Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
-
- Computer Law (65)
- Intellectual Property Law (65)
- Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law (60)
- Privacy Law (5)
- Arts and Humanities (4)
-
- Constitutional Law (4)
- Communications Law (3)
- International Law (3)
- Art and Design (2)
- Business (2)
- Contracts (2)
- Criminal Law (2)
- Disability Law (2)
- First Amendment (2)
- Health Law and Policy (2)
- Medicine and Health Sciences (2)
- Administrative Law (1)
- Agency (1)
- Air and Space Law (1)
- Antitrust and Trade Regulation (1)
- Arts Management (1)
- Banking and Finance Law (1)
- Business Organizations Law (1)
- Consumer Protection Law (1)
- Cultural Heritage Law (1)
- Cultural History (1)
- Estates and Trusts (1)
- European Law (1)
- Keyword
-
- Artificial intelligence (5)
- Copyright (3)
- Algorithms (2)
- Blockchain (2)
- FCC (2)
-
- Innovation (2)
- Intellectual Property (2)
- Pandemic (2)
- AI art (1)
- AI regulation (1)
- Agency (1)
- Antitrust (1)
- Artificial Intelligence (1)
- Authorship (1)
- Billable hour (1)
- Biometric data (1)
- Bitcoin (1)
- Broadcast Hoax Rule (1)
- COVID-19 (1)
- Censorship (1)
- Child pornography (1)
- China (1)
- Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act (1)
- Commodities (1)
- Commoditizing the complements (1)
- Copyright infringement (1)
- Copyright law (1)
- Coronavirus (1)
- Cross-Border Copyright Enforcement (1)
- Crypto (1)
Articles 61 - 90 of 96
Full-Text Articles in Internet Law
Harlem Shake Meets The Chevron Two Step: Net Neutrality Following Mozilla V. Fcc, Christopher R. Terry, Scott Memmel
Harlem Shake Meets The Chevron Two Step: Net Neutrality Following Mozilla V. Fcc, Christopher R. Terry, Scott Memmel
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
In October 2019, the D.C. Circuit handed down its much-anticipated decision in Mozilla v. FCC, relying heavily on Chevron Deference and the Supreme Court’s 2005 Brand X decision. The per curiam opinion upheld large portions of the FCC’s 2018 Restoring Internet Freedom Order, but also undermined the FCC’s preemption of state law while also remanding issues related to public safety, pole attachments, and the Lifeline Program to the agency, assuring that the legal and policy battles over net neutrality will continue. This Article traces the history of the FCC’s efforts on net neutrality as it has moved in and out …
U.S.-U.K. Executive Agreement: Case Study Of Incidental Collection Of Data Under The Cloud Act, Eddie B. Kim
U.S.-U.K. Executive Agreement: Case Study Of Incidental Collection Of Data Under The Cloud Act, Eddie B. Kim
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
In March 2018, Congress passed the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act, also known as the CLOUD Act, in order to expedite the process of cross-border data transfers for the purposes of criminal investigations. The U.S. government entered into its first Executive Agreement, the main tool to achieve the goals of the statute, with the United Kingdom in October 2019. While the CLOUD Act requires the U.S. Attorney General to consider whether the foreign government counterpart has a certain level of robust data privacy laws, the relevant laws of the United Kingdom have generally been questioned numerous times for …
Pseudo-Gambling And Whaling: How Loot Boxes Pray On Vulnerable Populations And How To Curtail Future Predatory Behavior, Alexander Mann
Pseudo-Gambling And Whaling: How Loot Boxes Pray On Vulnerable Populations And How To Curtail Future Predatory Behavior, Alexander Mann
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
The video game industry has blossomed from a niche hobby into a mainstream cultural industry, outpacing global box office sales in annual revenue. Yet the price of a video game has barely increased since the industry’s inception, and the current standard price point of sixty dollars has survived for over a decade. Competitive market forces drive companies to invest ever more time and money into creating increasingly complex software in order to remain on the cutting edge of graphics and design, while simultaneously increasing revenue. Thus, video game developers and publishers have developed a multitude of alternative money- making services …
Featurization And The Myth Of Data Empowerment, Nur Lalji
Featurization And The Myth Of Data Empowerment, Nur Lalji
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
Every day, we make a series of tradeoffs between privacy and convenience. We may check our email, post on social media, use the free Wi-Fi in public spaces, or take our cellphones with us wherever we go without a clear understanding of what information we are giving away when we do so. Increasingly, we are seeing products that claim to defy this opaqueness associated with big data and put users at the helm of their information. These "featurized" products wrap themselves in a data empowerment narrative, but ultimately erode individual privacy in new ways, sometimes even capitalizing on it. This …
Censorship, Free Speech & Facebook: Applying The First Amendment To Social Media Platforms Via The Public Function Exception, Matthew P. Hooker
Censorship, Free Speech & Facebook: Applying The First Amendment To Social Media Platforms Via The Public Function Exception, Matthew P. Hooker
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
Society has a love-hate relationship with social media. Thanks to social media platforms, the world is more connected than ever before. But with the ever-growing dominance of social media there have come a mass of challenges. What is okay to post? What isn't? And who or what should be regulating those standards? Platforms are now constantly criticized for their content regulation policies, sometimes because they are viewed as too harsh and other times because they are characterized as too lax. And naturally, the First Amendment quickly enters the conversation. Should social media platforms be subject to the First Amendment? Can—or …
