Internet Law Commons^™

Online Defamation: Do Hyperlinks Constitute Republication For Florida Defamation And Trade Libel Claims?, Donna L. Eng, Roy E. Fitzgerald Iii, Gregory S. Weiss

UF Law Faculty Publications

These days businesses are at least equally associated with their websites as with their "brick and mortar" stores. Every Fortune 500 company has a website. The use of hyperlinks on websites is commonplace. In fact, adding hyperlinks to a website is a primary method of increasing the website's exposure and thereby traffic through search engine optimization. But what if the hyperlink refers an Internet user to information that is purportedly defamatory or libelous? Is there a Florida cause of action for defamation or libel when a hyperlink refers the Internet user to previously published defamatory or libelous information?

Because no …

Beyond Neutrality: How Zero Rating Can (Sometimes) Advance User Choice, Innovation, And Democratic Participation, Bj Ard

Maryland Law Review

Over four billion people across the globe cannot afford Internet access. Their economic disadvantages are compounded by their inability to utilize the communicative, educational, and commercial tools that most Internet users take for granted. Enter zero rating. Mobile Internet providers in the developing world now waive the data charges for services like Facebook, Wikipedia, or local job-search sites. Despite zero rating’s apparent benefits, many advocates seek to ban the practice as a violation of net neutrality.

This Article argues that zero rating is defensible by net neutrality’s own normative lights. Network neutrality is not about neutrality for its own sake, …

To Show, Or Not To Show—That Was The Question: A Discussion Regarding The First Amendment Issues Implicated By The Sony Pictures Entertainment Cyberhack & The Interview Debacle, Chelsey Huso

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

No abstract provided.

The Right To Be Forgotten, Lisa Owings

Akron Intellectual Property Journal

This Article advocates a new test for balancing free speech and privacy interests online. There should be a three-prong test for whether, and under what circumstances, a user may request deletion of online data under the right to be forgotten. First, if the information is the publication of a private fact that is offensive to a reasonable person and not newsworthy, it should never be published unless the individual chooses to do so. Second, if individuals posted the information about themselves or as an expression of their opinion, they should have the right to remove it. This should apply not …

Of Reasonable Readers And Unreasonable Speakers: Libel Law In A Networked World, Lyrissa Lidsky, Ronnell Anderson Jones

Faculty Publications

Social-media libel cases require courts to map existing defamation doctrines onto social-media fact patterns in ways that create adequate breathing space for expression without lincensing character assassination. This Article explores these challenges by investigating developments involving two important constitutional doctrines - the so-called opinion privlege, which protects statements that are unverifiable or cannot be regarded as stating actual facts about a person, and the actual malice rule, which requires defamation plaintiff's who are public officials or public figures to prove that the defendant made a defamatory statement with knowledge of or reckless disregard for, its falsity. Given the critical role …

Moving Beyond Bitcoin To An Endogenous Theory Of Decentralized Ledger Technology Regulation: An Initial Proposal, Carla L. Reyes

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

The Right To Attention, Jasper L. Tran

Indiana Law Journal

What marketing, contracts, and healthcare—specifically informed consent and mandatory ultrasounds—have in common is the right to attention from the information receiver. However, scholarship most often focuses on the communicator’s perspective (e.g., how much information the communicator discloses) or on the information itself, but surprisingly, not much on the receiver’s perspective.

This dearth of scholarship from the information receiver’s perspective is problematic, because the information receiver is often the “little guy” in the conversation. We own and are entitled to our attention because attention is a property right and part of our individual dignity. Yet advertisement companies and scam artists freely …

Against Data Exceptionalism, Andrew Keane Woods

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

One of the great regulatory challenges of the Internet era—indeed, one of today's most pressing privacy questions—is how to define the limits of government access to personal data stored in the cloud. This is particularly true today because the cloud has gone global, raising a number of questions about the proper reach of one state's authority over cloud-based data. The prevailing response to these questions by scholars, practitioners, and major Internet companies like Google and Facebook has been to argue that data is different. Data is “unterritorial,” they argue, and therefore incompatible with existing territorial notions of jurisdiction. This Article …

