Communications Law Commons^™

"Modern-Day Pirates: Examining The Legal Difficulties Of Copyright Enforcement", James L. Martherus

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

No abstract provided.

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 …

Gay Panic, Gay Victims, And The Case For Gay Shield Laws, J. Kelly Strader, Molly Selvin, Lindsey Hay

Cardozo Law Review

In a highly publicized "gay panic" case, Brandon McInerney shot and killed Larry King in their middle school classroom. King was a self-identified gay student who sometimes wore jewelry and eye makeup to school and, according to those who knew him, was possibly transgender. Tried as an adult for first-degree murder, McInerney asserted a heat of passion defense based upon King's alleged sexual advances. The jury deadlocked, with a majority accepting McInerney's defense.

Drawing largely upon qualitative empirical research, this Article uses the Larry King murder case as a prism though which to view the doctrinal, theoretical, and policy bases …

International Satellite Piracy: The Unauthorized Interception And Retransmission Of United States Program-Carrying Satellite Signals In The Caribbean, And Legal Protection For United States Program Owners, Judith S. Weinstein

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Code Of Best Practices In Fair Use For The Visual Arts, College Art Association, Patricia Aufderheide, Peter Jaszi

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

The mission of the College Art Association (CAA) is to promote the visual arts and their understanding through advocacy, intellectual engagement, and a commitment to the diversity of practices and practitioners. CAA contributes to the visual arts profession as a whole through scholarly publications, advocacy, exchange of research and new work, and the development of standards and guidelines that reflect the best practices of the field. The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts is based on a consensus of professionals in the visual arts who use copyrighted images, texts, and other materials in their creative …

A Call For Minority Involvement In Cybersecurity Legislation Reform And Civil Rights Protests: Lessons From The Anti-Sopa/Pipa Demonstrations., Kiran Sidhu

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

This note examines one of the many pieces of cybersecurity legislation currently before Congress, the Cyber Intelligence Protection and Sharing Act (“CISPA”). This note illustrates CISPA’s deleterious effects on the privacy and security of American citizens as a result of its provisions that provide federal agencies and private companies legal immunity for sharing private information. However, this note ultimately avers that bills like CISPA will have a particularly negative impact on civil rights demonstrators–and especially demonstrators belonging to minority groups–given the U.S. history of surveillance of such groups during periods of social and political unrest. As such, this note will …

The Self, The Stasi, The Nsa: Privacy, Knowledge, And Complicity In The Surveillance State, Richard Warner, Robert H. Sloan

All Faculty Scholarship

We focus on privacy in public. The notion dates back over a century, at least to the work of the German sociologist, Georg Simmel. Simmel observed that people voluntarily limit their knowledge of each other as they interact in a wide variety of social and commercial roles, thereby making certain information private relative to the interaction even if it is otherwise publicly available. Current governmental surveillance in the US (and elsewhere) reduces privacy in public. But to what extent?

The question matters because adequate self-realization requires adequate privacy in public. That in turn depends on informational norms, social norms that …

Debatable Premises In Telecom Policy, 31 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 453 (2015), Justin (Gus) Hurwitz, Roslyn Layton

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

The five premises that this paper considers are:

1. Everyone needs low-cost access to high speed broadband service

2. High-speed broadband is necessary for education, health, government, and other social services

3. Wireless can‟t compete with cable

4. An open Internet is necessary for innovation and necessarily benefits consumers

5. Telecommunications are better somewhere else.

The Internet Is A Packet-Switched Network, Kendall Koning

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Since the Supreme Court's decision in National Cable Telecommunications Association v. Brand X Internet Services, many legal scholars have considered the question of whether the FCC may choose to regulate Internet access as an information service to be settled law. And, for the second time in five years, the D.C. Circuit in Verizon v. FCC struck down the jurisdictional theory relied upon by the FCC in creating its Open Internet rules because the FCC still classified Internet connections as information rather than telecommunications services. In response, and after a vigorous public debate, the FCC recently reversed its classification and grounded …

Evaluating Intent In True Threats Cases: The Importance Of Context In Analyzing Threatening Internet Messages, P. Brooks Fuller

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Following the Supreme Court's most recent ruling on the true threats doctrine in Virginia v. Black, significant conflict emerged among the federal circuit courts. On one hand, several circuit courts disagreed interpreted the holding in Virginia v. Black as a requirement of applying a subjective intent standard into all statutes that criminalize true threats. On the other hand, some circuit courts interpreted the holding as a requirement for prosecutors to prove that a reasonable person would consider the message as a true threat. A speaker's use of social networking websites and Internet forums for the purpose of posting violent and …

White Men Still Dominate Reality Television: Discriminatory Casting And The Need For Regulation, Henna Choi

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

In 2012, two African-American males, who unsuccessfully applied to be the Bachelor, sued ABC under 42 U.S.C. § 1981, alleging that the producers of reality shows The Bachelor and The Bachelorette intentionally excluded people of color from the lead role. The United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee concluded that the First Amendment was a complete bar to the plaintiffs' section 1981 claim with respect to casting decisions for the television programs. Moreover, the court did not allow the plaintiffs to litigate their untimely employment discrimination claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. …

