Computer Law Commons^™

Pandora’S Email Box? An Exploratory Study Of Web-Based Email Forgery Detection And Validation., Richard Boddington, Grant Boxall, Jeremy Ardley

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Web based email systems may be a source of pristine digital evidence because of the perceived difficulty of client tampering with messages stored inside the email account. We demonstrate that such assumption is wrong in the case of Windows Live Hotmail®1 . Windows Live Mail®1 synchronises message on client-side computers with the Hotmail® server, benefiting users wishing to synchronise their email accounts and personal devices. However, this synchronisation opens an exploit for wrongdoers to tamper with existing email messages and attachments as well as facilitating the insertion of fabricated messages. The exploit process enables persistent storage of tampered and fabricated …

Toward Alignment Between Communities Of Practice And Knowledge-Based Decision Support, Jason Nichols, David Biros, Mark Weiser

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The National Repository of Digital Forensics Information (NRDFI) is a knowledge repository for law enforcement digital forensics investigators (LEDFI). Over six years, the NRDFI has undertaken significant design revisions in order to more closely align the architecture of the system with theory addressing motivation to share knowledge and communication within ego-centric groups and communities of practice. These revisions have been met with minimal change in usage patterns by LEDFI community members, calling into question the applicability of relevant theory when the domain for knowledge sharing activities expands beyond the confines of an individual organization to a community of practice. When …

Implementing The Automated Phases Of The Partially-Automated Digital Triage Process Model, Gary Cantrell, David A. Dampier

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Digital triage is a pre-digital-forensic phase that sometimes takes place as a way of gathering quick intelligence. Although effort has been undertaken to model the digital forensics process, little has been done to-date to model digital triage. This work discusses the further development of a model that attempts to address digital triage, the Partially-automated Crime Specific Digital Triage Process model. The model itself will be presented along with a description of how its automated functionality was implemented to facilitate model testing.

Table Of Contents

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Digital Evidence Education In Schools Of Law, Aaron Alva, Barbara Endicott-Popovsky

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

An examination of State of Connecticut v. Julie Amero provides insight into how a general lack of understanding of digital evidence can cause an innocent defendant to be wrongfully convicted. By contrast, the 101-page opinion in Lorraine v. Markel American Insurance Co. provides legal precedence and a detailed consideration for the admission of digital evidence. An analysis of both cases leads the authors to recommend additions to Law School curricula designed to raise the awareness of the legal community to ensure such travesties of justice, as in the Amero case, don’t occur in the future. Work underway at the University …

Electronic Discovery And The Constitution: Inaccessible Justice, Jennifer M. Smith

Journal Publications

Computers are the cynosure of American society. As a result, most information is stored electronically and only a small amount of information ever becomes a paper document. This explosion of electronically stored information has affected every aspect of society, including the court system. Litigation is drastically different than a few years ago due to this onset of electronically stored information. The discovery of electronically stored information in litigation has become known as electronic discovery. For many, electronic discovery is expensive and complicated, and thus, litigants are settling frivolous cases to avoid the costs and complexities of engaging in discovery to …

Cybercrime, Ronald C. Griffin

Journal Publications

This essay recounts campaigns against privacy; the fortifications erected against them; and hi-jinx attributable to hackers, crackers, and miscreants under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Computable Contracts, Harry Surden

Publications

This Article explains how and why firms are representing certain contractual obligations as computer data. The reason is so that computers can read and process the substantive aspects of contractual obligations. The representation of contractual obligations in data instead of (or in addition to) the traditional written language form - what this Article calls "data-oriented contracting" - allows for the application of advanced computer processing abilities to substantive contractual obligations. Certain financial contracts exemplify this model. Equity option contracts are routinely represented not as contract documents written in ordinary language - but as data records intended to be processed by …

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. …

Admissibility Of Non-U.S. Electronic Evidence, Kenneth N. Rashbaum, Matthew F. Knouff, Dominique Murray

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

After two long years collecting hundreds of gigabytes of e-mail, data base reports, and social media posts from countries in Europe, Asia, and South America, such as France, South Korea, Argentina, Canada, Australia, and El Salvador, the day of trial has arrived. The trial team has obtained the data at great cost, in dollars as well as person-hours, but is finally ready for trial. First-chair counsel, second-chair counsel, and four paralegals file into the courtroom, not with bankers boxes full of documents as in earlier times, but with laptops, tablet computers, and a data projector. Following opening statements, the first …

Compelled Production Of Encrypted Data, John E.D. Larkin

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

There is a myth that shadowy and powerful government agencies can crack the encryption software that criminals use to protect computers filled with child pornography and stolen credit card numbers. The reality is that cheap or free encryption programs can place protected data beyond law enforcement's reach. If courts seriously mean to protect the victims of Internet crime--all too often children--then Congress must adopt a legal mechanism to remedy the technological deficiency.

