Science and Technology Law Commons^™

The Law And Science Of Video Game Violence: What Was Lost In Translation?, 31 Cardozo Arts & Ent. L.J. 297 (2013), William K. Ford

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

"[A]s a general rule," writes Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Edward Humes, "courts don't do science very well."' Susan Haack, a professor of law and philosophy, elaborates on why this may be true, offering several reasons for "deep tensions" between science and law. The reasons offered by Haack may be less of a concern where the dispute involves litigation against the government on significant questions of public policy. Recent decisions assessing the constitutionality of laws restricting minors' access to violent video games therefore offer an opportunity to examine how well the courts handled scientific evidence in a situation lacking some of the …

As Seen On Tv: Your Compromising Cameo On National Reality Programming, 12 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 403 (2013), Ryan Westerman

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The pop-culture phenomenon of reality television has taken over national programming. With the click of a remote, viewers can gain an inside look into the daily lives of celebrity families, toddler pageant queens, wealthy housewives, even pregnant teenagers. Reality television also profiles different professions: repo-men, pawn shop owners, and real estate agents all have television time slots. While it seems everyone is desperate for their fifteen minutes of fame, there are still those who wish to avoid the public spotlight. However, a recent Illinois ruling may make avoiding prime-time attention impossible for certain individuals caught on tape in compromising, and …

Outspoken: Social Media And The Modern College Athlete, 12 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 509 (2013), Meg Penrose

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution grants American citizens the right to free speech. However, in the case of college athletes, this right is not without limitation. In exchange for the privilege of participating in college level athletics, college athletes voluntarily agree to terms that restrict their abilities to speak freely, specifically in the context of social media platforms. This article details situations in which college athletes have made offensive statements via social media for which they later needed to delete, explain, and apologize. These examples support the notion that restrictions on college athletes’ speech are not only …

A Context-Sensitive Inquiry: The Interpretation Of Meaning In Cases Of Visual Appropriation Art, 12 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 746 (2013), Elizabeth Winkowski

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

As Andy Warhol’s famous depiction of a soup can has demonstrated, the meaning of a work depends on its context. While the Campbell’s label signified one thing to shoppers in supermarkets, it raised new questions when presented as a work of art. Warhol’s work is just one example of what has come to be known as appropriation art, an artistic practice that borrows and repurposes images from the media, popular culture, and other sources. Unsurprisingly, this art form is in frequent tension with copyright law. This comment suggests that in analyzing the“purpose and character” factor of the fair use inquiry, …

Protecting Post-Mortem Privacy: Reconsidering The Privacy Interests Of The Deceased In A Digital World, Lilian Edwards, Edina Harbina

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Birthing “Cla”: Critical Legal Activism, The Ip Wars And Forking The Law, Victoria Smith Ekstrand, Andrew Famiglietti, Suzanne V.L. Berg

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Self-Replicating Technologies And The Challenge For The Patent And Antitrust Laws, Daryl Lim

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

Few patented inventions challenge the traditional boundaries of the patent and antitrust laws like those that are capable of multiplying as they are used. These self-replicating technologies are embedded in our food, fortify our vaccines, and form the computer code upon which the information age is based. These inventions create an inherent conflict between patentees and their customers. The conflict arises because every customer could become competitors as the product replicates, potentially making every first sale the patentee's last. They also challenge how we think about fundamental issues of ownership as well as innovation and market competition, and make it …

Personal Factory Or Catalyst For Piracy? The Hype, Hard Realities Of Consumer 3-D Printing, Charles W. Finocchiaro

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Panel Ii: Critical Legal Activism And Netroots Movements, Victoria Smith Ekstrand, Brett Frischmann, John Tehranian, Siva Vaidhyanathan

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Republican Study Committee Policy Brief: Three Myths About Copyright Law And Where To Start To Fix It, Derek Khanna

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The following report was written by Derek S. Khanna, at the time a congressional staffer with the House Republican Study Committee ("RSC"), and was published by the RSC on November 17, 2012. The RSC placed the report on their website and an e-mail was sent to approximately 165 Members of Congress and their staff with this official report. Within twenty-four hours of its publication, the RSC removed the report from its website but did not issue a formal retraction. As a result of the events following publication of the report, Mr. Khanna no longer works for the RSC. What follows …

Why Can't We Be (F)Rands?: The Effect Of Reasonable And Non-Discriminatory Commitments On Standard-Essential Patent Licensing, Robert D. Keeler

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

This Note explores the effect of a patent holder's reasonable and non-discriminatory ("RAND") commitments to standard-setting organizations on their patent claims which are declared "standard-essential" by the standard-setting organization. It also analyzes the current standard-essential patent ("SEP") licensing system used by the majority of standard-setting organizations around the world and proposed modifications thereto.

