Internet Law Commons^™

Canada's Digital Economy Strategy: Toward An Openness Framework, Michael Geist

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This essay is an expanded version of my submission to the digital economy consultation. It opens with general issues such as digital policy leadership, cost issues, and emphasizes the need for a principle-based strategy that embraces the benefits associated with “open,” whether open access, open spectrum or open data. It then provides specific recommendations on a wide range of issues including tele- communications policy, privacy, and copyright.

Privacy Expectations And Protections For Teachers In The Internet Age, Emily H. Fulmer

Duke Law & Technology Review

Public school teachers have little opportunity for redress if they are dismissed for their activities on social networking websites. With the exception of inappropriate communication with students, a school district should not be able to consider a public educator’s use of a social networking website for disciplinary or employment decisions. Insisting that the law conform to twenty-first century social norms, this iBrief argues that the law should protect teachers’ speech on popular social networking websites like Facebook and MySpace.

Disincentives To Data Breach: Problems With Notification And Future Legislative Possibilities, Ross Schulman

Legislation and Policy Brief

In the modern digitized and networked world, personal identifying information has quickly become a commodity that can be traded, sold, or given away like any other. The uses and potential abuses of personal identifying information, however, distinguish this commodity from any other. Personal identifying information can be copied infinitely, is often not protected nearly as well as physical commodities, and, most importantly, can have particular importance to the person identified by that information. The producer of a bushel of apples presumably cares very little about where his apples end up, as long as he is paid for them to begin …

Electronic Communications Privacy Act And The Revolution In Cloud Computing : Hearing Before The Subcomm. On The Constitution, Civil Rights, And Civil Liberties Of The H. Comm. On The Judiciary, 111th Cong., Sept. 23, 2010 (Statement By Adjunct Professor Marc J. Zwillinger, Geo. U. L. Center), Marc J. Zwillinger

Testimony Before Congress

ECPA has functioned fairly well during its first 20 years in striking the right balance between law enforcement needs and the privacy expectation of U.S. citizens. But when it was initially passed in 1986, Congress recognized that the “law must advance with the technology to ensure the continued vitality of the fourth amendment.” Based on my experience as an ECPA practitioner for the past 13 years, I believe the time is ripe for another advancement. I hope you will consider these perspectives in crafting legislation that balances law enforcement needs and user privacy in a manner that reflects the reality …

Who Owns The Virtual Items?, Leah Shen

Duke Law & Technology Review

Do you WoW? Because millions of people around the world do! Due to this increased traffic, virtual wealth amassed in MMORPGs are intersecting in our real world in unexpected ways. Virtual goods have real-life values and are traded in real-life markets. However, the market for trading in virtual items is highly inefficient because society has not created property rights for virtual items. This lack of regulation has a detrimental effect not just the market for virtual items, but actually the market for MMORPGs. Assuming we want to promote the production of MMORPGs as a market, society requires a set of …

The Anonymous Poster: How To Protect Internet Users’ Privacy And Prevent Abuse, Scott Ness

Duke Law & Technology Review

The threat of anonymous Internet posting to individual privacy has been met with congressional and judicial indecisiveness. Part of the problem stems from the inherent conflict between punishing those who disrespect one's privacy by placing a burden on the individual websites and continuing to support the Internet's development. Additionally, assigning traditional tort liability is problematic as the defendant enjoys an expectation of privacy as well, creating difficulty in securing the necessary information to proceed with legal action. One solution to resolving invasion of privacy disputes involves a uniform identification verification program that ensures user confidentiality while promoting accountability for malicious …

Online Privacy, Social Networking, And Crime Victimization : Hearing Before The H. Subcomm. On Crime, Terrorism, And Homeland Security Of The H. Comm. On The Judiciary, 111th Cong., July 28, 2010 (Statement By Adjunct Professor Marc Rotenberg, Geo. U. L. Center), Marc Rotenberg

