Communications Law Commons^™

File-Sharing Copyright, And Privacy, Stephen Keating

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Lawsuits brought by the recording industry against Internet users accused of illegal file sharing raise provocative questions about legal tactics, the piracy of copyrighted material, the openness of the Internet, and the future of peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing. The history of satellite TV piracy may provide a key to understanding what comes next.

Newton V. Diamond: Measuring The Legitimacy Of Unauthorized Compositional Sampling— A Clue Illuminated And Obscured, Susan J. Latham

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

This article discusses how the district court in Newton v. Diamond could have provided the music industry with a path of reasonable determination via which the risk of infringement due to unauthorized digital sampling of a musical composition could be reasonably estimated and prudent licensing decisions made. At the very least, it illuminated a clue through its threshold determination of protectability. However, as the author explains, the court of appeals obscured that clue beneath a conundrum of de minimis use analysis, highlighting the need for courts to settle upon a clear and consistent standard for de minimis use analysis.

Racial Minorities And The Quest To Narrow The Digital Divide: Redefining The Concept Of “Universal Service”, Patricia M. Worthy

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

The future of the United States as a nation depends, in large measure, on its ability to achieve equality for each member of its society. Historically there has been a national policy, known as universal service, of requiring that everyone should be provided the opportunity to receive basic telephone service at an affordable rate, regardless of geographic location or economic status. As computer technology developed, Congress and the Federal Communications Commission appropriately recognized its value. They have, through statutory mandates and regulatory policies, implemented various initiatives to achieve a universally level "playing field" to prevent a gap between information "haves" …

An Economic Analysis Of Domain Name Policy, Karl M. Manheim, Lawrence B. Solum

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

One of the most important features of the architecture of the Internet is the Domain Name System (DNS), which is administered by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The DNS is organized into a hierarchy of domains. The physical infrastructure of the DNS consists of name servers, which provides the information that directs name queries to the appropriate server. These facilities and devices are scarce resources in the economic sense, since they have a finite capacity and expansion is costly. The name space is scarce because each address (or set of characters) can only be allocated to …

Publishing Privacy: Intellectual Property, Self-Expression, And The Victorian Novel, Jessica Bulman

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Though typically invoked in legal writing for their portrayals of criminal trials and judicial failings, Victorian authors also probed a more subtle aspect of the law: the interrelationship of privacy and intellectual property. In their novels, this paper argues, these authors treated literary creations as uniquely private expression and used copyright-and the formal control it furnishes over publication-as a model for understanding privacy.

Building Rome In A Day: What Should We Expect From The Riaa?, Valerie Alter

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

When a new technology enters the entertainment market, incumbents may look backwards rather than forwards. Today, peer-to-peer file sharing services enable users to get the weekly chart-toppers for free by downloading desired songs, depriving the record companies of their rightful royalties. The record companies fear that this free online peer-topeer systems will mean the end of the recording industry. In response, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has begun to prosecute individual users, including a 12-year-old girl. However, this approach is problematic, and there are two other potential solutions that may be preferable. First, the recording industry could abandon …

Facing The Music: The Dubious Constitutionality Of Facial Recognitiontechnology, John J. Brogan

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Recent advances in biometric identification technology, along with ever more extensive databases of information about ordinary citizens, inspire concern among civil liberties advocates about whether there are any meaningful limits on government's ability to keep track of ordinary citizens. In this Article, Professor Brogan discusses facial recognition technology, and argues that courts should draw a distinction between wide area scans, which should be severely limited or banned, and focused facial scans, which may be allowable under limited circumstances involving particularized suspicion.

Speaking Out Of Thin Air: A Comment On Hurley V. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian And Bisexual Group Of Boston, Randall P. Bezanson, Michele Choe

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

The appropriation and use of others' speech - through quotation, compilation, or republication - is ubiquitous; however, traditional First Amendment jurisprudence is often at a loss when it confronts "speech selection judgments." In this Comment, the Authors explore the phenomenon of speech selection, and the attributes of speaking and communication that may account for its status as speech under the First Amendment. The Authors then analyze the Supreme Court's reasoning in a single case, Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston, according to four different theories of speech and communication; in order to comment on ambiguities inherent …

Free As The Air: Rethinking The Law Of Story Ideas, Brian Devine

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

This note discusses idea submissions in Hollywood, arguing for the necessity of idea protection in the entertainment industry. As in copyright, the law should provide protection for ideas to promote progress and incentives to create, thus achieving the aims of intellectual property. Devine states that the most significant form of protection for ideas is achieved through contract law, and he argues that preemption by federal copyright law is endangering idea protection.

