Privacy Law Commons^™

Corporate Avatars And The Erosion Of The Populist Fourth Amendment, Avidan Cover

Faculty Publications

The current state of Fourth Amendment jurisprudence leaves it to technology corporations to challenge court orders, subpoenas, and requests by the government for individual users’ information. The third-party doctrine denies people a reasonable expectation of privacy in data they transmit through telecommunications and Internet service providers. Third-party corporations become, by default, the people’s corporate avatars. Corporate avatars, however, do a poor job of representing individuals’ interests. Moreover, vesting the Fourth Amendment’s government-oversight functions in corporations fails to cohere with the Bill of Rights’ populist history and the Framers’ distrust of corporations.

This article examines how the third-party doctrine proves unsupportable …

Privacy And Competing Library Goals: How Can Library Directors Lead When Values Collide?, Anne Klinefelter

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Petitions, Privacy, And Political Obscurity, Rebecca Green

Faculty Publications

People who sign petitions must accept disclosure of their political views. This conclusion rests on the seemingly uncontroversial (if circular) premise that petition signing is a public activity. Courts have thus far shown little sympathy for individuals who take a public stand on an issue by signing a petition and then assert privacy claims after the fact. Democracy, after all, takes courage, as Justice Scalia wrote in the petitioning disclosure case Doe v. Reed. But signing a petition today brings consequences beyond public criticism. The real threat of disclosure for modern petition signers is not tangible harassment, but the loss …

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 …

Dying To Know: A Demand For Genuine Public Access To Clinical Trial Results Data, Christine Galbraith Davik

Faculty Publications

Four years ago at the age of 34, I heard the awful words "I'm sorry, but you have breast cancer" coming from my doctor. After the initial shock of the diagnosis wore off, I like many others who have faced life-threatening diseases began to work with a team of physicians to develop an appropriate treatment plan, which included contemplating enrollment in a clinical trial. Quite unexpectedly, my position as an intellectual property professor whose scholarship focuses primarily on information control, my role as a member of my university's Institutional Review Board that oversees studies involving human subjects, and my newly …

A Panoptic Approach To Information Policy: Utilizing A More Balanced Theory Of Property In Order To Ensure The Existence Of A Prodigious Public Domain, Christine Galbraith Davik

Faculty Publications

Public access to ideas and information is critically important to creativity, competition, innovation, and a democratic culture. Nonetheless, material that belongs in the public domain is increasingly being transformed into private property. Data which was once freely available has become inaccessible as a result of legislatively or judicially sanctioned technological and contractual constraints. This is due in large part to the fact that lawmakers promulgating legislation and judges resolving disputes concerning data have failed to adequately take into account the multi-dimensional problems involved in controversies concerning access to ideas and information. The focus is often inappropriately centered on the tangible …

Remembering The Public Domain, Christine Galbraith Davik

Faculty Publications

Rapid advances in communication technology over the past decade have resulted in the previously unimaginable ability to seamlessly exchange ideas and data on a global basis. Nonetheless, despite the undeniable progress that has been made, access to information is ironically becoming progressively more. This is due in large part to the fact that resources which belong in the public domain are increasingly being transformed into private property. The carefully balanced provisions of copyright law are gradually becoming displaced by contractual, technological, and legislative constraints that allow for the tight control of access to and use of the materials in question. …

Access Denied: Improper Use Of The Computer Fraud And Abuse Act To Control Information On Publicly Accessible Internet Websites, Christine Galbraith Davik

Faculty Publications

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) was originally enacted in 1984 as a criminal statute to address hacking and the growing problem of computer crime. Recently, however, in an attempt to control competition and maintain market share, a number of companies have sought to prevent entities they deem unwelcome from obtaining data on their websites. Utilizing the civil action provisions of the CFAA, these companies have surprisingly succeeded in convincing federal courts that hacking includes accessing and using the factual information a company has chosen to post on a publicly available website. Despite the fact that many of the …