Testimony Before Congress

Mr. Chairman, Facebook is a tremendous service, with the scope of email, the telephone, and even the Internet itself. It is also the source of many of the privacy concerns of users today. The critical problem is not what users post; it is that the Facebook changes the privacy settings too frequently and Facebook makes it too difficult for users to selectively post information. Self‐regulation has not worked because the FTC has been reluctant to pursue investigations. So, EPIC recommends changes to ECPA in Title 18 that would give users greater control of their information and reduce risk when they …

Planning For The Future Of Cyber Attack Attribution : Hearing Before The H. Subcomm. On Technology And Innovation Of The H. Comm. On Science And Technology, 111th Cong., July 15, 2010 (Statement By Adjunct Professor Marc Rotenberg, Geo. U. L. Center), Marc Rotenberg

Testimony Before Congress

Steve Bellovin, another security expert, noted recently that one of risks of the new White House plan for cyber security is that it places too much emphasis on attribution. As Dr. Bellovin explains:

The fundamental premise of the proposed strategy is that our serious Internet security problems are due to lack of sufficient authentication. That is demonstrably false. The biggest problem was and is buggy code. All the authentication in the world won't stop a bad guy who goes around the authentication system, either by finding bugs exploitable before authentication is performed, finding bugs in the authentication system itself, or …

Love Thy Neighbor: The Tampere Convention As Global Legislation, Allison Rahrig

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

The Internet, 24-hour news sources, and a host of other telecommunications advances have allowed global citizens to become instantaneously informed. With the privilege of real-time updates and acute awareness of the world's events comes the responsibility of being more than a passive observer. Specifically, this Note focuses on the technological improvements in communication during natural disasters-improvements that can be used to assist and aid the victims of catastrophes. In the aftermath of a natural disaster, the country affected is rarely able to provide for its citizens; tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes can (and often do) cripple an entire nation. This …

Trusting The Machines: New York State Bar Ethics Opinion Allows Attorneys To Use Gmail, Kevin Raudebaugh

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

Information technology is evolving at an unprecedented rate; new forms of communication appear so often that it is difficult to keep track of them all. This presents a difficult problem for attorneys, who must carefully consider whether using new technology to communicate with clients is consistent with the duty of confidentiality. Google’s Gmail scans the content of e-mails to generate targeted advertising, a controversial practice that raises questions about whether its users have a reasonable expectation of privacy. The New York Bar responded to this issue in Opinion 820, which states that using an e-mail provider that scans the e-mail …

Report Of The Law Reform Committee On Online Gaming And Singapore, Joyce A. Tan, Aqbal Singh, Yee Fen Lim, Wai Yee Wan, Warren B. Chik,

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The terms “gaming” and “gambling” are fairly wide and they refer to a wide range of activities. Traditionally, the term “gambling” has been used to cover lotteries, wagers and casino-style games. “Gaming” has also been used traditionally in some literature to cover not only activities involving gambling but also games of skill or games predominantly of skill. However, in recent times, certain jurisdictions such as the United States (“US”) and Australia have drawn a distinction between “online gaming” and “online gambling”. The former is used to refer to games played in an online environment which do not have the elements …

Data Protection: The Challenges Facing Social Networking, Daniel B. Garrie, Maureen Duffy-Lewis, Rebecca Wong, Richard L. Gillespie

Brigham Young University International Law & Management Review

No abstract provided.

Legal And Ethical Implications Of Corporate Social Networks, Gundars Kaupins, Susan Park

Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Corporate social networking sites provide employees and employers with considerable opportunity to share information and become friends. Unfortunately, American laws do not directly address social networking site usage. The National Labor Relations Act, civil rights laws, and various common law doctrines such as employment at-will and defamation provide the pattern for future social networking laws. Ethical considerations such as productivity, security, goodwill, privacy, accuracy, and discipline fairness also affect future laws. Corporate policies on corporate social networking should balance the employer‘s and employee‘s interests. Existing laws and ethical issues associated with social networking should impact social networking policies related to …

Canada's Current Position With Respect To Sound Marks Registration: A Need For Change?, Marie-Jeanne Provost

