News and Research articles on USA

Volume 7, Issue 2

Standard form contracts and a smart contract future

Kristin B. Cornelius, University of California, Los Angeles
PUBLISHED ON: 15 May 2018 DOI: 10.14763/2018.2.790

With widespread smart contract implementation on the horizon, there is much conversation about how to regulate this new technology. Noting the failure of contract law to address the inequities of standardised contracts in the digital environment can help prevent them from being codified further into smart contracts.

KEYWORDS: Standard form contracts, Terms of Service (TOS), Smart contracts
Trade policy

Why trade is not the place for the EU to negotiate privacy

Margot Kaminski, The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law

PUBLISHED ON: 23 Jan 2015

As negotiations progress over the EU-US free-trade agreement TTIP, it is natural that somebody will propose addressing privacy differences through trade. But several features of free trade agreements make negotiating data protection in the trade regime a very bad idea for the EU.

Net neutrality

US Communications Commission decision to fuel further fight in the EU

Monika Ermert, Heise, Intellectual Property Watch, VDI-Nachrichten

PUBLISHED ON: 4 Jun 2014

At the end of the week the EU Telecom Council will address net neutrality and the Connected Continent Regulation. Member states are disagreeing over net neutrality and the opponents of stricter protection might point now to the recent FCC vote favouring specialised services alongside standard internet access.

Volume 2, Issue 3

Growing information asymmetries as the cloud spreads

Primavera De Filippi, Research and Studies Center of Administrative Science (CERSA/CNRS), Université Paris II (Panthéon-Assas)
PUBLISHED ON: 22 Aug 2013 DOI: 10.14763/2013.3.192

Cloud-based information intermediaries curate information and distribute in a way that fundamentally challenges the right of access to information.

KEYWORDS: Cloud computing, Infomediary, User-generated content, Freedom of expression, Information bias, Censorship
Volume 2, Issue 2
1

Fooling the user? Modding in the video game industry

Merlin Münch, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society
PUBLISHED ON: 19 Jun 2013 DOI: 10.14763/2013.2.139

Over the years, the video game industry has grown into one of the largest, most profitable entertainment industries in the world. Originality and innovation - instead of fueling competition and guaranteeing a diverse market - are regarded by many as risky ventures. Some would even argue that innovation in the industry is not really innovative at all anymore. It doesn’t come as a surprise then, that user-driven innovation has come to play a considerably important role for the industry in recent years.

KEYWORDS: Innovation, Game development, User-generated content, Modding, Copyright, Intellectual property, Video games, Games
Volume 2, Issue 2
3

How open hardware drives digital fabrication tools such as the 3D printer

Johan Söderberg, Institut Francilien Recherche Innovation Société (IFRIS)
PUBLISHED ON: 18 Jun 2013 DOI: 10.14763/2013.2.138

According to a row of policy institutes, digital fabrication will become a motor for economic growth and social innovation. The sudden appearance of digital fabrication tools only makes sense when understood against the backdrop of an emerging movement around open hardware development.

KEYWORDS: Digital fabrication, 3D Printer, Innovation, Open hardware, Arduino, Ronja, Rep-rap, Hardware
Volume 2, Issue 2

New global top-level domain names: Europe, the challenger

Francesca Musiani, MINES ParisTech
PUBLISHED ON: 6 Jun 2013 DOI: 10.14763/2013.2.134

gTLDs are the highest level of domain names in the domain name system, including .com, .net and .org; their number has been restricted to twenty-two for several years. This will change, as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) - the organisation responsible for managing and coordinating the system - rolls out a new gTLDs programme. Businesses and organisations are now able to apply for their own customised top-level domain names. But ICANNs move is mired in controvery, as Francesca Musiani reveals.

KEYWORDS: Generic top level domains (gTLDs), Internet governance, Top level domain (TLD), Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), Domain Name System (DNS)
Volume 2, Issue 2

Enforcement vs. access: wrestling with intellectual property on the internet

Sebastian Haunss, University of Bremen
PUBLISHED ON: 3 Jun 2013 DOI: 10.14763/2013.2.132

The last years have seen a growing politicisation of intellectual property issues, especially those relative to the internet. Sebastian Haunss assesses the current state of the policy field and draws attention to three parallel processes, which structure the future development of intellectual property policies related to the internet: the growing focus on enforcement, the plurilateralisation of international IP policies, and the trend to open access.

KEYWORDS: Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), Intellectual property, Copyright, Content, Academic publication, Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), Free trade agreements, Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED), Digital rights management (DRM)
Intellectual property

Trade partnership gets nod from majority in European Parliament

Monika Ermert, Heise, Intellectual Property Watch, VDI-Nachrichten

PUBLISHED ON: 3 Jun 2013

The majority of the European Parliament welcomed the start of the negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership – a EU-US free trade agreement - in a resolution released in Strasbourg on May 15. The Green Party wanted more conditions to avoid a potential degradation of European standards in data protection. European civil rights organisations warn against a mega-ACTA-like free trade agreement.

Net neutrality
2

Managed services – a net neutrality trap?

Monika Ermert, Heise, Intellectual Property Watch, VDI-Nachrichten

PUBLISHED ON: 3 May 2013

In an April press release, Deutsche Telekom announced it would throttle IP traffic flows of its DSL customers once they cross certain data limits and to privilege their own and "partner" content at the same time. "Managed services will be delivered at a higher and guaranteed quality at an extra cost," a spokesman explained. This article looks at what's hidden behind "managed services".