Internet Law Commons^™

What Alex Kozinski And The Investigation Of Earl Bradley Teach About Searching And Seizing Computers And The Dangers Of Inevitable Discovery, Stephen E. Henderson

Faculty Articles

This paper tells two stories. One concerns the investigation of a Delaware physician named Earl B. Bradley that resulted in a conviction and sentence of fourteen consecutive life terms for the sexual abuse of children. The other concerns the computer problems, both judicial and extra-judicial, of Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Though in a sense unrelated, they share lessons about the practicalities of computers and their search that are worth telling. As courts continue to struggle with how to cabin the searches of computers in order to minimize privacy intrusion …

Keep Your Update To Yourself, Neil M. Richards

Scholarship@WashULaw

An essay from Wired Magazine (UK)'s special edition, The Wired World in 2013. The essay makes the argument that frictionless sharing of reading habits should decline in 2013.

Three Paradoxes Of Big Data, Neil M. Richards, Jonathan H. King

Scholarship@WashULaw

Big data is all the rage. Its proponents tout the use of sophisticated analytics to mine large data sets for insight as the solution to many of our society’s problems. These big data evangelists insist that data-driven decision making can now give us better predictions in areas ranging from college admissions to dating to hiring to medicine to national security and crime prevention. But much of the rhetoric of big data contains no meaningful analysis of its potential perils, only the promise. We don’t deny that big data holds substantial potential for the future, and that large dataset analysis has …

The Perils Of Social Reading, Neil M. Richards

Scholarship@WashULaw

Our law currently treats records of our reading habits under two contradictory rules: rules mandating confidentiality and rules permitting disclosure. Recently, the rise of the social Internet has created more of these records and more pressures on when and how they should be shared. Companies like Facebook, in collaboration with many newspapers, have ushered in the era of “social reading,” in which what we read may be “frictionlessly shared” with our friends and acquaintances. Disclosure and sharing are on the rise.

This Article sounds a cautionary note about social reading and frictionless sharing. Social reading might have some appeal, but …

Durkheim's Internet: Social And Political Theory In Online Society, Ari Ezra Waldman

Articles & Chapters

While the Internet has changed dramatically since the early 1990s, the legal regime governing the right to privacy online and Internet speech is still steeped in a myth of the Internet user, completely hidden from others, in total control of his online experience, and free to come and go as he pleases. This false image of the “virtual self” has also contributed to an ethos of lawlessness, irresponsibility, and radical individuation online, allowing the evisceration of online privacy and the proliferation of hate and harassment.

I argue that the myth of the online anonym is not only false as a …

Agriculture Under Threat - A Crisis Of Confidence? The Solution: Redefine Adventitious Presence Maximum Levels From Zero To Zero++, Mark Perry, Ramesh Karky

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

The issue of Adventitious Presence (AP) of genes, those that are not “naturally” present in food and crops but rather have been placed there using recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) technology, has become a hot issue for producers and consumers. It can also be a major problem for exporters. Part of this problem is the reality that zero presence is now impossible to guarantee in some crops and products. Pressure has arisen to establish a Low Level Presence (LLP) threshold, one that is above zero, to be determined at an international level. This would allow crops to be imported and exported …

C-11 Et L'Information Sur Le Régime Des Droits: Regard Rétrospectif Et Prospectif, Antoine Guilman

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

La récente adoption du projet de loi C-11, portant modification de la Loi sur le droit d’auteur, change aujourd’hui considérablement la donne. En effet, son article 41.22 instaure désormais un régime propre à l’information sur le régime des droits. Il devient dès lors nécessaire de remettre en contexte ce texte, pour l’appréhender pleinement et comprendre l’approche retenue par le Canada en matière de protection de l’information sur le régime des droits.

Dans cette perspective, nous porterons, d’une part, un regard rétrospectif sur l’évolution technologique récente et les solutions apportées au plan juridique en matière d’information sur le régime des droits …

Privacy And Publicly Available Personal Information, Teresa Scassa

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This article begins with a review of the structure of PIPEDA in order to situate the exception within its statutory context. This is followed by a detailed consideration of the exception for publicly available information. The article then offers a discussion of whether the scope of this exception should be expanded, and offers an alternative.

Corporate Cyber-Censorship: The Problems With Freedom Of Expression Online, Max Rothschild

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This article will explore the problem of the applicability of human rights law to the corporate entities that own and enable the operation of the Internet. The focus will be the status of the right to freedom of expression online, and the different possibilities that have been suggested in order to ensure that users have and are able to exercise this right. As the Internet is a communicative tool that allows for an unprecedented global discourse, freedom of expression is naturally of primary importance in the online context.

