Science and Technology Law Commons^™

U.S. Subject Matter Jurisdiction For Copyright Infringements On The Internet, Christian M. Reider

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Copyright infringement is currently the most important substantive legal issue in online communication. Many copyright owners, a handful of authors, and an increasing number of courts realize that the Internet, more than any other medium, will challenge the enforcement of copyright infringement in the international context. The threshold issue in copyright enforcement is the question of subject matter jurisdiction over the Internet, a digital world without significant national boundaries.

Determining subject matter jurisdiction has great economic and legal impact on the parties. The exposure of any individual Internet user or any local company to foreign as well as multiple jurisdictions …

Courting Cyberspace, Al Harrison

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Internet has changed and will continue to change many aspects of the practice of law. Besides affording unlimited opportunity for gathering information on a world-wide scale and communicating quickly across time and geographical boundaries, the Internet provides access to multifaceted tools for performing legal and related research. A law firm should equip its lawyers and staff with suitable computer hardware and software to effectively avail itself of the myriad of online resources. By keeping in step with technological developments, efficiencies may be realized in the practice of law that were heretofore inconceivable. This article includes (1) a review of Outlook …

Neither Dead Nor Forgotten: The Past, Present, And Future Of The Communications Decency Act In Light Of Reno V. Aclu, Sue Ann Mota

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

The Communications Decency Act (CDA) was enacted by Congress in February of 1996 as part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The goal of the CDA was to limit children's exposure to sexually explicit online materials. President Clinton signed the bill into law on February 8, 1996, and the CDA was immediately challenged.  A three-judge federal district court panel in ACLU v. Reno held that certain provisions of the CDA violate the U.S. Constitution. On June 26, 1997, the Supreme Court handed down its decision, affirming that certain provisions of the CDA violate the First Amendment. The provisions held to …

Table Of Contents

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

No abstract provided.

The International Enforcement Of Software Copyrights And Patents, Siehnai F. Williamson

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Upon graduating with a computer science degree, Shannon Smith and her classmates started their own educational computer software firm called ABC Software (ABC). ABC observed that the computer software industry had grown exponentially since the 1980s due in part to industry-wide standards (like the Windows® platform) and the declining costs in computer hardware that have increased demand for computer products. Because ABC believes the software industry is knowledge-based, ABC need incur little research and developmental costs. ABC's ability to protect its software will be the determining factor in deciding where to distribute its products. Since the very nature of computer …

Legal Protection Of Collections Of Facts, Charles Brill

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Database compilers traditionally have used copyright and trade secret laws to protect their databases from appropriation by competitors. A 1991 Supreme Court decision, however, casts some doubt on the copyright protection extended to databases in the United States. In response to the Supreme database industry has launched a worldwide effort to encourage legislation to provide strong protection of databases, especially electronic databases.These efforts have borne fruit in Europe where Great Britain has passed laws protecting databases from unfair extraction and the European Union has mandated a sui generisprotection which, in conjunction with existing copyright laws, will provide very strong protection …

Copyrighting Cyberspace: Unweaving A Tangled Web, Robert N. Diotalevi

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

The Internet, which began as a research project, is now the largest computer system in the world. Commonly known as the net or cyberspace, this superhighway offers a variety of useful information through its ocean of URL's, browsers and hyperlinks. Although to some people this new generation of technology may seem intimidating or even far-fetched, the reality is that its opportunities are vital to nearly every facet of modem life. With advancing technology comes new legal battles. The age of information has exposed and tested many limitations of copyright law. This work attempts to explain present copyright law as it …

Table Of Contents

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

No abstract provided.

