Computer Law Commons^™

Copyright, Consumerism, And The Cloud: Proposing Standards-Essential Technology To Support First Sale In Digital Copyright, Marco Puccia

Seattle University Law Review

America’s entertainment industry, and the creative talent that drives it, is a national treasure. Equally valuable, however, is America’s drive and commitment toward technological innovation. These two sectors have been in tension since at least 1908, when the U.S. Supreme Court was asked to determine whether the makers of piano rolls for automatically playing pianos had to pay royalties to the composers. Since that time, the entertainment industry has continued to use copyright law to resist advances in technological innovation that it views as a threat to its existing business models. This Note seeks to provide the necessary context and …

Boards Of Directors As Mediating Hierarchs, Margaret M. Blair

Seattle University Law Review

In June of 2014, the board of directors of Demoulas Supermarkets, Inc.—better known as Market Basket, a mid-sized chain of grocery stores in New England—decided to oust the man who had been CEO for the previous six years, Arthur T. Demoulas. Most likely, the board of directors did not anticipate what happened next: Thousands of employees, customers, and fans of Market Basket boycotted the stores and staged noisy public protests asking the board to reinstate “Arthur T.” The reaction by employees and customers made what had been a simmering, nasty, intrafamily feud within the closely held Market Basket chain into …

Lobbying, Pandering, And Information In The Firm, Adam B. Badawi

Seattle University Law Review

In their classic and insightful article on team production in corporate law, Margaret Blair and Lynn Stout identify the minimization of rent-seeking as one of the chief benefits of vesting ultimate authority over a firm with the board of directors. In their analysis, this problematic rent-seeking arises when parties need to divide the gains from production after the fact. The squabbling that is likely to ensue may threaten to eat away most, or all, of the gains that come from productive activity. If parties know that this sort of rent-seeking will occur, they may not engage in productive activity in …

The History Of Team Production Theory, Ron Harris

Seattle University Law Review

In this short Essay, the author consider the team production theory developed by Margaret Blair and Lynn Stout1 from a historical perspective, in three senses. First, does the theory fit the historical use of the corporate form? Second, can it explain the development of corporation law doctrines? And third, can we place the development of the theory as such into the intellectual history of corporation theories at large? The author will state my bottom line up front: while the Article finds the team production theory insightful and useful for my historical research, for teaching corporation law, and for thinking about …

Choosing The Partnership: English Business Organization Law During The Industrial Revolution, Ryan Bubb

Seattle University Law Review

For most of the period associated with the Industrial Revolution in Britain, English law restricted access to incorporation and the Bubble Act explicitly outlawed the formation of unincorporated joint stock companies with transferable shares. Furthermore, firms in the manufacturing industries most closely associated with the Industrial Revolution were overwhelmingly partnerships. These two facts have led some scholars to posit that the antiquated business organization law was a constraint on the structural transformation and growth that characterized the British economy during the period. Importantly, however, the vast majority of manufacturing firms in the modern sector were partnerships. An easy explanation for …

Of Bitcoins, Independently Wealthy Software, And The Zero-Member Llc, Shawn Bayern

Northwestern University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Self, The Stasi, The Nsa: Privacy, Knowledge, And Complicity In The Surveillance State, Richard Warner, Robert H. Sloan

All Faculty Scholarship

We focus on privacy in public. The notion dates back over a century, at least to the work of the German sociologist, Georg Simmel. Simmel observed that people voluntarily limit their knowledge of each other as they interact in a wide variety of social and commercial roles, thereby making certain information private relative to the interaction even if it is otherwise publicly available. Current governmental surveillance in the US (and elsewhere) reduces privacy in public. But to what extent?

The question matters because adequate self-realization requires adequate privacy in public. That in turn depends on informational norms, social norms that …

Spying Inc., Danielle Keats Citron

Faculty Scholarship

The latest spying craze is the “stalking app.” Once installed on someone’s cell phone, the stalking app provides continuous access to the person’s calls, texts, snap chats, photos, calendar updates, and movements. Domestic abusers and stalkers frequently turn to stalking apps because they are undetectable even to sophisticated phone owners.

