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Full-Text Articles in Law

Fair's Fair: An Argument For Mandatory Disclosure Of Technological Protection Measures, Robert C. Denicola Oct 2004

Fair's Fair: An Argument For Mandatory Disclosure Of Technological Protection Measures, Robert C. Denicola

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

Section 1201(a)(1) of the Copyright Act prohibits the act of "circumvent[ing] a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work," including, for example, by-passing password protection or encryption intended to restrict access to paying customers. Section 1201(a)(2) prohibits the manufacture or sale of "any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof" primarily designed for the purpose of circumventing access controls on copyrighted works. Additionally, § 1202(b) prohibits the manufacture or sale of products, devices or services primarily designed to circumvent "a technological measure that effectively protects a right of a copyright owner"--for example, a technological measure intended to …


From The Cluetrain To The Panopticon: Isp Activity Characterization And Control Of Internet Communications, Eric Evans Apr 2004

From The Cluetrain To The Panopticon: Isp Activity Characterization And Control Of Internet Communications, Eric Evans

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

If ISPs are exposed to liability for forwarding others' messages--messages originating with other ISPs or with the ISP's own users--the norm of universal mutual message forwarding that underlies the present operation of the Internet will be threatened. This Note will argue that society presently confronts a choice between a common carrier Internet characterized by universal mutual message forwarding and a monitored and controlled Internet. Part I will describe the underlying rules that govern ISPs' liability for their users' actions. Part II will argue that the present statutory regime governing ISPs' liability for users' copyright infringement includes elements that provide ISPs …


Gaining Momentum: A Review Of Recent Developments Surrounding The Expansion Of The Copyright Misuse Doctrine And Analylsis Of The Doctrine In Its Current Form, Neal Hartzog Apr 2004

Gaining Momentum: A Review Of Recent Developments Surrounding The Expansion Of The Copyright Misuse Doctrine And Analylsis Of The Doctrine In Its Current Form, Neal Hartzog

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

The United States intellectual property ("IP") system is the foundation for incentives for authors and inventors to create and invent so that their work will be distributed to the public for the betterment of society. These incentives, in the form of limited monopolies over creations via patents, copyrights, and trademarks, are becoming increasingly important as the United States depends upon intellectual property to sustain its economy. As the intellectual property industry grows, it becomes vital to preserve the impetus behind its creation: the public good, or more specifically, the public's ability to make use of and enjoy new ideas and …


Musical Musings: The Case For Rethinking Music Copyright Protection, J. Michael Keyes Apr 2004

Musical Musings: The Case For Rethinking Music Copyright Protection, J. Michael Keyes

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

This Article focuses on the topic of music copyright, but addresses this legal issue from a different vantage point than that of the industry insiders, insightful scholars, and policy makers that have weighed in on the debate. Instead of focusing on the issues regarding wholesale digital reproduction and dissemination of music protected by copyright, this Article focuses on music copyright infringement when the claim is that a given piece of music is "substantially similar" to another piece of music protected by copyright. Part I of this Article touches on the history of the music industry and copyright in this country, …


Constitutional Purpose And Inter-Clause Conflict: The Constraints Imposed On Congress By The Copyright Clause, Andrew M. Hetherington Apr 2003

Constitutional Purpose And Inter-Clause Conflict: The Constraints Imposed On Congress By The Copyright Clause, Andrew M. Hetherington

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

The argument that the preamble of the Copyright Clause provides a strict constraint on congressional intellectual property legislation has met with broad support among legal academics, but it is viewed with some skepticism by the judiciary. The Supreme Court did acknowledge in Eldred that intellectual property legislation must, in at least some sense, promote the progress of science, but stressed that it is for Congress, not the courts, to decide what does and does not promote progress. The Court specifically rejected a "stringent" form of rational basis review for Copyright Clause enactments proposed in Justice Breyer's dissent, noting that the …


Quibbles'n Bits: Making A Digital First Sale Doctrine Feasible, Victor F. Calaba Oct 2002

Quibbles'n Bits: Making A Digital First Sale Doctrine Feasible, Victor F. Calaba

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

Whereas the first sale doctrine historically permitted the transfer and resale of copyrighted works, license agreements used by software companies and the DMCA's strict rules prohibiting tampering with access control devices frustrate exercise of the first sale doctrine with respect to many forms of digital works[...] This article explores the first sale doctrine as it pertains to digital works and proposes ways to make a digital first sale doctrine feasible. Part II describes the first sale doctrine as it has traditionally been applied to non-digital works. Part III discusses modern technology's impact on the distribution and use of copyrighted material. …


