Internet Law Commons^™

Looks Matter On Social Media: How Should Courts Determine Whether A Public Official Operates Their Social Media Account Under Color Of State Law?, John B. Tsimis

Fordham Law Review

The widespread use of social media has presented a novel legal landscape for the application of constitutionally protected rights—particularly the First Amendment’s protection of free speech. The First Amendment prohibits the government from excluding citizens from a public forum on the basis of their viewpoints. Public officials acting under color of state law similarly may not use the authority of their offices to deprive citizens of their First Amendment rights.

However, the application of this protection in the context of social media has been inconsistent across federal circuit courts. Although these courts agree that viewpoint discrimination by the government on …

The Exigency And How To Improve And Implement International Humanitarian Legislations More Advantageously In Times Of Both Cyber-Warfare And Cyberspace, Shawn J. Lalman

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This study provides a synopsis of the following topics: the prospective limiters levied on cyber-warfare by present–day international legislation; significant complexities and contentions brought up in the rendering & utilization of International Humanitarian Legislation against cyber-warfare; feasible repercussions of cyber-warfare on humanitarian causes. It is also to be contended and outlined in this research study that non–state actors can be held accountable for breaches of international humanitarian legislation committed using cyber–ordnance if sufficient resources and skill are made available. It details the factors that prosecutors and investigators must take into account when organizing investigations into major breaches of humanitarian legislation …

Optimizing Cybersecurity Risk In Medical Cyber-Physical Devices, Christopher S. Yoo, Bethany C. Lee

William & Mary Law Review

Medical devices are increasingly connected, both to cyber networks and to sensors collecting data from physical stimuli. These cyber-physical systems pose a new host of deadly security risks that traditional notions of cybersecurity struggle to take into account. Previously, we could predict how algorithms would function as they drew on defined inputs. But cyber-physical systems draw on unbounded inputs from the real world. Moreover, with wide networks of cyber-physical medical devices, a single cybersecurity breach could pose lethal dangers to masses of patients.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is tasked with regulating medical devices to ensure safety and …

Who Owns Data? Constitutional Division In Cyberspace, Dongsheng Zang

Articles

Privacy emerged as a concern as soon as the internet became commercial. In early 1995, Lawrence Lessig warned that the internet, though giving us extraordinary potential, was “not designed to protect individuals against this extraordinary potential for others to abuse.” The same technology can “destroy the very essence of what now defines individuality.” Lessig urged that “a constitutional balance will have to be drawn between these increasingly important interests in privacy, and the competing interest in collective security.” Lessig envisioned that creating property rights in data would help individuals by giving them control of their data. As utopian as property …

Now On Display: In-Line Linking In The Age Of The Server Test, Sonia Autret

Fordham Law Review

In 2007, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit adopted a new interpretation of 17 U.S.C. § 106(5), which codifies the display right of the Copyright Act of 1976. In Perfect 10 v. Amazon.com, the Ninth Circuit read § 106(5) to mean that creative works made visible on web pages through in-line linking, an architectural pillar of modern web design, would not infringe on a copyright owner’s display right if the work was not actually copied onto the website’s server. Since its adoption, this approach—known as the Server Test—has been lauded by search engine providers and web …

Telegraph, Telephone And The Internet: The Making Of The Symbiotic Model Of Surveillance States, Dongsheng Zang

Articles

In the early 2000s, shortly before the September 11 attacks, Daniel J. Solove noted that computer databases in the United States were controlled by public as well as private bureaucracies. In that sense, Solove argued, the "Big Brother" metaphor "fails to capture the most important dimension of the database problem." In his 2008 Lockhart lecture, constitutional law scholar Jack M. Balkin argued that the United States has gradually transformed from a welfare and national security state to a National Surveillance State: "a new form of governance that features the collection, collation, and analysis of information about populations both in the …

Understanding Dark Patterns In Home Iot Devices, Monica Kowalczyk, Johanna Gunawan, David Choffnes, Daniel J. Dubois, Woodrow Hartzog, Christo Wilson

Faculty Scholarship

Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices are ubiquitous, but little attention has been paid to how they may incorporate dark patterns despite consumer protections and privacy concerns arising from their unique access to intimate spaces and always-on capabilities. This paper conducts a systematic investigation of dark patterns in 57 popular, diverse smart home devices. We update manual interaction and annotation methods for the IoT context, then analyze dark pattern frequency across device types, manufacturers, and interaction modalities. We find that dark patterns are pervasive in IoT experiences, but manifest in diverse ways across device traits. Speakers, doorbells, and camera devices contain the most …

The Evidentiary Implications Of Interpreting Black-Box Algorithms, Varun Bhatnagar

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

Biased black-box algorithms have drawn increasing levels of scrutiny from the public. This is especially true for those black-box algorithms with the potential to negatively affect protected or vulnerable populations.1 One type of these black-box algorithms, a neural network, is both opaque and capable of high accuracy. However, neural networks do not provide insights into the relative importance, underlying relationships, structures of the predictors or covariates with the modelled outcomes.2 There are methods to combat a neural network’s lack of transparency: globally or locally interpretable post-hoc explanatory models.3 However, the threat of such measures usually does not bar an actor …

Compulsory Licensing: A Potential Solution To The Antitrust Dilemma Of Technology Standards Setting, Shen Peng

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

The Constitution grants patent owners exclusive rights over their inventions to “promote the Progress of Science.”1 This clause was drafted based on the belief that monetary incentives granted to the first inventor, such as the proceeds from selling and licensing the invention, will foster new ideas and accelerate innovation to the benefit of the public welfare. However, when the first inventor is the sole benefactor of the rewards from the innovation, subsequent innovation may be stifled.

