Internet Law Commons^™

The Internet In Light Of Traditional Public And Private International Law Principles And Rules Applied In Canada, Jean-Gabriel Castel

Articles & Book Chapters

In general, the jurisdiction of a state to prescribe, to adjudicate, and to enforce' is related to physical location. Yet, physical location is foreign to the Internet, which can be defined as the electronic medium of worldwide computer networks within which online communication takes place. The absence of physical location calls into question the applicability of the traditional public and private international law principles and rules that are based primarily on territoriality, in order to delineate the jurisdiction of states and their courts over the Internet and its users.

Will A Lawsuit A Day Keep The Cyberdocs Away? Modern Theories Of Medical Malpractice As Applied To Cybermedicine, Ruth Ellen Smalley

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Rivaled only by lawyers, those who earn their livelihood by practicing medicine are viewed by many as America's Public Enemy No. 1. This perception is due to the rising cost of medicine, the over-scheduling of patients, and the poor bedside manner that many people associate with a trip to the doctor's office. However, the advent of the Internet and its proliferation into schools, offices, and homes has placed medical opinions only a mouse click away. Websites, such as cyberdocs.com, allow patients to type in a description of their ailments and receive diagnoses and treatment advice from an on-line medical professional …

United States V. Keystone Sanitation Company: E-Mail And The Attorney-Client Privilege, Karen M. Coon

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

The rapid growth and sophistication of technology have changed the way people communicate. E-mail and the Internet have begun to affect the way attorneys communicate with their clients. E-mail is fast and convenient, but it is not without risks. The risk of illegal interception and the risk of inadvertent disclosure are serious issues that attorneys need to be aware of and try to prevent so that the attorney-client privilege is protected as much as possible. Although communicating with a client by e-mail may be risky, the risks posed by e-mail are no different from those posed by communicating by postal …

My Reputation Always Had More Fun Than Me: The Failure Of Ebay's Feedback Model To Effectively Prevent Online Auction Fraud, Mary M. Calkins

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Online auctions for goods are currently a popular and lucrative form of e-commerce, but present special problems of trust and fraud prevention, because most deals involve buyers and sellers who do not know each other and are separated by distance. Online auctions for goods have been largely unregulated by formal laws. For that reason, trust-building and fraud prevention have primarily been accomplished through creative private regulatory models implemented by the auction houses themselves. This Comment examines one popular model, a registration and feedback system pioneered by the leading online auction company, eBay. Under this system, a user builds a public …

Letter From The Editor, Paul A. Fritzinger

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Over the last few years, the problems attendant to software licensing regulation have occupied an important position in the minds of legislators at the federal, state and local levels. In the early nineties, the National Conference of Commissioners for Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) recognized the potential for licensing problems presented by the use of computer software in the national arena as well as on the Internet and saw a clear need for regulations that would transcend state boundaries. In 1999, as a result of years of planning and careful drafting, NCCUSL promulgated the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) in …

Letter From The Editor, Paul A. Fritzinger

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Welcome to Volume 8, Issue 2 of the Journal. In this issue, the authors address three very diverse topics of national and international significance: the liability of internet service providers for copyright infringement, the taxation of e-commerce, and the applicability of the fair use doctrine to instant messaging software. Each of these topics deals with issues that can, and ultimately will, have widespread effects on the use and growth of the Internet.

Internet Service Provider's Liability For Copyright Infringement- How To Clear The Misty Indian Perspective, V.K. Unni

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Only a fool would question the role and relevance of Internet Service Providers in promoting the Internet. But, unfortunately, Internet Service Providers ("ISPs") are at the receiving end of many disputes involving Intellectual Property violations. The difficulty in pinpointing the real culprit has resulted in a piquant situation where the Internet Service Provider is often taken to court. United States' courts and courts of other advanced countries have confronted this issue since 1993 and have finally enacted specific legislation to solve this mind-boggling issue. The Indian Information Technology Act 2000 ("The Act"), enacted with much hype, is almost silent on …

Is The Whole Greater Than The Sum Of Its Parts? The Applicability Of The Fair Use Doctrine To The New Breed Of Instant Messaging Software, Haydn J. Richards Jr.

