Internet Law Commons^™

Open Systems, Free Markets, And Regulation Of Internet Commerce, Jane Kaufman Winn

Articles

Can commercial transactions conducted over the Internet be regulated by existing commercial law doctrines? Many promoters of Internet commerce argue that business done over open computer networks such as the Internet will require a new regulatory framework In fact, many issues raised by Internet commerce have already been considered at length in the context of electronic commerce conducted over closed computer networks, such as those used in financial markets.

One of the most hotly debated issues regarding the regulation of Internet commerce is the question of what would be the online equivalent of a signature. Some have argued that, because …

Choosing Law In Cyberspace: Copyright Conflicts On Global Networks, Andreas P. Reindl

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article contends that in the digital era, the current system of national, territorially limited copyright laws requires a flexible copyright choice of law regime. To promote certainty and predictability in the choosing of the copyright law applicable to acts of exploitation, choice of law rules should use the location of a user as the principal factor to determine the applicable copyright law. In appropriate circumstances, the choice of law rules should allow the application of a multitude of national copyright laws to single acts of use on digital networks. This article also argues that a broad application of flexible …

Cyberdoctors: The Virtual Housecall--The Actual Practice Of Medicine On The Internet Is Here; Is It A Telemedical Accident Waiting To Happen?, Barbara Tyler

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This Article explores some of the historical background and uses of the computer in the education and support of patients as well as some current World-Wide Web sites available to educate consumers and physicians. While professionals in the field of health are concerned about the sudden proliferation of over 10,000 Internet web sites devoted to health and medical information, the existence of these sites points out that people are intrigued by medical information. The very strength of the Internet lies in the ability of users to freely express their views on any topic, including health care. Also, this Article focuses …

The Empire Strikes Back, A. Michael Froomkin

Articles

No abstract provided.

Information Vs. Commercialization: The Internet And Unsolicited Electronic Mail, Karin Mika

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

In November of 1996, the District Court of Eastern Pennsylvania allowed America Online to prohibit a business from using the Internet for sending bulk, unsolicited electronic mail.[1] The decision highlighted some intriguing issues related to how the Internet interacts with the current legal framework and how legal standards that have adequately encompassed most business uses for emerging technologies are not a perfect fit for issues related to the Internet. This article will focus on the current struggle to fit the Internet into some type of existing legal framework, especially with respect to Internet business uses. It will focus primarily on …

Who? What? When? Where? Personal Jurisdiction And The World Wide Web, Yvonne A. Tamayo

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Almost everyone, it sometimes seems, is "working on a Web site." The Internet, a seamless web of communication, has broken down barriers of distance and time among people. At the same time it has made increasingly porous the conventional boundaries between the tangible and the abstract. Many business entities have created their own World Wide Web pages on the Internet, in order to deliver their advertising messages instantaneously to potential customers anywhere in the world. Increasingly, lawsuits are being filed against these businesses engaged in electronic commerce.

Compuserve V. Patterson: Creating Jurisdiction Through Internet Contacts, Cheryl L. Conner

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Throughout American legal history the adequacy of traditional jurisprudence has been tested by technological developments. The creation and expanded use of the Internet is the latest of these advancements. There are, however, characteristics of the Internet that distinguish it from past technological breakthroughs. These features include the difficulty of defining the Internet in traditional terms, the plethora of the contacts taking place, and the speed at which the Internet is expanding.

New Combinations: Changing Technologies And Infrastructures And The Business Organizations That Will Deal With Them., Alexander F. Skirpan Jr., Steven J. Rosenstock, Pat Bennett, Douglas Taylor, Alex B. Best

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

This tale is somewhat unique. It is probably one of the few panels, or the only panel in which there is a certain level of agreement. In fact, every one in this room probably has the basic agreement with this panel, that changes in regulation and changes in policy that we are struggling with are driven by changes in technology. This panel has been put together to look at changes in technology. It has three overall goals. The first is, as you heard one of the panels this morning talk about, to talk about technology itself to try to gain …

Letter From The Editor, Jennifer S. Coates

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Each day we are bombarded with news reports about the Internet. The word, and indeed the cyber society behind it, has become as much a part of our daily lives as television and the postal service. Four years ago, when the Journal’s founder Richard Klau proposed the idea of an exclusively online law journal, the Internet was not only in the background, but some doubted the new medium would ever develop into a mature form of communication. As the fourth Editor-in-Chief of the Journal, I am satisfied and delighted that what was once an esoteric tool for programmers has evolved …

Hot News & No Cold Facts: Nba V. Motorola And The Protection Of Database Contents, David Djavaherian

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

In National Basketball Ass'n v. Motorola, the Second Circuit encountered the problematic issue of copyright preemption. Though the case did not directly involve the protection of database contents, NBA is a harbinger of judicial underprotection for the database industry. In holding that state misappropriation doctrine is preempted by the Copyright Act except in a very narrow class of "hot news" cases, NBA unduly restricts the common law's ability to prevent tortious behavior between database industry competitors. This underprotection has fueled a movement toward the legislative protection of database contents, but recent Congressional proposals, in their current form, leap to the …

Establishing The Boundaries Of First Amendment Protection For Speech In The Cyberspace Frontier: Reno V. Aclu, Michael J. Merchant

Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal (1994 - )

No abstract provided.

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Technology And The Law, Diane E. Horvath, John S. Jung

University of Richmond Law Review

During its 1998 Session, the Virginia General Assembly passed forty-three bills related to technology that were signed into law. Of these, six bills were proposed by the Joint Commission on Technology and Science ("JCOTS"). This article summarizes several enacted bills and provides reference numbers for each bill discussed in the 1998 Acts of Assembly ("1998 Acts"). Given the breadth, depth, and speed of the technological revolution, the purpose of this article is to discuss succinctly the most significant 1998 legislative actions related to technology in areas of substantive law, practice, and procedure.

