Internet Law Commons^™

Moderating Content Moderation: A Framework For Nonpartisanship In Online Governance, Edward Lee

American University Law Review

Internet platforms serve two important roles that often conflict. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other internet platforms facilitate the unfettered exchange of free speech by millions of people, yet they also moderate or restrict the speech according to their “community standards,” such as prohibitions against hate speech and advocating violence, to provide a safe environment for their users. These dual roles give internet platforms unparalleled power over online speech—even more so than most governments. Yet, unlike government actors, internet platforms are not subject to checks and balances that courts or agencies must follow, such as promulgating well-defined procedural rules and affording …

Brief Fof The R Street Institutte, Public Knowledge, And The Niskanen Center As Amici Curiae In Support Of Petitioner, Charles Duan, Meredith F. Rose

Amicus Briefs & Court Filings

The Java SE declarations of this case are simply a language of commands. As an application programming interface, or API, they exhibit features common to any language: a structured vocabulary and grammatical syntaxes, which a computer system understands as instructions to perform predefined tasks. What Oracle accuses as infringement is “reimplementation,” namely the building of a system, in this case Google’s Android platform, that repurposes the same words and syntaxes of the Java declarations.

Brief Of The R Street Institute As Amicus Curiae In Support Of Petitioner, Charles Duan

Amicus Briefs & Court Filings

It is a common but misleading premise of cases such as this one that the disappointed patent applicant has two options for judicial review: a 35 U.S.C. § 145 district court action and an appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 141. The applicant also has a non-judicial option: administrative remedies within the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

These administrative remedies add an important dimension to this case. The Court of Appeals adopted what it conceded was an atextual construction of § 145 expense recovery provision in order to ensure that § 145 actions were not cost-prohibitive to “small businesses and individual …

The Decline Of Online Piracy: How Markets - Not Enforcement - Drive Down Copyright Infringement, João Pedro Quintais, Joost Poort

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Violencia De Género, Internet Y El Derecho A La Libertad De Expresón: Un Nuevo Desafío Para El Derecho Internacional De Los Derechos Humanos, Andrea Pietrafesa

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Carpenter V. United States And The Emerging Expectations Of Privacy In Data Comprehensiveness Applied To Browsing History, Daniel De Zayas

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Dark Data Quandary, Daniel J. Grimm

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Two-Sided Internet Markets And The Need To Assess Both Upstream And Downstream Impacts, Rob Frieden

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Brief For The R Street Institute As Amicus Curiae In Support Of Respondents, Charles Duan

Amicus Briefs & Court Filings

The government and its agencies should be treated as a “person” that may petition to institute post-issuance review proceedings under the America Invents Act, for two reasons. First, permitting the government to seek review of patents under these proceedings best realizes the intent of Congress to make those proceedings widely available. Second, compared to the government’s alternative option for administratively challenging patents, AIA post-issuance review better serves important norms of procedure and governance, including transparency, due process, and separation of functions.

Speech Across Borders, Jennifer Daskal

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

As both governments and tech companies seek to regulate speech online, these efforts raise critical, and contested, questions about how far those regulations can and should extend. Is it enough to take down or delink material in a geographically segmented way? Or can and should tech companies be ordered to takedown or delink unsavory content across their entire platforms—no matter who is posting the material or where the unwanted content is viewed? How do we deal with conflicting speech norms across borders? And how do we protect against the most censor-prone nation effectively setting global speech rules? These questions were …

Atrocity Prevention In The New Media Landscape, Rebecca Hamilton

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Journalists have traditionally played a crucial role in building public pressure on government officials to uphold their legal obligations under the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. But over the past twenty years there has been radical change in the media landscape: foreign bureaus have been shuttered, young freelance journalists have taken over some of the work traditionally done by experienced foreign correspondents, and, more recently, the advent of social media has enabled people in conflict-affected areas to tell their own stories to the world. This essay assesses the impact of these changes on atrocity prevention …

Brief For The R Street Institute And Engine Advocacy As Amici Curiae In Support Of Respondents, Charles Duan

Amicus Briefs & Court Filings

Under 35 U.S.C. § 102, an inventor may not obtain a patent on an invention that has been “on sale” for more than a year. The question is whether, from this so-called on-sale bar, certain classes of sales should be exempted— sales under a confidentiality agreement, in Petitioner’s view; and sales to those other than the ultimate customers, according to the government.

A Search By Any Other Name: Google, Genericism, And Primary Significance, Erica C. Hughes

American University Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

Insta-Famous: Challenges And Obstacles Facing Bloggers And Social Media Personalities In Defamation Cases, Maureen T. Desimone

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

Reining In A 'Renegade' Court: Tc Heartland And The Eastern District Of Texas, Jonas Anderson

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

In TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods Group Brands, the Supreme Court tightened the venue requirement for patent cases, making it more difficult for a plaintiff to demonstrate that a district court has venue over a defendant. Many commentators, however, view TC Heartland as merely a “reshuffling” of the district courts that receive patent cases. Whereas before the case, a large percentage of patent cases were filed in the Eastern District of Texas, now, after TC Heartland, various other U.S. district courts (principally, the District of Delaware) have experienced an increase in patent infringement filings. Some commentators are unconvinced that this …

Crypto Securities: On The Risks Of Investments In Blockchain-Based Assets And The Dilemmas Of Securities Regulation, Schlomit Azgad-Tromer

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cartel Ringmaster Or Competition Creator? The Ebooks Case Against Apple (2013), Jonathan Baker

Contributions to Books

In 2013, a federal district court found that Apple had orchestrated a cartel agreement involving it and five major book publishers three years earlier, when Apple opened the iBookstore in conjunction with the introduction of its iPad tablet computer. According to the court, Apple organized collective action by the publishers to take away ebook pricing authority from Amazon, an aggressive discounter, and to raise the retail prices of ebooks.

