Research
13 March 2011
Aiming at Copyright Infringers and Hitting the Digital Economy by William H. Dutton [Prometheus] Social Science Research Network
Abstract: This article was written as a response to a piece by Birgitte Andersen, which raised concerns over the implications of the UK's Digital Economy Bill. I focus on several reasons why the Bill would not achieve its intended objectives, and is likely to have other, unanticipated negative impacts.
06 March 2011
Identity Theft in Cyberspace: Crime Control Methods and Their Effectiveness in Combating Phishing Attacks by Jennifer Lynch [Berkeley Technology Law Journal] Social Science Research Network
Abstract: This article discusses the growing identity theft problem in cyberspace, focusing specifically on phishing attacks. Victims of identity theft and phishing attacks suffer direct financial losses, though the real price these crimes exact is in the time and money spent trying to rebuild a victim's credit and good name. Society also suffers through business losses, generally passed on to consumers through higher costs for goods and credit, and, more importantly, through loss of consumer confidence in conducting business online.
03 March 2011
Governments, Privatisation and 'Privatisation': ICANN and the GAC by Jonathan Weinberg [Wayne State University Law School] Social Science Research Network
Abstract: This paper examines the changing relationship between ICANN and national governments. ICANN was born out of a self-contradictory attempt to "privatize" domain name governance; its relationship with national governments has been fraught ever since.
28 February 2011
OECD report on "Broadband Bundling: Trends and Policy Implications" analyses bundling strategies for high speed data services in OECD countries OECD
Bundling can provide both benefits and drawbacks to broadband customers. In general, bundled services are less expensive when purchased together and consumer surplus from one good in the bundle can help "subsidise" another less-valued element. Bundling also allows the integration of products in a way that benefits consumers.
27 February 2011
New gTLDs - Pandora's Box is Open by Moe Alramahi Social Science Research Network
Abstract: "After years of discussion and thought, gTLDs are being expanded. They will allow for more innovation, choice and change to a global Internet presently served by just 21 generic top-level domain names:" ICANN
24 February 2011
Aligning Cyber-World Censorship with the Real-World Censorship by A. Jacob Werrett [Connecticut Public Interest Law Journal] Social Science Research Network
Abstract: Should six-year-old children be able to access "the largest pornography store in history?" They can. Should eleven be the average age that a child first views pornography? It is. Should children between the ages of twelve and seventeen represent the largest group of pornography consumers? They do. It is puzzling how a quintessentially adult activity has increasingly edged-out Saturday morning cartoons, homework, piano lessons, and T-ball games. Perhaps social consensus is that teenagers are best served by searching out porn 150 billion times a year. But, I doubt it.
20 February 2011
Estonia Two-and-A-Half Years Later: A Progress Report on Combating Cyber Attacks by Scott Shackelford [Journal of Internet Law] Social Science Research Network
Abstract: Hackers have been online since a Cornell graduate student infected MIT's burgeoning network with the first Internet worm on November 2, 1988. But recently cyber attacks on states have proliferated both in numbers and severity. The best-known recent example of such a cyber attack was on April 27, 2007. In a matter of hours, the websites of Estonia's leading banks and newspapers crashed. Government communications were compromised. An enemy had invaded and was assaulting dozens of targets across the country. But this was not the result of a nuclear, chemical, or biological weapon of mass destruction. Nor was it a classical terrorist attack. A computer network was responsible, with attacks coming from thousands of zombie private computers around the world. And this was just the beginning. Flash forward to August 7, 2008 when immediately prior to the Russian army invading Georgia en masse a cyber attack reportedly crippled the IT systems of the Georgian military including air defense. Georgian command and control was forced to resort to U.S. government and Google accounts while Estonian advisors helped to deflect the ongoing cyber onslaught.
15 February 2011
Online interactions involving suspected paedophiles who engage male children - Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice no. 403 Australian Institute of Criminology
Abstract: Foreword | This paper summarises the results of a small-scale study into the online interactions of suspected paedophiles with undercover Australian police officers posing as male children. The study provides insight to an under-researched area of how persons with a sexual interest in male children interact with potential victims and whether these interactions differ from online engagements with female children.