Fighting Cybercrime After United States V. Jones, David C. Gray, Danielle Keats Citron, Liz Clark Rinehart

Faculty Scholarship

In a landmark non-decision last term, five Justices of the United States Supreme Court would have held that citizens possess a Fourth Amendment right to expect that certain quantities of information about them will remain private, even if they have no such expectations with respect to any of the information or data constituting that whole. This quantitative approach to evaluating and protecting Fourth Amendment rights is certainly novel and raises serious conceptual, doctrinal, and practical challenges. In other works, we have met these challenges by engaging in a careful analysis of this “mosaic theory” and by proposing that courts focus …

Big Brother's Shadow: Decline In Reported Use Of Electronic Surveillance By Canadian Federal Law Enforcement, Nicholas Koutros, Julien Demers

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Despite popular perception of increased government surveillance, particularly since 9/11, a longitudinal study of the Annual Reports on the Use of Electronic Surveillance, published by Public Safety Canada between 1973 and 2011, demonstrates the opposite trend. This article first outlines this decline to situate the use of electronic surveillance by federal law enforcement. The second section of the article advances legal, political, and practical influences which are likely contributing to the diminished use of wiretapping by police. The purpose of this article is to present quantitative evidence to better inform the ongoing debate around extending “lawful access” regimes in Canada. …

Protection From The Protectors: Does The Competition Act Provide An Answer To The Misuse Of Technological Protection Measures?, Keith D. Rose

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

McOrmond suggested that this linkage of authorized content and devices may fall within the definition of tied selling:

If you are a competitor of the members of the DVD CCA, or for any reason cannot sign on to their contractual obligations, you will not receive the keys to encode your own content or decode content. It should be reviewed by the Competition Bureau to determine whether such contractual obligations should be allowed. Tying the ability to access content encoded with DVD CCA keys requiring a DVD CCA-approved access device seems like a text- book example of “tied selling” under section …

Real Masks And Real Name Policies: Applying Anti-Mask Case Law To Anonymous Online Speech, Margot E. Kaminski

Publications

The First Amendment protects anonymous speech, but the scope of that protection has been the subject of much debate. This Article adds to the discussion of anonymous speech by examining anti-mask statutes and cases as an analogue for the regulation of anonymous speech online. Anti-mask case law answers a number of questions left open by the Supreme Court. It shows that courts have used the First Amendment to protect anonymity beyond core political speech, when mask-wearing is expressive conduct or shows a nexus with free expression. This Article explores what the anti-mask cases teach us about anonymity online, including proposed …

Limits Of The Federal Wiretap Act's Ability To Protect Against Wi-Fi Sniffing, Mani Potnuru

Michigan Law Review

Adoption of Wi-Fi wireless technology continues to see explosive growth. However many users still operate their home Wi-Fi networks in unsecured mode or use publicly available unsecured Wi-Fi networks, thus exposing their communications to the dangers of "packet sniffing," a technique used for eavesdropping on a network. Some have argued that communications over unsecured Wi-Fi networks are "readily accessible to the general public" and that such communications are therefore excluded from the broad protections of the Federal Wiretap Act against intentional interception of electronic communications. This Note examines the Federal Wiretap Act and argues that the current Act's treatment of …

Access For All: A Review Of “Law Libraries, Government Transparency, And The Internet,” A Presentation By Daniel Schuman Of The Sunlight Foundation At The All-Sis Meeting, July 22, 2012, Susan David Demaine

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Attendees at the ALL-SIS Breakfast and Business Meeting at the AALL Annual Meeting had the pleasure of hearing from Daniel Schuman of the Sunlight Foundation speak on “Law Libraries, Government Transparency, and the Internet.” The Sunlight Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization whose mission is to increase access to federal government information resources through advocacy and the development of information technology tools.

Walled Gardens Of Privacy Or “Binding Corporate Rules?”: A Critical Look At International Protection Of Online Privacy, Joanna Kulesza

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

A growing concern in the era of cloud computing is protecting Internet users' privacy. This concern is compounded by the fact that there are no effective international solutions. This article considers the latest European Union (EU) proposed development in this area – a regulatory model based on amended Binding Corporate Rules (BCR) – as introduced by the EU Justice Commissioner. These planned changes would have worldwide effects on international companies' online activities in transboundary cyberspace.

After providing a background on the concept of defining privacy in general, the article describes the BCR proposal, and proceeds to consider the likelihood of …

Understanding The Internet As A Human Right, Michael Karanicolas

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Around the world, fundamental human rights have undergone a dramatic conceptual shift as a result of the spread of the Internet. The right to freedom of expression, once largely limited to printing, has exploded in a digital world that provides users with an unprecedented megaphone to broadcast their views. The right to political participation and the right to free assembly have similarly been reborn in an age of instant communication, allowing activists to mobilise hundreds of thousands of followers with a single email, text or tweet. Although these are the most notable examples, the Internet has also had a transformative …

Harvesting The "Forbidden Fruit" Of Biotechnology Research: Genetic Engineering, International Law And The Patentability Of Higher Life Forms In Canada, Eugene C. Lim

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

As the frontiers of science are constantly redefined by the emergence of new technology, patent law often has to struggle to keep pace with the changing conception of what constitutes a protectable “invention”. A key challenge facing patent law in the age of biotechnology lies in ascertaining the extent to which genetically engineered life forms should be protected. A major concern relates to whether such life forms should be excluded from patentability on grounds of ordre public, ethics and morality.

