Internet Law Commons^™

Last Writes? Re-Assesing The Law Review In The Age Of Cyberspace, Bernard J. Hibbitts

Akron Law Review

The full-text version of this article1 offers a comprehensive re-assessment of the law review from the perspective of the present age of cyberspace. Such a re-assessment is best begun with an investigation of the academic and technological conditions that initially joined to generate the genre. The standard story setting out the origin of the American law review runs as follows: in 1887, a group of enterprising Harvard law students, backed by visionary faculty and supportive Harvard alumni, commenced publication of a student-edited legal periodical (the Harvard Law Review) which soon became the model for many others. The story is factually …

No. 9 - Cybersecurity And National Defense: Building A Public-Private Partnership, Rebecca H. White, C. Donald Johnson, Loch K. Johnson, Quentin E. Hodgson, Jamil Jaffer, Clete D. Johnson, Victoria Woodbine, Timothy L. Meyer, Adam Golodner, Barry Hensley, Andrea Matwyshyn, Jacob Olcott

Occasional Papers Series

Organized and sponsored by the Dean Rusk Center for International Law and Policy, Cybersecurity and National Defense: Building a Public-Private Partnership was a daylong conference exploring issues related to the national security dimensions of cyber attacks as well as the role of the private sector in addressing cybersecurity risks. The overarching theme was the scope of public-private collaboration in addressing cybersecurity risks and the potential for future cooperation between government and the private sector. Clete D. Johnson, Chief Counsel for Cybersecurity at the Federal Communications Commission gave a lunchtime address on the FCC’s approach to communications security in the Internet …

Defining Domain: Higher Education's Battles For Cyberspace, Jacob H. Rooksby

Law Faculty Publications

Juliet famously mused, “What’s in a name? that which we call a rose / By any other word would smell as sweet.” The same cannot be said for Internet domain names. One’s inability to own a specific domain name has delayed product launches, caused companies to change names, and led to disputes with alleged cybersquatters. The utility of domain names has led to a robust secondary market of buyers and sellers, where domain names that encompass generic words, or are comprised of very few letters or numbers, often change hands for hundreds of thousands of dollars, or more. In short, …

Addressing Cyber Harassment: An Overview Of Hate Crimes In Cyberspace, Danielle K. Citron

Faculty Scholarship

This short piece will take a step back and give an overhead view of the problem of cyber harassment and the destructive impact it can have on victims’ lives. Then, it will address about what the law can do to combat online harassment and how a legal agenda can be reconciled with the First Amendment. Finally, it will turn to recent changes in social media companies’ treatment of online abuse and what that might mean for our system of free expression.

International Cyberspace: From Borderless To Balkanized???, Beverley Earle, Gerald A. Madek

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

How Much Spam Can Can-Spam Can?: Evaluating The Effectiveness Of The Can-Spam Act In The Wake Of White Buffalo Ventures V. University Of Texas, Fay Katayama

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Corresponding Evolution: International Law And The Emergence Of Cyber Warfare, Bradley Raboin

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

What Happens To Our Facebook Accounts When We Die?: Probate Versus Policy And The Fate Of Social-Media Assets Postmortem, Kristina Sherry

Pepperdine Law Review

More than 580,000 Facebook users in the U.S. will die this year, raising numerous legal questions as to the disposition of their Facebook pages and similar “digital assets” left in a state of legal limbo. While access to and ownership of decedents’ email accounts has been philosophized for nearly a decade, this Comment focuses on the additional legal uncertainties posed by “digital death” in the more amorphous realm of “social media.” Part II explores the implications of digital death by conceptualizing digital assets and surveying the underlying legal principles of contractual policies, probate, property, and privacy concerns. Part III surveys …

Cyberterrorism In The Context Of Contemporary International Law, Yaroslav Shiryaev