Business is booming for stalking app providers, even though their entire enterprise is arguably illegal. Federal and state wiretapping laws ban the manufacture, sale, or advertisement of devices knowing their design makes them primarily useful for the surreptitious interception of electronic communications. But those laws are rarely, if ever, …

Personal Jurisdiction And The "Interwebs", Alan M. Trammell, Derek E. Bambauer

Scholarly Articles

For nearly twenty years, lower courts and scholars have struggled to figure out how personal jurisdiction doctrine should apply in the Internet age. When does virtual conduct make someone amenable to jurisdiction in any particular forum? The classic but largely discredited response by courts has been to give primary consideration to a commercial Web site’s interactivity. That approach distorts the current doctrine and is divorced from coherent jurisdictional principles. Moreover, scholars have not yielded satisfying answers. They typically have argued either that the Internet is thoroughly exceptional and requires its own rules, or that it is largely unexceptional and can …

Bridgefunding Crowdfunding And The Market For Entrepreneurial Finance, Seth C. Oranburg

Law Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores the business environment of entrepreneurial finance through the lens of securities regulations. It finds that regulators should be more concerned with protecting investors from startup failure than from crowdfunding fraud. It recommends an amendment to Regula- tion Crowdfunding that may enable startup success: the limit on fun- draising should be raised from $1 to $5 million.

The Great Decentralization: How Web 3.0 Will Weaken Copyrights, 15 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 136 (2015), Nick Vogel

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Bitcoin’s popularity increased as its value increased and people became excited about the prospect of a trustless, decentralized currency that could be used on the Internet. Within the last two years, however, people and organizations began exploiting the potential of the block chain that powers the bitcoin network. These people realized that the block chain—a transparent public ledger that cannot be altered—can be used for more than digital currency. One such organization calls itself Ethereum and its developers plan to use block chains to allow decentralized autonomous applications to operate free of government censorship or corruption. While such a network …

Recent Development: Sublet V. State: Authentication Of Evidence From Social Networking Websites Requires A Trial Judge To Find Sufficient Proof From Which A Reasonable Juror Could Conclude That The Evidence Is What The Proponent Claims It To Be, Denise A. Blake

University of Baltimore Law Forum

The Court of Appeals of Maryland, in three consolidated cases, held that a trial judge must determine that evidence from a social networking website meets the “reasonable juror” standard of authentication as a condition precedent to admissibility. Sublet v. State, 442 Md. 632, 678, 113 A.3d 695, 722 (2015). This standard requires a preliminary determination by the trial judge that a reasonable juror could find the evidence is what the proponent claims it to be.

Communication In Cyberspace, Nancy Leong, Joanne Morando

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines a problem in cybercrime law that is both persistent and pervasive. What counts as “communication” on the Internet? Defining the term is particularly important for crimes such as cyberstalking, cyberharassment, and cyberbullying, where most statutes require a showing that the alleged perpetrator “communicated” with the victim or impose a similar requirement through slightly different language.

This Article takes up the important task of defining communication. As a foundation to our discussion, we provide the first comprehensive survey of state statutes and case law relating to cyberstalking, cyberharassment, and cyberbullying. We then examine the realities of the way …

Debatable Premises In Telecom Policy, 31 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 453 (2015), Justin (Gus) Hurwitz, Roslyn Layton

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

The five premises that this paper considers are:

1. Everyone needs low-cost access to high speed broadband service

2. High-speed broadband is necessary for education, health, government, and other social services

3. Wireless can‟t compete with cable

4. An open Internet is necessary for innovation and necessarily benefits consumers

5. Telecommunications are better somewhere else.

The Law And 3d Printing, 31 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 505 (2015), Jasper Tran

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

Recent years have seen extraordinary growth in the amount of legal scholarship and practice at the intersection of law and 3D printing. To help navigate this emerging field of 3D printing law, I created the accompanying Law and 3D Printing Bibliography. The published bibliography presented herein contains over 100 entries. The brief introductory comments to the published piece discuss the creation and contents of the bibliography, and provide suggestions for where one should begin their research in the area. The comments focus on (1) 3D printing‘s background, (2) historical growth pattern of law and 3D printing scholarship, (3) identification of …

Legal Problems In Data Management: It & Privacy At The Forefront: Opening Remarks, 31 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 521 (2015)

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

Selected State Laws Governing The Safeguarding And Disposing Of Personal Information, 31 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 487 (2015), Bruce Radke, Michael Waters

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

Numerous states have adopted laws mandating the protection and disposal of personal information. Under those laws, businesses are required to implement and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices appropriate to the nature of the information in order to protect the personal information from unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure. Although the definition of “personal information” varies from state to state, “personal information” is generally defined as an individual’s first name or initial and last name in combination with any one or more of the following data elements, when either the name or the data elements are not encrypted or …

