Research
11 December 2011
Telecommunications (interception and access) and its Regulation in Arab Countries by Nazzal Kiswani Journal of International Commercial Law and Technology
Abstract: Telecommunication has been a necessity in all countries this century. Communication has always been an essential part of our lives, education, family relations, business, government and other organizational activities. As telecommunication technology has advanced, so has the need for the interception of telecommunications and access by law enforcement authorities.
15 November 2011
Pricing and Efficiency in the Market for IP Addresses Harvard Business School Working Knowledge
This paper by Benjamin Edelman and Michael Schwarz model the market for IPv4 addresses, including evaluating novel rules intended to avoid possible harms from the purchase and sale of IP addresses, as well as predicting price trends.
14 November 2011
The Law and Politics of Net Neutrality: Part 2 by Jeff Kao Columbia Science and Technology Law Review
In the previous post, I wrote about the recent history of net neutrality, the Open Internet Rules in the works, and the ensuing backroom dealings and legislative battles. But now that the mid-term elections are over, has the future of net neutrality rules changed, and is net neutrality dead?
06 November 2011
The Law and Politics of Net Neutrality: Part 1 by Jeff Kao Columbia Science and Technology Law Review
The current political climate portends significant political changes following today's midterm elections. The balance of power will likely shift back toward the right, greatly reducing the governing mandate of the Democratic Party. The current administration's ability to push policies through will be tempered by a shift of power in Congress, possibly preventing the Obama administration from achieving its stated policy goals after two years in power.
30 October 2011
Knowledge and Misfeasance: Tiffany v. eBay and the Knowledge Requirement of Contributory Trademark Infringement by Matthew C. Berntsen Boston University Journal of Science & Technology Law
Introduction: eBay created a new business model, made possible by the internet. The popular legend is that eBay was originally intended as a site at which consumers could offer for sale and sell still useable items sitting in garages and basements. But it blossomed into the world's largest marketplace where anonymous sellers offer unseen and unexamined merchandise to distant buyers. Given such circumstances, it was not long before the counterfeiters and grifters of the world realized that the site could be exploited by them without risk.
23 October 2011
Fifteen Years of Fame: The Declining Relevance of Domain Names in the Enduring Conflict between Trademark and Free Speech Rights by Jude A. Thomas John Marshall Review of Intellectual Property Law
Abstract: Domain name disputes have been the subject of substantial litigation, legislative action, and scholarly debate over the course of the past fifteen years. Much of the debate is the product of disagreement concerning whether trademark rights naturally extend into the domain name space and to what extent those rights are limited by principles of free speech.
19 October 2011
M-Government: Mobile Technologies for Responsive Governments and Connected Societies OECD
This report aims to foster a better understanding on how to leverage the economic and social impacts of the implementation of the Internet into mobile devices to enable ubiquitous governments, sustain public sector innovation and transform public service delivery.
17 October 2011
More than Words: The Introduction of Internationalised Domain Names and the Reform of gTLDs at ICANN Social Science Research Network
Abstract: ICANN is assessed in this paper as having a special role in the development of the law of new media, recognising both the importance of its management of the global domain name system and how questions of institutional legitimacy have highlighted the lack of agreement on the role of law in the governance of the global Internet.
08 October 2011
Balancing Act: Finding Consensus on Standards for Unmasking Anonymous Internet Speakers by Matthew Mazzotta Boston College Law Review
Abstract: The growth in popular use of the internet has led to a dramatic increase in both the amount of anonymous speech and the number of aggrieved plaintiffs claiming to be harmed by it. Lawsuits involving anonymous internet speech present thorny questions for courts because plaintiffs typically must obtain the identity of anonymous speakers during discovery before any adjudication of the underlying claim. Compelled disclosure of identifying information thus risks chilling speech by subjecting anonymous speakers who have done nothing illegal to unwarranted harassment and retaliation.
01 October 2011
The Local Frontiers of the Global Internet by William H. Dutton [Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford] Social Science Research Network
Abstract: The global reach of digital technologies (ICTs) centred around the Internet is enabling individuals to network with information and people anywhere in the world. The worldwide span of this network of networks generates the risk of undermining local 'real' community relationships.
23 September 2011
The Effect of Content on Global Internet Adoption by V. Brian Viard & Nicholas Economides [NET Institute Working Paper] Social Science Research Network
Abstract: We test the effect of content availability on Internet adoption across countries. Controlling for the endogeneity of content with respect to the installed base of Internet users and a host of demographic, economic and infrastructure factors, content has a statistically and economically significant effect.
18 September 2011
The Sound of Money: Copyright, Royalties, and Creative "Progress" in the Digital Music Revolution by 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.
09 September 2011
Vertical Separation of Telecommunications Networks: Evidence from Five Countries Federal Communications Law Journal
The widespread adoption of mandatory unbundling in telecommunications markets has led to growing interest in mandatory "functional separation," i.e., separation of upstream network operations from downstream retail operations. Since 2002, vertical separation has been implemented in five OECD countries: Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Sweden, andthe United Kingdom. In 2008, the International Telecommunications Union noted "a tremendous amount of interest" in functional separation around the world; and, in April 2009, the European Parliament held its second reading on a new regulatory framework that embraces functional separation as an "exceptional measure."
05 September 2011
Damage Awards in Internet Defamation Cases: Reassessing Assumptions About the Credibility of Online Speech by Matthew Nied [Alberta Law Review] Social Science Research Network
Abstract: There is a recent trend toward substantially higher damage awards in internet defamation cases than those involving traditional media. Higher awards are attributable to the instantaneous nature of the internet and the potential for limitless replication, as well as questionable assumptions about the credibility of internet speech when it is anonymous, presented in a style that is hyperbolic and unreasoned, or posted in a dubious setting.