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Imagine: you are preparing your fifteen-year high school reunion. When you were in high school, two rival bands played at dances. Everyone at school knew the bands and most students enjoyed the music. Like most music groups, neither band obtained a recording contract with a record label. You are not aware that during a garage practice session, the bands' members recorded some of their songs. Of these songs, only a few scratchy recordings remain. You decide that you are going to search the Internet to see whether you can find any copies of the songs that would enthuse and delight …

The Soul Of A New Political Machine: The Online, The Color Line And Electronic Democracy, Eben Moglen, Pamela S. Karlan

Faculty Scholarship

In this Essay, we want to suggest two ways in which people's experience with the Internet may affect how they think politics ought to be organized, and to consider the consequences for the political aspirations of minority communities. First, the notion of "virtual communities” – that is, communities that affiliate along nongeographic lines – may provide new support for alternatives to traditional geographic districting practices. As Americans become more comfortable with the idea that people can belong to voluntarily created, overlapping, fluid, nongeographically defined communities, which may be as important as the physical communities in which they live, they may …

Introduction: From Sheet Music To Mp3 Files—A Brief Perspective On Napster, Harold R. Weinberg

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The Napster case is the current cause celebre of the digital age. The story has color. It involves music-sharing technology invented by an eighteen-year-old college dropout whose high school classmates nicknamed him "The Napster" on account of his perpetually kinky hair. The story has drama. Depending on your perspective, it pits rapacious big music companies against poor and hardworking students who just want to enjoy some tunes; or it pits creative and industrious music companies seeking a fair return on their invested effort, time, and money against greedy and irreverent music thieves. And the case has importance. Music maybe intellectual …

Technoliability: Corporate Websites, Hyperlinks, And Rule 10(B)-5, Mason Miller

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Letter From The Editor, Dharmesh Vashee

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Welcome to the fourth and final issue of The Richmond Journal of Law & Technology's seventh volume! As we close the year, I am proud to report that, in 2000-01, The Journal has experienced unprecedented growth and increased recognition. Our articles are now read by over 33,000 people in 70 countries around the world. Over the past year, our articles have also been cited in a number of cases and used in university classrooms. Further, our CLE symposium, held on March 2, 2001, was a tremendous success, drawing 90 practitioners from across the state.

The Taxation Of E-Commerce: The Inapplicability Of Physical Presence Necessitates An Economic Presence Standard, Kathleen P. Lundy

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

The explosive growth of electronic commerce has served as a catalyst for immense economic growth. Virtually every aspect of traditional commerce now has some presence on the Internet. As such, the way people shop for clothing, cars, airline tickets, and even groceries, has been changed forever. However, these developments may also have drawbacks. As more and more traditional brick-and-mortar stores transfer their operations to the Internet, there are many unintended consequences. The traditional infrastructure of retail stores may slowly begin to erode. Similarly, jobs in the retail industry may be eliminated in favor of more efficient, more cost-effective Internet technology.

Privacy, Ideology, And Technology: A Response To Jeffrey Rosen, Julie E. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This essay reviews Jeffrey Rosen’s The Unwanted Gaze: The Destruction of Privacy in America (2000).

Rosen offers a compelling (and often hair-raising) account of the pervasive dissolution of the boundary between public and private information. This dissolution is both legal and social; neither the law nor any other social institution seems to recognize many limits on the sorts of information that can be subjected to public scrutiny. The book also provides a rich, evocative characterization of the dignitary harms caused by privacy invasion. Rosen’s description of the sheer unfairness of being “judged out of context” rings instantly true. Privacy, Rosen …

Vertical Integration And Self-Dealing In The Television Industry: Should Profit Participants Be Owed A Fiduciary Duty?, Marc Simon

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Transmissions Of Music On The Internet, Daniel J. Gervais

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article examines the status of copyright laws in several countries as they pertain to transmissions of music on the Internet. Because the exact legal ramifications of music transmissions over the Internet are currently unclear, the Author compares copyright laws of six major markets and examines the potential application of the copyright laws and other rights that may apply. The Article also discusses rules concerning which transborder transmissions are likely to be covered by a country's national laws, as well as specific rules applying to the liability of intermediaries. Next, the Article summarizes the comparative findings and discusses the relevant …

Contracting On The Web: Collegiate Athletes And Sports Agents Confront A New Hurdle In Closing The Deal, Manpreet S. Dhanjal

Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal (1994 - )

No abstract provided.

Criminal Law In Cyberspace, Neal K. Katyal

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Two of the most talked-about crimes of the year, the ILoveYou computer worm and the denial of service attacks on Yahoo, eBay, and ETrade, suggest that a new form of crime is emerging: cybercrime. Thousands of these crimes occur each year, and the results are often catastrophic; in terms of economic damage, the ILoveYou worm may have been the most devastating crime in history, causing more than $11 billion in losses.

This paper asks how cybercrime is best deterred. It identifies five constraints on crime - legal sanctions, monetary perpetration cost, social norms, architecture, and physical risks - and explains …

Peer-To-Peer Sharing On The Internet: An Analysis Of How Gnutella Networks Are Used To Distribute Pornographic Material, Michael D. Mehta, Don Best, Nancy Poon

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

By our very nature, humans are creatures that communicate and network. Over the past several decades much of this communicating and networking has been facilitated by developments in information and communication technology. The social and economic transformations resulting from developments on the Internet have created several challenges for policymakers, lawmakers, courts and a wide range of other kinds of institutions. Some of these challenges are associated with the technologies and applications themselves. Other challenges result from content made available on the Internet and how users exchange data. Recent developments in peer-to-peer data exchange bring these two sets of challenges together.

