Internet Law Commons^™

Quantifying The Economic Benefits Of Effective Redress: Large E-Commerce Data Sets And The Cost-Benefit Case For Investing In Dispute Resolution, Colin Rule

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

Demonstrating the economic benefit of investments in fair and effective redress systems has been one of the greatest challenges for dispute resolution. This article uses results from large e-commerce data sets to demonstrate the quantifiable benefit in of investments in effective dispute resolution processes. Specifically, the data is based not on user-reported satisfaction, which can be unreliable, but instead on an analysis of the actual behavior of users before and after a dispute event. The result is hard evidence of the economic benefits from the deployment of effective redress processes, which is relevant to e-commerce service providers, as well as …

Building Bridges To Remedies For Consumers In International Conflicts, Amy J. Schmitz

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

This essay addresses the lack of consumer remedy mechanism, and attempts to open consideration of expanded use of online processes for resolving business-to-consumer (B2C) eConflicts. Specifically, the essay attempts to highlight the problems created by problematic and uncertain enforcement of B2C arbitration, and proposes the use of the Internet to create fair and globally enforceable Online Dispute Resolution and Online Arbitration (OArb) mechanisms. These mechanisms would capitalize on the growth and efficiency of the Internet while protecting consumers from burdensome and/or expensive procedures that render existing remedies meaningless.

The essay begins by discussing the importance of fair and accepted B2C …

Defamation Via Hyperlinks: More Than Meets The Eye, Gary Kok Yew Chan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Hyperlinks make the World Wide Web go round. They find and connect information and content from a wealth of sources on the web including, from time to time, defamatory material. Newton, the owner and operator of a website in British Columbia, posted an article entitled “Free Speech in Canada”. The article itself was not alleged to be defamatory of Crookes, a politician. However, it incorporated hyperlinks to other internet websites that contained defamatory material. Notwithstanding requests from Crookes and his lawyer, Newton refused to remove the hyperlinks. Did Newton’s act of hyperlinking to internet websites constitute “publication” of the defamatory …

Proposal For An International Convention On Online Gambling, Marketa Trimble

Scholarly Works

The proposal, which will be published as a chapter in a volume from the Internet Gaming Regulation Symposium co-organized by the William S. Boyd School of Law of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in May 2012, presents the outline of an international convention ('Convention') that will facilitate cooperation among countries in enforcement of their online gambling regulations while allowing the countries to maintain their individual legal approaches to online gambling. Countries continue to vary in their approaches - some permit and regulate, and others prohibit online gambling, and even countries that permit and regulate online gambling approach the issue …

The Limitations Of Regulatory Oversight On Online Video, Jennifer Simpson

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Discussion in this paper focuses on the factors, attributes, and elements of telecom and broadcast regulation in Canada. Part I of this study briefly outlines the history of online video regulation in Canada to date. In Part II speculation as to how online video might be regulated, based on prior decisions of the CRTC, is presented. Part III considers the challenges of applying the Broadcasting Act to new media entities in order to create a regulatory framework for online video. Part IV looks at judicial decisions related to broadcast law that may be used to define the nature of the …

Harvesting The "Forbidden Fruit" Of Biotechnology Research: Genetic Engineering, International Law And The Patentability Of Higher Life Forms In Canada, Eugene C. Lim

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

As the frontiers of science are constantly redefined by the emergence of new technology, patent law often has to struggle to keep pace with the changing conception of what constitutes a protectable “invention”. A key challenge facing patent law in the age of biotechnology lies in ascertaining the extent to which genetically engineered life forms should be protected. A major concern relates to whether such life forms should be excluded from patentability on grounds of ordre public, ethics and morality.

This article critically explores the extent to which patent law in Canada protects this “forbidden fruit” of biotechnological innovation, and …

A Delicate Balance: Defining The Line Between Open Civil Proceedings And The Protection Of Children In The Online Digital Era, Courtney Retter, Shaheen Shariff

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

He thought of the telescreen with its never-sleeping ear. They could spy upon you night and day, but if you kept your head you could still outwit them. [. . .] They could lay bare in the utmost detail everything that you had done or said or thought; but the inner heart, whose workings were mysterious even to yourself, remained impregnable.

— George Orwell, 1984

On Thursday September 27, 2012, a few months after our paper was written, the Supreme Court of Canada solidified the rights of children victimized by cyberbullying in the landmark decision of AB (Litigation Guardian of) …

Understanding The Internet As A Human Right, Michael Karanicolas

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Around the world, fundamental human rights have undergone a dramatic conceptual shift as a result of the spread of the Internet. The right to freedom of expression, once largely limited to printing, has exploded in a digital world that provides users with an unprecedented megaphone to broadcast their views. The right to political participation and the right to free assembly have similarly been reborn in an age of instant communication, allowing activists to mobilise hundreds of thousands of followers with a single email, text or tweet. Although these are the most notable examples, the Internet has also had a transformative …

The Progress Of Science And The Useful Arts: Misadventures In Canadian Law On Patent-Eligible Subject Matter, Ken Bousfield

