Category Archives: eCommerce

By: Timothy J. Calloway “To the cloud!” trumpets a commercial by Microsoft, whose aim is to herd customers, and their checkbooks, into the cloud computing fold. But Microsoft, and other cloud providers like Amazon and Google, might inadvertently be doing … Continue reading →

By: Austin J. Sandler Technological innovation continues to make trading and markets more efficient, generally benefitting market participants and the investing public. But flash trading, a practice that evolved from high-frequency trading, benefits only a select few sophisticated traders and … Continue reading →

By: Michael J. McGowan Over the last decade, there has been a dramatic shift in how securities are traded in the capital markets. Utilizing supercomputers and complex algorithms that pick up on breaking news, company/stock/economic information and price and volume … Continue reading →

By: Risa J. Weaver The right of publicity is currently a jumble of state common law and state statutes, but the online fantasy sports industry crosses state lines with ease. Having witnessed the great revenue potential of online fantasy sports, … Continue reading →

By: Walter J. Baudier What so many internet consumers believe to be tax-free is actually subject to a state use tax. Faced with pressure from states that realize very little of the use tax owed, many online retailers, such as … Continue reading →

By: Konrad Lee The rapid rise in anonymous anti-employer internet blogs by disgruntled employees has created a tension between the liberty interests of employees in free speech and privacy and employers’ rights to be free from defamation, disparagement and disclosure … Continue reading →

By: Alan F. Blakley, Daniel B. Garrie & Matthew J. Armstrong Consumers and businesses have attempted to use the common law of torts as well as federal statutes like the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Stored Wire and Electronic … Continue reading →

By: John M. Eden RFID is a powerful new technology that has the potential to allow commercial retailers to undermine individual control over private information. Despite the potential of RFID to undermine personal control over such information, the federal government … Continue reading →

By: Grant Yang Gmail, a highly anticipated webmail application made by Google, has been criticized by privacy advocates for breaching wiretapping laws, even before its release from beta testing. Gmail’s large storage space and automated processes developed to scan the … Continue reading →

By: Grant C. Yang The United States Congress recently passed the first federal legislation to curb the influx of spam. However, the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (“CAN-SPAM Act”) left some measures to be enacted by … Continue reading →

By: Christopher Pearson Fazekas Electronic monitoring in the workplace has been the subject of relentless public criticism. Privacy advocates argue that technological advancements have given overbearing employers powerful tools to abuse employee dignity in the name of productivity and that … Continue reading →

By: Brett Stohs In response to gang violence at local “cyber cafés,” the City Council of Garden Grove, California, passed an ordinance requiring cyber cafés to install video surveillance systems. The constitutionality of the provision was subsequently challenged, and a … Continue reading →

By: Elizabeth Boros Electronic communication impacts how widely-held corporations conduct shareholder meetings. For example, technology has facilitated such options as electronic proxy voting, remote electronic voting, and “virtual meetings.” This iBrief examines the idea of “virtual meetings” and argues that … Continue reading →

By: Marc Rotenberg In November 2003, Mr. Marc Rotenberg, Executive Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, lectured at Duke Law School on the importance of protecting individual privacy. In his remarks, Mr. Rotenberg recounted the successful campaign against the … Continue reading →

By: Ryan W. King According to the Communications Decency Act of 1996, a provider of an interactive computer service cannot be held liable for publishing a defamatory statement made by another party. In addition, the service provider cannot be held … Continue reading →

By: Gregory Manter Internet gambling has been targeted on many fronts in the United States, including Congress, the courts, the Bush Administration and credit card agencies. This iBrief details recent trends in the regulation of online gaming, and concludes that … Continue reading →

By: Mark Sweet As the wealth of online information grows, private investigation websites are becoming more powerful and popular. Their client lists include attorneys, insurance agencies, banks, neighbors, employers, and, oh yes, stalkers and identity thieves. When a stalker used … Continue reading →

By: Jaime Klima In passing the E-Government Act of 2002, Congress has promised to improve the technological savvy of federal agencies and make more public forms and records available online. However, the question is whether doing so will alienate those … Continue reading →

By: Joseph W. Goodman Due to increasing use of the Internet worldwide, the number of disputes arising from Internet commerce is on the rise. Numerous websites have been established to help resolve these Internet disputes, as well as to facilitate … Continue reading →

By: Jaime Klima With the extension of the Internet Tax Freedom Act, concern has resurfaced over whether and when shoppers will be forced to pay state sales taxes on purchases made over the Internet. In fact, consumers should be paying … Continue reading →

By: Philip J. Bezanson Common sense dictates that some customers of an on-line brokerage service are bound to have some of the same difficulties in conducting business but that does not mean all customers or even many customers had the … Continue reading →

By: Corey Ciocchetti Starting on October 1, 2001, .BIZ will become active as the Internet’s newest top-level domain; its space reserved solely for businesses engaging in “bona fide” commercial activities. This space has the potential to reinvigorate, at least partly, … Continue reading →

By: Christine Soares Do domain names constitute tangible property? Since domain names may be purchased or transferred, the answer at first glance would appear to be “yes”. Congress has also dictated that domain names corresponding closely to existing trademarks may … Continue reading →

By: Corey A. Ciocchetti Employer monitoring of electronic mail constitutes an emerging area of the law that is clearly unsettled at this point in time. This iBrief demonstrates that the privacy rights of non public-sector employees are relatively unprotected by … Continue reading →

By: Corey Ciocchetti As the investment marketplace advances with current technology, paper-based advertising has quickly been supplemented by on-line advertising. Interestingly, both the Securities Exchange Commission and the National Association of Securities Dealers are treating this new medium similarly to … Continue reading →