By Steven J. Porizo
The Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP) is a high-tech communication signals intelligence program that we still know little about since it remains highly classified to this day. However, we do know that the TSP, by using classified and extremely cutting edge technology, “intercepts without benefit of warrant or other judicial approval, prior or subsequent, the international telephone and internet communications of numerous persons and organizations within this country.” The government on several occasions indicated that the TSP has been in place from at least 2002.
Legal analysis related to the validity of the TSP is an important and contemporary issue. A case that directly challenged the legality of the TSP was decided against the government in a federal District Court and was subsequently appealed to a U.S. Circuit Court. This is an issue that should concern all Americans as it directly impacts the government’s ability to protect its citizens home and abroad, yet also raises privacy concerns that all individuals cherish. Understanding the legal contours of the TSP requires finding a very delicate balance between these two paramount and fundamental objectives. In this case, it appears that the government’s need for intelligence to protect the U.S. and its citizens against future terrorist attacks takes precedence over individual’s privacy interests.
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The following is a list of those student notes and book reviews selected to be published in the 2008-2009 by the Syracuse Science and Technology Law Reporter:
Student Notes Selected for Publication:
- Good Samaritan or Defamation Defender? Amending the Communications Decency Act to Correct the Misnomer of Section 230 . . . Without Expanding ISP Liability, By Tara Lynch
- Innovative Synergy: Patent Protection And Cost Subsidies Working Together To Stimulate Technological Advancement, By Dustin Friedland
- Copyright Infringement and Bankruptcy: The Meaning of Willful in Two Statutory Schemes, By Caitlin McGowan
- For the First Time in Over Sixty Years the Supreme Court Reviews the Doctrine of Patent Exhaustion: LG Electronics v. Quanta Computer, By Phil Semprevio
Alternates Notes Selected for Publication:
- Free Access to the Law: Giving to the People What They Themselves Create, By Nick Evanovich
- Google Earth, The Realm of Satellite Imagery in Both Governmental and Commercial Applications: A Tool for Generally Improving Life and Aiding in Search Efforts, or Simply a New Mechanism by Which Terrorists Can Benefit?, By Zach Oberman
Book Reviews Selected to be Published:
- Garth Mashmann, reviewing: Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Intellectual property in the Twenty-First Century: Perspectives from Southern Africa, edited by: Isaac Mazonde & Pradip Thomas.
- Garth Mashmann, reviewing: Wired Shut: Copyright and the Shape of Digital Culture, by: Tarleton Gillespie.
- Cristin Cavanaugh, reviewing: Wind Power in Europe: Politics, Business and Society, by: Joseph Szarka
- Paul Lyons, reviewing: Steal This Music: How Intellectual Property Law Affects Musical Creativity, by Joanna Demers
Alternate Book Reviews:
- Cristin Cavanaugh, reviewing: Farmers’ Guide to Wind Energy: Legal Issues in Farming the Wind, by: Jessica A. Shoemaker
- Gretal Kinney, reviewing: Biobazaar, by: Janet Hop
Please join us in congratulating all of the above SSTLR editors selected to have their work published!
By Tyson E. Hubbard
How would you feel if your daily travels were tracked and stored in a large computer database? Presumably someone going over the raw data could figure out where you worked, where your kids went to school, where your family lived and at what stores you liked to shop. In the wrong hands, the potential abuses of that sort of information are very scary. What many people do not realize is that it is exactly this type of information that is being collected every day by police officers across the country. New technology which is being heavily marketed to police departments allows a camera mounted on top of a police cruiser to take a picture of your license plate and store that information, complete with time, date and exact latitude and longitude coordinates for your vehicle. This sort of information is gathered anytime your car happens to travel past a police car, or more accurately anytime a police car travels past your car. Think about how many times you pass a police car on the average day: maybe it is on the freeway, or you see a police officer doing speed checks, or you are even going the other direction on the freeway and there is an officer across the median. Maybe as you run your daily errands there is police car that has someone pulled over on the side of the road, or even a cruiser parked at the local donut shop. Then there are the times a police officer drives by your car and you are not even aware. You might be in the parking lot at work or home with the garage door open. Everytime a transaction like this occurs, when your car and a police car are in the same location and the officer’s camera is operational, the information is collected. With the vast amount of information being collected and stored on every driver, police departments across the country have essentially placed tracking devices onto everyone’s vehicles.
