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 the federal and state constitutions, broad judicial interpretations of enacted privacy legislation favor legitimate employer-monitoring practices, and many of the elements of common law claims are difficult for employees to prove. Download Full Article (PDF) Cite: 2001 Duke L. & Tech. Rev. 0026
Month: July 2001
Freelance Articles and Electronic Databases: Who Owns the Copyrights?
By: Christine Soares There has long been uncertainty as to who owns the rights to digital reproductions of freelance articles. The Supreme Court has recently affirmed that copyrights for the digital reproduction of freelance articles belong to freelance authors, rather than the periodical and electronic media publishers who included the articles in electronic databases. However, in answering this question others, such as the preservation of the historical record and future dealings with freelance writers remain to be answered. The author discusses the recent Supreme Court ruling and offers answers to questions created by it. Download Full Article (PDF) Cite: 2001 Duke L. & Tech. Rev. 0025
Copyrights in Computer-Generated Works: Whom, if Anyone, Do We Reward?
By: Darin Glasser Computer-generated works raise grave authorship concerns under U.S. copyright law, with arguments in favor of allocating copyrights to the computer user, programmer, the computer itself, or some combination therein. The author discusses the issues and paradoxes inherent in these choices, and assesses the nature of mathematical graphical processes in light of the idea/expression dichotomy. Download Full Article (PDF) Cite: 2001 Duke L. & Tech. Rev. 0024
International Liability in Cyberspace
By: Matthew Crane Activities in cyberspace often expose companies to “cybertorts”, a species of tort particularly difficult to reconcile with standard insurance policies. The author explores some of the difficulties in obtaining coverage for cybertorts from traditional insurance policies, and makes recommendations for companies to reduce their cyberspace liability exposure. Download Full Article (PDF) Cite: 2001 Duke L. & Tech. Rev. 0023