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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Fight To Save America's Inbox: State Legislation And Litigation In The Wake Of Can-Spam, Emma Scanlan
The Fight To Save America's Inbox: State Legislation And Litigation In The Wake Of Can-Spam, Emma Scanlan
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
The fight to curb the ever-increasing amount of unsolicited commercial email or “spam” showing up in the inboxes of American businesses has generated both state and federal legislation. The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 was enacted to create a bright-line between spam and legal commercial email. The Act preempted many state spam laws but also left significant enforcement abilities to the individual states. States that elect to create large civil damages for spam without criminalizing the transmission of unsolicited commercial email run the risk of winning cases where the damage awards are largely unenforceable and not effective deterrents to big-time spammers. …
Liability Under The Americans With Disabilities Act For Private Web Site Operators, Evgenia Fkiaras
Liability Under The Americans With Disabilities Act For Private Web Site Operators, Evgenia Fkiaras
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (“ADA”) is silent on the specific question of whether privately owned websites fall within its provisions. There is a circuit split on the issue, although the only case directly on point makes mandatory website compliance the exception rather than the rule. Nevertheless, given the direction that the law will probably head and the relative ease of making websites accessible to the group most in need—those who require the use of assistive technologies—it behooves businesses to construct or alter their websites to accommodate these individuals.
Where The Netcom Yardstick Comes Up Short: Courts Should Not Apply The Facts Of Netcom As An Example Of Intermediate And Transient Storage Under § 512(A) Of The Dmca, Sean Croman
Washington Law Review
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) risk substantial liability for passively contributing to subscriber-initiated acts of online copyright infringement. Cognizant of this problem, courts and Congress have taken differing approaches to limiting ISP liability. The Netcom court established that ISPs could store infringing material for eleven days without incurring liability for direct infringement, but did not similarly rule out liability for other forms of infringement. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) subsequently advanced the law of copyright by strengthening the protections enjoyed by copyright holders whose works face exploitation online, subject to four activity-specific "safe harbor" limitations on liability. For example, § …
Rebooting Cybertort Law, Michael L. Rustad, Thomas H. Koenig
Rebooting Cybertort Law, Michael L. Rustad, Thomas H. Koenig
Washington Law Review
Cyberspace provides an ideal legal environment for tortfeasors and online criminals because Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have no duty to mitigate harms caused by ongoing torts, crimes, and infringing acts. Courts have stretched Congress's express language in § 230 of the Communications Decency Act from the narrow purpose of immunizing ISPs as publishers to the expanded purpose of shielding them from all tort liability. This Article proposes imposing a limited duty of care on ISPs to remove or block ongoing tortious activities on their services when they have been given actual notice. This reform will harmonize American ISP liability law …