San Diego International Law Journal

The present Article addressed the legal issues surrounding cyberterrorism. In the first chapter, the author explains why cyberterrorism should be described as “the use of electronic networks taking the form of a cyber-attack to commit a) a substantive act criminalized by the existing legal instruments prohibiting terrorism, or b) an act of terrorism under international customary law.” Further, with a special emphasis on existing anti-terrorism conventions and customary international law, it was demonstrated which actors are likely to engage in acts of cyberterrorism (non-state actors, corporations and individuals), as well as which targets are protected by law and which aims …

Walled Gardens Of Privacy Or “Binding Corporate Rules?”: A Critical Look At International Protection Of Online Privacy, Joanna Kulesza

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

A growing concern in the era of cloud computing is protecting Internet users' privacy. This concern is compounded by the fact that there are no effective international solutions. This article considers the latest European Union (EU) proposed development in this area – a regulatory model based on amended Binding Corporate Rules (BCR) – as introduced by the EU Justice Commissioner. These planned changes would have worldwide effects on international companies' online activities in transboundary cyberspace.

After providing a background on the concept of defining privacy in general, the article describes the BCR proposal, and proceeds to consider the likelihood of …

Cybercrime, Ronald C. Griffin

Journal Publications

This essay recounts campaigns against privacy; the fortifications erected against them; and hi-jinx attributable to hackers, crackers, and miscreants under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

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

Scholarly Works

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 …

Public Forum 2.0, Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky

UF Law Faculty Publications

Social media have the potential to revolutionize discourse between American citizens and their governments. At present, however, the U.S. Supreme Court's public forum jurisprudence frustrates rather than fosters that potential. This article navigates the notoriously complex body of public forum doctrine to provide guidance for those who must develop or administer government-sponsored social media or adjudicate First Amendment questions concerning them. Next, the article marks out a new path for public forum doctrine that will allow it to realize the potential of Web 2.0 technologies to enhance democratic discourse between the governors and the governed. Along the way, this article …

Cyberspace, Exceptionalism, And Innocent Copyright Infringement, Jacqueline D. Lipton

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Direct copyright infringement attracts strict liability. However, as a theoretical matter, it is not necessarily clear why. Legislatures and courts have typically imposed strict liability where: (a) a defendant has notice of a plaintiff's rights, particularly where those rights involve a property interest; (b) a mens rea requirement on the part of the defendant would create an untenable burden on the plaintiff; (c) it is easier for the defendant to avoid harming the plaintiff than it is for the plaintiff to avoid the harm; or, (d) it is more administratively or economically efficient for the defendant to bear the risk …

A Portrait Of The Internet As A Young Man, Ann Bartow

Michigan Law Review

In brief, the core theory of Jonathan Zittrain's 2008 book The Future of the Internet-And How to Stop It is this: good laws, norms, and code are needed to regulate the Internet, to prevent bad laws, norms, and code from compromising its creative capabilities and fettering its fecund flexibility. A far snarkier if less alliterative summary would be "We have to regulate the Internet to preserve its open, unregulated nature." Zittrain posits that either a substantive series of unfortunate Internet events or one catastrophic one will motivate governments to try to regulate cyberspace in a way that promotes maximum stability, …

‘Customary Internet-Ional Law’: Creating A Body Of Customary Law For Cyberspace. Part 2: Applying Custom As Law To The Internet Infrastructure, Warren B. Chik

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The shift in socio-economic transactions from real space to cyberspace through the emergence of electronic communications and digital formats has led to a disjuncture between the law and practices relating to electronic transactions. The speed at which information technology has developed require a faster, more reactive and automatic response from the law that is not currently met by the existing law-making framework. This paper suggests the development of special rules to enable Internet custom to form legal norms to fulfill this objective. In Part 2 of this article, I will construct the customary rules to Internet law-making that are applicable …