The Risks Of Copyright Infringement On The Internet: A Practitioner's Guide, David N. Weiskopf

University of San Francisco Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Conflict Between The First Amendment And Copyright Law And Its Impact On The Internet, Stephen Fraser

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

How Have Internet Service Providers Beat Spammers?, Cathryn Le

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Popularly known as cyberspace, the Internet continues to evolve and expand, keeping pace with the lives of its users as a complex communications network. Many people rely on the Internet, an intricate link of numerous computers and computer networks, as a research and communications tool. The Internet is a "decentralized, global medium of communications--or 'cyberspace'--that links people, institutions, corporations, and governments around the world." No single entity owns the Internet, but the individual computers that compose the Internet are owned by various individuals, governmental, public and private organizations and institutions. The Internet cannot have a main control center nor can …

Casting The Net: Another Confusing Analysis Of Personal Jurisdiction And Internet Contacts In Telco Communications V. An Apple A Day, Donnie L. Kidd Jr.

University of Richmond Law Review

The fascination of the Internet and "cyberspace" is its sense of boundlessness. A user seemingly can go anywhere, be anyone, and do anything in a virtual world of information and interactivity. Actions on-line, however, often may have real world ramifications. The demarcation line between the physical and cyberspace "worlds" is not so pronounced that actions occurring in one have no effect in the other.

Industrial Espionage As Unfair Competition, Robert L. Tucker

Akron Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Commercial Speech On The Internet: Spain And The First Amendment, Joshua A. Marcus

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Aspiring To Pluralism: The Constraints Of Public Broadcasting Values On The De-Regulation Of British Media Ownership, Thomas Gibbons

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Sovereign Indignity? Values, Borders And The Internet: A Case Study, Eric Easton

All Faculty Scholarship

This article focuses on the publication ban issued by a Canadian court in a notorious murder trial, and the popular reaction to the publication ban, as a case study of the new global communications environment. Part I reconstructs the factual circumstances that provoked the ban, as well as the responses of the media, the legal establishment, and the public. Part II examines the ban itself, the constitutional challenge mounted by the media, and the landmark Dagenais decision. Part III reflects on the meaning of the entire episode for law, journalism, and national sovereignty.

The Dagenais decision demonstrates the continued independence …

Personal Jurisdiction And The Internet Quagmire: Amputating Judicially Created Long-Arms

San Diego Law Review

This Comment will explore the expanding power courts have given the word “haled” and its relationship to computer communication: a relationship that is confusing, contradictory, and sometimes downright troubling. Personal jurisdiction via the internet is a rapidly expanding area of American jurisprudence that has developed, and is developing, in response to the explosive growth of computer communications. While the hypothetical internet disclaimer contained above could be viewed as little more than unsubstantiated fears of the legally paranoid, in the future it may be the disclaimer of the legally prudent.

Withdrawal Of The Reference: Rights, Rules, And Remedies For Unwelcomed Web-Linking, Walter Effross

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Logos, Links, And Lending: Towards Standardized Privacy And Use Policies For Banking Web Sites, Walter Effross

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

The Legal Architecture Of Virtual Stores, Walter Effross

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

INTRODUCTION: A major "selling point" of the World Wide Web is its ability to offer a "virtual storefront" to anyone, from an individual to a multinational corporation, with a product to market. Commercially available software packages enable even those computer users who are not versed in the intricacies of programming to create customized Web sites quickly, and at a relatively low cost. The swift development of this technology and a cultural shift towards encouraging on-line commerce have led to dramatic growth in the demographics and dollar amounts of the on-line marketplace, which in turn offers a challenging new context for …

Megan’S Law And The Protection Of The Child In The On-Line Age, Nadine Strossen

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Article 2b As Legal Software For Electronic Contracting-Operating System Or Trojan Horse?, A. Michael Froomkin

Articles

The proposed draft of Article 2B of the Uniform Commercial Code can be thought of as akin to a complex computer software suite which seeks to dominate a market by offering all things to all people. The author suggests, however, that Article 2B's electronic contracting rules interoperate poorly with existing digital signature laws, and with some forms of electronic commerce. The author also questions whether Article 2B is the proper means to enact controversial rules that ordinarily would make consumers liable for fraudulent uses of their digital signatures by third parties. After considering Article 2B's potential interaction with existing digital …

Lochner In Cyberspace: The New Economic Orthodoxy Of "Rights Management", Julie E. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Part I of this Article describes the economic models now proffered as the basis for defining rights in digital works, and explores their striking resemblance to the system of social ordering described and advanced in the Supreme Court's Lochner-era decisions. The ghost of Lochner is not invoked lightly, nor with intent to belittle. Lochner represented a particular ideal of social ordering, premised on a seamless convergence of the private-law institutions of property and contract to provide a zone of legal insulation for market outcomes. In the physical world, that vision has long been compromised by evidence of market failures …

Personal Jurisdiction And The Internet--Proposed Limits On State Jurisdiction Over Data Communications In Tort Cases, David Wille

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Authors As "Licensors" Of "Informational Rights" Under U.C.C. Article 2b, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

U.C.C. Articles 2B of the Uniform Commercial Code was designed primarily to regulate online and mass market transactions, particularly the licensing of computer software. Its effects, however, will extend to authors of works other than computer software. This Article considers the effects Article 2B would have on dealings between those authors and the exploiters of the authors' works. By reducing procedural barriers to the formation of licenses, Article 2B would make it all too easy for an author to assent to contract terms that may heavily favor an exploiter of the author's work. On the other hand, default contract terms …