The Tragicomedy Of The Public Domain In Intellectual Property Law, Samuel Oddi

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

As the overall amount of protected and protectable subject matter expands, duration of protection grows longer, and overlap between types of protection increases, constituencies who rely upon intellectual subject matter as stimuli for the creative process grow concerned about incursions of the private domain into the public. This Article explores the relationship between the public domain as a source of sensory stimuli, the creative process as a generator of ideas, and the interaction among the public and private domains and the intellectual process - both in a "state of nature" and under the protections of an intellectual property system - …

An Economic Assessment Of Ucita, Robert W. Hahn, Anne Layne-Farrar

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

The Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act ("UCITA") is a model contract law for computer products. This note examines the potential advantages and disadvantages of adopting the UCITA and discusses its effects on consumer transactions. Benefits include reducing costs and providing a consistent standard of law. Hahn and Layne-Farrar conclude that the prospective benefits of passage of the UCITA outweigh any potential burdens.

Digital Divide: Myth, Reality, Responsibility, Nicholas W. Allard

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

The author explores the fundamental benefits of eliminating the digital divide. Improving access to technology is both a positive thing with respect to social conscience, but it is an imperative of democracy, as well as making fundamentally good, hardheaded economic sense. John Nash's game theory applies, expounding the benefits of selfish self-interest for individuals, for social groups and for society as a whole.

Smells Like Slavery: Unconscionability In Recording Industry Contracts, Phillip W. Hall Jr.

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

The music recording industry today is fundamentally broken: artists are in open revolt against the labels over their recording contracts; and one U.S. Senator has even stated, "this is the only industry in which after you pay off the mortgage the bank still owns the house." In this Note, Phillip Hall argues that although the equitable doctrine of unconscionability is clearly satisfied by the substantive and procedural unfairness in standard industry recording contracts, flaws in the judicial process make it unfeasible for most artists to seek relief in the courts; thus, what is needed to save the industry is legislation …

The Fcc's Third Report On Broadband Deployment: Inequitable, Untimely And Unreasonable, Allen S. Hammond

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

This article challenges the findings of the February 2002 report of the Federal Communications Commission regarding the status of broadband advanced network and high-speed service development in the US. The author questions the reports conclusion that current network development is reasonable and timely, based on both the data itself and contradictory evidence. Further, the Commission's measurement is inadequate to determine the extent of service. The article advocates that inadequate measurements should not be a basis for deregulating the industry at a time when future availability of technology will dramatically impact the lives of many Americans.

Figure This: Judging Or Federal Fraud? A Proposal To Criminalize Fraudulent Judging And Officiating In The International Figure Skating Arena, Kelly Koenig Levi

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

In 2002, the "Salt Lake Scandal" - in which it was revealed that judges had colluded to predetermine the gold medal winners of figure skating events - tarnished the public image of the sport of international figure skating. However, aside from the involvement of an alleged Russian mobster, the scandal came as no surprise to competitive figure skaters or their followers. In this Article, Professor Levi argues that the fraudulent activity prevalent in international figure skating judging and officiating is comparable to the behavior prohibited by current federal fraud statutes, and proposes federal legislation to address the problem.

The Inevitable Disclosure Doctrine: Inequitable Results Are Threatened But Not Inevitable, Adam Gill

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Currently, courts have split on the issue of whether the inevitable disclosure doctrine ("IDD") applies in California. This note analyzes the IDD, its possible adoption in California, potential pitfalls, and ways to alleviate problems that may arise. Gill argues that the doctrine poses an obstacle to employee mobility and innovation, and proposes standards for applying the doctrine in California.

Your Trade Secret Is Safe With Us: How The Revision To Federal Rules Of Civil Procedure Makes Discovery Presumptively Confidential, Kurt Putnam

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

This note addresses the debate in circuits regarding the propriety of stipulated protective orders to protect trade secrets in federal litigation. Putnam explores the approaches utilized by the 2nd and 1st Circuits, analyzing them in light of the former rules and the common law, respectively. He takes the position that the 2000 revisions to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to Rule 5(d) and a Rule 26(c) protective order help protect parties' confidentiality during litigation.

The Global Digital Divide: Focusing On Children, Susanna Frederick Fischer

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Professor Fischer takes a comparative look at children's access to information and communications technologies (ICT) in six countries across five continents- the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Mongolia, and Tanzania. Children's levels of access to ICT is strongly linked to the "global development divide." The article explores the difference between access in highly developed countries and lesser developed countries. The article further explores the extent of the global developmental divide, including the potentially bleak future facing children born in less developed countries. Next the article explores both sides of the debate that simply increasing ICT access can eliminate …

Equality And The Digital Divide, Gerald Doppelt

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Although distribution of computers and Internet access is important in equalizing information access, this article considers the concept of digital literacy. People not only need access to information, but an understanding of what to do with the knowledge acquired. Explore with Professor Doppelt the idea that the digital divide is a new aspect to the literacy divide, and the crucial role that education in public schools plays in equalizing opportunity.

