Internet Law Commons^™

The Fda, Congress, And Mobile Health Apps: Lessons From Dshea And The Regulation Of Dietary Supplements, Natalie R. Bilbrough

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Defending Deference: A Reply To Professor Sylvain’S Disruption And Deference, Zahr K. Said

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

"Three Parent Babies": Techniques Explained, Objections Examined, Rebecca Carr

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

The UK Parliament has approved regulations, which come into force in October 2015, that permit the use of new treatment techniques to prevent the transmission of serious mitochondrial diseases from women to their children. The introduction of these techniques—which are not currently carried out in any country in the world—will fly in the face of the opposition that has been raised since discussions to permit clinical applications of the techniques first arose. After outlining some background to the techniques, this article briefly examines three of the objections that have been made against them: that the safety and effectiveness of the …

Possession Of "Extreme" Pornography: Where's The Harm?, Jonathan Clough

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

For decades, the traditional Western liberal approach to obscene material has been that while the availability of such material may be restricted, individuals are free to possess it so long as they do not distribute to others. Prior to the advent of the Internet, traditional means of control were effective in limiting the availability of such material. However, free of traditional restrictions the Internet allows easy access to a vast array of pornographic material, some of which challenges the most liberal of societies including images of child abuse, sexual violence, bestiality, and necrophilia.

In 2008, the UK became one of …

Leaving Dumb Phones Behind: A Commentary On The Warrantless Searches Of Smartphone Data Granted In R. V. Fearon, Jordan Fine

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Given the incredible rate of smartphone technological evolution, is it about time the Supreme Court of Canada devised a special test to give law enforcement agents significantly more power to search through phone data without a warrant upon arrest of a suspect? In R. v. Fearon, the majority did just that. But this article argues the opposite is true: the increasing potential for immense privacy infringements when police search powerful and constantly evolving technological devices demands a greater limitation to police powers.

In recent cases, the Supreme Court has agreed with the position that limitations are needed concerning computers. Additionally, …

Freedom Of Expression, Discrimination, And The Internet: Legislative Responses And Judicial Reactions, Talia Joundi

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

In Part I of this article, I argue that cyber racism is inextricably linked with systemic discrimination. The definition of systemic discrimination relied on was first provided by Judge Abella in the Report of the Royal Commission on Equality in Employment (Abella Report), which states that systemic discrimination points to practices or attitudes that can result in inequality of opportunity for individuals or groups. The Supreme Court of Canada has since adopted this definition, and in some instances, has acknowledged that systemic problems require systemic remedies. The purpose of this discussion is to demonstrate how situating cyber racism within the …

International Law Enforcement Access To User Data: A Survival Guide And Call For Action, Kate Westmoreland, Gail Kent

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Effectively accessing and using online evidence is a critical part of modern investigations and prosecutions, but also has significant implications for users’ privacy. The current system of international sharing of online data in criminal matters is a patchwork of domestic and international law that is slow, uncertain, and not well understood. This article provides an overview of the current system for foreign governments seeking user data from US-based Internet companies. After describing the way in which the system currently operates, it identifies problems with the system, and outlines the reform efforts that are beginning to emerge.

Big Storms, Big Debt, And Biggery-Waters: Navigating Florida's Uncertain Flood Insurance Future, Loren M. Vasquez

Seattle Journal of Environmental Law

No abstract provided.

Can Sharks Be Saved? A Global Plan Of Action For Shark Conservation In The Regime Of The Convention On Migratory Species, James Kraska, Leo Chan Gaskins

Seattle Journal of Environmental Law

Shark populations throughout the world are at grave risk; some spe-cies have declined by 95 percent. The most recent IUCN (Interna-tional Union for the Conservation of Nature) assessment by the Shark Specialist Group (SSG) found that one-fourth of shark and ray spe-cies face the prospect of extinction. This article proposes an engage-ment plan to accelerate efforts by states and international organiza-tions to conserve and protect sharks worldwide. Sharks are found throughout all of the world’s oceans, and collec-tively they occupy an indispensable niche as apex predators at the top of the ocean trophic ecosystem. These fish function as an im-portant …

Copyright Law And The Internet: The New Generation Of Legal Battles In The Courts, Catherine Pignataro

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Here We Are Now, Entertain Us: Defining The Line Between Personal And Professional Context On Social Media, Raizel Liebler, Keidra Chaney

Pace Law Review

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram allow individuals and companies to connect directly and regularly with an audience of peers or with the public at large. These websites combine the audience-building platforms of mass media with the personal data and relationships of in-person social networks. Due to a combination of evolving user activity and frequent updates to functionality and user features, social media tools blur the line of whether a speaker is perceived as speaking to a specific and presumed private audience, a public expression of one’s own personal views, or a representative viewpoint of an entire …

Social Media Thoughtcrimes, Daniel S. Harawa

Pace Law Review

As people live out their lives online, what is protected expression and what is criminal speech? This article begins to explore this fine distinction, and advocates for a shift in the way online speech is protected vis-à-vis the First Amendment. Part I provides examples of criminalized social media activity and explores why people seemingly treat online speech as private communications. Part II looks at existing jurisprudence regarding the criminalization of speech and First Amendment protections. And Part III attempts to determine where to draw the line by advocating for a return to simpler times in First Amendment jurisprudence.

