Internet Law Commons^™

Territorialization Of The Internet Domain Name System, Marketa Trimble

Scholarly Works

A territorialization of the internet – the linking of the internet to physical geography – is a growing trend. Internet users have become accustomed to the conveniences of localized advertising, have enjoyed location-based services, and have witnessed an increasing use of geolocation and geoblocking tools by service and content providers who – for various reasons – either allow or block access to internet content based on users’ physical locations. This article analyzes whether, and if so how, the territorialization trend has affected the internet Domain Name System (“DNS”). As a hallmark of cyberspace governance that aimed to be detached from …

Regulation By Database, Nathan Cortez

University of Colorado Law Review

The federal government currently publishes 196,284 searchable databases online, a number of which include information about private parties that is negative or unflattering in some way. Federal agencies increasingly publish adverse data not just to inform the public or promote transparency, but to pursue regulatory ends-to change the underlying behavior being reported. Such "regulation by database" has become a preferred method of regulation in recent years, despite scant attention from policymakers, courts, or scholars on its appropriate uses and safeguards.

This Article evaluates the aspirations and burdens of regulation by database. Based on case studies of six important data sets …

Table Of Contents

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Mobile Instant Messaging Evidence In Criminal Trials, Youngjin Choi

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

Mobile instant messaging, such as text messages, are a pervasive aspect of everyday life. The characteristics of the modern mobile instant messaging application, especially in comparison with other forms of more traditional electronic communication platforms, such as e-mail, text messaging, or computer-based instant messaging program, present a variety of evidentiary issues in trial.

To be relevant, mobile instant messaging evidence must be connected to a genuine issue at trial and not too attenuated from it. Authentication is also very important in determining whether it may be considered a non-hearsay statement. Although often otherwise admissible, mobile instant messaging evidence may still …

Enforcing Constitutional Rights Through Computer Code, Steve Young

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

Lawmaking and enforcement has advanced since Hammurabi first wrote out his legal code thousands of years ago. Today, the American legal system relies on legislatively-enacted federal, state, county, and municipal legal codes, agency-created regulations, the judge-made common law, and various law enforcement entities. This can be a confusing and complex system of rules and their explanations with varying degrees of enforcement. Blockchain technology is an automatic and efficient alternative to written codes that must be humanly-enforced. There has been limited scholarly interest in the implications of a legal application of blockchain technology to a political system but there have been …

Say What You Want: How Unfettered Freedom Of Speech On The Internet Creates No Recourse For Those Victimized, Wes Gerrie

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

In today’s society, virtually everyone relies on online posts in order to make decisions—from what products to purchase to what restaurants to visit. The introduction and increase of online communication has made posting reviews online a simpler, easier, and more efficient process. However, the increase of online communication has threatened the delicate balance between free speech and harmful speech.

A tangled web of recent case law and federal law exists which aggressively protects the free speech of online reviewers. The law has carved out immunity for the website operators that host an online reviewer’s comments, which in turn makes an …

Masthead

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Deepfake Videos: When Seeing Isn't Believing, Holly Kathleen Hall

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

Videos, known as deepfakes, use readily available software to create a work that shows people saying and doing things they may never have uttered or engaged in. The technology making the videos appear very authentic is advancing at such a rate that people may not be able to detect if the videos are fact or fiction. Given the hasty acceptance of other forms of fake news in society, deepfake videos have the ability to affect the nature of information the public receives about candidates and policies. This study examines the potential use of deepfake videos in the democratic process, analyzes …

Prediction, Persuasion, And The Jurisprudence Of Behaviorism, Frank Pasquale, Glyn Cashwell

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Online Businesses Beware: Ada Lawsuits Demand Website Accessibility For Blind Plaintiffs, Ricardo Alvarado

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

When Lies Go Viral: The First Amendment Implications Of Regulating The Spread Of Fake News, Madeleine Rosuck

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cybersecurity And Tax Reform, Michael Hatfield

