Jurisdiction in the Global Internet Age
E-Jurisdiction (or the lack thereof)… At the beginning of a new century, the Internet Revolution is upon us. At the turn of the last century, when the Revolution was Industrial instead of Virtual, the courts and legislatures struggled to enact policies to keep pace with the changing times and technologies. Laws governing labor practices, trade practices, anti-trust regulations, and even intellectual property all developed in reaction to the surges of the new industrialized world. So too, in this new E-world, lawmakers are now attempting to quell the erosion wrought by the powerful Digital wave on our existing legal systems. Whether by adapting old mores to fit new paradigms, or by creating new standards with which to judge novel issues, lawmakers of the new millennium face overwhelming challenges in confronting the growing expanse of cyberspace. One such challenge is how to address the issue of Jurisdiction over disputes in a new global marketplace where the only boundaries are bandwidth. This paper will discuss some of the problems of E-Jurisdiction and present some possible solutions. "The unique nature of the Internet highlights the likelihood that a single actor might be subject to haphazard, uncoordinated, and even outright inconsistent regulation by states that the actor never intended to reach and possibly was unaware were being accessed. Typically, states' jurisdictional limits are related to geography; geography, however, is a virtually meaningless construct on the Internet." American Library Association v. Pataki, 969 F. Supp 160 (SDNY 1997). I. Problems with traditional jurisdiction analyses Traditionally, U.S. Courts have exercised jurisdiction only over those who h...
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.... Associated Press, May 28, 1998. 2. Id. 3. http://www.lectlaw.com/files/bul12.htm, excerpted from 9/93 U.S. Commerce Department material. 4. Id. 5. Id. 6. Jeffrey D. Kovar, Commentary: Perspectives on the Hague Draft Convention, International Intellectual Property Law and Policy, Vol. 6, 29-1. 7. See Hague Conference On Private International Law, Preliminary Draft Convention On Jurisdiction And Foreign Judgments In Civil And Commercial Matters adopted by the Special Commission on 30 October 1999. 8. See Martin Adelman, Commentary: The Hague Draft Convention on Jurisdiction: An Introduction to the Intellectual Property Issues, International Intellectual Property Law and Policy, Vol. 6, 28-1. 9. Jeffrey D. Kovar, Commentary, 29-3. 10. See Gail Evans, Commentary: Proposed Hague Convention, International Intellectual Property Law and Policy, Vol. 6, 32-1, at 32-3.
Drumbl, M. B. (2007). International Decisions. American Society of International Law , 101 (4), 841-848.
International law can go through substantial changes if the privileged legal subjects, states, share a common will. Whenever the circumstances are such, the actors can convene a conference and after a series of negotiations, they might conclude an international agreement among themselves resulting in a new setup of international law. From a procedural point of view, therefore, it is rather simple to ‘make’ international law. If the substantive elements significantly overlap (i.e. common denominator of state interests), international law can be altered in line with the will of the parties. This essay deals with four such fields which have significantly been modified during the post-1940 period: human rights, environmental law, law of the sea, and space law. The first two are of particular importance as they have overarching effects in relation to other legal fields.
” Seeing the economic-development tactic that developing countries employ, it is in the developing countries’ best interests to stop them. Under vigorous lobbying by the United States and other developed countries, TRIPS, Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, was negotiated in 1994. TRIPS Agreement covers copyright, related rights, trademarks, geographical indications, industrial designs, patents, layout-designs of integrated circuits, and undisclosed information (“Overview of TRIPS”). In order to be a member of the World Trade Organization, a country must agree to the TRIPS Agreement and provide protection to intellectual property in the above areas. The ratification of TRIPS Agreement impacted the present situation of Intellectual Property because this is the agreement that enforced Intellectual Property Protection worldwide with 164 members (“Membership”), and the debate between developing countries and developed countries could only have been prompted because of the global implementation of Intellectual Property Rights Protection. If Intellectual Property Rights were never globally protected by the TRIPS Agreement, developing countries would have continued with imitating and would never have argued
United States of America. U.S. Supreme Court. Legal Information Institute. Cornell University Law School, 1 Apr. 2003. 13 Nov. 2013
Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively. The boundaries and content of what is considered private differ among cultures and individuals, but share basic common themes. Privacy is sometimes related to anonymity, the wish to remain unnoticed or unidentified in the public realm. When something is private to a person, it usually means there is something within them that is considered inherently special or personally sensitive. The degree to which private information is exposed therefore depends on how the public will receive this information, which differs between places and over time. Privacy can be seen as an aspect of security — one in which trade-offs between the interests of one group and another can become particularly clear.
