Social data production—accumulating, processing, and using large volumes of data about people—is a unique form of value creation that characterizes the digital economy. Social data production also presents critical challenges for the legal regimes that encounter it. This Article provides scholars and policymakers with the tools to comprehend this new form of value creation through two descriptive contributions. First, it presents a theoretical...
Property
This Essay develops an approach to interpreting computer trespass laws, such as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, that ban unauthorized access to a computer. In the last decade, courts have divided sharply on what makes access unauthorized. Some courts have interpreted computer trespass laws broadly to prohibit trivial wrongs such as violating terms of use to a website. Other courts have limited the laws to harmful examples of hacking into a computer....
In a copyright infringement dispute, when assessing whether a defendant’s work is substantially similar to, and therefore infringing, a plaintiff’s, a court must first determine which works to compare. A unique issue arises when a defendant has appropriated material from multiple works in a series or collection by a plaintiff. A court must decide whether to examine...
When a trademark registered with the Patent and Trademark Office is infringed, section 32 of the Lanham Act provides the trade- mark registrant the opportunity to seek remedies in federal court. Thanks to a broad definition of “registrant,” the Act in fact extends standing beyond the registrant herself to her “legal representatives,” among others. This language...
This Article demonstrates that all intellectual property defenses fit into three conceptual categories: general, individualized, and class defenses. A general defense challenges the validity of the plaintiff’s intellectual property right. When raised successfully, it annuls the plaintiff’s right and relieves not only the defendant, but also the entire world, of the duty to comply with it. An individualized defense is much narrower in scope:...
Charles Reich’s visionary 1964 article, The New Property, paved the way for a revolution in procedural due process. It did not, however, accomplish Reich’s primary stated goal: providing those dependent on government assistance the same security that property rights long have offered owners of real property.
As Reich himself predicted, procedural rights have proven largely ineffectual, especially for low-income people....
Should copyright infringement claims be treated as marketable assets? Copyright law has long emphasized the free and independent alienability of its exclusive rights. Yet, the right to sue for infringement—which copyright law grants authors in order to render its exclusive rights operational—has never been thought of as independently assignable, or indeed as the target of investments by third parties. As a result, discussions of copyright...
The property–information interface is perhaps the most crucial and undertheorized dimension of property law. Information about property can make or break property rights. Information about assets and property rights can dramatically enhance the value of ownership. Conversely, a dearth of information can significantly reduce the benefits associated with ownership. It is surprising, therefore, that contemporary property theorists do not engage...
The law fails to accommodate the inconvenient fact that an individual’s identifiable genetic information is involuntarily and immutably shared with her close genetic relatives. Legal institutions have established that individuals have a cognizable interest in controlling genetic information that is identifying to them. The Supreme Court recognized in Maryland v. King that the Fourth Amendment is implicated when arrestees’ DNA is analyzed,...
For decades, American fashion designers have been fighting, to no avail, for a federal law that protects their designs. In light of this inaction at the federal level, this Note explores the possibility of making use of the states’ traditional role as “laboratories of democracy” and passing a state law protecting works of fashion, specifically garment designs....