Warrantless Search and Seizure of E-Mail and Methods of Panoptical Prophylaxis
Paul Ham U.S. citizens are in a constant battle for their rights to privacy, fighting the government’s increasingly pervasive surveillance and justicial needs. One area where court opinions conflict with the public’s expectation of privacy is over the realm of personal electronic communications. The general public believes electronic communications must be afforded a certain level of privacy that is not currently recognized by case law or statutes. Under current case law, warrantless searches and seizures of your personal e-mail are not prohibited by the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment should be your source for protecting your e-mails when you are...
An Analysis of the Video Game Regulation Harmonization Effort in the European Union and Its Trans-Atlantic Chilling Effect on Constitutionally Protected Expression
Kyle Robertson Video games have become a prominent pastime for both children and adults in the United States (U.S.) and across the European Union (EU). Today, individuals are spending more time and money on electronic entertainment than ever before. In addition to similar video game consumption habits, violent, pre-meditated murders by video game players have stunned both the United States and Germany. As a result, legislators in both countries have taken action in attempts to restrict minors’ access to violent video games. The results have widely differed between the two countries, with the United States electing to treat video games...
An Exploration of Rights Management Technologies Used in the Music Industry
Nika Aldrich On November 19, 2005, the Attorney General of the State of Texas filed a lawsuit against Sony BMG. This action was followed promptly by class action lawsuits in California and New York. Nine actions from New York, one from California, and one from New Mexico were involved in the consolidation action of April 2006. Elsewhere, a complaint to the Federal Government was filed in Italy against Sony BMG. With this flurry of lawsuits, the term, “Digital Rights Management” was thrust into the court system. As the consolidated action settles and the term “Digital Rights Management” makes its way...
The Disruption of the U.S. Constitutional Symmetry of Intellectual Property to Gain Conformity with an International Property Framework: A Road to a Global Market or a Tripping Point to the Gradual Collapse of the U.S. Economy?
John C. Hughs In a spectrum of governments that range from totalitarian (dictator or communism) to tribal (without any central government), there is a unique form that provides a symmetrical balance between the government and the independent inventor; this symmetrical balance produces technological advancement. Once this symmetrical balance is discovered, it allows independent inventors to have secure and unchangeable protection from the federal government that facilitates the courage and mentality to take risks of time, effort and wealth. The willingness of free inventors to take a chance on the free market without government intervention but with inventor controlled government exclusionary...
The 1997 GATS Agreement on Basic Telecommunications: A Triumph for Multilateralism, or the Market?
Eric Senunas On February 15, 1997, sixty-nine governments signed an agreement seeking to liberalize the world telecommunications market – a market, according to Renato Ruggiero, the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), worth “well over half a trillion dollars per year.” According to Ruggiero, these sixty-nine countries making commitments account for more than 90% of telecommunications revenue worldwide. In a statement issued February 17, 1997, Ruggerio congratulated the governments for their “determination and foresight in bringing this negotiation to a successful conclusion.” Perhaps in acknowledgment of the many delays in concluding the agreement, Ruggiero said that not all the...