For instance, the first person to invent the idea of a mobile phone but lacking the right to use the underlying technologies essential to …

Evolusi Hukum Cybercrime Dalam Perkembangan Hukum Dalam Dunia Digital, Isra Ruddin, Subhan Zein Sgn

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

This research explores the evolution of cybercrime law in the face of developments in information and communication technology (ICT) over the last few decades. The development of digital technology has provided countless benefits, but has also given rise to increasingly complex threats in the form of cyberattacks and cybercrime. The aim of this research is to investigate how cybercrime law has evolved in response to changes in ICT and how these developments have influenced the effectiveness of cybercrime law enforcement. This research also analyzes the role of cross-border cooperation in cybercrime law enforcement and how developments in international law have …

Efektivitas Pelaksanaan Pemberian Pendidikan Formal Bagi Anak-Anak Pengungsi Luar Negeri Di Kota Batam, Rina Shahriyani Shahrullah, Heru Susetyo, Lu Sudirman, Rendi Sahputra

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

The entire responsibility for all children in Indonesia lies with the government, and it extends to all children in Indonesia, not only those who are Indonesian nationals but also includes children who are refugees from foreign countries. One of the fundamental rights regulated by the laws and the Convention on the Rights of the Child ratified by Indonesia is the right to receive appropriate education (formal, non-formal, and informal education). This research aims to analyze the implementation of formal education fulfillment for refugee children in Batam City, especially those accommodated at Hotel Kolekta. Therefore, the research questions are as follows: …

Panel I: Cyber Regulation, Asaf Lubin, Gregory M. Dickinson, Thomas E. Kadri

Georgia Law Review Symposia

Panel discussion on cyber regulation with Professors Asaf Lubin, Indiana-Bloomington Law, and Gregory Dickinson, St. Thomas Law. Moderated by Georgia Law Professor Thomas Kadri.

Beyond Section 230 Liability For Facebook, Nancy S. Kim

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

In October 2021, a former Facebook employee, Frances Haugen, publicly revealed that the company's internal research documented harms that its products caused some of its users. The company’s response was sadly predictable. It questioned the reliability of Haugen’s testimony, asserted its commitment to doing the right thing, and then diverted the public’s attention by changing its name to Meta. The company’s deny-and-distract tactics were, by now, all too familiar and provided few answers.

More than any other platform company, Facebook has found itself at the center of controversy. Its advertisement-supported business model relies upon user engagement which means that …

Privacy Is Not Dead: Expressively Using Law To Push Back Against Corporate Deregulators And Meaningfully Protect Data Privacy Rights, Alexander F. Krupp

Georgia Law Review

When the European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) passed in 2016, it represented the world’s first major comprehensive data privacy law and kicked off a conversation about how we think about the right to privacy in the modern age. The law granted a broad range of rights to EU citizens, including a right to have companies delete data they collect about you, a right not to have your personal information sold, and a range of other rights all geared towards individual autonomy over personal data. All the while, platform companies like Facebook (Meta), Apple, and Amazon have taken …

Platform Accountability: Gonzalez And Reform, Eric Schnapper

Presentations

Section 230(c)(1) was adopted for the purpose of distinguishing between conduct of third parties and conduct of internet companies themselves. Its familiar language provides that “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” The last four words are central to the limitation on the defense created by the statute; it is only regarding information created by “another” that the defense may be available. Section 230(e)(3) makes clear that even a partial role played by an internet company in the creation of harmful …

Artificial Intelligence And The Future Of Law, Cardozo Startup Society, Cardozo Fame Center, Cardozo Law And Data Science Society

2022–2023 Flyers

No abstract provided.

Force Majeure & Covid-19: A Clause Changed?, Claudia Petcu

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Limitations Of Privacy Rights, Daniel J. Solove

Notre Dame Law Review

Individual privacy rights are often at the heart of information privacy and data protection laws. The most comprehensive set of rights, from the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), includes the right to access, right to rectification (correction), right to erasure (deletion), right to restriction, right to data portability, right to object, and right to not be subject to automated decisions. Privacy laws around the world include many of these rights in various forms.

In this Article, I contend that although rights are an important component of privacy regulation, rights are often asked to do far more work than …

Data Localization And Government Access To Data Stored Abroad: Discussion Paper 2, Shanzay Pervaiz, Alex Joel

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The Centre for Information Policy Leadership (CIPL) and Tech, Law & Security Program (TLS) have been collaborating on a project regarding data localization policies. As data localization is increasingly gaining traction, we seek to understand the different dimensions of the impacts and effectiveness of these policies. As part of this collaboration—CIPL published a paper on the “real life” business, societal, and consumer impacts of data localization policies and TLS published the present paper on whether data localization measures are legally effective in achieving one of their main ostensible purposes, i.e., to prevent foreign government access to data.

Mining The Nft Goldrush: A Prospective Guide To Drafting Nft Contracts, Dejuawn "Dj" Griffin

Mercer Law Review

Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) are an emerging digital asset class that present unique and innovative means of commercialization. Artists and creators “minted” and sold NFTs without much notice until they boomed into the public consciousness in March 2021, hitting an inflection point when Christie’s, a world-leading art and luxury online auction business, made history with the monumental sale of artist Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days for $69.3 million. This monumental sale sparked an NFT craze by celebrities, creators, and athletes exploring ways to commercialize their brand, image, or content. Even former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey sold his first-ever tweet for …