A Portrait Of The Internet As A Young Man, Ann Bartow

Law Faculty Scholarship

In brief, the core theory of Jonathan Zittrain’s1 2008 book The Future of the Internet - and How to Stop It is this: good laws, norms, and code are needed to regulate the Internet, to prevent bad laws, norms, and code from compromising its creative capabilities and fettering its fecund flexibility. A far snarkier if less alliterative summary would be “We have to regulate the Internet to preserve its open, unregulated nature.” Zittrain posits that either a substantive series of unfortunate Internet events or one catastrophic one will motivate governments to try to regulate cyberspace in a way that promotes …

'Customary Internet-Ional Law': Creating A Body Of Customary Law For Cyberspace. Part 1: Developing Rules For Transitioning Custom Into Law, Warren B. Chik

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The shift in socio-economic transactions from realspace to cyberspace through the emergence of electronic communications and digital formats has led to a disjuncture between the law and practices relating to electronic transactions. The speed at which information technology has developed require a faster, more reactive and automatic response from the law that is not currently met by the existing law-making framework. This paper suggests the development of special rules to enable Internet custom to form legal norms to fulfill this objective. In Part 1, I will describe the socio-economic problems and stresses that electronic transactions place on existing policy and …

Anonymity In Cyberspace: What Can We Learn From John Doe?, Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article examines the evolution of the law governing libel suits against anonymous "John Doe" defendants based on Internet speech. Between 1999 and 2009, courts crafted new First Amendment doctrines to protect Internet speakers from having their anonymity automatically stripped away upon the filing of a libel action. Courts also adapted existing First Amendment protections for hyperbole, satire, and other nonfactual speech to protect the distinctive discourse of Internet message boards. Despite these positive developments, the current state of the law is unsatisfactory. Because the scope of protection for anonymous Internet speech varies greatly by jurisdiction, resourceful plaintiffs can make …

Anonymity In Cyberspace: What Can We Learn From John Doe?, Lyrissa Lidsky

Faculty Publications

This Article examines the evolution of the law governing libel suits against anonymous “John Doe” defendants based on Internet speech. Between 1999 and 2009, courts crafted new First Amendment doctrines to protect Internet speakers from having their anonymity automatically stripped away upon the filing of a libel action. Courts also adapted existing First Amendment protections for hyperbole, satire and other non-factual speech to protect the distinctive discourse of Internet message boards. Despite these positive developments, the current state of the law is unsatisfactory. Because the scope of protection for anonymous Internet speech varies greatly by jurisdiction, resourceful plaintiffs can make …

Beware—Florida's Long Arms Can Reach Through Cyberspace And Grab Unsuspecting Professionals: Personal Jurisdiction In Professional Malpractice Cases, Judy Ann Clausen

UF Law Faculty Publications

Internet advertising leads to client relationships that transcend state and national borders. Modern professionals secure new clients through Internet advertising and communicate with clients remotely through e-mail. Particularly in Florida, a premier retirement destination, many retirees who built careers and nest eggs in other states receive advice from nonresident professionals.

This Article concerns the range of malpractice-related claims that disgruntled clients bring against nonresident professionals, including breach of fiduciary duty and professional negligence. Further, the Article contemplates issues surrounding personal jurisdiction in such cases. Often, nonresident professionals find themselves sued in Florida even when they have no office or agent …

Electronic Contracting Cases 2008-2009, Juliet M. Moringiello, William L. Reynolds

Faculty Scholarship

In this survey, we review electronic contracting cases decided between June 15, 2008 and June 15, 2009. During that period we found that there was not much action on the formation by click-wrap and browse-wrap front. We have previously observed that the law of electronic contracts has matured, and the fact that there have not been any decisions on whether click-wrap and browse-wrap are effective ways of forming contracts reflects that observation. This year brought us three modification cases, two cases in which a party alleged that it was not bound to the offered terms because an unauthorized party agreed …