13 February 2011
Responsibility of Bittorrent Search Engines for Copyright Infringements by Michal Czerniawski [University of Warsaw] Social Science Research Network
Abstract: With the music industry pursuing copyright infringement claims against various parties, the issue addressed in this paper is the responsibility of BitTorrent search engines for copyright infringements.
10 February 2011
Why the Fair Use Defense of Free Speech or Parody Under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act Needs Judicial Review by the United States Supreme Court by Monique B. Lampke Social Science Research Network
Abstract: This Article suggests the time is ripe for the United States Supreme Court to interpret the fair use defense of free speech or parody under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act ("ACPA"). The ACPA was enacted in 1999 to protect consumers from "cybersquatting," or when a non-trademark holder registers a domain name of a trademark and attempts to: (1) sell the name either to the holder for a ransom or to the highest bidder; or (2) divert or confuse consumers.
06 February 2011
OECD: Developments in Cable Broadband Networks OECD
The cable television market has changed drastically in recent years. The threat to cable from non-traditional video sources has pushed cable operators to upgrade their networks to support higher bandwidth data services and new video content and applications. This report examines developments in cable markets including the growth of cable voice services, recent consolidation trends and the transitions toward all-IP infrastructure models.
03 February 2011
Child Protection and Freedom of Speech Online: Mapping the Territory Oxford Internet Institute
The Internet and other network technologies have offered unprecedented access to information and communication to many people, including children. Over the past decade, debates have emerged in many countries about the extent to which ensuring child protection and child safety online can be balanced with maintaining freedom of speech. Advocates of online child protection and freedom of expression both share a deep-seated belief in the vital importance of protecting basic human rights which are grounded in fundamental values of human autonomy and dignity.
30 January 2011
The Chronicles of Electronic Commerce: Reverse Domain Name Hijacking Under the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy by Zinatul A. Zainol [European Law Journal] Social Science Research Network
Abstract: Reverse Domain Name Hijacking is a unique concept under the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy. Its main purpose is to protect domain name registrants against unjustified claims of overreaching trademark rights by allowing domain name registrants, in some limited circumstances to retort against trademark owners.
24 January 2011
Almost Free: An Analysis of ICANN's 'Affirmation of Commitments' by A. Michael Froomkin [Journal of Telecommunications and High Technology Law] Social Science Research Network
Abstract: This article examines the legal and political effects of the "Affirmation of Commitments" between the United States Department of Commerce and ICANN. The agreement purports to recast the public-private relationship at the heart of the management of the domain name system.
New analysis of risks and impact of cyberattacks: “Reducing Systemic Cybersecurity Risk” by Peter Sommer & Ian Brown OECD
This report is part of a broader OECD study into "Future Global Shocks", examples of which could include a further failure of the global financial system, large-scale pandemics, escape of toxic substances resulting in wide-spread long-term pollution, and long-term weather or volcanic conditions inhibiting transport links across key intercontinental routes.
23 January 2011
Child Privacy Protection Online: How to Improve it Through Code and Self-Regulatory Tools by Federica Casarosa [Robert Schuman Centre fo Advanced Studies] Social Science Research Network
Abstract: The accomplishment of an adequate level of privacy is one of the main concerns related to the increasing diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies, due to the expanding possibilities to collect, organise and store thousands of data.
19 January 2011
The Social Side of the Internet: Pew Pew Internet and American Life Project
Overview: The internet is now deeply embedded in group and organizational life in America. A new national survey by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project has found that 75% of all American adults are active in some kind of voluntary group or organization and internet users are more likely than others to be active: 80% of internet users participate in groups, compared with 56% of non-internet users. Moreover, social media users are even more likely to be active: 82% of social network users and 85% of Twitter users are group participants.
16 January 2011
The Multi-Stakeholder Principle in Asia by Y. J. Park [4th Communication Policy Research, South Conference, Negombo, Sri Lanka] Social Science Research Network
Abstract: In 1998, ICANN started placing a high emphasis on the private sector-oriented decision-making process. The UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in 2003 initially kicked off as a traditional government-oriented decision-making forum in 2003, and it concluded that the future global negotiation will be operated in a multi-stakeholder environment in 2005. However, the nation states from the South failed to understand the emerging rules of the multi-stakeholder principle pushed by the North until now. The culture of working together with non-state actors as decision makers in the South, including many Asian countries, is still foreign to state actors. Consequently, they could not be effectively engaged with the global negotiations on Internet Governance.