This Note looks toward the current case of Microsoft v. Motorola Mobility, the recent Google Settlement with the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC"), and various calls for reform from other areas of the government. The Note concludes that it appears that we are moving toward a system in …

"A Right To Be Spared Unhappiness": Images Of Death And The Expansion Of The Relational Right Of Privacy, Catherine Leibowitz

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Panel Iii: Politics And The Public In Ip & Info Law Policy Making, Michael J. Burstein, Derek Khanna, Jessica Littnan, Sherwin Siy, Richard S. Whitt

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Information Overload: Why Omnipresent Technology And The Rise Of Big Data Shouldn’T Spell The End For Privacy As We Know It, Devin W. Ness

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Emerging Technologies And Dwindling Speech, Jorge Roig

Scholarly Works

Inspired in part by the recent holding in Bland v. Roberts that the use of the “Like” feature in Facebook is not covered by the Free Speech Clause, this article makes a brief foray into the approach that courts have taken in the recent past towards questions of First Amendment coverage in the context of emerging technologies. Specifically, this article will take a closer look at how courts have dealt with the issue of functionality in the context of First Amendment coverage of computer source code. The analysis of this and other recent experiences, when put in a larger context, …

Visual Jurisprudence, Richard Sherwin

Articles & Chapters

Lawyers, judges, and jurors face a vast array of visual evidence and visual argument inside the contemporary courtroom. From videos documenting crimes and accidents to computer displays of their digital simulation, increasingly, the search for fact-based justice is becoming an offshoot of visual meaning making. But when law migrates to the screen it lives there as other images do, motivating belief and judgment on the basis of visual delight and unconscious fantasies and desires as well as actualities. Law as image also shares broader cultural anxieties concerning not only the truth of the image, but also the mimetic capacity itself, …

The Regulation Of Online Gaming Across Jurisdictions: Success, Standards And Stability, Peter Nelson

Political Science Theses and Capstones

In 2005 the gaming market was worth an estimated six billion dollars, half of that represented by online gambling revenues. However not all jurisdictions (countries) regulate the industry the same. Some jurisdictions allow the industry to flourish while some go as far as banning the industry all together. I gather data on all 75 global jurisdictions that have some form of online gaming. I analyze which regulations allow the industry to prosper while maintaining quality standards, and which regulations do not work. Preliminary analysis shows that the amount of years a country has allowed online gambling, as well as the …

Check-In, Attendees Of The Symposium

NJTIP Annual Symposium

Check-in for the Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property's 7th Annual Symposium

Games Are Not Coffee Mugs: Games And The Right Of Publicity, 29 Santa Clara Computer & High Tech. L.J. 1 (2012), William K. Ford, Raizel Liebler

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

Are games more like coffee mugs, posters, and T-shirts, or are they more like books, magazines, and films? For purposes of the right of publicity, the answer matters. The critical question is whether games should be treated as merchandise or as expression. Three classic judicial decisions, decided in 1967, 1970, and 1973, held that the defendants needed permission to use the plaintiffs' names in their board games. These decisions judicially confirmed that games are merchandise, not something equivalent to more traditional media of expression. As merchandise, games are not like books; instead, they are akin to celebrity-embossed coffee mugs. To …

The Paradox That Wasn't: Federal Preemption Of State-Law Voice Misappropriation Claims, 11 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 694 (2012), Zachary M. Vaughan

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

There exists in the law of copyright preemption what some have identified as a paradox: that in certain cases involving claims for voice misappropriation in which a plaintiff’s voice has merely been imitated, claims have been allowed to proceed, while other cases that involve actual uses of a plaintiff’s voice—that is, samples from sound recordings—have been held to be preempted by the federal Copyright Act. This article argues that this apparent paradox is actually no conflict at all. After a brief background section, this article collects and explains cases, discusses the strengths and weaknesses of one possible harmonization of the …

