Computer Law Commons^™

Bridges Ii: The Law--Stem Alliance & Next Generation Innovation, Harry Surden

Publications

Technological change recently has altered business models in the legal field, and these changes will continue to affect the practice of law itself. How can we, as educators, prepare law students to meet the challenges of new technology throughout their careers?

Is Tricking A Robot Hacking?, Ryan Calo, Ivan Evtimov, Earlence Fernandes, Tadayoshi Kohno, David O'Hair

Tech Policy Lab

The authors of this essay represent an interdisciplinary team of experts in machine learning, computer security, and law. Our aim is to introduce the law and policy community within and beyond academia to the ways adversarial machine learning (ML) alter the nature of hacking and with it the cybersecurity landscape. Using the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986—the paradigmatic federal anti-hacking law—as a case study, we mean to evidence the burgeoning disconnect between law and technical practice. And we hope to explain what is at stake should we fail to address the uncertainty that flows from the prospect that …

United States V. Lambis: A Good Call For Cellphones, Cell-Site Simulators, And The Fourth Amendment, Kathryn E. Gardner

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

United States V. Ammons, Rebecca Ruffer

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Differential Privacy: A Primer For A Non-Technical Audience, Alexandra Wood, Micah Altman, Aaron Bembenek, Mark Bun, Marco Gaboardi, James Honaker, Kobbi Nissim, David R. O'Brien, Thomas Steinke, Salil Vadhan

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Differential privacy is a formal mathematical framework for quantifying and managing privacy risks. It provides provable privacy protection against a wide range of potential attacks, including those currently unforeseen. Differential privacy is primarily studied in the context of the collection, analysis, and release of aggregate statistics. These range from simple statistical estimations, such as averages, to machine learning. Tools for differentially private analysis are now in early stages of implementation and use across a variety of academic,industry, and government settings. Interest in the concept is growing among potential users of the tools, as well as within legal and policy communities, …

The Gdpr’S Version Of Algorithmic Accountability, Margot Kaminski

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Missing Hyperlink — An Empirical Study: Can Canadian Laws Effectively Protect Consumers Purchasing Online?, Mariella Montplaisir

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Canadian consumer protection legislation applicable to online transactions generally works by a two-pronged method: first, private international law rules ensure that in most cases, consumers can sue in their home province under that province’s law; and, second, a wide range of substantive obligations are imposed on merchants, and failure to comply with these obligations provides consumers with a right of cancellation. This study considers the private international law rules applicable to online consumer contracts, and discusses the unique jurisdictional challenges presented by online transactions. This study also provides an overview of Canadian legislation applicable to online consumer transactions, and examines …

Social Media Threats: Examining The Canadian Criminal Law Response, Benjamin Perrin

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This article begins by discussing the legislative history, essential elements, and purpose of the threats offence in s. 264.1(1) of the Criminal Code. It then analyzes major reported Canadian judicial decisions dealing with social media threats, based on the five themes identified above. Finally, this article concludes by highlighting the implications and limitations of this study, as well as areas for future research.

Back To The Future: Reviving The Use Of Video Link Evidence In Canadian Criminal Courts, Helena Gluzman

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Section 714.1 of the Criminal Code of Canada allows for witnesses and victims to testify remotely via video link, within Canada. The legal test embedded within this provision — “appropriate in all the circumstances” — has led to inconsistent application across the country. Some jurists have embraced the flexibility provided by the video link process. Others have expressed reluctance, articulating the position that in-court testimony is to be preferred and permitting the use of video link evidence only in exceptional circumstances. R. v. S.D.L. is the first treatment of s. 714.1 by an appellate court. The Nova Scotia Court of …

Prolegomenon On Pornography, Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

Debates about pornography have always included arguments about its “effects.” Now we can gauge the effects of specifically computerized pornography. These novel effects include scientific research showing that digitalized pornography affects the brain and nervous system in harmful ways that no centerfold ever could. Accessing pornography online makes interactive and directive engagement with it possible, so that the consumer is no longer limited to staring at a two-dimensional representation of a stranger in the nude. The action now is more adventurous. The consumer’s involvement is more intimate and directive. What he does lies somewhere between looking at a centerfold and …

Borders And Bits, Jennifer Daskal

Vanderbilt Law Review

Our personal data is everywhere and anywhere, moving across national borders in ways that defy normal expectations of how things and people travel from Point A to Point B. Yet, whereas data transits the globe without any intrinsic ties to territory, the governments that seek to access or regulate this data operate with territorial-based limits. This Article tackles the inherent tension between how governments and data operate, the jurisdictional conflicts that have emerged, and the power that has been delegated to the multinational corporations that manage our data across borders as a result. It does so through the lens of …