Social Media And The Internet: A Story Of Privatization, Victoria D. Baranetsky

Pace Law Review

This article will question what role private and public actors assume in the current structure of data collection and what potential rights are violated. To tease out the relationship between the private and government sectors, this article, for sake of argument, accepts as fact that surveillance is a core government function and that data is a public resource collected by private organizations. While those assumptions may be challenged by different definitions of what constitutes a public function, public resource, or mode of collection, this article does not take on those challenges. It also does not ask the normative question of …

Investigating Jurors On Social Media, Caren Myers Morrison

Pace Law Review

This essay proceeds in three parts. First, it examines the current state of jury investigations, and how they differ from those conducted in the past. Then, it describes the evolving legal and ethical positions that are combining to encourage such investigations. Finally, it offers a note of caution–condoning such investigations while keeping them hidden from jurors may be perceived as unfair and exploitative, risking a possible backlash from outraged jurors. Instead, I propose a modest measure to provide notice and explanation to jurors that their online information is likely to be searched, and why.

Copyright And Social Media: A Tale Of Legislative Abdication, Diane Leenheer Zimmerman

Pace Law Review

The focus of this article will be on what I call DMCA 2.0. It will begin by discussing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and why that statute, passed in 1998 to shore up the enforceability of copyright online by protecting content providers’ ability to engage in forms of technological self-help against online copyright infringers, has been problematic. Part II describes largely unsuccessful efforts in the form of statutes and trade agreements to shore up the DMCA. Part III turns to the latest salvo, the adoption of “voluntary agreements” whereby content owners and ISPs, in particular social media platforms, join …

The Constitution And Revenge Porn, John A. Humbach

Pace Law Review

While the Supreme Court has recognized a number of circumstances that justify government impingements on free expression, the Court has been extremely reluctant to permit speech restrictions that discriminate based on a message’s content, its viewpoint, or the speaker. It has nearly always refused to tolerate such discrimination unless the case falls within one of the several historically established exceptions to First Amendment protection. Because of the special place that the modern First Amendment cases accord to content discrimination (and the allied discriminations based on viewpoint and speaker), any statutes designed specifically to outlaw revenge porn as such would seem …

#Snitches Get Stitches: Witness Intimidation In The Age Of Facebook And Twitter, John Browning

Pace Law Review

In order to better understand witness intimidation in the age of social media, one must examine both the forms it has taken as well as the response by law enforcement and the criminal justice system. As this article points out, the digital age has brought with it a host of new ways in which witnesses may be subjected to online harassment and intimidation across multiple platforms, and those means have been used to target not only victims and fact witnesses but even prosecutors and expert witnesses as well. The article will also examine potential responses to the problem of witness …

Social Justice, Social Norms And The Governance Of Social Media, Tal Z. Zarsky

Pace Law Review

This article proceeds as follows: Part II briefly addresses the theoretical arguments regarding the pros and cons of various governance strategies, focusing on the advantages, disadvantages and pitfalls of reliance on private parties. In Part III, the article describes, in general terms, the above-mentioned empirical study, explaining its methodology, the specific challenges to its design and implementation, and how these were met. The discussion specifically centers on a survey taken to establish the nature of social norms. Part IV presents a specific test case: whether pseudonymity should be permitted in social media or should “real names” be mandatory. Part V …

Anarchy, Status Updates, And Utopia, James Grimmelmann

Pace Law Review

Social software has a power problem. Actually, it has two. The first is technical. Unlike the rule of law, the rule of software is simple and brutal: whoever controls the software makes the rules. And if power corrupts, then automatic power corrupts automatically. Facebook can drop you down the memory hole; PayPal can garnish your pay. These sovereigns of software have absolute and dictatorial control over their domains.

Is it possible to create online spaces without technical power? It is not, because of social software’s second power problem. Behind technical power, there is also social power. Whenever people come together …

The Challenges Of Preventing And Prosecuting Social Media Crimes, Thaddeus Hoffmeister

Pace Law Review

The adoption and use of social media by a broad spectrum of criminal defendants has raised some significant challenges for those tasked with crime prevention. This article will look at those challenges through the lens of three cases involving social media: United States v. Drew, United States v. Sayer, and United States v. Cassidy. However, prior to beginning that examination, this article will briefly discuss and categorize the various ways criminal defendants employ social media.

Friends Of Justice: Does Social Media Impact The Public Perception Of The Justice System?, Nicola A. Boothe-Perry

Pace Law Review

This article will demonstrate how the unregulated use of social media by participants in the justice system (judges, attorneys and jurors specifically) affects the public perception and subsequently the integrity of our justice system. The article will provide a holistic review of social media use by judges, attorneys and jurors, and demonstrate why their use of social media should be harnessed in a manner to ensure compliance with ethical rules and reduce potential negative effects to the social contract between law and society.

