Internet Law Commons^™

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 …

Rights Versus Commerce: Balancing Online Trademark Policing With The Emerging Marketplace, 11 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 217 (2011), Jessica L. Hilliard

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

In 2008, jeweler Tiffany & Co. (“Tiffany”) commenced an action against eBay after discovering that a significant amount of counterfeit Tiffany jewelry was being sold on the online auction house. Tiffany had previously used eBay’s Verified Rights Owner program to report the infringement and pursued enforcement actions against individual sellers. Nevertheless, Tiffany sued eBay for various causes of action, including contributory trademark infringement. The Second Circuit held that online service providers like eBay are not liable for contributory trademark infringement unless they have specific knowledge of particular instances of infringement. Due to the ruling, Tiffany bears the burden for policing …

Discovery In The Paperless World: How Speed And Ease Of Technology Has Slowed And Complicated The Process, John Prudhomme

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Court Rulings On Business Development, Christopher Ferguson, Holt Foster, Sean F. Kane, Shane Mcgee

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

Virtual Child Pornography Laws And The Constraints Imposed By The First Amendment, Paula Bird

Barry Law Review

This article seeks to navigate through the complexities involved with the uncertain future of virtual child pornography laws. First, this article sets forth a brief history of the legislative actions and court rulings regarding unprotected speech and virtual child pornography, and discusses the current standing of child pornography laws. Entailed in this discussion will be a vigorous inspection of the current statutes and how they simultaneously affect law enforcement, prosecutors, and defendants. Finally, the potential future of laws regarding virtual child pornography is analyzed, including addressing the issues of how the application and interpretation of the laws are changing and …

Workplace Privacy And Monitoring: The Quest For Balanced Interests , Ariana R. Levinson

Cleveland State Law Review

We can see in 2001 that 77 percent of employers were engaged in monitoring. This may have increased slightly or decreased slightly, but whatever has happened, we know that this is a significant amount of employers--much greater than a majority--that are engaging in monitoring of their employees. We can also see the great rise in monitoring of computers and electronic files in a ten-year period between 1997 and 2007. Finally, we can see some of the newer technologies. In 2007, twelve percent of the reporting employers were monitoring the blogosphere, eight percent were monitoring GPS vehicle tracking, and ten percent …

Keynote Panel: What In The Heck Is Going On, Richard Hilleman, Evan Hirsch, Joseph Olin, Randy Pitchford

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

Privacy: Problems And Solutions, Jennifer Archie, Andrew S. Ehmke, Joshua Fairfield, Berin Szoka

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

Digital Distribution: Is It Really Finally Here, Robert Brown, Shawn Freeman, Michael Klotz, Steve Nix, Tom Paquin

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

Jagex Ltd. V. Impulse Software: An Almost Big Win For Online-Gaming Software Developers, Holly Guest

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

Novel Neutrality Claims Against Internet Platforms: A Reasonable Framework For Initial Scrutiny , Jeffrey Jarosch

Cleveland State Law Review

This Article examines a recent trend in which the Federal Trade Commission and other enforcement agencies investigate Internet platforms for behavior that is insufficiently “neutral” towards users or third parties that interact with the platform. For example, Google faces a formal FTC investigation based on allegations that it has tinkered with search results rather than presenting users with a “neutral” result. Twitter faces a formal investigation after the social media service restricted the ways in which third party developers could interact with Twitter through its application programming interface (“API”). These investigations represent a new attempt to shift the network neutrality …

Law In The Age Of Exabytes: Some Further Thoughts On ‘Information Inflation’ And Current Issues In E-Discovery Search, Jason R. Baron

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

In 2007, in the pages of this Journal, George L. Paul and I posed a question to the legal profession at large, to wit: can the legal system adapt to the new reality of an era of rapid inflation in the amount of electronically stored information (ESI) at issue in civil litigation? After surveying the history of technological innovation that led to an explosion of new data, we proceeded to discuss various legal strategies for success in our current inflationary epoch. These strategies included: consideration of new and emerging ways in which to think about search and information retrieval in …

Introduction: Contains Cover, Table Of Contents, Letter From The Editor, And Masthead, Francis C. Oroszlan

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

The Richmond Journal of Law and Technology is proud to present the fourth issue of the 2010–2011 academic year. In this issue, we explore privacy law in the context of online social networking, online advertising and tort reform. Additionally, this issue examines mandatory disclosure of trade secrets as a component of offshore oil drilling regulation and evaluates certain criticisms levied against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

Introduction: Contains Cover, Table Of Contents, Letter From The Editor, And Masthead, Ian Lambeets

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

The Richmond Journal of Law and Technology is proud to present its first issue of the 2011-2012 academic year. The Journal strives to discuss new and emerging issues that fall squarely at the intersection of technology and the law. Another year goes by and technology continues to advance, and not surprisingly, further immerses itself into our daily lives. The Journal believes it is our mission to recognize the practical effects the growth of technology has on society and to promote a relevant and timely discussion on these topics.