Small Steps For Congress, Huge Steps For Online Privacy, Jugpreet Mann

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

As the creation of data has exponentially increased with Internet usage, U.S. companies have found a variety of ways to collect personal data and create value from such data. This innovation, however, comes at the cost of an individual's right to privacy. The U.S. government's current approach to online privacy has failed to properly regulate the collection and utilization of the immense amounts of personal data being generated. This note explains how companies collect and create value from personal information. This note draws upon the history of privacy, how Congress currently addresses online privacy, and the states' and other nations' …

Right-Sizing Broadband Spectrum Auction Licenses: The Case For Smaller Geographic License Areas In The Tv Broadcast Incentive Auction, William Lehr, J. Armand Musey

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

This article examines the potential impact of smaller-sized license territories in the context of the FCC's upcoming 2016 Broadcast Incentive Auction-the largest, most complex auction to date. The purpose of the auction is to free up to 120 MHz of prime spectrum in the 600 MHz band, currently licensed to over-the-air television broadcasting, to repurpose for licensing mobile broadband and other higher value wireless services. This article argues that using smaller territories is more consistent with the longterm direction of efficient spectrum management reform and future wireless market. The article also explains how adopting small geographic territories is necessary to …

You Can Use Hidden Recorders In Florida, Thomas R. Julin, Jamie Z. Isani, Paulo R. Lima

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

The Florida Supreme Court faces a difficult decision in McDade v. State. The court must decide whether the statements recorded on a hidden recording device can be used to convict a man accused of sexually assaulting his step-daughter. This article traces the controversial history of Florida's Security of Communications Act and shows that it does not in ban the use of secret recordings of face-to-face conversations by any part to the conversations. The Florida courts, however, have misread the law for decades and this article urges the Florida Supreme Court to set the record straight in McDade. This article argues …

Talent Managers Acting As Agentsrevisited: An Argument For California's Imperfect Talent Agencies Act, Myles L. Gutenkunst

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Talent managers in California have traditionally faced severe penalties under the Talent Agencies Act (TAA) for simple acts of procuring employment for their artist-clients. Commentators, interest groups, and justices have pointed out these flaws and proposed alternative remedies to provide managers with some equity when violating the statute. These advocates have argued for an adoption of the incidental booking exception that is present in New York's employment agency statutes. However, this proposal and other proposed alternatives actually undercut the policy that the Talent Agencies Act seeks to protect. This note will compare California's TAA and New York's employment agency laws, …

Digital Music Garage Sale: An Analysis Of Capitol Records, Llc V. Redigi Inc. And A Proposal For Legislative Reform In Copyright Enabling A Secondary Market For Digital Music, Nicholas Costanza

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

In 2011, ReDigi, Inc., a Massachusetts-based tech company, created the first resale marketplace for lawfully purchased digital music. This "digital resale" platform immediately drew the attention of copyright holders in the music industry. In early 2012, Capitol Records, LLC sued ReDigi, claiming that the service violated Capitol's exclusive rights to reproduction and distribution of their copyrighted words under the Copyright Act of 1976. Ultimately, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York held in favor of Capitol. This note explains this case and discusses the complex relationships between "secondary digital market" technology and current copyright law. …

Proxy.Gov: A Proposal To Modernize Shareholder Lists And Simplify Shareholder Communications, Kevin Kearney

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

The SEC is conducting a comprehensive reevaluation of the U.S. corporate proxy system. One issue under the SEC's microscope is public companies' inability to communicate directly with shareholders. When stock trading migrated to the depository system, securities intermediaries undertook the book-entry settlement function. As a result, a public company issuer today cannot identify who holds the right to vote its shares without going through intermediary proxy service providers. Public companies thus communicate with shareholders through a proxy system that is indirect, inefficient, and expensive. Commentators, including issuers, believe that recent developments in the corporate governance landscape require a system that …

Conflict In The Network Of Networks: How Internet Service Providers Have Shifted From Partners To Adversaries, Rob Frieden

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

This paper will examine new models for the carriage of Internet traffic with an eye toward providing insights on how the interconnection process has changed and what positive and negative consequences have resulted. Internet carrier interconnection used to constitute a cooperative undertaking, but now it increasingly requires difficult and protracted negotiations between ventures that consider themselves adversaries in a winner take all transaction. The paper concludes that new commercial arrangements, such as paid peering, can achieve mutually beneficial outcomes. However, the paper also identifies instances where migration from traditional interconnection arrangements has the potential to reduce overall utility of the …

“Fair Compensation” In The Digital Age: Realigning The Audio Home Recording Act, Monica Zhang

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

This note examines how the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 falls short of providing “fair compensation” due to copyright owners in the digital age under the Copyright Act. The note focuses on the narrow language of the statute and the impact on royalties generated, as well as the shifts in global music consumption that reveal a pressing need for expansion. By examining how Canada and Finland have enacted similar statutes with forward-looking royalty structures, this note suggests better alternatives to our current model by expanding the royalty-bearing pool to truly provide “fair compensation” to recording artists and record labels …

No More Shortcuts: Protect Cell Site Location Data With A Warrant Requirement, Lauren E. Babst

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

In modern society, the cell phone has become a virtual extension of most Americans, managing all kinds of personal and business matters. Modern cell tower technology allows cell service providers to accumulate a wealth of individuals’ location information while they use their cell phones, and such data is available for law enforcement to obtain without a warrant. This is problematic under the Fourth Amendment, which protects reasonable expectations of privacy. Under the Katz two-prong test, (1) individuals have an actual, subjective expectation of privacy in their cell site location data, and (2) society is prepared to acknowledge that expectation as …