Golfers' Tort Liability - A Critique Of An Emerging Standard, Daniel E. Lazaroff

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

This article argues that the recklessness standard applied by most contemporary courts to tort claims initiated by one sports participant against a co-participant is inappropriate in the context of golf. Rather, Professor Lazaroff asserts that golf is an activity in which a negligence standard should apply and that this lower threshold for liability can be utilized without chilling participation or altering the inherent nature of the sport. In sum, the recklessness standard generally used for more active or contact sports is unnecessary in the more passive and genteel setting of golf competition.

The Digital Divide And Equal Access To Justice, Mark Lloyd

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

This article begins by considering the problem of equal access to justice between those with access to communication technology and those without. It then goes on to challenge the current market-centered technology by exploring some of the dangers and limits of new communications technology as a corrective to a problem that has long divided rich and poor, a problem that defines the degree to which we can truly call ourselves a civilization, and the real and important opportunities made possible by new technologies.

Ownership Issues In The Digital Divide, Yale M. Braunstein

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Unlike broadcast and telecommunications media, the Internet has developed largely without governmental regulation both in terms of service and content providers. Major communications and media firms essentially control both access to and content of the Internet. Policies to promote access to the Internet are crucial in closing the gap in the digital divide. This article focuses on how the concentration of ownership impacts Internet access and content, as well as on how industry structure affects broadband access.

Digital Divide, Digital Opportunities: A Statistical Overview, Lee Price

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Excerpted from remarks made at the Comm/Ent Symposium on the Digital Divide.

On The Digital Divide: Selected Remarks, Carl Wood

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Excerpted from remarks made at the Comm/Ent Symposium on the Digital Divide.

Vote-Swapping Over The Internet: Free Speech Or Voter Corruption, Jesse Sisgold

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

In Fall 2000, the electoral process and high technology collided in creating an 'update' to the Electoral College. From the slew of websites.

Hung Out To Dry: Clothing Design Protection Pitfalls In United States Law, Anne Theodore Briggs

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

The United States' trend toward longer, stronger intellectual property protection has failed to include protection for clothing design. The design of clothing itself lacks protection, while the surface decoration, fabric design, and labels are protected. This article examines current United States intellectual property law and its shortcomings, while discussing why enactment of design legislation fails. The author argues that passage of clothing design protection laws would benefit both United States consumers and clothing designers.

The Irony Of News Coverage: How The Media Harm Their Own First Amendment Rights, Clay Calvert, Robert D. Richards

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

This article argues that the First Amendment protection provided to the news media today actually may be harming -- unjustifiably and unnecessarily -- the scope of First Amendment protection given to other sectors of the media, most notably, the Hollywood entertainment industry and non-mainstream journalists. Using the death of Princess Diana and the school shootings at Columbine High School to illustrate a seven-step process that the authors assert gives rise to this disturbing irony, the article contends that high-profile journalistic coverage of these events produced false public perceptions of reality and media culpability - a false perception that the paparazzi …

Regulating Sexual Images On The Web: Last Call For Miller Time, But New Issues Remain Untapped, Clay Calvert

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

The article suggests that the test for obscene speech under the Miller case should be abandoned because the new technologies and innovations of the World Wide Web present significant difficulties in apply the test in its traditional form. The author recommends alternatives, which would alleviate the problems of applying the Miller test to the Internet. First, he advocates adopting a national community standard. Second, he suggests that a "Web-specific test for obscenity" be created. Part I of the article examines the first high profile case, which exposed the flaws in applying the Miller test to the Internet. Part II discusses …

The Future Of The Concurrent Use Of Trademarks Doctrine In The Information Age, David S. Barrett

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

This article focuses on the concurrent use doctrine of trademarks. This doctrine allows different owners to use the same or similar trademarks in business if (1) the junior use is geographically remote to the senior use and (2) the trademark was adopted in good faith. The second element is interpreted differently, with a shrinking minority requiring no actual knowledge and the minority requiring no intent of the junior user to imply his goods are those of the senior user.

The author argues that the internet revolution has created substantial problems with the concurrent use doctrine. The first major issue is …

Fashion Runways Are No Longer The Public Domain: Applying The Common Law Right Of Publicity To Haute Couture Fashion Design, Samantha L. Hetherington

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Under present United States intellectual property law, clothing design is not protected by federal copyright, trademark/trade dress, or patent law. In fact, design piracy is sanctioned, if not encouraged. This article analyzes current intellectual property law and its failure to afford protection for clothing design. The author proposes that the doctrine of the right of publicity or personality could be applied to haute couture.