To Reveal Or Conceal?—An Isp’S Dilemma, Presenting A New “Anonymous Public Concern Test” For Evaluating Isp Subpoenas In Online Defamation Suits, Cayce Myers

LLM Theses and Essays

This article proposes a new test called the “Anonymous Public Concern Test” which incorporates public concern analysis in enforcing Internet Service Provider [ISP] subpoenas in online defamation suits. Anonymous speech is an important aspect of First Amendment rights that warrants protection. Current tests used by courts to analyze whether to enforce ISP subpoenas are either too pro-plaintiff or too pro-defendant. The article’s proposed “Anonymous Public Concern Test” is the best approach in dealing with ISP subpoenas because it protects both anonymous speeches and preserves online defamation plaintiffs’ rights.

Technology-Assisted Review In E-Discovery Can Be More Effective And More Efficient Than Exhaustive Manual Review, Maura R. Grossman, Gordon V. Cormack

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

E-discovery processes that use automated tools to prioritize and select documents for review are typically regarded as potential cost-savers – but inferior alternatives – to exhaustive manual review, in which a cadre of reviewers assesses every document for responsiveness to a production request, and for privilege. This Article offers evidence that such technology-assisted processes, while indeed more efficient, can also yield results superior to those of exhaustive manual review, as measured by recall and precision, as well as F1, a summary measure combining both recall and precision. The evidence derives from an analysis of data collected from the TREC 2009 …

Make Your Life Easier: Free Online Productivity Tools And Resources, Kincaid C. Brown

Law Librarian Scholarship

CiteGenie works primarily for caselaw and Internet resource research but is experimenting with the ability to add citations for statutes and regulations. CiteGenie provides a number of formatting options and allows you to choose citation rules for a particular state, use parallel citations, remove star-pagination marks from quoted texts, and personalize abbreviations. This tool is easy to use; when researching in Firefox, select CiteGenie from the right-click menu and a pop-up displays the copied text and citation to be pasted.

Cyber Attacks As "Force" Under Un Charter Article 2(4), Matthew C. Waxman

Faculty Scholarship

In a 2010 article in Foreign Affairs, Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn revealed that in 2008 the Department of Defense suffered "the most significant breach of U.S. military computers ever" when a flash drive inserted into a US military laptop surreptitiously introduced malicious software into US Central Command's classified and unclassified computer systems. Lynn explains that the US government is developing defensive systems to protect military and civilian electronic infrastructure from intrusions and, potentially worse, disruptions and destruction, and it is developing its own cyber-strategy "to defend the United States in the digital age."

To what extent is …

The Timely Demise Of The Fourth Amendment Third Party Doctrine, Stephen E. Henderson

Faculty Articles

In what may be a slightly premature obituary, in this response to a forthcoming paper by Matthew Tokson I argue that the Fourth Amendment third party doctrine "has at least taken ill, and it can be hoped it is an illness from which it will never recover." It is increasingly unpopular as a matter of state constitutional law, has long been assailed in scholarship but now thoughtful alternatives are percolating, and it cannot – or at least should not – withstand the pressures which technology and social norms are placing upon it. Even the Supreme Court seems loath to defend …

Introduction: Contains Cover, Table Of Contents, Letter From The Editor, And Masthead, Stephen J. Rancourt

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

The Richmond Journal of Law and Technology is proud to present its Annual Survey issue of the 2010–2011 academic year. The Journal strives to find interesting and contemporary topics that bisect technology and the law, and publish authors who provide in-depth and practical analysis of these topics to the legal community and beyond. To that end, this year’s Annual Survey is devoted exclusively to the topic of electronic discovery. In the two years since the Journal last published on this important issue, the availability of electronic information has increased exponentially, courts have continued to struggle with the 2006 Amendments to …

Tweeting To Topple Tyranny, Social Media And Corporate Social Responsibility: A Reply To Anupam Chander, Erika George

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay offers critical reflections on the role of social media in social change and outlines how the obligation of corporations in the information communications technology sector to avoid complicity in rights violations may evolve over time. Part I explores the Internet's potential to further democratic discourse and inclusion or foster discrimination and exclusion. It also queries whether the Internet industry has an obligation to protect against hate propaganda. Part II examines whether other industry sectors can also be said to have special obligations based on the human rights consequences of their conduct. Part III explains the nature of the …

The Admissibility Of Electronic Business Records, Ken Chasse

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

The business record provisions of the Evidence Acts determine a record’s admissibility by evidence of its history, which must be the product of “the usual and ordinary course of business” (or comparable “business activity” wording). The electronic record provisions determine a record’s admissibility by the, “integrity of the electronic records system in which it is recorded or stored.” The difference is, records management (RM) based on “paper records concepts” versus “electronic records systems concepts.” The former is subjective — each business determines its own “usual and ordinary course of business”; the latter, objective — in accor- dance with authoritative standards …

