Law Commons^™

Beyond Fair Use, Gideon Parchomovsky, Philip J. Weiser

Publications

For centuries, the fair use doctrine has been the main--if not the exclusive--bastion of user rights. Originating in the English courts of equity, the doctrine permitted users, under appropriate circumstances, to employ copyrighted content without the rightsholder's consent. In the current digital media environment, however, the uncertainty that shrouds fair use and the proliferation of technological protection measures undermine the doctrine and its role in copyright policy. Notably, the enactment of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which prohibits the circumvention of technological protection measures even for fair use purposes, has diminished the ability of fair use to counterbalance a copyright …

Substitution Effects: A Problematic Justification For The Third-Party Doctrine Of The Fourth Amendment, Blake Ellis Reid

Publications

In the past half-century, the Supreme Court has crafted a vein of jurisprudence virtually eliminating Fourth Amendment protection in information turned over to third parties - regardless of any subjective expectation of privacy or confidentiality in the information on the part of the revealer. This so-called “third-party” doctrine of the Fourth Amendment has become increasingly controversial in light of the growing societal reliance on the Internet in the United States, where nearly every transaction requires a user to turn information over to at least one third party: the Internet service provider (“ISP”).

Citing the scholarship that has criticized the third-party …

Envisioning The Smart Grid: Network Architecture, Information Control, And The Public Policy Balancing Act, Elias L. Quinn, Adam L. Reed

University of Colorado Law Review

While smart grid development promises benefits for utilities and consumers alike, the public policy surrounding its rollout remains conflicted. Will regulation guide the structure and usability of the smart grid, or will the ways in which the smart grid is already being applied force specific types of regulation? Early decisions by regulators will surely influence the balancing of policy concerns later in the smart grid development process; yet these decisions will be made in a regulatory environment in which utilities may lack the proper incentives to promote energy efficiency and consumer awareness-both functions of the smart grid. This Article examines …