Privacy And The New Virtualism, Jonathon Penney

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

First generation cyberlaw scholars were deeply influenced by the uniqueness of cyberspace, and believed its technology and scope meant it could not be controlled by any government. Few still ascribe to this utopian vision. However, there is now a growing body of second generation cyberlaw scholarship that speaks not only to the differential character of cyberspace, but also analyzes legal norms within virtual spaces while drawing connections to our experience in real space. I call this the New Virtualism. Situated within this emerging scholarship, this article offers a new approach to privacy in virtual spaces by drawing on what Orin …

Understanding The New Virtualist Paradigm, Jonathon Penney

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article discusses the central ideas within an emerging body of cyberlaw scholarship I have elsewhere called the "New Virtualism". We now know that the original "virtualists"- those first generation cyberlaw scholars who believed virtual worlds and spaces were immune to corporate and state control - were wrong; these days, such state and corporate interests are ubiquitous in cyberspace and the Internet. But is this it? Is there not anything else we can learn about cyberlaw from the virtualists and their utopian dreams? I think so. In fact, the New Virtualist paradigm of cyberlaw scholarship draws on the insights of …

Understanding The New Virtualist Paradigm, Jonathon Penney

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article discusses the central ideas within an emerging body of cyberlaw scholarship I have elsewhere called the "New Virtualism". We now know that the original "virtualists"- those first generation cyberlaw scholars who believed virtual worlds and spaces were immune to corporate and state control - were wrong; these days, such state and corporate interests are ubiquitous in cyberspace and the Internet. But is this it? Is there not anything else we can learn about cyberlaw from the virtualists and their utopian dreams? I think so. In fact, the New Virtualist paradigm of cyberlaw scholarship draws on the insights of …

Celebrity In Cyberspace: A Personality Rights Paradigm For Personal Domain Name Disputes, Jacqueline D. Lipton

Washington and Lee Law Review

When the Oscar-winning actress Julia Roberts fought for control of the domain name, what was her aim? Did she want to reap economic benefits from the name? Probably not, as she has not used the name since it was transferred to her. Or did she want to prevent others from using it on either an unjust enrichment or a privacy basis? Was she, in fact, protecting a trademark interest in her name? Personal domain name disputes, particularly those in the space, implicate unique aspects of an individual's persona in cyberspace. Nevertheless, most of the legal rules developedfor these disputes are …

States, Markets, And Gatekeepers: Public-Private Regulatory Regimes In An Era Of Economic Globalization, Christopher M. Bruner

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article illuminates the spectrum of international economic regimes through discussion of an under-theorized regulatory structure in which traditional distinctions between State and market, public and private power, hard and soft law, and international and domestic policy realms, essentially collapse-the "public-private gatekeeper."

Some Peer-To-Peer, Democratically And Voluntarily Produced Thoughts About 'The Wealth Of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets And Freedom,' By Yochai Benkler, Ann Bartow

Law Faculty Scholarship

In this review essay, Bartow concludes that The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom by Yochai Benkler is a book well worth reading, but that Benkler still has a bit more work to do before his Grand Unifying Theory of Life, The Internet, and Everything is satisfactorily complete. It isn't enough to concede that the Internet won't benefit everyone. He needs to more thoroughly consider the ways in which the lives of poor people actually worsen when previously accessible information, goods and services are rendered less convenient or completely unattainable by their migration online. Additionally, the …

Cyberspace As/And Space, Julie E. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The appropriate role of place- and space-based metaphors for the Internet and its constituent nodes and networks is hotly contested. This essay seeks to provoke critical reflection on the implications of place- and space-based theories of cyberspace for the ongoing production of networked space more generally. It argues, first, that adherents of the cyberspace metaphor have been insufficiently sensitive to the ways in which theories of cyberspace as space themselves function as acts of social construction. Specifically, the leading theories all have deployed the metaphoric construct of cyberspace to situate cyberspace, explicitly or implicitly, as separate space. This denies all …

Today's Indian Wars: Between Cyberspace And The United Nations, S. James Anaya

Publications

No abstract provided.