Copy Game For High Score: The First Video Game Lawsuit, 20 J. Intell. Prop. L. 1 (2012), William K. Ford

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

Commentators and industry historians generally agree that the multi-billion dollar video game industry began forty years ago in November 1972 with Atari's release of Pong. Pong is among the simplest of video games: a version of ping pong or tennis requiring little more to play than a ball, two paddles, a scoring indicator, and a couple of memorable sounds. While it was not the first video game, Pong was the first video game hit. With unauthorized copying of a successful product occurring, it is not surprising that a lawsuit resulted in the fall of 1973, one that predates the more …

Switching The Flip: Questioning The Government's Authority To Shut Down Communication Networks In Furtherance Of Public Safety, Eric B. Einisman

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Pangloss's Copyright, Derek E. Bambauer

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Expediting Green Patents: The Expedited Examination Programs' Contribution To Diminished Patent Quality, Ashleigh Hebert

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Decoding First Amendment Coverage Of Computer Source Code In The Age Of Youtube, Facebook And The Arab Spring, Jorge Roig

Scholarly Works

Computer source code is the lifeblood of the Internet. It is also the brick and mortar of cyberspace. As such, it has been argued that the degree of control that a government can wield over code can be a powerful tool for controlling new technologies. With the advent and proliferation in the Internet of social networking media and platforms for the publication and sharing of user-generated content, the ability of individuals across the world to communicate with each other has reached truly revolutionary dimensions. The influence of Facebook in the popular revolutions of the Arab Spring has been well documented. …

Digital Copyright And Confuzzling Rhetoric, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

The entertainment industry tells people they shouldn’t steal music because they wouldn’t steal a car, but has anybody ever downloaded a car? Music fans praise Napster and other file-sharing services for helping to free artists from the stranglehold of the music industry, but how many of these services actually have shared profits with songwriters and performing artists? Industry representatives claim that people use YouTube primarily to listen to or watch copyrighted contents, but are they missing a big piece of the user-generated content picture? Artists are encouraged to forget about copyright and hold live concerts instead, but can all artists …

The Throw Down Over Takedowns: An Analysis Of The Lenz Interpretation Of 17 U.S.C. § 512(F), 10 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 792 (2011), Ian Rubenstrunk

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Recently, a YouTube user and mother of two, Stephanie Lenz, filed a lawsuit against Universal Music Corporation which had the potential for broad impact on the internet. Everyone from politicians, to teachers, to musical artists could have gained more protection of their rights as internet users. With millions of people having access to the internet and YouTube “vloggers” reaching the million mark in subscribers, the court’s interpretation of 17 U.S.C. § 512(f) could have had a significant impact. The issue in the case was what “any damages” meant in a clause creating liability for a party that incorrectly has material …

The Need For Originality: Music Infringement In India, 11 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 169 (2011), Harini Ganesh

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

For decades, the Indian film industry has copied tunes from Western copyrighted works and created unauthorized derivatives. As the music and motion picture industries in the United States started taking notice of this copyright infringement, so too did Indian music directors as domestic infringers profited from copying. Despite the existence of an enacted copyright statute in India, and the nation’s membership with various international intellectual property treaties and conventions, enforcement continues to be poor. This lack of protection allows high-profile music directors in the Indian film industry to get away with copyright infringement. This comment proposes that India must improve …

You Don’T Own Me: Why Work For Hire Should Not Be Applied To Sound Recordings, 10 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 695 (2011), William Henslee, Elizabeth Henslee

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Many recording artists and songwriters never reap the rewards of their work. America’s first professional songwriter died in poverty at the age of thirty-seven. At the Congressional level the situation has described recording artists as “one group of creators who get ripped off more than anybody else in any other industry”. As we approach 2013, there will be a new line of cases that deal with authors of sound recordings attempting to terminate their copyright assignment to the record companies. While the most efficient and frugal solution would be legislative action, the most probable outcome is expensive, fact-intensive litigation. Congress …

Introduction, The .Xxx Factor, Rita Rodin Johnston

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.