How The Washington State Supreme Court Wrongly Applied The Communications Decency Act In Village Voice, And What It Means For Internet Service Providers, Samuel J. Daheim
How The Washington State Supreme Court Wrongly Applied The Communications Decency Act In Village Voice, And What It Means For Internet Service Providers, Samuel J. Daheim
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
In passing the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA), Congress sought to promote and protect the ever-evolving free market of voices and ideas available on the internet. In order to reach this end, section 230(c) of the CDA extends protection from liability to those who provide a means for disseminating speech on the web, dubbed by the statute as “interactive computer service providers” (ICSP). Section 230 protects ICSPs from liability for harm inflicted by content created and posted by third parties on their respective forums. This Article focuses on a 2015 Washington State Supreme Court decision, J.S. v. Village Voice …
Paying For Nude Celebrities: Testing The Outer Limits Of Roommates.Com, Accusearch, And Section 230 Immunity, Christian Kaiser
Paying For Nude Celebrities: Testing The Outer Limits Of Roommates.Com, Accusearch, And Section 230 Immunity, Christian Kaiser
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
The Internet is a powerful tool that promotes commerce, free thought, and free speech. It is these exact values that Congress sought to solidify when it passed Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The Internet also has a dark side, which is filled with obscenities, pornography, and illegal activity. In order to protect positive values and activities on the Internet, Congress decided to incentivize websites to police the content posted by their users. This was done by providing broad immunity from lawsuits based on content posted by third parties. But this immunity is not absolute. In the Fair Housing …
From Inwood To Internet And Beyond: Assessing The Web Host-User Relationship In Contributory Online Trademark Infringement, Julie Liu
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
While courts have created a doctrine of contributory trademark infringement in response to the expansion of goods and services from brick-and-mortar to the Internet, the exact duties of web hosts under the rule are not yet clear. Despite judicial attempts to carve out new standards to define traditional requirements, the application of these standards remains inconsistent and has left unresolved ambiguities. The disparities between the standards may be balanced through an analysis of the affirmative duties imposed by the law on online service providers, as well as a closer look at the relationship between a service provider and user. This …
The Code-Based Interpretation Of Authorization: An Incomplete Picture, Nicholas R. Ulrich
The Code-Based Interpretation Of Authorization: An Incomplete Picture, Nicholas R. Ulrich
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
The definition of authorization under the Stored Communications Act raises questions about implied authorization in situations where someone fails to secure an email account properly. The few cases that have addressed this issue under the federal act or its state equivalents have not created a bright-line rule. Instead, the question of authorization has been highly fact-dependent. Two leading interpretive theories have emerged on the question of authorization: the code-based theory and the trespass theory. While the code-based interpretation of authorization seems pleasing because it appears to provide highly predictive outcomes, it fails in some circumstances. This failure is especially obvious …
The Internet And The Constitution: A Selective Retrospective, M. Margaret Mckeown
The Internet And The Constitution: A Selective Retrospective, M. Margaret Mckeown
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
Over the last two decades, the Internet and its associated innovations have rapidly altered the way people around the world communicate, distribute and access information, and live their daily lives. Courts have grappled with the legal implications of these changes, often struggling with the contours and characterization of the technology as well as the application of constitutional provisions and principles. Judge M. Margaret McKeown of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has had a close-up view of many of these Internet-era innovations and the ways the courts have addressed them. In this Article, adapted from her …
Bidding On Trademarked Keywords In Search Engines: A Trademark Law Update, Ryan Baker
Bidding On Trademarked Keywords In Search Engines: A Trademark Law Update, Ryan Baker
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
In March 2011, the Ninth Circuit modified the list of the most relevant factors for courts to consider when evaluating whether a business’s keyword bid on a competitor’s trademark causes a likelihood of confusion under the Lanham Act. Over ten years earlier, in Brookfield Communications v. West Coast Entertainment, the Ninth Circuit had held that using a competitor’s trademark in a website metatag for the purpose of achieving a more prominent place in search results creates “initial interest confusion” for consumers in violation of the Lanham Act. The Brookfield opinion formed what became known as the “Internet troika” test: …
Get Outta My Face[Book]: The Discoverability Of Social Networking Data And The Passwords Needed To Access Them, Mallory Allen, Aaron Orheim
Get Outta My Face[Book]: The Discoverability Of Social Networking Data And The Passwords Needed To Access Them, Mallory Allen, Aaron Orheim