01 September 2011
Publication, Innocent Dissemination and the Internet after Dow Jones & Co. Inc. v. Gutnick by David Rolph [University of New South Wales Law Journal/Sydney Law School Research Paper] Social Science Research Network
Abstract: The High Court of Australia's landmark decision in Dow Jones & Co Inc v Gutnick was the first decision by a final appellate court on the issue of jurisdiction over internet defamation. It raised a range of important issues, such as the meaning of 'publication' for the purposes of defamation, the place of publication, the 'multiple publication' rule and the application of basic principles of conflict of laws to internet defamation. Fundamentally, it turned upon whether existing legal principles, with or without some adaptation, could adequately accommodate the challenges posed by internet technologies.
28 August 2011
Controlling the Uncontrollable: Internet Censorship in China by Haiping Zheng Social Science Research Network
Abstract: Though internet was not commercially available in China until 1995, it has been growing tremendously over the years. At the same time, the Chinese government has never ceased censoring internet, which has drawn much international criticism.
25 August 2011
The Local Frontier of the Global Internet: Networked Individuals and Communities of Digital Britain by William H. Dutton [Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford] Social Science Research Network
Abstract: Worldwide diffusion and use of the Internet is changing how we communicate, but also reconfiguring patterns of local and global communication - shaping what we know, and whom we know. Rather than undermining social networks and local communities in the ways feared by many critics of new media, use of the Internet is empowering 'networked individuals' and their communities - local and global.
19 August 2011
Application of International Law in Cyber Warfare Operations by Afroditi Papanastasiou Social Science Research Network
Abstract: In the not-so-distant future, a concerted 'Cyber Attack', effectuated via the Internet, could cause massive destruction to any society dependent on computer networks, especially in key target fields of transport, energy supply and communication infrastructures, leading to human casualties and serious destruction of property - reproducing the same, if not more, damage that would be caused by conventional armed attacks.
14 August 2011
The French Copyright Authority (Hadopi): The Graduated Response and the Disconnection of Illegal File-Sharers by Nicolas Jondet Social Science Research Network
Abstract: In June and October 2009, the French parliament passed controversial copyright laws aimed at deterring internet piracy. The laws establish a new anti-piracy scheme known, in France, as the graduated response and, in the US and other English-speaking countries, as "three strikes and you're out." Under this scheme, set to be implemented this summer, illegal file-sharers could see their internet connection temporarily suspended if they fail to mend their ways after having received two warnings urging them to stop their unlawful activities.
11 August 2011
Internet Access: Where Law, Economy, Culture and Technology Meet by Sulan Wong, Eitan Altman & Julio Rojas-Mora Social Science Research Network
Abstract: Internet growth has allowed unprecedented widespread access to cultural creation including music and films, to knowledge, and to a wide range of consumer information. At the same time, it has become a huge source of business opportunities. Along with great benefits that this access to the Internet provides, the open and free access to the Internet has encountered large opposition based on political, economical and ethical reasons. An ongoing battle over the control on Internet access has been escalating on all these fronts.
08 August 2011
A Comparison of Network Neutrality Approaches In: The U.S., Japan, and the European Union by Kenneth R. Carter, Tomoaki Watanabe, Adam Peake & J. Scott Marcus Social Science Research Network
Abstract: In this paper, we compare and contrast three different regulatory approaches to addressing Network Neutrality.
01 August 2011
The End of the Net as We Know it? Deep Packet Inspection and Internet Governance by Ralf Bendrath & Milton Mueller Social Science Research Network
Abstract: Advances in network equipment now allow internet service providers to monitor the content of data packets in real-time and make decisions about how to handle them. If deployed widely this technology, known as deep packet inspection, has the potential to alter basic assumptions that have underpinned Internet governance to date.
25 July 2011
Information Power: The Information Society from an Antihumanist Perspective by Jack M. Balkin [Yale University - Law School] Social Science Research Network
Abstract: This short essay, written for a book about globalization and information policy, argues that globalized information networks create new forms of power that transcend people's deliberate design. Digital information technologies enmesh individuals, groups, and nations in proliferating networks of power that they neither fully understand nor fully control, and that are controlled by no one in particular. These promote the proliferation of information production, information technologies, and information control mechanisms whether or not this serves human values.
21 July 2011
An Empirical Analysis of Fair Use Decisions under the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy by David A. Simon [Harvard Law School] Social Science Research Network
Abstract: For over ten years, the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) has resolved nearly 20,000 domain-name disputes brought before the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a United Nations organization that arbitrates UDRP disputes. The UDRP allows the holder of a legally protectable trademark to initiate proceedings to cancel the domain name or have it transferred to the trademark owner. Domain-name holders, though, have a number of defenses, including using their domain names in a noncommercial, fair manner. Although several empirical studies have analyzed various aspects of the UDRP, none has specifically examined this fair use defense.
Victims of Phishing and Challenges of Internet Regulation by Dr. Tabrez Ahmad [Third International and Seventh Biennial Conference of the Indian Society of Victimology, 2010] Social Science Research Network
Abstract: Growing use of Internet for E-commerce and E-governance provides innovative opportunities for more efficient and convenient ways of committing traditional crimes. Phishing has become one of the common forms of cyber crime that perpetrators currently manage to commit in low risk environment, leading to potentially enormous increase in victimization. Phishing has become a complicated cyber crime with respect to detection, investigation, and prosecution.