This article critically explores the extent to which patent law in Canada protects this “forbidden fruit” of biotechnological innovation, and …

The Limitations Of Regulatory Oversight On Online Video, Jennifer Simpson

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Discussion in this paper focuses on the factors, attributes, and elements of telecom and broadcast regulation in Canada. Part I of this study briefly outlines the history of online video regulation in Canada to date. In Part II speculation as to how online video might be regulated, based on prior decisions of the CRTC, is presented. Part III considers the challenges of applying the Broadcasting Act to new media entities in order to create a regulatory framework for online video. Part IV looks at judicial decisions related to broadcast law that may be used to define the nature of the …

A Delicate Balance: Defining The Line Between Open Civil Proceedings And The Protection Of Children In The Online Digital Era, Courtney Retter, Shaheen Shariff

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

He thought of the telescreen with its never-sleeping ear. They could spy upon you night and day, but if you kept your head you could still outwit them. [. . .] They could lay bare in the utmost detail everything that you had done or said or thought; but the inner heart, whose workings were mysterious even to yourself, remained impregnable.

— George Orwell, 1984

On Thursday September 27, 2012, a few months after our paper was written, the Supreme Court of Canada solidified the rights of children victimized by cyberbullying in the landmark decision of AB (Litigation Guardian of) …

The Progress Of Science And The Useful Arts: Misadventures In Canadian Law On Patent-Eligible Subject Matter, Ken Bousfield

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Patent-Eligible Subject-Matter in Canada

The law of patent-eligible subject-matter in Canada has become badly muddled. There has been repeated confusion of subject-matter issues with non-subject matter issues such as novelty, obviousness, and utility. There has also been repeated confusion within the following group of issues pertaining to whether subject-matter is patent-eligible: whether a claim is for a mere idea or aggregation or for a patentable invention; whether claimed subject-matter falls within science and the useful arts; and whether claimed subject-matter falls within the statutory classes listed in the definition of “invention”. Echoes of older UK-based cases, relating to statutory provisions …

Wiretapping The Internet: The Expansion Of The Communications Assistance To Law Enforcement Act To Extend Government Surveillance, Christa M. Hibbard

Federal Communications Law Journal

Criminal use of the Internet to circumvent traditional government phone wiretaps has inspired the Obama Administration to create a proposal to expand the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act ("CALEA"). CALEA was passed in 1994 to regulate telephone and broadband companies to ensure compliance with standards to enable government wiretapping. The proposed amendment of CALEA would allow the government to require all communications service providers to meet technical standards necessary to comply with a wiretap order. The expansion of CALEA would likely widen its scope to social networking sites, instant messaging, gaming consoles that allow conversation among multiple players, and …

(Un)Reasonable Expectation Of Digital Privacy, Brandon T. Crowther

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Session Iv: Technology And The Future Of Privacy, 29 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 379 (2012), David E. Sorkin, Ann Bartow, Robert S. Gurwin, Doris E. Long

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

Right To Information Identity, 29 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 539 (2012), Elad Oreg

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

Inspired by the famous Warren and Brandeis conceptualization of the “right to privacy,” this article tries to answer a modern, conceptual lacuna and presents the argument for the need to conceptualize and recognize a new, independent legal principle of a “right to information identity.” This is the right of an individual to the functionality of the information platforms that enable others to identify and know him and to remember who and what he is. Changes in technology and social standards make the very notion of identity increasingly fluid, transforming the way it is treated and opening new and fascinating ways …

The Thirty-First Annual John Marshall Law School International Moot Court Competition In Information Technology And Privacy Law: Bench Memorandum, 29 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 673 (2012), Russell Bottom, Greer Herman, Catherine Nance, Robin Ann Sowizrol, Gina Spada

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

Privacy Policies, Terms Of Service, And Ftc Enforcement: Broadening Unfairness Regulation For A New Era, G. S. Hans

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

This Note examines website privacy policies in the context of FTC regulation. The relevant portion of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. § 45(a), uses the following language to define the scope of the agency's regulatory authority: "Unfair methods of competition in or affecting commerce, and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce, are hereby declared unlawful." Specifically, this Note analyzes the FTC's power to regulate unfair practices (referred to as the FTC's "unfairness power") granted by Section 5, and also discusses the deception prong of Section 5, which allows the agency to …

"Tinkering" With The First Amendment's Protection Of Student Speech On The Internet, 29 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 167 (2012), Steven M. Puiszis

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

Back To The Future: Revisiting Zippo In Light Of "Modern Concerns", 29 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 231 (2012), David Swetnam-Burland, Stacy O. Stitham

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

World Wide Web Of Love, Lies, And Legislation: Why Online Dating Websites Should Screen Members, 29 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 251 (2012), Maureen Horcher

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.