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
Under what circumstances can a social network user be compelled to turn over his or her user identification and password in civil litigation? In three recent cases, courts attempted to answer this question with varied results. The New York Supreme Court Appellate Division refused to allow discovery of private Facebook information in McCann v. Harleysville Insurance Co. because the discovery request was not sufficiently tailored to reach discoverable information. Soon thereafter, the same court allowed discovery of similar material in Romano v. Steelcase, Inc. based on the level of publicity of the social networking account. In McMillen v. Hummingbird Speedway, …
Who Are You? Difficulties In Obtaining Trademark Protection For Domain Names, Luke M. Rona
Who Are You? Difficulties In Obtaining Trademark Protection For Domain Names, Luke M. Rona
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
Three appellate decisions illustrate the difficulty of acquiring trademark protection for domain names that include a top-level domain (“TLD”), such as “.com.” Courts have characterized these marks as generic or merely descriptive, which carries implications for the party seeking registration: generic marks cannot be protected, while descriptive marks can, assuming they possess a secondary meaning that makes the mark distinctive. Generic and descriptive domain names often indicate the services a company provides, with the addition of the “.com” TLD to indicate online services. One key test of genericness is whether the public identifies the mark with a service generally or …
Internet As A Human Right: A Practical Legal Framework To Address The Unique Nature Of The Medium And To Promote Development, Young Joon Lim, Sarah E. Sexton
Internet As A Human Right: A Practical Legal Framework To Address The Unique Nature Of The Medium And To Promote Development, Young Joon Lim, Sarah E. Sexton
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
A Taiwanese court sentenced a blogger to 30 days of detention for her comments that a restaurant’s food was too salty and that the locale was unsanitary. In Indonesia, a woman was sentenced to six months in jail for libel after an e-mail she sent to friends about poor treatment she received in a hospital was posted on Facebook. These are not isolated cases of persecution, but part of a broad pattern of challenges facing individuals around the world. The United Nations recently released a report on legal trends involving restriction of expression on the Internet, declaring that freedom of …
Understanding And Authenticating Evidence From Social Networking Sites, Heather L. Griffith
Understanding And Authenticating Evidence From Social Networking Sites, Heather L. Griffith
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
Social networking is a popular form of online interaction that combines several types of electronic communication in a single user interface. An attorney working with evidence found on social networking sites should have a general understanding of how users create and access content on social networking platforms. Before such evidence may be presented to the jury, an attorney must make a showing of authenticity. The proponent of the evidence may need to use different authentication methods depending on the type of communication involved. This Article provides background information about social networks and explores how to authenticate common types of evidence …
Ninth Circuit Unmasks Anonymous Internet Users And Lowers The Bar For Disclosure Of Online Speakers, Mallory Allen
Ninth Circuit Unmasks Anonymous Internet Users And Lowers The Bar For Disclosure Of Online Speakers, Mallory Allen
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
There is no judicial consensus about what test to apply when plaintiffs attempt to obtain the identity of an anonymous Internet user during discovery in an online defamation case. In July 2010, the Ninth Circuit became the first federal appeals court to devise an articulable test to determine when a plaintiff may compel disclosure of an online commentator. Previously, federal courts had applied inconsistent balancing tests to determine whether disclosure was appropriate. In In re Anonymous Online Speakers, the Ninth Circuit relied upon the Delaware state-court standard from Doe v. Cahill but applied this test in a way that …
Injunction Relief: Must Nonparty Websites Obey Court Orders To Remove User Content?, Connor Moran
Injunction Relief: Must Nonparty Websites Obey Court Orders To Remove User Content?, Connor Moran
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
Websites are normally immune to suits arising from illegal user-posted content due to 42 USC § 230. Victims of illegal postings must therefore bring suit, if at all, against the original posters. However, when websites refuse to take down illegal content, a suit against an original poster might not provide relief. In the recent case Blockowicz v. Williams, a family won a default judgment against persons posting defamatory content to Ripoff Report. But the plaintiffs could not contact the defendant to enforce the judgment, and thus they sought enforcement of an injunction against Ripoff Report. The court refused because …
Off With The Head? How Eliminating Search And Index Functionality Reduces Secondary Liability In Peer-To-Peer File-Sharing Cases, Luke M. Rona
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