This chapter describes the case from an economic point of view. It examines the competing views of the government and Apple over the competitive impact of various provisions in the iBookstore’s …

User-Generated Evidence, Rebecca Hamilton

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Around the world, people are using their smartphones to document atrocities. This Article is the first to address the implications of this important development for international criminal law. While acknowledging the potential benefits such user-generated evidence could have for international criminal investigations, the Article identifies three categories of concern related to its use: (i) user security; (ii) evidentiary bias; and (iii) fair trial rights. In the absence of safeguards, user-generated evidence may address current problems in international criminal justice at the cost of creating new ones and shifting existing problems from traditional actors, who have institutional backing, to individual users …

Defamation And Privacy In The Social Media Age: What Would Justice Brennan Think?, Stephen Wermiel

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Borders And Bits, Jennifer Daskal

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Our personal data is everywhere and anywhere, moving across national borders in ways that defy normal expectations of how things and people travel from Point A to Point B. Yet, whereas data transits the globe without any intrinsic ties to territory, the governments that seek to access or regulate this data operate with territorial-based limits. This Article tackles the inherent tension between how governments and data operate, the jurisdictional conflicts that have emerged, and the power that has been delegated to the multinational corporations that manage our data across borders as a result. It does so through the lens of …

Think Of An Elephant? Tweeting As "Framing" Executive Power, Fernando R. Laguarda

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Corporate Directors' And Officers' Cybersecurity Standard Of Care: The Yahoo Data Breach, Lawrence J. Trautman, Peter C. Ormerod

American University Law Review

On September 22, 2016, Yahoo! Inc. ("Yahoo") announced that a data breach and theft of information from over 500 million user accounts had taken place during 2014, marking the largest data breach ever at the time. The information stolen likely included names, birthdays, telephone numbers, email addresses, hashed passwords, and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers. Yahoo further disclosed its belief that the stolen data "did not include unprotected passwords, payment card data, or bank account information." Just two months before Yahoo disclosed its 2014 data breach, it announced a proposed sale of the company's core …

Cloudy With A Chance Of Abused Privacy Rights: Modifying Third-Party Fourth Amendment Standing Doctrine Post-Spokeo, Sarah E. Pugh

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Little Things And Big Challenges: Information Privacy And The Internet Of Things, Hillary Brill, Scott Jones

American University Law Review

The Internet of Things (loT), the wireless connection of devices to ourselves, each other, and the Internet, has transformed our lives and our society in unimaginable ways. Today, billions of electronic devices and sensors collect, store, and analyze personal information from how fast we drive, to how fast our hearts beat, to how much and what we watch on TV. Even children provide billions of bits of personal information to the cloud through "smart" toys that capture images, recognize voices, and more. The unprecedented and unbridled new information flow generated from the little things of the loT is creating big …

Cybersecurity, Identity Theft, And Standing Law: A Framework For Data Breaches Using Substantial Risk In A Post-Clapper World, James C. Chou

American University National Security Law Brief

No abstract provided.

Data Transmission And Energy Efficient Internet Data Centers, Joseph R. Briscar

American University Law Review

The internet is a marvel of human accomplishment and a feat of technological engineering, which allows nearly instantaneous communication across the globe-an act once considered the stuff of science fiction. It has been lauded for its environmental benefits, such as reducing paper production and waste, but, as with any great accomplishment, there are unintended consequences. The increased proliferation of electronic devices to access the internet and the exponential advancement of those devices results in large amounts of electronic waste-a problem in its own right. Compounding the issue, for all of those internet-enabled devices to work, they must rely on the …

Holding The Fbi Accountable For Hacking Apple's Software Under The Takings Clause, Mark S. Levy

American University Law Review

Smartphones have swiftly replaced most-if not all-conventional methods of sending, receiving, and storing personal information. Letters, address books, calendars, and trips to the bank have been rendered obsolete by tools such as text messaging, digital contacts, iCal, and mobile banking apps. Although these digital alternatives are convenient, they are not immune from attack. Therefore, to remain competitive, technology companies must maintain safe and secure platforms on which users may freely store and share their personal information.

Apple Inc., for example, strives to protect its users' intimate information, consequently earning a reputation for prioritizing security. Like a king protecting his castle, …

Access To Data Across Borders: The Critical Role For Congress To Play Now, Jennifer Daskal

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

The 'Smart' Fourth Amendment, Andrew Ferguson

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

“Smart” devices radiate data, detailing a continuous, intimate, and revealing pattern of daily life. Billions of sensors will soon collect data from smartphones, smart homes, smart cars, medical devices and an evolving assortment of consumer and commercial products. But, what are these data trails to the Fourth Amendment? Does data emanating from devices on or about our bodies, houses, things, and digital effects fall within the Fourth Amendment’s protection of “persons, homes, papers, or effects”? Does interception of this information violate a “reasonable expectation of privacy?”The “Internet of Things” and the growing proliferation of smart devices create new opportunities for …

Known Unknowns: State Cyber Operations, Cyber Warfare, And The Jus Ad Bellum, Peter Z. Stockburger

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.