Promoting International Cybersecurity Cooperation: Lessons From The Proliferation Security Initiative, Duncan B. Hollis, Matthew C. Waxman

Faculty Scholarship

Global efforts by states to cooperate through international rules in combating cyber threats have generated mixed results, at best. In this paper, we examine the architecture of the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) as a possible model for future cybersecurity cooperation among interested states. We identify several features of PSI’s architecture (rather than its substantive focus on non-proliferation) for further analysis, including PSI’s low entry costs, tiered structure, and flexibility, as well as its leveraging of both territorial jurisdiction and state consent. We conclude that, despite several hurdles visible in the scope of its membership and its legal framework, PSI still …

A Free Ride: Data Brokers'rent-Seeking Behavior And The Future Of Data Inequality, Krishnamurty Muralidhar, Laura Palk

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Historically, researchers obtained data from independent studies and government data. However, as public outcry for privacy regarding the government's maintenance of data has increased, the discretionary release of government data has decreased or become so anonymized that its relevance is limited. Research necessarily requires access to complete and accurate data. As such, researchers are turning to data brokers for the same, and often more, data than they can obtain from the government. Data brokers base their products and services on data gathered from a variety of free public sources and via the government-created Internet. Data brokers then recategorize the existing …

Virtual Reality Exceptionalism, Gilad Yadin

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Virtual reality is here. In just a few years, the technology moved from science fiction to the Internet, from specialized research facilities to living rooms. These new virtual reality environments are connected, collaborative, and social-built to deliver a subjective psychological effect that believably simulates spatial physical reality. Cognitive research shows that this effect is powerful enough that virtual reality users act and interact in ways that mirror real-world social and moral norms and behavior.

Contemporary cyberlaw theory is largely based on the notion that cyberspace is exceptional enough to warrant its own specific rules. This premise, a descendant of early …

Linking The Public Benefit To The Corporation: Blockchain As A Solution For Certification In An Age Of "Do-Good" Business, Margaret D. Fowler

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

As part of its now-infamous emissions scandal, Volkswagen spent tens of millions of dollars on advertising geared toward environmentally conscious consumers. The scandal is an example of "greenwashing," which, along with the corresponding term "fairwashing," represents the information asymmetry present in product markets that involve claims of social and environmental responsibility in companies' production practices. As consumers and investors demand responsible production practices from both traditional corporations and entities organized under the newer corporate form known as public benefit corporations (PBCs), it becomes even more important to verify that those entities' supply chains are, in fact, meeting standards for the …

Corporate Cybersecurity: The International Threat To Private Networks And How Regulations Can Mitigate It, Eric J. Hyla

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Cyberattacks are occurring at an accelerating pace. Foreign nations are increasingly utilizing hacking as a tool for economic gain, acts of aggression, or international political expression. At risk are US consumers'personal data, private firms' bottom line, and the economies'integrity. In response, federal and state lawmakers have issued a series of disparate, uncoordinated policies seeking to strengthen cybersecurity practices. However, recent events indicate that these policies are less than ideal. This Note suggests that a unified response to cybersecurity is required and calls for the establishment of a single, central federal agency with authority over all cybersecurity regulations. Such an agency …

Twenty Years Of Web Scraping And The Computer Fraud And Abuse Act, Andrew Sellars

Faculty Scholarship

"Web scraping" is a ubiquitous technique for extracting data from the World Wide Web, done through a computer script that will send tailored queries to websites to retrieve specific pieces of content. The technique has proliferated under the ever-expanding shadow of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), which, among other things, prohibits obtaining information from a computer by accessing the computer without authorization or exceeding one's authorized access.

Unsurprisingly, many litigants have now turned to the CFAA in attempt to police against unwanted web scraping. Yet despite the rise in both web scraping and lawsuits about web scraping, practical …

Is The License Still The Product?, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz

Articles

The Supreme Court rejected the use of patent law to enforce conditional sales contracts in Impression Products v. Lexmark. The case appears to be just another step in the Supreme Court’s ongoing campaign to reset the Federal Circuit’s patent law jurisprudence. However, the decision casts a shadow on cases from all federal circuits that have enforced software licenses for more than 20 years and potentially imperils the business models on which software developers rely to create innovative products and to bring those products to market in a variety of useful ways.

For over two decades, we could say that …

Front Matter

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

Can Cyber Harassment Laws Encourage Online Speech?, Jonathon Penney

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Do laws criminalizing online harassment and cyberbullying "chill" online speech? Critics often argue that they do. However, this article discusses findings from a new empirical legal study that suggests, counter-intuitively, that while such legal interventions likely have some dampening effect, they may also facilitate and encourage more speech, expression, and sharing by those who are most often the targets of online harassment: women. Relevant findings on this point from this first-of-its-kind study are set out and discussed along with their implications.