First Amendment Commons^™

The End Of Forgetting And "Administrative Rights" To Our Online Personas, Jamie R. Lund

IP Theory

No abstract provided.

Decoding First Amendment Coverage Of Computer Source Code In The Age Of Youtube, Facebook And The Arab Spring, Jorge Roig

Scholarly Works

Computer source code is the lifeblood of the Internet. It is also the brick and mortar of cyberspace. As such, it has been argued that the degree of control that a government can wield over code can be a powerful tool for controlling new technologies. With the advent and proliferation in the Internet of social networking media and platforms for the publication and sharing of user-generated content, the ability of individuals across the world to communicate with each other has reached truly revolutionary dimensions. The influence of Facebook in the popular revolutions of the Arab Spring has been well documented. …

Switching The Flip: Questioning The Government's Authority To Shut Down Communication Networks In Furtherance Of Public Safety, Eric B. Einisman

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Technological Leap, Statutory Gap, And Constitutional Abyss: Remote Biometric Identification Comes Of Age, Laura K. Donohue

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Federal interest in using facial recognition technology (“FRT”) to collect, analyze, and use biometric information is rapidly growing. Despite the swift movement of agencies and contractors into this realm, however, Congress has been virtually silent on the current and potential uses of FRT. No laws directly address facial recognition—much less the pairing of facial recognition with video surveillance—in criminal law. Limits placed on the collection of personally identifiable information, moreover, do not apply. The absence of a statutory framework is a cause for concern. FRT represents the first of a series of next generation biometrics, such as hand geometry, iris, …

The Limits Of Government Regulation Of Science, John D. Kraemer, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The recent controversy over the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity’s (NSABB) request that Science and Nature redact key parts of two papers on transmissible avian (H5N1) influenza reveal a troubled relationship between science and security. While NSABB’s request does not violate the First Amendment, efforts to censor the scientific press by force of law would usually be an unconstitutional prior restraint of the press absent a compelling state interest. The constitutional validity of conditions on grant funding to require pre-publication review of unclassified research is unclear but also arguably unconstitutional.

The clearest case where government may restrict publication is …

Protecting Anonymous Expression: The Internet's Role In Washington State's Disclosure Laws And The Direct Democracy Process, Karen Cullinane

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note proposes that the Washington State Legislature amend its Public Records Act to exempt from public disclosure personal information legally required to be disclosed by signers of referendum petitions. This Note also proposes that the Washington State Legislature designate an electronic system, to be detailed in its election law, by which referendum petitions can be checked for fraud without violating the right to anonymous expression protected by the First Amendment. Part I describes Washington State's referendum process and the path of Doe v. Reed, the case animating the reform presented in this Note. Part II illustrates how the rise …

My Teacher Sux! [Censored]: Protecting Students' Right To Free Speech On The Internet, 28 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 385 (2011), Katherine Hokenson

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

This comment will discusses the problem posed by student speech made on the Internet, how free speech issues are generally addressed by courts, the Supreme Court cases that have specifically addressed the First Amendment rights of students, and factors that courts dealing with student speech made on the Internet have attempted to use in their decisions. The comment will further look at how courts have analyzed online student speech cases in light of available Supreme Court precedent, and will propose that the Court adopt a hybrid of the Tinker test when addressing student speech made on the Internet, which will …

Fifteen Years Of Fame: The Declining Relevance Of Domain Names In The Enduring Conflict Between Trademark And Free Speech Rights, 11 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 1 (2011), Jude A. Thomas

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Domain name disputes have been the subject of substantial litigation, legislative action, and scholarly debate over the course of the past fifteen years. Much of the debate is the product of disagreement concerning whether trademark rights naturally extend into the domain name space and to what extent those rights are limited by principles of free speech. Gripe sites are paradigmatic examples of this debate. Society’s investment in defining these rights continues to grow, even as the relevance of domain names may be declining, due to: (1) changes in the way users locate content on the Internet; (2) the growth of …

Golan V. Holder: Copyright In The Image Of The First Amendment, 11 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 83 (2011), David L. Lange, Risa J. Weaver, Shiveh Roxana Reed