Legal Problems In Data Management: It & Privacy At The Forefront: Dual-Use Devices In The Workplace, 31 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 527 (2015)

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

Legal Problems In Data Management: It & Privacy At The Forefront: Developments In Cybersecurity Law And Best Practices, 31 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 587 (2015)

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

Legal Problems In Data Management: It & Privacy At The Forefront: Drafting And Implementing Effective Social Media Policies In The Workplace, 31 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 549 (2015)

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

Legal Problems In Data Management: It & Privacy At The Forefront: “Big Data”: Ownership, Copyright, And Protection, 31 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 565 (2015)

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

Legal Problems In Data Management: Ethics Of Big Data Analytics And The Importance Of Disclosure, 31 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 641 (2015)

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

Legal Problems In Data Management: Global Approach To Data Privacy: Safe Harbor, 31 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 633 (2015)

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

Legal Problems In Data Management: The Impact Of International Data Restriction Laws On U.S. Companies, 31 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 609 (2015)

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

‘The Greatest Wealth Is Health’: Patient Protected Health Information In The Hands Of Hackers, 31 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 657 (2015), Samantha Singer

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

This comment will analyze the specific requirements and stages that EPs/EHs must comply with in order to receive its Medicare and Medicaid incentives, how EHR technologies are being implemented, how EHR technologies are affecting patients' privacy with regard to hacking a patient‟s PHI, and what EHR technology vendors and EPs/EHs should be doing to improve patient privacy and security to prevent hacking and other breaches.

Part I of this comment will address hacking of PHI. Part II will analyze the security measures that EHR vendors must currently incorporate into EHR technology and how the lack of required security measures impacts …

Japanese And American Privacy Laws, Comparative Analysis, 32 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 1 (2015), Jane Kim

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

To understand the laws of a foreign nation, one must first under-stand that nation’s culture. Its people and their customs will provide in-sight into the proper interpretation and application of such laws. For those reasons, this commentary commences with cursory background on Japanese people, followed by a brief comparative analysis of Health In-surance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) (enacted in 1996) and its Japanese counterpart, the Act on the Protection of Personal In-formation (“APPI”) (enacted in 2003). The Japanese have borrowed a lot of American concepts of privacy laws. This paper will explore how these imported privacy concepts may not …

Industry Self-Regulation Of Consumer Data Privacy And Security, 32 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 15 (2015), Siona Listokin

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

Industry self-regulation of consumer data privacy and security has been proposed as a flexible alternative and compliment to traditional government regulation. This study analyzes whether different types of existing industry-led standards improve online privacy and security. This paper examines which types of firms join voluntary standards and whether there is a difference in outcomes between trade association memberships (like the Digital Advertising Alliance) and certification programs (like TRUSTe). Results suggest that more trafficked websites are more likely to adopt standards, and that trade association member-ship does not have an effect on privacy and security performance. This article highlights the need …

The Truth Behind Data Collection And Analysis, 32 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 33 (2015), Morgan Hochheiser

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

Inventing A New Way Of Dealing With Circumvention: A Patent-Based Alternative To The Dmca, 15 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 91 (2015), Priya Desai

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Over time, it has become easier for consumers to steal music. Some technologies, like ReDigi, have been specifically designed to allow copyright infringement by giving consumers the ability to sell digitally purchased music files. While copyright laws have been updated to deal with changing technologies, the laws have not been sufficient to keep up. This comment highlights the failings of modern copyright law and questions whether patent laws are a viable way to ensure that technologies that induce copyright infringement do not find marketplace success.

The Anti-Clone Wars: Towards A Reinvigoration Of The Doctrine Of Patent Misuse And The Per Se Illegality Of Anti-Cloning Provisions, Patrick Holvey

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

Patent misuse, a once-valuable doctrine used to remove anticompetitive actions enabled by patent grants from the marketplace, has been relatively disfavored by the courts for some time. Recent licensing practices by certain major players within the high-technology marketplace, however, provide an excellent opportunity for the doctrine to be reinvigorated and applied. Apple, Inc., through its attempts to prevent competitors from “cloning” its products, has become an anticompetitive force that appears to have impermissibly leveraged its patent portfolio in order to extract contractual protections of non-patented subject matter through “anti-cloning” provisions, improperly broadening the scope of its patent grants. This Article …