Peer-to-peer file-sharing service providers (P2Ps) allow Internet users to exchange electronic content, including music, movies, and other digital works. In Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., the Supreme Court unanimously disarmed such P2Ps by holding that it is unlawful to distribute programs that induce others to commit copyright infringement. Evolved technologies, such as dot-torrent, allow mass file exchanges between third-party users--an attempt to remove the P2P from the file-sharing equation. The court in Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. v. Fung, however, imputed inducement from the search and index functionality of the P2P’s software, as well as the P2P’s encouraging …
Death Of The Spam Wrangler: Can-Spam Private Plaintiffs Required To Show Actual Harm, Susuk Lim
Death Of The Spam Wrangler: Can-Spam Private Plaintiffs Required To Show Actual Harm, Susuk Lim
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
In Gordon v. Virtumundo, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit published its first opinion on private plaintiff standing requirements for actions under the federal CAN-SPAM Act. The court strictly interpreted CAN-SPAM’s enforcement language, rejecting attempts by professional litigants to insert themselves into CAN-SPAM’s limited private right of action. This Article analyzes Gordon’s treatment of CAN-SPAM’s private right of action and federal preemption provisions. It concludes by assessing the decision’s expected effect on future spam-related litigation.
Trusting The Machines: New York State Bar Ethics Opinion Allows Attorneys To Use Gmail, Kevin Raudebaugh
Trusting The Machines: New York State Bar Ethics Opinion Allows Attorneys To Use Gmail, Kevin Raudebaugh
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
Information technology is evolving at an unprecedented rate; new forms of communication appear so often that it is difficult to keep track of them all. This presents a difficult problem for attorneys, who must carefully consider whether using new technology to communicate with clients is consistent with the duty of confidentiality. Google’s Gmail scans the content of e-mails to generate targeted advertising, a controversial practice that raises questions about whether its users have a reasonable expectation of privacy. The New York Bar responded to this issue in Opinion 820, which states that using an e-mail provider that scans the e-mail …
Safe Haven No More: How Online Affiliate Marketing Programs Can Minimize New State Sales Tax Liability, Jennifer Heidt White
Safe Haven No More: How Online Affiliate Marketing Programs Can Minimize New State Sales Tax Liability, Jennifer Heidt White
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
Affiliate marketing has become a popular and profitable way for online merchants to access potential buyers, especially where those merchants lack a physical presence in the buyer’s home state. By increasing market penetration and brand recognition, affiliates have contributed to the growth of e-commerce and, consequently, the growth of untaxed electronic purchases. As a result, affiliates recently became the focus of states looking to capture lost sales tax revenue from online sales. In 2008, New York became the first state to target affiliate marketing programs with a tax amendment that requires out-of-state vendors that solicit more than $10,000 worth of …
User Privacy And Information Disclosure: The Need For Clarity In "Opt-In" Questions For Consent To Share Personal Information, Suzanna Shaub
User Privacy And Information Disclosure: The Need For Clarity In "Opt-In" Questions For Consent To Share Personal Information, Suzanna Shaub
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
Many company Web sites obtain permission to disclose their users’ private information to third parties through the use of “opt-in” mechanisms, which require consumers to affirmatively grant consent to collect data from the user. These opt-in questions often ask general questions, such as whether the user would like to receive further information about the company or a product. Many companies construe an affirmative answer as consent to disclose personal information in accordance with its privacy policy. Although companies with this practice have generally avoided liability in the past, a recent case raises significant skepticism regarding the practice. In CollegeNET, Inc. …
The European Union's Data Retention Directive And The United States's Data Preservation Laws: Finding The Better Model, Kristina Ringland
The European Union's Data Retention Directive And The United States's Data Preservation Laws: Finding The Better Model, Kristina Ringland
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
The European Union’s Data Retention Directive (the “Directive”) seeks to assist law enforcement officials in their efforts to combat terrorism and to standardize disparate laws regarding data retention within the European Union (EU). The Directive requires companies to retain traffic and location data that identifies a subscriber or registered user of a Web site for a period of six to twenty-four months. Implementation of the Directive takes place at the national level and poses many challenges to providers of electronic communication services. There is no analogous United States federal law mandating data retention. The United States, however, has a data …
Federal Tax Consequences Of Virtual World Transactions, G. Martin Bingisser
Federal Tax Consequences Of Virtual World Transactions, G. Martin Bingisser
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
This article discusses the tax consequences of transactions involving Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (“MMORPGs”). MMORPGs have recently grown in popularity and developed significant economic activity. Virtual goods used in these games are traded for both real and virtual currency. While few dispute that a sale of virtual goods for real currency is a taxable event, more complex tax issues arise concerning transactions that occur solely within virtual worlds. This article analyzes the tax consequences and policy issues surrounding such transactions.