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By Jason R. Wachter
Every night of the week club-goers wait in line for hours to get into the hottest clubs in some of the hottest cities in the world. If they are lucky enough to get past the velvet ropes and through the club doors, in a matter of minutes, they could hear the music of as many as ten different artists ranging from the likes of Madonna, the Rolling Stones, and Nirvana to Christina Aguilera, Kanye West, and Snoop Dogg blended into one musical track. This unique phenomenon in the music industry is the work of celebrity disc jockeys (“DJs”), who splice, scratch, and mix classic and popular songs together to create an entertaining musical work of their own. These creations are so entertaining, in fact, that celebrity DJs have developed a new music industry phenomenon that club-goers, club owners, and even radio stations have come to depend on night after night.
Celebrity DJs have created such a demand for their services that they are able to earn up to $1,000 per hour. Most celebrity DJs have “residences” at various nightclubs, often performing a few nights a week. However, due to their popularity and demand, there are times when celebrity DJs may perform at different events every night of the week in different cities across the country. In many cases, DJ performances at nightclubs are even broadcast live on radio stations or over the Internet allowing millions of listeners to enjoy their music. In addition, celebrity DJs pull in profits by hosting private celebrity parties and corporate events. One reason for this rise in the popularity of celebrity DJs is the advent of new technology, which allows not only professionals, but amateurs to remix and package music in their homes with increasing ease and clarity. But is this new age of the celebrity DJ all it is cracked up to be?
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By Laura Eleanor Gagnon
Thomas Jefferson wrote that “liberty . . . is the great parent of science and of virtue; and that a nation will be great in both, always in proportion as it is free.” Generations of Americans pride themselves on being citizens of the country granting the most freedoms in the world. Liberty is a cornerstone of our distinguished nation. However, the federal government has gravely impaired that celebrated liberty in the area of scientific research. Federal funding of embryonic stem cell research was prohibited, thereby inhibiting the opportunity for scientific greatness that Jefferson so eloquently described.
Of course, scientific advancement generally does not come without a price tag, especially when the advancement is truly groundbreaking. Sometimes the cost involves endangering our wildlife; other times it involves destroying the environment. In the case of embryonic stem cell research, the price tag for innovation may mean the destruction of embryos. Many Americans struggle with this tradeoff: is it worth ending the potential lives of these embryos in order to conduct research that may treat and even cure diseases crippling over 128 million Americans?
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By Bert Kaufman
In order to compete in a satellite and cable television marketplace, Verizon Internet Services has one new product to the mix of services consumers can use to get hundreds of channels into their homes. In 2005, the telecommunications giant began launching its “Verizon Fiber Optic Service” (FiOS) in select markets throughout the United States. The service, which would allow municipalities to receive pay television and other services, such as high-speed internet and telephone, over its fiber optic, internet service network, marks the entry of Verizon into the highly competitive content-delivery marketplace.
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By Elliot Fruchtman
This book describes the current state of the pharmaceutical industry and discusses how current government regulations affect scientific innovation. Moreover, the author describes the advantages and disadvantages of various attempts to change the current system. In addition, the author analyzes the Vioxx litigation to illustrate his theory that government regulations restrain innovation and development of new drugs.
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By Catrina Sveum
This book provides an overview of how advances in technology are eroding individual privacy. It explores the tension between individual civil liberties and national security. In addition to describing new threats to privacy, the book focuses on the inability of the law to protect individual privacy in the face of rapidly advancing technology.
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By Catrina Sveum
This book provides an overview of the legal and scientific concepts involving the appropriation of plants for biotechnological purposes. The book focuses on the tension between developing nations and industrialized nations as plant resources become the subjects of patents.
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By Robert Sanfilippo
Virtually Obscene is divided into seven chapters. Chapter 1 provides an overview of what the Internet is, describing its origin, structure, and various attempts to regulate it. Chapter 2 provides an overview of the current obscenity standards in the United States and discusses the problems therein, while providing the author’s proposals and alternatives to the current standard. Chapter 3 discusses the First Amendment, particularly the freedom of speech clause and the arguments surrounding it, as well as the author’s reasons why freedom of speech does not protect Internet obscenity. Chapters 4, 5, and 6, introduce and analyze the arguments of Internet obscenity and its harm to children, women and the moral environment, respectively. Chapter 7 concludes with a discussion of why Internet obscenity regulation is “a bad idea.”
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