Internet Law Commons^™

Beyond The Water Cooler: Speech And The Workplace In An Era Of Social Media, Ann C. Mcginley

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Cybertravel: Legal Implications Of The Evasion Of Geolocation, Marketa Trimble

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Although the Internet is valued by many of its supporters particularly because it both defies and defeats physical borders, these important attributes are now being exposed to attempts by both governments and private entities to impose territorial limits through blocking or permitting access to content by Internet users based on their geographical location—a territorial partitioning of the Internet. One of these attempts, for example, is the recent Stop Online Piracy Act (“SOPA”) proposal in the United States. This article, as opposed to earlier literature on the topic discussing the possible virtues and methods of erecting borders in cyberspace, focuses on …

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

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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. …

Social Networking And Land Use Planning And Regulation: Practical Benefits, Pitfalls And Ethical Considerations, Patricia E. Salkin

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This article explores how social networking sites have been used or might be used in the land use context. Part I focuses on the use of social networking for land use planning and zoning. It includes a discussion of the pros and cons of the use of social networking sites to present public information and to gather public input and invite general participation in the process, as well as to provide notice to the public of forthcoming government decision-making. This section offers concrete examples of how this technology is currently being used in the land use context. Part II focuses …

Protecting Children From The Dark Side Of The Internet, Anne Dupre, John Dayton, Christine Kiracofe

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This article examines the history of judicial and legislative responses to the issue of consumption of pornography and other harmful materials over the Internet by children. The article begins by giving a brief overview of free speech law in the US. Next, summaries of relevant U.S. legislation and corresponding litigation on Internet free speech are given. Highlighted are: 1) the Communications Decency Act (CDA) and the U.S. Supreme Court’s response in Reno v. ACLU; 2) The Child Pornography Prevention Act (CPPA) and Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition; 3) the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and United States v. American …

Deconstructing The Debate Over State Taxation Of Electronic Commerce, Walter Hellerstein

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Elsewhere on these pages, the distinguished economist Charles McLure begins his contribution to the debate over taxation of electronic commerce by observing that “America is focusing on the wrong issues in debating the taxation of electronic commerce ....” He proceeds to provide a fundamental critique of the states' existing sales tax regimes and he lays out a roadmap for radical reform of the system that would, in the course of curing the basic defects in the existing state sales tax structure, incidentally resolve many of the issues that currently dominate the debate over taxing electronic commerce. I do not disagree …

Liability Issues Facing Online Businesses, David E. Shipley

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Online businesses are confronted by a wide variety of liability issues covering almost the full range of the standard law school curriculum. The liability problems that face a small business in Vidalia, Georgia, which is selling Vidalia onion products at specialty stores, through print advertising, and by mail, do not go away when the business starts marketing through a Web site. In fact, there might be more exposure doing business online, and there are variations depending upon the nature of the business in question. For example, as discussed below, an Internet Service Provider ("ISP") like America Online has worries that …

State Taxation Of Electronic Commerce: Perspectives On Proposals For Change And Their Constitutionality, Kendall L. Houghton, Walter Hellerstein

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Over the past few years, an enormous amount of attention has been devoted to the problems raised by state taxation of electronic commerce, possible solutions to those problems, and, more recently, the question of whether there is a ‘problem‘ at all. We have both been, and continue to be, deeply involved in the debate over these issues -- a debate that has sometimes generated more heat than light. We view this forum as furnishing us an opportunity to take a step back from the fray and to offer our views not only on the critical issues that are dominating the …

The Law Of Sales Taxes In A Cyberspace Economy, Walter Hellerstein

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This article focuses on three questions of state sales’ tax:

(1) What is the basic structure of states’ sales tax laws and how do these laws apply to electronic commerce?

(2) What are the existing federal constitutional restraints on the states’ power to impose sales taxes and how do those restraints limit the states’ ability to apply their laws to electronic commerce?

(3) What are the restraints on Congress – to whom this commission’s recommendations will be directed – in legislating to limit or expand state taxing power, or otherwise enact rules governing taxation of electronic commerce?

State And Local Taxation Of Electronic Commerce: Reflections On The Emerging Issues, Walter Hellerstein

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When Ed Cohen honored me with the invitation to present the principal paper on state and local taxation of electronic commerce for this conference, I was pleased to accept, but with one caveat. Because most of my waking hours over the past year seem to have been consumed by the preparation of papers addressed to state taxation of electronic commerce, I warned Ed that much of what I might have to say would not be new -- at least to me. But a funny thing happened on the way to this forum. When I set about my task to prepare …

Taxing Electronic Commerce: Preliminary Thoughts On Model Uniform Legislation, Walter Hellerstein

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This report on Taxing Electronic Commerce was presented at the symposium on multi-jurisdictional taxation of electronic commerce at Harvard University on April 5, 1997. This report describes the normative principles shared by most serious analyses of the problems raised by state taxation of electronic commerce. It then attempts to translate these principles into legal rules that could provide a model for uniform legislation in this area. Finally it addresses constitutional questions that will likely be encountered in any effort to implement such legislation.

Taxation Of Telecommunications And Electronic Commerce, Walter Hellerstein

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No abstract provided.

State Taxation Of Electronic Commerce, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

The coming of the information age has profound implications for state taxation as it does for just about everything else. The exponential growth and increasing commercialization of the Internet, along with the sweeping technological and regulatory changes that have reconfigured the telecommunications industry, pose a daunting challenge to the states’ traditional approaches to taxing business activity and the telecommunications system that facilitates it. State tax administrators and policymakers, alarmed at the prospect that their tax bases will disappear into cyberspace, are seeking means to accommodate their taxing regimes to the new technological environment. The business community, on the other hand, …