Shane Ellison

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.