Congratulations to the Syracuse Science and Technology Law Reporter members selected for publication in Volumes 21 & 22 of The Reporter:
Notes
Olivia Y. Truong: Virtual Inheritance: Assigning More Virtual Property Rights
Alison Taroli: Obvious Fallacy: Improving the Standard of Obviousness for Chemical Compounds to More Accurately Reflect Common Practice in the Art
Ju-Hyun Yoo: The Science of Identifying People by Their DNA, A Powerful Tool for Solving Crimes, Including Cold Cases From the Civil Rights Era
Emily Prudente: Open Source or Open Season? What legal professionals need to know about open source software before dealing in corporate transactions and the ramifications of GPLv3
Note Alternates
Jason Denrich: The Case for EBay: Domestic and International Disputes Concerning the Contributory Liability of Online Marketplaces for the Trademark Infringement of Users
Antonette Naclerio: Intuition Says, “First, Do No Harm:” Implications of Making Clinical Decision Support Systems Standard Practice through Health IT
Book Reviews
Heather Giglio, reviewing The Stem Cell Dilemma: Beacons of Hope or Harbingers of Doom?, by Leo Furcht & William Hoffman
Susan Azzarelli, reviewing Against Intellectual Monopoly, by Michele Boldrin & David K. Levine
Caitlyn Whitehead, reviewing The Future Control of Food: A Guide to International Negotiations and Rules on Intellectual Property, Biodiversity and Food Security, edited by Geoff Tansey & Tasmin Rajotte
Susan Azzarelli, reviewing Patent Failure: How Judges, Bureaucrats, and Lawyers Put Innovators at Risk, by James Bessen & Michael J. Meurer
Book Review Alternates
Heather Giglio, reviewing Body Shopping: The Economy Fueled by Flesh and Blood, by Donna Dickenson
Mallorie Rulison, reviewing Digital Rights Management: The Problem of Expanding Ownership Rights, by Christopher May
By: Dustin J. Friedland
The United States Constitution gives Congress many powers, including the powers to tax and spend for the good of the public, and the power to facilitate technological and intellectual innovation. Both of these powers are exercised in the form of incentive systems to induce certain conduct by the states and/or private entities. Like any incentive system, both patent protection and federal subsidies involve trade-offs between the recipients and the federal government. However, the patent system and the spending power have yet to be used in conjunction with one another. This note proposes that using these two powers to complement one another would further the goals of both powers; namely, to promote innovation by private entities, particularly in fields that facilitate widespread social utility.
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By Tara E. Lynch
Falsely alleging that one has committed a crime of moral turpitude, carries a loathsome or contagious disease, or lacks integrity or ability in her trade or profession are widely recognized by lawyers and journalists as classic examples of per se defamation. Imagine, for example, two female law students walking into your office, alleging that twenty-eight different people had published statements that they carried various venereal diseases, had effectively bought their way into law school despite poor LSAT scores, and had engaged in sexual relationships with the law school’s deans. In theory, so long as these statements are false, this class of per se defamation suit seems at first blush easily won. That is until you ask who their alleged defamers are. They reply: “Pauliewalnuts,” “neoprag,” “Remember when I said I would kill you last? I Lied.,” “The Ayatollah of Rock-n-Rollah,” “DRACULA,” “Sleazy Z . . .”. Welcome to defamation in the Internet age.
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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.
[view abstract] | [download PDF]
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.
[view abstract] | [download PDF]
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 Eric Waldman
Peer-to-peer (“P2P”) technology distributors, particularly Grokster and Streamcast Networks, will not miss the year 2005. In June of that year, the United States Supreme Court handed down one of the most anticipated copyright cases in recent memory. In MGM Studios Inc. v. Grokster, the Court held that a distributor of software may be liable for acts of infringement by third parties who use the software if that distributor has taken “affirmative steps to foster infringement” regardless of the device’s lawful uses, a test now known as “active inducement.”
Grokster and Streamcast Networks are two P2P companies whose software was used by individuals to distribute copyrighted works. The Court found that the defendants could be liable for inducing copyright infringement. After the decision, the only content found on Grokster’s website contained a couple of paragraphs, one of which read, “[t]here are legal services for downloading music and movies. This service is not one of them.” The decision not only made a statement to Grokster, but also to all P2P companies who actively induce infringement.
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