Age Verification As A Shield For Minors On The Internet: A Quixotic Search?, Francoise Gilbert
Age Verification As A Shield For Minors On The Internet: A Quixotic Search?, Francoise Gilbert
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
This article examines the issues raised by the use of the Internet by minors and children. In addition to being an outstanding source of information and a tool for connecting people in numerous affinity networks, the Internet has a dark side. Its resources may be abused for many bad deeds, including cyber bullying or facilitating encounters with child predators. One way to protect minors is to ensure that their age and identity is verified. However, this is not technically feasible without infringing on the privacy of these children as well as that of the adults who might have to be …
Myspace Or Yours? The Impact Of The Myspace-Attorneys General Agreement On Online Businesses, Chelsea Peters
Myspace Or Yours? The Impact Of The Myspace-Attorneys General Agreement On Online Businesses, Chelsea Peters
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
On January 14, 2008, social networking Web site MySpace.com announced an agreement with the Attorneys General of forty-nine states and the District of Columbia aimed at increasing the safety of children online. MySpace.com and the Attorneys General created a “Joint Statement on Key Principles of Social Networking Sites Safety,” which sets forth various principles and goals for improving online safety for children through new online safety tools, design and functionality changes, education tools, and law enforcement cooperation. This article closely examines the agreement between MySpace.com and the Attorneys General and attempts to determine whether any best practices have emerged regarding …
Liability For Search Engine Triggering Of Trademarked Keywords After Rescuecom, Riana Pfefferkorn
Liability For Search Engine Triggering Of Trademarked Keywords After Rescuecom, Riana Pfefferkorn
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
“Trademark keying” is the practice of buying and selling trademarked terms as keywords in search engine advertising campaigns. In September 2006, a federal district court in Rescuecom Corp. v. Google, Inc. held that the practice does not constitute trademark use, a threshold criterion in a trademark infringement claim. Since Rescuecom, the focus of trademark keying litigation has shifted, giving some guidance to potential litigants. In addition, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has diverged from other circuits. While federal courts within the Second Circuit have fashioned the emerging rule that an advertiser’s internal use of trademarked …
Does The U.S. Safe Web Act Strike The Proper Balance Between Law Enforcement Interests And Privacy Interests?, Shaobin Zhu
Does The U.S. Safe Web Act Strike The Proper Balance Between Law Enforcement Interests And Privacy Interests?, Shaobin Zhu
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
The Internet and advances in telecommunications technology present unprecedented opportunities for cross-border fraud and deception directed at U.S. consumers and businesses. However, the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) ability to obtain effective relief may face practical impediments in prosecuting these cross-border wrongdoers. To help address the challenges posed by the globalization of fraud, President Bush signed the Undertaking Spam, Spyware and Fraud Enforcement With Enforcers Beyond Borders Act of 2006 (“U.S. SAFE WEB Act” or “Act”) into law on December 22, 2006. This Article discusses the FTC’s expanded enforcement authority granted by the Act to fight fraud and deception, and particularly …
Applying The Americans With Disabilities Act To Private Websites After National Federation Of The Blind V. Target, Jeffrey Bashaw
Applying The Americans With Disabilities Act To Private Websites After National Federation Of The Blind V. Target, Jeffrey Bashaw
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
The United States District Court for the Northern District of California recently held that websites which are tightly integrated with a physical store must be accessible to the blind, or risk running afoul of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). The court in this case, National Federation of the Blind v. Target (“Target”), declined to grant summary judgment for Target, a retailer which operates both physical stores and an e-commerce website, in a suit alleging that Target’s website, Target.com, was discriminating against the blind. This Article will describe the narrow application of Target, which found that websites which are …