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Patent-Eligible Subject-Matter in Canada

The law of patent-eligible subject-matter in Canada has become badly muddled. There has been repeated confusion of subject-matter issues with non-subject matter issues such as novelty, obviousness, and utility. There has also been repeated confusion within the following group of issues pertaining to whether subject-matter is patent-eligible: whether a claim is for a mere idea or aggregation or for a patentable invention; whether claimed subject-matter falls within science and the useful arts; and whether claimed subject-matter falls within the statutory classes listed in the definition of “invention”. Echoes of older UK-based cases, relating to statutory provisions …

Corporate Criticism On The Internet: The Fine Line Between Anonymous Speech And Cybersmear, Scot Wilson

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

International Dispute Settlement At The Trademark-Domain Name Interface, Laurence R. Helfer

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Law And The Open Internet, Adam Candeub, Daniel Mccartney

Federal Communications Law Journal

The FCC has issued a new set of Internet access regulations and policies (namely Preserving the Open Internet Broadband Industry Practices, Report and Order, FCC 10-201, rel. Dec. 23, 2010), which would prohibit broadband service providers like AT&T or Comcast from discriminating against unaffiliated content providers. The FCC's proceedings, and the network neutrality debate, concentrate on two economic questions: (1) whether to broadband service providers can or will steer traffic to affiliated content limiting consumer access, and (2) how to preserve the Internet's capacity for creativity and innovation. Yet despite the prominence of economics in the debate, economic theory cannot …

The Internet At 20: Evolution Of A Constitution For Cyberspace, Henry H. Perritt Jr.

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Wikileaks And The First Amendment, Geoffrey R. Stone

Federal Communications Law Journal

FCBA Distinguished Speaker Series

In November 2010, Julian Assange's WikiLeaks collaborated with major media organizations to release thousands of classified U.S. State Department documents. American soldier Bradley Manning stands accused of leaking those documents to the website. In response, Congress introduced the SHIELD Act to amend the Espionage Act of 1917, making it a crime for any person to disseminate any classified information concerning American intelligence or the identity of a classified informant. Such sweeping language, while possibly constitutional as applied to government employees like Manning, is plainly unconstitutional as applied to those like Assange and WikiLeaks who subsequently publish …

Behavioral Advertising: The Cryptic Hunter And Gatherer Of The Internet, Joanna Penn

Federal Communications Law Journal

In an era where three out of every four Americans have Internet access, the term "surfing" has transformed from riding waves into running the risk of having private information gathered, stored, and disseminated-all without the user's knowledge or permission. This new found online practice, known as "behavioral advertising," is a veritable goldmine for those companies that know the game. But will the FTC or Congress soon make new rules concerning how to play? This Note begins by explaining the differences between behavioral targeting and retargeting and the techniques that the two methods use to collect data. This Note then explores …

An End To End-To-End? A Review Essay Of Barbara Van Schewick’S Internet Architecture And Innovation, Adam Candeub

Federal Communications Law Journal

Amidst much controversy, the FCC released its landmark "network neutrality" order in December 2010. This regulation prohibits Internet service providers, such as Verizon or Comcast, from discriminating in favor of traffic or content that they own or with which they are affiliated. Professor Barbara van Schewick's recently published book, Internet Architecture and Innovation, could not be timelier. Employing a variety of economic and technical arguments, van Schewick defends the type of regulation the FCC passed as necessary to preserve the Internet's potential for innovation. My central critique of Internet Architecture is its deployment of economic theories on one side of …

Bart Cell Phone Service Shutdown: Time For A Virtual Forum?, Rachel Lackert

Federal Communications Law Journal

The balancing act between protecting First Amendment rights and the necessity of law enforcement to maintain the public order is not simple under normal circumstances. On August 11, 2011, San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit ("BART") created a paradigm embodying the very essence of this problem by shutting down cell phone and Internet service to prevent citizens from organizing and planning a protest. Both the constitutional and telecommunications law implications of BART's cell phone and Internet shutdown beg for analysis and reform, especially in an age of rapidly advancing technology. This Note analyzes the legal implications of BART's shutdown, and …

Should Cyber Exploitation Ever Constitute A Demonstration Of Hostile Intent That May Violate Un Charter Provisions Prohibiting The Threat Or Use Of Force?, Anna Wortham

Federal Communications Law Journal

More and more, the United States and other countries rely on complex infrastructures that are primarily controlled by information technology. Although extremely destructive cyber threats and attacks against nations are a reality, the laws governing cyber exploitation have not kept pace with this threat. Because the United States and other nations may use cyber capabilities offensively as well as defensively, it is important that the laws for engaging in such cyber conflict be well defined. Currently, it seems unlikely that cyber exploitation can ever be regarded as a threat or use of force under the UN Charter because it is …

Digitally Unknown: Why The Ninth Circuit Should Wish To Remain Anonymous In In Re Anonymous Online Speakers, Brandon T. Crowther

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Searching For A Trademarks Test: The Ninth Circuit’S Query In Network Automation, R. Gregory Israelsen

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.