13 January 2011
Estonia Two-and-A-Half Years Later: A Progress Report on Combating Cyber Attacks by Scott Shackelford [Journal of Internet Law] Social Science Research Network
Abstract: Hackers have been online since a Cornell graduate student infected MIT's burgeoning network with the first Internet worm on November 2, 1988. But recently cyber attacks on states have proliferated both in numbers and severity. The best-known recent example of such a cyber attack was on April 27, 2007. In a matter of hours, the websites of Estonia's leading banks and newspapers crashed. Government communications were compromised. An enemy had invaded and was assaulting dozens of targets across the country.
06 January 2011
Responsibility of Bittorrent Search Engines for Copyright Infringements by Michal Czerniawski [University of Warsaw] Social Science Research Network
Abstract: With the music industry pursuing copyright infringement claims against various parties, the issue addressed in this paper is the responsibility of BitTorrent search engines for copyright infringements.
01 January 2011
Is Internet Censorship Compatible with Democracy? Legal Restrictions of Online Speech in South Korea by Eric S. Fish [Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law] Social Science Research Network
Abstract: This paper examines the history and causes of Internet censorship in South Korea, with special focus on the tension between South Korea's democratic political identity and its willingness to tolerate significant censorship of online political speech.
30 December 2010
Anonymity in Cyberspace: What Can We Learn From John Doe? by Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky Boston College Law Review
Abstract: This Article examines the evolution of the law governing libel suits against anonymous "John Doe" defendants based on Internet speech. Between 1999 and 2009, courts crafted new First Amendment doctrines to protect Internet speakers from having their anonymity automatically stripped away upon the filing of a libel action.
25 December 2010
Privacy, Free Speech, and 'Blurry-Edged' Social Networks by Lauren Amy Gelman Boston College Law Review
Abstract: Much of Internet-related scholarship over the past ten years has focused on the enormous benefits that come from eliminating intermediaries and allowing user generated one-to-many (one person to many people) communications. Many commentators have noted the tension created between the positive benefits for free speech and the negative effects on user privacy. This tension has been exacerbated by technologies that permit users to create social networks with "blurry edges" - places where they post information generally intended for a small network of friends and family, but which is left available to the whole world to access.
22 December 2010
Online Network Size, Efficacy, and Opinion Expression: Assessing the Impacts of Internet Use in China by Fei Shen, Ning Wang, Zhongshi Guo & Liang Guo [International Journal of Public Opinion Research] Social Science Research Network
Abstract: The severe internet censorship implemented in China naturally raises substantial doubt about the potential democratic functions of the internet. This study presents some initial empirical evidence for internet use's impact on online opinion expression in Mainland China by analyzing three survey datasets collected by the World Internet Project in 2003, 2005, and 2007.
19 December 2010
When Rights Clash Online: The Tracking of P2p Copyright Infringements Vs. the EC Personal Data Directive by Okechukwu Benjamin Vincents International Journal of Law and Information Technology
Introduction: 'Anti-piracy Group Broke Swedish Data Laws'. This was the headline to a news story published on the 10 th of June 2005 by The Local, a Swedish online news publication. As it turns out, one of Sweden's anti-piracy groups, Antipiratbyrån (APB), in its bid to track copyright infringers, allegedly processed the personal data of Swedish peer to peer (p2p) file sharers in contravention of the Swedish Personal Data Act. This story is representative of the divergent perspectives that have been adopted by copyright owners and p2p fi le sharers. On one hand, a review of postings in some of the forums frequented by p2p participants indicates that some fi le sharers assume that there should be a legal rule by which copyright holders are prevented from invading their privacy. On the other hand, developments in the US go to show that the copyright holders seem to have taken the view that the fight against online copyright infringements should supersede all privacy considerations. There is therefore an apparent clash between two well-recognised rights, copyrights and data protection/informational privacy. The need to carefully consider this clash with a view to a possible resolution has now inspired this paper.