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Does copyright violate the First Amendment? Professor Melville Nimmer asked this question forty years ago, and then answered it by concluding that copyright itself is affirmatively speech protective. Despite ample reason to doubt Nimmer’s response, the Supreme Court has avoided an independent, thoughtful, plenary review of the question. Copyright has come to enjoy an all-but-categorical immunity to First Amendment constraints. Now, however, the Court faces a new challenge to its back-of-the-hand treatment of this vital conflict. In Golan v. Holder the Tenth Circuit considered legislation (enacted pursuant to the Berne Convention and TRIPS) “restoring” copyright protection to millions of foreign …

Adult Websites And The Top-Level Domain Debate: Icann's Adoption Of .Xxx Dras Adult-Industry Ire, Robert D. Richards, Clay Calvert

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

American Library Association, Bradburn, And The Movement To Censor The Internet, Olivia J. Greer

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Supreme Court Amicus Brief Of Aarp And The National Legislative Association On Petition Drug Prices In Support Of Petitioners, William H. Sorrell V. Ims Health, Inc., No. 10-779 (Filed March 1, 2011), Sean Flynn, Meredith Jacob, Stacy Canan

Amicus Briefs & Court Filings

This Court should refuse to apply the First Amendment to Vermont’s Prescription Confidentiality Law based on two essential facts. First, the regulation at issue is limited to the commercial use or private-channel distribution of confidential data. It is thus governed by cases of this Court upholding the regulation of uses of information in purely private settings that do not inform or contribute to the public sphere. Bartnicki v. Vopper, 532 U.S. 514, 526-27 n.10 (2001); Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. v. Greenmoss Builders, Inc., 472 U.S. 749 (1985). Second, it concerns the regulation of secondary uses of information where the government …

Doninger's Wedge: Has Avery Doninger Bridged The Way For Internet Versions Of Matthew Fraser?, 43 J. Marshall L. Rev. 439 (2010), Adam Dauksas

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Unlawful Infringement Or Just Creative Expression? Why Dj Girl Talk May Inspire Congress To "Recast, Transform, Or Adapt" Copyright, 43 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1067 (2010), Katie Simpson-Jones

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Protecting Free Speech For Unequivocal Fair Users: Rethinking Our Interpretation Of The §512(F) Misrepresentation Clause, Jordan Koss

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Cross-Border Speech Conflicts, Timothy Zick

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Is It Really Possible To Do The Kessel Run In Less Than Twelve Parsecs And Should It Matter? Science And Film And Its Policy Implications, Dov Greenbaum

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The entertainment media influences our lives in a myriad of different ways--from the way we dress, to the language we use, to the products we buy. What might be less obvious are its influences on national policies. This Article, an introductory foray into the effects of media on policy, focuses on the effect that movies have on science policies in the United States and around the world. Through an analysis of both classic and recent blockbuster films and concurrent events involving science policies, this Article argues that Hollywood exerts an inordinate amount of influence on national science policies, and even …

The Clear And Present Internet: Terrorism, Cyberspace, And The First Amendment, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Federal Search Commission - Access, Fairness, And Accountability In The Law Of Search, Frank Pasquale, Oren Bracha

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Confronting The Limits Of The First Amendment: A Proactive Approach For Media Defendants Facing Liability Abroad, Michelle A. Wyant

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article confronts the limits this issue imposes on the First Amendment in four parts. Part I described the potential for conflicting defamation laws and forum shopping to undermine the American media's speech protections in the context of the Internet and global publications and outlines the Article's overall method of analysis. Part II first orients these conflicting defamation laws with respect to their development from the common law. It then frames them in terms of the underlying structural and policy differences that have produced their substantive divergence. This frame provides the analytical perspective through which this Article examines the varying …

State Government Speech In A Federal System, Laura J. Hendrickson

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

No abstract provided.

