Keynote, UNC JOLT 2016 Symposium We have heard all morning about legal issues with the Internet of Things; I want to begin with acknowledging the human aspects and human interests in Internet-enabled homes, which are more visceral and personal than IoT devices monitoring other interactions. I have worked in privacy for almost 20 years, and I passionately believe we need …
Internet law and policy discussions worldwide are converging on the idea that the private sector has a shared responsibility to help safeguard free expression online. This article advances those discussions and makes a significant contribution to the related literature by synthesizing Internet governance concepts with those of content management and with normative theories regarding the social value of freedom of expression—all …
Digital piracy is a worldwide concern. Both very high and very low rates of intellectual property infringement threaten innovation, thus implying that some level of effective copyright regulation is required to incentivize the creation of original works. However, although Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights advocates for social access to culture as well as the protection of copyright, …
This article provides and analyzes data based on a study conducted by the author (the “Study”) on copyright infringement cases filed in U.S. federal district courts in 2013. It focuses on infringement cases involving activity on the Internet and discusses actual and potential conflict-of-laws issues that the cases raised or could have raised. The article complements the report entitled Private International …
Openness is the first fundamental principle of fair information practices with “notice” serving to practically implement openness in most commercial transactions. However, current notices have been widely criticized as being too complex, legalistic, lengthy, and opaque. This Article argues that to achieve the openness required by the first fair information practice principle, data protection and privacy should move from a “notice” …
The Internet of Things (“IoT”) is here, and we seem to be going all in. We are trying to put a microchip in nearly every object that is not nailed down and even a few that are. Soon, your cars, toasters, toys, and even your underwear will be wired up to make your lives better. The general thought seems …
In recent years, many technology companies have enabled encryption by default in their products, thereby burdening law enforcement efforts to intercept communications content or access data stored on smartphones by traditional means. Even before such encryption technologies were widely used, however, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) claimed its surveillance capabilities were “Going Dark” due …
The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) is an enforcement powerhouse that has historically relied on the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act (“ECPA”) to collect electronic communications directly from Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) with a subpoena. The ECPA shields recent or unopened electronic communications from government eyes, but treats all others as abandoned and thus subject to warrantless government search and seizure. In …
Over the past several years, legal services provided through online platforms have become a popular, low cost alternative to traditional legal services. LegalZoom offers a range of legal services, through its website, at a more affordable price than traditional legal services. Affordable legal services help to remedy the current disparity in the United States between low-income individuals with legal needs and …
As books are becoming electronic, people are now conducting more research online instead of venturing into bookstores and libraries. The number of bookstores in the nation is declining as people replace the relationship they once had with these stores with online sources. Particularly, in services such as Google Books, people use search engines to browse books in the same manner they …