To date, police and prosecutors have relied on subpoenas to either compel defendants to produce their password, or to decipher their protected data. This technique has been met …

Hacking For Lulzi: Employing Expert Hackers To Combat Cyber Terrorism, Swathi Padmanabhan

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Because hacking collectives Anonymous and LulzSec have routinely breached supposedly secure computer networks--including Visa, MasterCard, and the Central Intelligence Agency--the threat of cyber terrorism has become more prominent. Many US industries and companies depend on online communication and information storage. If terrorists compromise these capabilities, they could cripple the US economy and perhaps even cause widespread fatalities. Members of Anonymous and LulzSec lack the necessary intent to be prosecuted as cyber terrorists because they hack not to cause fear, but rather to create laughter. Their method of posting all necessary instructions and information regarding intended targets on online message boards …

Search Neutrality As An Antitrust Principle, Daniel A. Crane

Articles

Given the Internet's designation as "the great equalizer,"' it is unsurprising that nondiscrimination has emerged as a central aspiration of web governance.2 But, of course, bias, discrimination, and neutrality are among the slipperiest of regulatory principles. One person's bias is another person's prioritization. Fresh on the heels of its initial success in advocating a net neutrality principle,' Google is in the uncomfortable position of trying to stave off a corollary principle of search neutrality.' Search neutrality has not yet coalesced into a generally understood principle, but at its heart is some idea that Internet search engines ought not to prefer …

The Evolution Of Consumer Privacy Law: How Privacy By Design Can Benefit From Insights In Commercial Law And Standardization, Muharem Kianieff

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This article considers the effectiveness of the present privacy regimes in North America as it relates to the protection of consumer information that is gathered in the ordinary course of business. It is argued that the present moves towards a Privacy by Design approach shows great potential and can gain valuable insights from established doctrines in commercial and consumer protection law. Moreover, it is proposed that the aims of such an approach can be achieved by deeming personal information and behavioral data to be the property of the individual that it pertains to. It is then suggested that a regulatory …

Regulating The Cloud: A Comparative Analysis Of The Current And Proposed Privacy Frameworks In Canada And The European Union, David Krebs

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Cloud computing is a growing phenomenon and promises greater efficiency and reduced-cost computing. However, some of the basic technological and business-related features of the Cloud are at odds with personal data protection laws. Canada and the European Union share similar core values related to privacy/data protection, and both regions aim to increase their competitiveness regarding cloud computing. Having these two similarities in mind, this paper explores the current legal and stakeholder landscape in Canada and the European Union with respect to cloud computing, data protection and how adoption of the model can be advanced. The analysis shows that neither of …

In Defence Of A Defence - A Demonstrable Legitimate And Non-Infringing Purpose As A Full Defence To Anti-Circumvention Legislation, Andrew Yolles

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

In this essay, I will argue that making a demonstrable lawful and non-infringing purpose a full defence to copyright infringement by circumvention of a TPM addresses many of the concerns raised by the currently proposed legislation, while avoiding the pitfalls of directly linking anti-circumvention laws with actual copyright infringement. As the ratification of the WIPO Internet treaties is the foremost concern for this legislation, I will begin with a discussion as to how this model can successfully implement the treaties’ anti-circumvention provisions where the Bill C-60 model may have failed. I will then explain why this model strikes a better …

Book Review: R.L. Campbell, Legal Issues In Electronic Commerce, Robert J. Currie

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

The juncture of “law and technology” from a legal education point of view is an interesting one. Successfully engaging with law and technology requires stu- dents (of all ages and stripes) to absorb at least some of the substance of many discrete areas of law, as well as to assess how technology creates nexuses between them and challenges some of their underlying notions. As electronic commerce increasingly becomes the bread and butter of many law practices, this need comes into sharper relief — one has to grasp a large variety of fundamentals and simultaneously generate some insight as to where …

Book Review: William F. Patry, How To Fix Copyright, Graham Reynolds

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

In How to Fix Copyright, William F. Patry, one of America’s leading experts on copyright, calls for a “top-to-bottom, systemic overhaul” of copyright laws. For a Canadian readership in the midst of our own process of copyright reform, such a call to action is both timely and relevant.

Technology-Assisted Document Review: Is It Defensible?, William W. Belt, Dennis R. Kiker, Daryl E. Shetterly

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Technology has changed the way we communicate and, in so doing, has changed the discovery phase of litigation. Parties must sift through ever-growing data volumes to find relevant material, significantly increasing time and cost requirements. Technology has also changed the way attorneys meet discovery demands. New technologies like “machine learning” and “predictive coding” give lawyers important new tools to manage the growing volume of electronically stored information (“ESI”).

Respectful And Responsible Relationships: There’S No App For That (The Report Of The Nova Scotia Task Force On Bullying And Cyberbullying), A. Wayne Mackay

Reports & Public Policy Documents

Chairing this Task Force and producing this report has been both the most engaging and exhausting project that I have ever undertaken. Since my appointment in late May 2011, I have lived and breathed in the world of bullying and cyberbullying. I am sure my fellow Task Force members and members of the Working Group did the same. Born in the wake of tragic teen suicides it was easy for the members of the Task Force to be motivated. Indeed, few ventures have stirred my passions as much as this exercise has.

Bullying is a major social issue throughout the …