Social media is like a culvert. It catches pictures, novelties, personal profiles, gossip, news, unfiltered opinions, and …

Tinkering With Success: College Athletes, Social Media And The First Amendment, Mary Margaret Meg Penrose

Pace Law Review

Good law does not always make good policy. This article seeks to provide a legal assessment, not a policy directive. The policy choices made by individual institutions and athletic departments should be guided by law, but absolutely left to institutional discretion. Many articles written on college student-athletes’ social media usage attempt to urge policy directives clothed in constitutional analysis.

In this author’s opinion, these articles have lost perspective – constitutional perspective. This article seeks primarily to provide a legal and constitutional assessment so that schools and their athletic departments will have ample information to then make their own policy choices.

Abuse And Harassment Diminish Free Speech, Anita Bernstein

Pace Law Review

Owen Fiss focused on “the robustness of public debate” to conclude on his last page: “The autonomy protected by the First Amendment and rightly enjoyed by individuals and the press is not an end in itself, as it might be in some moral code, but is rather a means to further the democratic values underlying the Bill of Rights.”

This article embraces the same values but more conservatively. Whereas Fiss defended state-sponsored coercion, I leave the government mostly outside the descriptions and arguments presented here. Scholars have sought to apply the law—of crimes, torts, intellectual property, and statutory allotments and …

The Regulation Of Internet Gambling In The United States: It's Time For The Federal Government To Deal The Cards, Benjamin Miller

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

This comment will provide an overview of the history of gambling laws and regulations in the United States to establish a framework for the analysis of regulation of Internet gambling. Next, this comment will discuss the current state of the law regarding Internet gambling in the United States and the effects of recent legal developments in the industry. This comment will expound on state action in the realm of Internet gambling, including proposed legislation, the expansion of state gambling commissions, and successfully enacted legislation. Finally, this comment will analyze the implications of state actions and how they relate and contribute …

Reputational Privacy And The Internet: A Matter For Law?, Elizabeth Anne Kirley

PhD Dissertations

Reputation - we all have one. We do not completely comprehend its workings and are mostly unaware of its import until it is gone. When we lose it, our traditional laws of defamation, privacy, and breach of confidence rarely deliver the vindication and respite we seek due, primarily, to legal systems that cobble new media methods of personal injury onto pre-Internet laws. This dissertation conducts an exploratory study of the relevance of law to loss of individual reputation perpetuated on the Internet. It deals with three interrelated concepts: reputation, privacy, and memory. They are related in that the increasing lack …

The History And Future Of E-Commerce Patents, Dennis D. Crouch, Mitchell L. Terry

Faculty Publications

The past two decades have seen a great rise in the patenting of e-commerce inventions. Now, those same patents are taking an equally great fall. In a series of four recent cases, the U.S. Supreme Court has shifted the doctrine of patent eligibility and, in the process, raised the bar for e-commerce and software patents - making it more difficult to obtain and enforce those types of patents.

Future Of Ai And Law, Abby Cessna

Cornell Law School J.D. Student Research Papers

Technology has already transformed the way that law is practiced. The use of computers and digital legal resources, such as LexisNexis and Westlaw have been around for decades, but these are just some of the major technological advancements that have transformed law. For instance, it was groundbreaking for a law firm as prestigious as Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe to have a website in the late 1990's, which was getting around 5000 visits a week. Now law firms not only have websites but also use a variety of social media services to promote their firm and services. In addition to promoting …

Data Breaches And Privacy Law: Lawyers’ Challenges In Handling Personal Information, Charlotte Duc-Bragues

Cornell Law School J.D. Student Research Papers

Sharing personal information with a lawyer potentially represents the greatest source of vulnerability for an individual. Since the first major security breach in 2005, law firms have been pressed both by public authorities and clients to take action in order to protect confidential information from potential harmful breaches.

This paper seeks to provide an overview of the challenges faced by lawyers in handling personal information with regard to potential security breaches. The aim is to analyze this issue through the focal of privacy law; statistics on security breaches and tools to prevent this phenomenon, extensively studied in class, are given …

#Academicfreedom: Twitter And First Amendment Rights For Professors, Michael H. Leroy

Notre Dame Law Review Reflection

This Essay asks: is every tweet from a professor protected as a form of academic freedom by the First Amendment? Professor Salaita’s watershed case poses sharply conflicting positions on academic freedom for faculty members. In support of Professor Salaita, a faculty committee at the University of Illinois asserts: “Regardless of the tweets’ tone and content, they are political speech—part of the robust free play of ideas in the political realm that the [University] Statutes insulate from institutional sanction, even in the case of ideas we may detest.”

To answer my research question, I explore how courts rule on First Amendment …

The Incitement Of Terrorism On The Internet: Legal Standards, Enforcement, And The Role Of The European Union, Ezekiel Rediker

Michigan Journal of International Law

Consider this sentence: “The Shining Path is a heroic organization.” Over the past thirty years, the Shining Path has waged a violent guerilla war against the Peruvian government, prompting the European Union to designate the group as a terrorist organization. In certain European countries, speech inciting or glorifying terrorist organizations is criminalized. As a result, citizens risk prosecution if they do not carefully limit what they say about the Shining Path, or other terrorist organizations. But where does free speech end and incitement to terrorism begin? The debate over free speech and incitement to terrorism is actively being played out …