Researching Remedies In Intellectual Property Actions Involving Computer Technology: A Research Guide, Daniel N. Kassabian Oct 2002

Researching Remedies In Intellectual Property Actions Involving Computer Technology: A Research Guide, Daniel N. Kassabian

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

The purpose of this research guide is not to answer the question "What remedies are available to an owner of computer related technology whose rights have been infringed?" but to provide a methodology by which a legal practitioner can find the answer to this question. This guide sets forth materials and methods of research that can be used for an inquiry that is broad in scope, such as researching which legal scheme's remedial component best suits a client's technology, but that are also capable of being used for a narrow or limited inquiry, such as looking for specific remedies available …


Taking A Bite Out Of Circumvention: Analyzing 17 U.S.C. 1201 As A Criminal Law, Jason M. Schulz Jun 2000

Taking A Bite Out Of Circumvention: Analyzing 17 U.S.C. 1201 As A Criminal Law, Jason M. Schulz

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

...information content providers who depend heavily on copyright law are growing increasingly wary of advances in digital technology that allow manipulation of their content and potentially diminish the effectiveness of their copyright protection. Technology firms, on the other hand, are looking more and more at developing products which provide low-cost, high quality access to content without restriction. Thus, as technologists work feverishly to find new ways to free up information, content providers are fighting just as hard to constrain access in order to prevent market-killing duplication and distribution of their works. These two codependent yet clashing interest groups recently met …


Copyright, Licensing, And The First Screen , Ronald A. Cass Jun 1999

Copyright, Licensing, And The First Screen , Ronald A. Cass

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

As patent, copyright, and other intellectual property rights have assumed greater economic importance, the manner in which those rights are used has come under increased scrutiny. Recently filed antitrust litigation against Microsoft Corporation, for example, focuses on the terms under which Microsoft has licensed its Windows® operating system to computer manufacturers (generally referenced as OEMs, for Original Equipment Manufacturers). In particular, parties to the litigation complain about the license agreements' requirement that the first screen to appear when customers initially turn on ("boot up") a computer display certain features common across all Windows-based platforms. The "first screen provision" has been …


Internet Framing: Complement Or Hijack , Raymond Chan Jun 1999

Internet Framing: Complement Or Hijack , Raymond Chan

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

Currently, the technology of "framing" allows a web site to: (1) pull in the contents of an external site into the local site; (2) "chop" up the contents of the external site into different "frames" or parts; and (3) display only the frames that are beneficial to the framing site. When an advertisements is blocked off by a frame, an advertiser who paid to advertise at an external (framed) site may cease to purchase advertising space from that external site if the framing activities of another web site prevent the advertisement from reaching prospective viewers. From the perspective of the …


Profits In Cyberspace: Should Newspaper And Magazine Publishers Pay Freelance Writers For Digital Content?, Rod Dixon Esq. Jun 1998

Profits In Cyberspace: Should Newspaper And Magazine Publishers Pay Freelance Writers For Digital Content?, Rod Dixon Esq.

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

It is remarkable how fast recent trends have driven an increasing number of publishers of magazines, newspapers, and other similar works to port the print version of their works to digital and electronic format in the form of online computer databases and multimedia CDROM technologies. Online computer databases and CD-ROM media can be exceptionally profitable ventures for publishers who convert a preexisting print work into a digital product. However, publishers' profits from digital media may be impaired if there is a question as to whether the publisher has satisfactorily secured the copyright to the material making up the digital media. …


Software Developers Want Changes In Patent And Copyright Law, David A. Burton Jun 1996

Software Developers Want Changes In Patent And Copyright Law, David A. Burton

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

Most software developers do not oppose all software copyrights. There is broad support for basic copyright protection of computer programs which prohibits directly copying computer programs without the author's permission. Nearly all commercial software is copyrighted, and most programmers agree that such protection is necessary in order for software development to be profitable. However, software patents and "look and feel" copyrights go well beyond this to prohibit other programmers from independently writing even programs that are similar to the protected program. Such constraints are strongly resented by many in the software development community who long for the good old days …