Gambling On The Internet, Aaron Craig

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

This article analyzes current proposals to regulate gambling on the Internet and suggests that their flaws stem primarily from a failure to appreciate the complexity of the vice/economic gain dichotomy that has been incorporated in American gambling regulatory policy. Americans have historically prohibited some forms of gambling while tolerating others. An Internet gambling regulatory system should view the Internet as a medium across which current gambling policies should be extended. Regimes that legalize all forms of gambling on the Internet are politically untenable and unwise. Proposals to outlaw all forms of gambling fail to recognize the Government's interest in permitting …

Current Advertising Regulations And The Internet, Lori A. Lustberg

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Since its inception, the Internet has brought society an array of opportunities. With those opportunities challenges arise. The Internet advertising arena is no different. The opportunities for companies to use the Internet to reach their target audiences are extraordinary. Because no regulations apply specifically to the Internet and since no agency has the specific task of regulating it, however, questions are plentiful regarding how and to what extent advertising is acceptable over the Internet. Both consumers and advertisers can clearly benefit from the use of advertising on the Internet. Consumers can readily and easily access information and products in which …

Contracting In Cyberspace, Jeff C. Dodd, James A. Hernandez

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Cyberspace law has started to take some shape as lawyers and merchants increasingly look to the same models and structures for guidance. Proposed statutes dealing directly with cyberspace contracting issues are working their way through the process of uniform and legislative law making. A few of these statutory laws have already made it through the gauntlet.4 Although this unsystematic growth through practice has led to a motley collection of legal standards governing cyberspace contracting, most of the issues that these standards purport to deal with relate to only five root problems:

(a)   Authority. When is the contract "my" contract? What …

Extension Of Copyright To Fonts-Can The Alphabet Be Far Behind?, Jonathan L. Mezrich

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

In February 1998, a federal district court issued a decision that may have a profound impact on the software industry. The court held, in Adobe Systems, Inc. v. Southern Software, Inc., that copyright law protects "software programs" that create fonts that are distinct typefaces. This ruling is ill-conceived. While people should be rewarded and protected for their creativity, copyright law should not be extended to cover the "artwork" inherent in font "glyphs," which, in their most basic form, comprise the alphabet itself.

The software industry has experienced dramatic growth in the past decade. While a small number of dominant …

Telephone Companies Go To Battle Over The Internet, Peter C. Salaverry

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Entering the twenty-first century, Americans, like most people around the world, regard the Internet as a free and unregulated means of communication. Naive to its origins, many individuals surf the Internet unaware of the debates concerning its regulation.

In March 1996, America's Carriers Telecommunication Association (ACTA), a trade association of roughly 130 long-distance carriers, petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to confirm "its authority over interstate and international telecommunications services using the Internet." More specifically, the ACTA petition requested that the FCC enjoin software distributors of long-distance telephone software and other providers of non-tariffed and uncertified entities, compelling them to …

Copyright And The Jurisprudence Of Self-Help, Julie E. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The proposed draft of Article 2B grants broad rights to enforce electronically contract provisions governing access to and use of digital works. Purveyors of digital works may engage in electronic self-help following breach of contract, and may also elect to foreclose unauthorized uses ex ante, via electronic “regulation of performance.” This Article examines these provisions in light of existing law authorizing self-help repossession of tangible chattels, leading academic justifications for self-help repossession, and federal copyright law and policy. It concludes that the provisions authorize an unprecedented degree of intrusion into private homes and offices, that they lack a sound theoretical …

Harnessing The Human Genome Through Legislative Restraint, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

The awesome predictive power of genetic medicine promises great advancements in not only the treatment of identifiable conditions but the prevention of their pathological manifestations. At the same time, the release and dissemination of this genetic or medical information poses a distinct risk of loss of privacy and stigmatization to carriers of genetic disorders. In order to safeguard the individual right of autonomy, privacy, confidentiality and informed consent-yet accommodate the legitimate interests of employers and insurers to obtain medical information relevant to their professional needs and economic responsibilities a balance must be struck legislatively at the federal and state levels …

The Frankenstein Controversy: The Constitutionality Of A Federal Ban On Cloning, Anne Lawton

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Can Patents Deter Innovation? The Anticommons In Biomedical Research, Michael Heller, Rebecca S. Eisenberg

Faculty Scholarship

The "tragedy of the commons" metaphor helps explain why people overuse shared resources. However, the recent proliferation of intellectual property rights in biomedical research suggests a different tragedy, an "anticommons" in which people underuse scarce resources because too many owners can block each other. Privatization of biomedical research must be more carefully deployed to sustain both upstream research and downstream product development. Otherwise, more intellectual property rights may lead paradoxically to fewer useful products for improving human health.