An Overview Of Canadian Privacy Law For Pharmaceutical And Device Manufacturers Operating In Canada, Erika Lietzan, John K. Fuson

Faculty Publications

On April 13, 2000, the Canadian Parliament enacted by Royal Assent the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). The Act requires private organizations to comply with a code of “fair information practice,” which mandates individual consent for the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information. PIPEDA complements the Federal Privacy Act, which places similar obligations on government institutions. On January 1, 2002, the Act began to apply to personal information (including personal health information) collected, used, or disclosed by a federal work, undertaking, or business, and personal information (including personal health information) disclosed by any organization for consideration …

Borrowing Private Law In Latin America: Andrés Bello's Use Of The Code Napoléon In Drafting The Chilean Civil Code, M C. Mirow

Faculty Publications

This article discusses Bello's sources and methods in light of Alan Watson's theory of legal transplants. It provides examples from Bello's drafting of provisions on inheritance law in the Chilean Civil Code and specifically addresses the influence of the Code Napoleon.

Cybergossip Or Securities Fraud? Some First Amendment Guidance In Drawing The Line., Lyrissa Lidsky, Michael Pike

Faculty Publications

Fifteen-year-old Jonathan Lebed, the youngest person ever pursued by the SEC in an enforcement action, made over $800,000 in six months by promoting stocks on Internet message boards. Using several fictitious screen names, Jonathan posted hundreds of messages on Yahoo! Finance, hyping selected over-the-counter stocks and then promptly selling his pre-purchased shares as soon as the stock prices rose.

Publicly, the SEC painted a picture-perfect case of securities fraud. Yet, the SEC forced disgorgement of only $285,000 of Jonathan's profits, leaving many observers to wonder why the resolution of this supposedly clear-cut case left its teenaged perpetrator with over $500,000. …

Privacy, Cyberspace, And Democracy: A Case Study, Michael J. Gerhardt

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Silencing John Doe: Defamation And Discourse In Cyberspace, Lyrissa Lidsky

Faculty Publications

John Doe has become a popular defamation defendant as corporations and their officers bring defamation suits for statements made about them in Internet discussion fora. These new suits are not even arguably about recovering money damages but instead are brought for symbolic reasons — some worthy, some not so worthy. If the only consequence of these suits were that Internet users were held accountable for their speech, the suits would be an unalloyed good. However, these suits threaten to suppress legitimate criticism along with intentional and reckless falsehoods, and existing First Amendment law doctrines are not responsive to the threat …

Prying, Spying And Lying: Intrusive Newsgather And What The Law Should Do About Them, Lyrissa Lidsky

Faculty Publications

The media's use of intrusive newsgathering techniques poses an increasing threat to individual privacy. Courts currently resolve the overwhelming majority of conflicts in favor of the media. This is not because the First Amendment bars the imposition of tort liability on the media for its newsgathering practices. It does not. Rather, tort law has failed to seize the opportunity to create meaninful privacy protection. After surveying the economic, philosophical, and practical obstacles to reform, this Article proposes to rejuvenate the tort of intrusion to tip the balance between privacy and the press back in privacy's direction. Working within the framework …

Privacy Rights And Remedies, Jonathan L. Entin

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Children Of Distant Fathers: Sketching An Ethos Of Constitutional Liberty, Gene R. Nichol

Faculty Publications

In this article, Professor Gene R. Nichol argues for a constitutional right to self-governance that legitimizes the court's inquiry into the nature of fundamental personal rights. He locates this right in the ninth amendment, which affords protection to unlisted liberties. The clearest statement of the American commitment to selfgovernance, he argues, is found in Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, and in the philosophy of Jeffersonian individualism. Drawing on the writing of Jefferson and Lincoln, Professor Nichol asserts that our society has committed itself to "the progressive unfolding of individual sovereignty." Critics of the United States Supreme Court's decisions that give …