Celebrities’ Expansive “Right Of Publicity” Infringes Upon Advertisers’ First Amendment Rights, Jon Siderits

The University of Cincinnati Intellectual Property and Computer Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Saving The Internet: Why Regulating Broadband Providers Can Keep The Internet Open, Emma N. Cano

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Upping The Ante: Rethinking Anti-Slapp Laws In The Age Of The Internet, Andrew L. Roth

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Public Transit Data Through An Intellectual Property Lens: Lessons About Open Data, Teresa Scassa

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Article examines some of the challenges presented by the transition from ‘closed’ to open data within the municipal context, using municipal transit data as a case study. The particular lens through which this Article examines these challenges is intellectual property law. In a ‘closed data’ system, intellectual property law is an important means by which legal control over data is asserted by governments and their agencies. In an ‘open data’ context, the freedom to use and distribute content is a freedom from IP constraints. The evolution of approaches to open municipal transit data offers some interesting examples of the …

The Urban Microgrid: Smart Legal And Regulatory Policies To Support Electric Grid Resilienccy And Climate Mitigation, Kevin B. Jones, Sylvia J.S. Bartell, Daniel Nugent, Jonathan Hart

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

"Smart Cities" Meet "Anchor Institutions": The Case For Broadband And The Public Library, Ellen P. Goodman

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Sharing The Road: Smart Transportation Infrastructure, Dorothy J. Glancy

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Smart cities require smart transportation. Advanced Intelligent Transportation Systems provide ever-smarter transportation infrastructure for the United States and countries around the world. Among the most advance forms of ground transportation infrastructure is a group of technologies that connect vehicles invisibly to other vehicles through information exchanges. These advanced transportation technologies are of two types: On the one hand, Connected Vehicle Safety Systems use vehicle-to-vehicle dedicated short range communications technologies. On the other hand, Connected Vehicle Mobility Applicatoins use a muhc wider variety of mobile wireless technologies. These two types of technolofies that connect vehicles will increasingly make existing physical infrastructure …

Welcome To The Metropticon: Protecting Privacy In A Hyperconnected Town, Kelsey Finch, Omer Tene

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Democratic Deliberation In The Wild: The Mcgill Online Design Studio And The Regulation Room Project, Cynthia Farina, Hoi Kong, Cheryl Blake, Mary Newhart

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Although there is no single unified conception of deliberative democracy, the generally accepted core thesis is that democratic legitimacy comes from authentic deliberation on the part of those affected by a collective decision. This deliberation must occur under conditions of equality, broadmindedness, reasonableness, and inclusion. In exercises such as National Issue forums, citizen juries, and consensus conferences, deliberative practitioners have shown that careful attention to process design can enable ordinary citizens to engage in meaningful deliberation about difficult public policy issues. Typically, however, these are closed exercises—that is, they involve a limited number of participants, often selected to achieve a …

Smart Law For Smart Cities, Annie Decker

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Government-Provided Internet Access: Terms Of Service As Speech Rules, Enrique Armijo

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Securing The Smart Grid: Protecting National Security And Privacy Through Mandatory, Enforcable Interoperability Standards, Christopher Bosch

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Commercial Sexual Exploiutation Of Minors, The First Amendment, And Freedom: Why Backpage.Com Should Be Prevented From Selling America's Children For Sex, Anna Makatche

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Bringing Continuity To Cryptocurrency: Commercial Law As A Guide To The Asset Categorization Of Bitcoin, Evan Hewitt

Seattle University Law Review

This Note will undertake to analyze bitcoin under the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) and the Internal Revenue Code (IRC)—two important sources of commercial law—to see whether any existing asset categories adequately protect bitcoin’s commercial viability. This Note will demonstrate that although commercial law dictates that bitcoin should—nay must—be regulated as a currency in order to sustain its existence, the very definition of currency seems to preclude that from happening. Therefore, this Note will recommend that we experiment with a new type of asset that receives currency-like treatment, specifically designed for cryptocurrencies, under which bitcoin can be categorized in order to …

Legal Nature Of Emails: A Comparative Perspective, Edina Harbinja

Duke Law & Technology Review

There is currently a conflict between laws and the market in their treatment of email. Laws mandate that emails are not protected as property unless copyrightable or protected by another legal mechanism. But the market suggests that emails are user-owned property without further qualification. Moreover, the nature of email is treated slightly differently between the U.S. and U.K. legal regimes. While the current legal regimes applicable to email in the U.K. and U.S. are reasonable, legal harmonization within these systems, and with the service provider market, should be achieved.