State Cybercrime Legislation In The United States Of America: A Survey, Susan W. Brenner

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

In the United States, cybercrimes are the focus of legislation adopted at both the state and federal levels. The U.S. Constitution allocates lawmaking authority between the two levels according to certain principles, one of which is that even when federal jurisdiction to legislate exists, federal legislation is appropriate only when federal intervention is required. And while federal legislative authority can pre-empt the states' ability to legislate in a given area, it rarely does, so it is not unusual for federal criminal laws to overlap with state prohibitions that address essentially the same issues.

Jay Cohen's Brave New World: The Liability Of Offshore Operators Of Licensed Internet Casinos For Breach Of United States' Anti-Gambling Laws, Adrian Goss

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

On February 28, 2000, Jay Cohen, co-owner of an Antiguan-based Internet casino called World Sports Exchange, was convicted by a U.S. District Court jury in Manhattan of breaching the Wire Communications Act of 1961 (hereinafter Wire Act). A New York federal judge subsequently fined Cohen $5,000 and sentenced him to serve a twenty-one month jail term. A few days prior to his conviction, Cohen's lawyer stated that "Jay strongly believes that he did not commit a crime, that he ran [World Sports Exchange] in a completely legitimate manner."

Regulasi Sosial Dalam Akta Komunikasi Dan Multimedia Dan Kesannya Kepada Masyarakat Malaysia, Syed Agil Alsagoff

Student Works (2000-2009)

Malaysia telah mengorak langkah dengan memperkenalkan kumpulan undang-undang siber bagi merancang dan melengkapi pembangunan bidang teknologi di negara ini. Salah satu daripada undang-undang siber yang pertama digubal di dunia dan dipelopori oleh Malaysia ialah Akta Komunikasi dan Multimedia (Akta 588). Undang-undang ini memperkenalkan suatu bentuk percantuman media yang merangkumi bidang penyiaran, telekomunikasi dan multimedia di negara ini. Kajian khusus mengenai pelaksanaan akta ini adalah bertujuan untuk mendapatkan gambaran mengenai peruntukan Regulasi Sosial di dalam akta tersebut dan kesannya kepada masyarakat di negara ini. Oleh yang demikian, kajian bersifat deskriptif ini memberi penekanan terhadap latar belakang akta, peruntukan peraturan di dalam …

A Symposium Précis, Thomas E. Baker

Faculty Publications

This article is an introduction to and overview of the Drake University Law School symposium The Constitution and the Internet, held in February of 2001. It highlights important issues including the Constitution and the Internet, civil liberty and the application of a 200 year old document to the modern age of rapidly changing technology.

Chasing Bits Across Borders, Patricia L. Bellia

Journal Articles

As computer crime becomes more widespread, countries increasingly confront difficulties in securing evidence stored in electronic form outside of their borders. These difficulties have prompted two related responses. Some states have asserted a broad power to conduct remote cross-border searches - that is, to use computers within their territory to access and examine data physically stored outside of their territory. Other states have pressed for recognition of a remote cross-border search power in international fora, arguing that such a power is an essential weapon in efforts to combat computer crime. This Article explores these state responses and develops a framework …

E-Commerce And Trans-Atlantic Privacy, Joel R. Reidenberg

Faculty Scholarship

For almost a decade, the United States and Europe have anticipated a clash over the protection of personal information. Between the implementation in Europe of comprehensive legal protections pursuant to the directive on data protection and the continued reliance on industry self-regulation in the United States, trans-Atlantic privacy policies have been at odds with each other. The rapid growth in e-commerce is now sparking the long-anticipated trans-Atlantic privacy clash. This Article will first look at the context of American e-commerce and the disjuncture between citizens' privacy and business practices. The Article will then turn to the international context and explore …

International Law And Regulation Of The Internet, Anthony D'Amato

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Pushing The Limits Of Copyright Law And Upping The Ante In The Digital World: The Strange Case Of A&M Records, Inc. V. Napster, Inc., Shawn D. Chapman

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Who Said Nothing In This World Is Free? A&M Records, Inc. V. Napster, Inc.: Problems Presented, Solutions Explored, And Answers Posed, Ryan C. Edwards

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Regulation Of Securities And Security Exchanges In The Age Of The Internet, Roberta S. Karmel

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Red Light, Green Light: Has China Achieved Its Goals Through The 2000 Internet Regulations?, Clara Liang

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In the mid-1990s, when the Internet began to burgeon in China, many thought that the rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would finally come to an end. The combination of foreign capital and trans-border information exchange promised a potential influx of democratic ideas and ideals. The CCP responded with both physical and regulatory limits on the use of the Internet by the Chinese people. Some commentators characterized these limits as feeble attempts by the CCP to control a nebulous medium. Others viewed the limits as ineffective steps by the government to become a highly developed authoritarian state.

This Note …