Indiana Law Journal

INTRODUCTION

I. THE PAST AND FUTURE OF THE IRS AS A CYBERATTACK TARGET

A. IRS AS A CYBERATTACK TARGET

B. THE FUTURE OF THE IRS AS A CYBERATTACK TARGET1. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

2. TAX INFORMATION

3. TYPES OF FUTURE ATTACKS

II. THE IRSWILL FAIL TO IMPLEMENT ADEQUATE CYBERSECURITY

A. VERY POOR HISTORY OF IMPROVING TECHNOLOGY

B. INADEQUATE FUNDING

C. INABILITY TO RECRUIT AND RETAIN EXPERTS

D. TOOMANY USERS

E. CYBERSECURITY IS DIFFICULT

III. BETTER DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY IS NOT THE GOAL

A. SLOWING THE USE OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

B. CYBERSECURITY AND TAX REFORM

1. PAY-AS-YOU-EARN (PAYE)

2. SIMPLIFIED INCOME TAX

3. PURIFIED …

#I🔫U: Considering The Context Of Online Threats, Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky, Linda Riedemann Norbutt

UF Law Faculty Publications

The United States Supreme Court has failed to grapple with the unique interpretive difficulties presented by social media threats cases. Social media make hateful and threatening speech more common but also magnify the potential for a speaker's innocent words to be misunderstood People speak differently on different social media platforms, and architectural features of platforms, such as character limits, affect the meaning of speech. The same is true of other contextual clues unique to social media, such as gifs, hashtags, and emojis. Only by understanding social media contexts can legal decision-makers avoid overcriminalization of speech protected by the First Amendment. …

Typhoid Mario: Video Game Piracy As Viral Vector And National Security Threat, Andrew V. Moshirnia

Indiana Law Journal

Current academic and policy discussions regarding video game piracy focus on the economic losses inherent to copyright infringement. Unfortunately, this approach neglects the most significant implication of video game piracy: malware distribution. Copyright-motivated efforts to shut down file-sharing sites do little to reduce piracy and actually increase viral malware infection. Pirated video games are an ideal delivery device for malware, as users routinely launch unverified programs and forego virus detection. The illicit nature of the transaction forces users to rely almost entirely on the reputation of websites, uploaders, and other users to determine if a file is safe to download. …

Too-Big-To-Fail 2.0? Digital Service Providers, Nizan Geslevich Packin

Indiana Law Journal

The Article explains why addressing Too-Big-To-Fail 2.0 has not yet become a political and societal priority. First, digital service providers are technology companies, which, many believe, are shaped by market forces such that they fail and succeed in equal measure without producing negative ripple effects on the economy or society. Second, technology giants are not as carefully regulated as banks becauseunlike banks, they do not take insured deposits backed by the government. Third, even heavily regulated financial institutions have not been required until recently to focus on cybersecurity. Finally, some believe that there is no point in worrying about Too-Big-To-Fail …

Extremist Speech, Compelled Conformity, And Censorship Creep, Danielle K. Citron

Faculty Scholarship

Silicon Valley has long been viewed as a full-throated champion of First Amendment values. The dominant online platforms, however, have recently adopted speech policies and processes that depart from the U.S. model. In an agreement with the European Commission, tech companies have pledged to respond to reports of hate speech within twenty-four hours, a hasty process that may trade valuable expression for speedy results. Plans have been announced for an industry database that will allow the same companies to share hashed images of banned extremist content for review and removal elsewhere.

These changes are less the result of voluntary market …

Four Principles For Digital Expression (You Won't Believe #3!), Danielle K. Citron, Neil Richards

Faculty Scholarship

At the dawn of the Internet’s emergence, the Supreme Court rhapsodized about its potential as a tool for free expression and political liberation. In ACLU v. Reno (1997), the Supreme Court adopted a bold vision of Internet expression to strike down a federal law - the Communications Decency Act - that restricted digital expression to forms that were merely “decent.” Far more than the printing press, the Court explained, the mid-90s Internet enabled anyone to become a town crier. Communication no longer required the permission of powerful entities. With a network connection, the powerless had as much luck reaching a …

The International Implications Of Wayfair, Reuven Avi-Yonah

Articles

In this article, Avi-Yonah argues that the Court’s recent decision in Wayfair has implications for the EU’s struggle with taxing the digital economy, as well as for the broader international effort to update international tax rules for the 21st century — that is, it bolsters the argument for dispensing with the 19th-century permanent establishment concept.

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 …

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.