The Internet. It is a vast network of millions of users, surfing and sharing billions of files, all day, every day. To individuals holding copyrights on intellectual property, this is a frightening proposition. After all, there is virtually no protection for these copyright holders from the misuse of their property. But, as Scott Sullivan, writer for The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin stated, “as history has proven, technological and societal advances usually come with a price.” The price society is paying for the Internet is a loss of copyright protection by laws for their intellectual material.
As a professional Internet publisher and avid user of the Internet, I have become concerned with laws like the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA) that censor free speech on the Internet. By approving the CDA, Congress has established a precedent which condones censorship regulations for the Internet similar to those that exist for traditional broadcast media. Treating the Internet like broadcast media is a grave mistake because the Internet is unlike any information medium that has been created.
As the Supreme Court in the United States has observed, rapid changes in information communication, and transmission should not just be changed, but it should consider what the society ...
... middle of paper ... ... Roth argues that the concept of international jurisdiction is not a new idea but was exercised by the US government in the 1970 after an aircraft hijacking. Also, the war crime courts established after the end of World War II exercised international jurisdiction.
One of the most recent examples of ethics and technology conflicts in the United States are privacy issues and how we cite, distribute and publish intellectual property on the internet. For instance, many corporations and people take advantage of the open access of the internet and the lack of legislation governing the right to post and upload information to the internet. Today, nearly every household in the United States has a computer with int...
International law has been regarded throughout history as the main system of rules regulating players of the international community, it applies to all states and imposes specific obligations and rights on nations, just as domestic law imposes them on individuals. Its purpose is similar to that of domestic law that is to eliminate chaos in the International community and set standards of behavior which states must follow in their dealings with each other.
Internet regulation is basically restricting or controlling access to certain aspects or information. Internet regulation consists of mainly two categories: Censorship of data, and controlling aspects of the Internet.
Today, society is affected by the many advances in technology. These advances affect almost every person in the world. One of the prevalent advances in technology was the invention and mass use of the Internet. Today more than ever, people around the world use the Internet to support their personal and business tasks on a daily basis. The Internet is a portal into vast amounts of information concerning almost every aspect of life including education, business, politics, entertainment, social networking, and world security. (idebate.com) Although the Internet has become a key resource in developing the world, the mass use of Internet has highlighted a major problem, privacy and the protection of individual, corporate, and even government security . The argument over whether or not the Internet should be controlled by the government has developed into a controversial issue in almost every country in the world.
New laws that involve the internet have been passed but are now getting a second look, as they too may be against the Constitution. The Children's Internet Protection Act that requires libraries to use anti-pornography software has been brought back into the Supreme Court with the help of the ACLU because it...
The consistent use of information and communication technology (ICT) in modern world enables us for countless opportunities for individuals, institutions, business organisations and scientists, but it also raises difficult ethical and legal problems. In particular, ICT helped to make societies more complex and thus even harder to understand. The use of ICT has led to changes in concepts: ownership, buying and selling, right to possession, theft, justice in the distribution of resources and access rights. During the nineties, the internet has grown into all business segments resulting in a large number of questions running. It has been noted that during those time period there has been merging of computers, telecommunications, and media which is further emphasized by the emergence of new issues and strengthening old ones.