Interpreting Copyright Law And Internet Facts, Cameron Hutchison

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This paper probes interpretation issues elicited by the impact of digital technologies and the Internet on copyright law. The purpose of the paper is to instill a coherent framework for analyzing copyright law when it encounters Internet or digital facts. In part one, I propose a methodology of statutory interpretation that helps suitably adapt statutory language to technological developments. In essence it is this: courts should examine the language of the operative provision in its statutory context and in light of its purpose. A contextual interpretation of a broadly conceived rule can reveal a legislative intention that certain kinds of …

Approval Of New Pharmacogenomic Tests: Is The Canadian Regulatory Process Adequate?, Yann Joly, Emma Ramos-Paque

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

In the first part of our analysis, we will examine the impact which pharmacogenomics is expected to have on drug research and development, on the drug approval process and on post-marketing surveillance and clinical practice. This will allow us to show how pharmacogenomic testing could be beneficial to drug companies, regulatory bodies, and patients. The second part of our analysis will focus on the regulatory framework applicable to the approval of pharmacoge- nomic tests in Canada, although we are aware of the fact that most manufacturers decide to approve their tests outside of Canada. As mentioned, the applicable regu- lations …

The Regulation Of Personal Health Record Systems In Canada, James Williams, Jens H. Weber-Jahnke

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This paper analyzes the regulatory regime for PHR systems in Canada. The first part of the paper consists of an introduction to some of the major issues associ- ated with these applications, with a focus on privacy, security, data quality, and interoperability. Following this preliminary discussion, the bulk of the analysis deals with the legal instruments that apply to PHR products developed by private sector organizations. Due to space constraints, the paper concentrates on legislative and regulatory instruments, deferring a discussion of the possible impacts of tort, product liability, and contract law on PHR systems. Despite this omission, it is …

Canada's Digital Economy Strategy: Toward An Openness Framework, Michael Geist

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This essay is an expanded version of my submission to the digital economy consultation. It opens with general issues such as digital policy leadership, cost issues, and emphasizes the need for a principle-based strategy that embraces the benefits associated with “open,” whether open access, open spectrum or open data. It then provides specific recommendations on a wide range of issues including tele- communications policy, privacy, and copyright.

Personalization, Analytics, And Sponsored Services: The Challenges Of Applying Pipeda To Online Tracking And Profiling Activities, Eloïse Gratton

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

In 2008, the online advertising industry was found to be worth 27 billion dollars, a figure that was projected to double over the subsequent four years.1 The reason for this extraordinary market growth can be explained by two factors. To begin with, current technology now makes it possible to gather a great variety of information associated with a particular device or individual, including browsing history, which can be used to create a profile specific to that device or individual. This practice facilitates more personalized advertising, tailored to the interests and tastes of the consumer. Secondly, many online services, in the …

Disincentives To Data Breach: Problems With Notification And Future Legislative Possibilities, Ross Schulman

Legislation and Policy Brief

In the modern digitized and networked world, personal identifying information has quickly become a commodity that can be traded, sold, or given away like any other. The uses and potential abuses of personal identifying information, however, distinguish this commodity from any other. Personal identifying information can be copied infinitely, is often not protected nearly as well as physical commodities, and, most importantly, can have particular importance to the person identified by that information. The producer of a bushel of apples presumably cares very little about where his apples end up, as long as he is paid for them to begin …

Electronic Communications Privacy Act And The Revolution In Cloud Computing : Hearing Before The Subcomm. On The Constitution, Civil Rights, And Civil Liberties Of The H. Comm. On The Judiciary, 111th Cong., Sept. 23, 2010 (Statement By Adjunct Professor Marc J. Zwillinger, Geo. U. L. Center), Marc J. Zwillinger

Testimony Before Congress

ECPA has functioned fairly well during its first 20 years in striking the right balance between law enforcement needs and the privacy expectation of U.S. citizens. But when it was initially passed in 1986, Congress recognized that the “law must advance with the technology to ensure the continued vitality of the fourth amendment.” Based on my experience as an ECPA practitioner for the past 13 years, I believe the time is ripe for another advancement. I hope you will consider these perspectives in crafting legislation that balances law enforcement needs and user privacy in a manner that reflects the reality …

La Cyberintimidation: Analyse Juridique, Karen D. Levin

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Dans ce mémoire va être traitée une analyse juridique de la cyberintimidation. Dans une première partie, nous tenterons de définir le terme « cyberintimidation » et les enjeux qui s’y rattachent. En deuxième lieu, nous examinerons la motivation qui mène à la cyberintimidation, ainsi que la manière dans laquelle l’acte se produit. Troisièmement, nous évaluerons les provisions du droit criminel fédéral, des droits de la personne, et du droit des délits civils afin de déterminer l’efficacité de notre système juridique à détourner la cyberintimidation. Finalement, nous trancherons la question de réforme qui se propose au Canada, la comparant aux réformes …