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This paper analyses and criticizes Canada’s position on sound marks registration in order to recommend the ways in which Canadian policy-makers could further act in order to advance this area of law. The first part of this paper exposes the fundamental concepts of trade-marks as they are necessary to the comprehension of the problems surrounding the registration of sound marks. In the second part, legal considerations associated with the registration of sound marks are discussed. More specifically, the visual requirement, the issue of “use,” the concept of distinctiveness and the question of overlap with copyright are assessed. In the third …

Derailed By The D.C. Circuit: Getting Network Management Regulation Back On Track, Edward B. Mulligan V

Federal Communications Law Journal

As the Internet continues to play a more central role in the daily lives of Americans, concerns about how Internet service providers manage their networks have arisen. Responding to these concerns and recognizing the importance of maintaining the open and competitive nature of the Internet, the FCC has taken incremental steps to regulate network management practices. Perhaps the most significant of these steps was its August 2008 Memorandum Decision and Order in which the FCC condemned Comcast Corporation's network management practices as "discriminatory and arbitrary." In that Order, the FCC required that Comcast (1) adopt new practices that complied with …

Thwack!! Take That, User-Generated Content!: Marvel Enterprises V. Ncsoft, Carl Michael Szabo

Federal Communications Law Journal

Comic-book heroes show us how to be valiant, how to fight for those less fortunate, and, in some circumstances, how to combat those who break the law. Such is the situation in the case of Marvel Enterprises, Inc. v. NCSofl Corp., a battle between user-generated content and the copyright violations that resulted.

While the issue of copyright liability has been seen in hundreds of comments and notes from courts and attorneys alike, the issue of copyright liability on the internet remains an open question that if not addressed, could endanger the protection afforded to authors. Federal and state suits have …

The Sound Of Money: Securing Copyright, Royalties, And Creative "Progress" In The Digital Music Revolution, Armen Boyajian

Federal Communications Law Journal

Academics and popular critics alike want to distill, reform, or altogether destroy U.S. copyright law as we know it. Much of this stems from animosity toward the old-guard record industry's alleged practices of overcharging consumers, underpaying royalties to artists, and suing teenagers and grandmas. But what those calling for reform all seem to neglect is a tiny but inevitable fact: for the first time in history, composers and recording artists can keep their copyrights.

Tangible media sales are being replaced by P2P file sharing, retail downloads, and streaming Webcasts. Digital technologies and wireless networks have opened prime channels for music …

Canadian Personal Data Protection Legislation And Electronic Health Records: Transfers Of Personal Health Information In It Outsourcing Agreements, Dara Lambie

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Personal data protection and privacy of personal health information in the electronic era is a broad topic that includes consent, security measures and access considerations. The focus of this article is on one component of the larger picture: data transfers of personal health information that occur in the context of informa- tion technology (“IT”) outsourcing. If the societal good envisioned by an inter-jurisdictional EHR is to be fully realized, then the necessity of outsourcing is a reality that must be addressed.

Inadequate: The Apec Privacy Framework & Article 25 Of The European Data Protection Directive, Stuart Hargreaves

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

The EU and APEC approaches represent two different ways of thinking about the purpose of privacy rights in personal information (a.k.a. “informational privacy” or “data privacy”). The European approach sees integrity and control over information about oneself as inherent to human dignity; informational privacy is treated as a fundamental right subject only to limited restrictions. In contrast, the approach evinced by APEC is a market-oriented cost/benefit calculus; control over personal information is seen as a beneficial policy goal when it can increase consumer confi- dence and promote economic growth — the implication being that it can also more easily give …

Book Review - Intellectual Property Rights And The Life Science Industries: Past, Present, And Future, Chidi Oguamanam

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Our so-called post-industrial society is one whose axial feature is the interac- tion between computer-driven digital and life science-driven bio-technologies. The primary legal mechanism that undergirds the allocation of rights in this new infor- mation-centred epoch is intellectual property. Perhaps only a few industrial sectors have benefitted more from the dynamics of that interaction than the pharmaceutical industry. Perhaps also, only a few industrial sectors have fully appreciated and opti- mally exploited the power of intellectual property than that sector. How did that happen? How has it continued to unfold, and what does the future hold for the continued co-evolution …