An Immoral Fight: Shielding Moral Rights With First Amendment Jurisprudence When Fair Use Battles With Actual Malice, 8 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 190 (2008), Mark A. Petrolis

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Moral rights give an artist personal rights to her work. Because an artist puts her personality, spirit, and soul into the creation of her work, her honor and reputation may be harmed if her works are mistreated. In 1990, the Visual Artists Rights Act incorporated moral rights into U.S. copyright law. However, fair use became an absolute defense to moral rights violations. This comment proposes that fair use should not be an absolute defense, and applies First Amendment jurisprudence developed from defamation law to both fair use and moral rights. Defamation shares similarities with both. Like moral rights, defamation law …

Opinionated Software, Meiring De Villiers

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Information security is an important and urgent priority in the computer systems of corporations, governments, and private users. Malevolent software, such as computer viruses and worms, constantly threatens the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of digital information. Virus detection software announces the presence of a virus in a program by issuing a virus alert. A virus alert presents two conflicting legal issues. A virus alert, as a statement on an issue of great public concern, merits protection under the First Amendment. The reputational interest of a plaintiff disparaged by a virus alert, on the other hand, merits protection under the law …

Intellectual Privacy, Neil M. Richards

Scholarship@WashULaw

This Article is about intellectual privacy–the protection of records of our intellectual activities–and how legal protection of these records is essential to the First Amendment values of free thought and expression. We often think of privacy rules being in tension with the First Amendment, but protection of intellectual privacy is different. Intellectual privacy is vital to a robust culture of free expression, as it safeguards the integrity of our intellectual activities by shielding them from the unwanted gaze or interference of others. If we want to have something interesting to say in public, we need to pay attention to the …

First Amendment Freedom Of Speech And Expression: Ninth Circuit Holds That California Penal Code Section 148.6 Violates The First Amendment In Chaker V. Crogan, Harvey Gee

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

The Ninth Circuit Court ruled that California Penal Code section 148.6, which criminalized knowingly filing false allegations of misconduct against peace officers, violated the First Amendment. The court determined that the law impermissibly targeted criticism of police officers, constituting a content-based restriction on speech, and thus was unconstitutional.

A Tough Pill To Swallow: Does The First Amendment Prohibit Wv From Regulating Pharmaceutical Companies' Advertising Expenses To Lower The Cost Of Prescription Drugs?, Brienne Taylor Greiner

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Federal Election Commission & Political Blogging: A Perfect Balance Or Just Not Enough?, 24 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 611 (2006), Niki Vlachos

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

Challenging Standard Conceptions Of Tradition, Science And Technology In 2006: Why Laws Prohibiting The Sale Of Violent Video Games To Minors Should Be Ultimately Upheld, Ilana Lubin

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note argues that regulating the sale of violent video games to minors is constitutionally justifiable, supported by scientific evidence on adolescent brain development and legal precedents. It critiques the lack of a clear legal standard in court decisions and advocates for a nuanced approach that balances First Amendment rights with public safety concerns.

Relative Access To Corrective Speech: A New Test For Requiring Actual Malice, Aaron Perzanowski

Articles

This Article reexamines the First Amendment protections provided by the public figure doctrine. It suggests that the doctrine is rooted in a set of out-dated assumptions regarding the media landscape and, as a result, has failed to adapt in a manner that accounts for our changing communications environment.

The public figure doctrine, which imposes the more rigorous actual malice standard of fault on defamation plaintiffs who enjoy greater access to mass media, was constructed in an era defined by one-to-many communications media. Newspapers, broadcasters, and traditional publishers exhausted the Court's understanding of the means of communicating with mass audiences. As …

The Information Privacy Law Project, Neil M. Richards

Scholarship@WashULaw

One of the most interesting developments in privacy law literature over the past few decades has been the emergence of The Information Privacy Law Project, a group of scholars focused on the legal issues raised by the increasing collection, use, and disclosure of personal information made possible by evolving digital technologies. These scholars have sought to establish information privacy law as a field of study distinct from the constitutional right to decisional privacy. This Essay uses the recent publication of a major work by Daniel J. Solove, "The Digital Person: Privacy and Technology in the Digital Age", as a lens …