Free And Open Source Software In Municipal Procurement:The Challenges And Benefits Of Cooperation, Justin C. Colannino

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The use of free and open source software by municipal governments is the exception rather than the rule. This is due to a variety of factors, including a failure of many municipal procurement policies to take into account the benefits of free software, free software vendors second-to-market status, and a lack of established free and open source software vendors in niche markets. With feasible policy shifts to improve city operations, including building upon open standards and engaging with free software communities, municipalities may be able to better leverage free and open source software to realize fully the advantages that stem …

Understanding And Regulating Twenty-First Century Payment Systems: The Ripple Case Study, Marcel T. Rosner, Andrew Kang

Michigan Law Review

Ripple is an open-source Internet software that enables users to conduct payments across national boundaries in multiple currencies as seamlessly as sending an email. This decentralized Internet payment protocol could provide a cure to an inefficient cross-border payments system. Although Ripple’s technology can reduce significant risks and costs that exist in the internationalpayments system, regulators should adopt a new regulatory framework that responds to how this technology works. This Note performs two functions to help regulators realize this goal. It first helps regulators and other market participants understand how Ripple operates by explaining what Ripple is and comparing it to …

A Balancing Act: The Virtue Of A "Light Touch" Regulatory Framework In The 2015 Open Internet Order, Nia Chung Srodoski

Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology

No abstract provided.

Making Civilian Drones Safe: Performance Standards, Self-Certification, And Post-Sale Data Collection, Henry Perritt, Albert Plawinski

All Faculty Scholarship

With millions of small drones in private hands, the FAA continues its struggle to develop an effective regulatory regime to comply with Congress’s mandate to integrate them into the national airspace system. Thousands of individuals and small businesses have obtained authorization from the FAA—"section 333 exemptions"—allowing them to fly their drones commercially. Farmers, TV stations, surveyors, construction-site supervisors, real estate agents, people selling their properties, and managers seeking cheaper and safer ways to inspect their facilities, want to hire the exemption holders, but many are holding back until the FAA clarifies the groundrules.The FAA understands that its traditional approach for …

Spying, Ronald Griffin

Faculty Books and Book Contributions

Ronald C. Griffin’s paper Spying, which is the third paper in the book Selected Issues in Modern Jurisprudence, edited by David A. Frenkel, begins with the finding in the Church Committee Report in the USA. It spotlights Edward Snowden’s disclosure about the NSA, reviews pertinent laws about spying and parades some suggestions and recommendation to curb government excesses.

Experience, Not Logic: Adapting Spoliation Doctrine To The Brave New World Of Digital Documents, Roni A. Elias

Student Works

The adversarial system requires full discovery as an essential element of a fair and accurate litigation process. Not surprisingly, spoliation—the destruction of evidence with a culpable state of mind—is an anathema to the most fundamental principles governing litigation procedure and in turn may warrant harsh sanctions.

The doctrines governing how courts respond to spoliation are well established. But these venerable rules were mostly devised for a discovery process that involved the production of paper documents. The information revolution that accompanied the dramatic expansion of computers to produce and store every kind of document forever transformed the discovery process. As computer …

Undetected Conflict-Of-Laws Problems In Cross-Border Online Copyright Infringement Cases, Marketa Trimble

Boyd Briefs / Road Scholars

Professor Marketa Trimble presented her paper, “Undetected Conflict-of-Laws Problems in Cross-Border Online Copyright Infringement Cases" at the 16th Annual Intellectual Property Scholars Conference held at Stanford Law School in Palo Alto, CA, on August 12, 2016. The presentation was one of five in a session devoted to Empirical Copyright.

Abstracts and information about other sessions at the conference are available on the Intellectual Property Scholars Conference website.