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Abstract:
Anonymous internet defamation is nothing new, but the recent Autoadmit controversy highlights one particularly difficult aspect of this problem: Google bombing. As private individuals are defamed on popular anonymous message boards, searches on Google and other engines return the defamatory posts as top hits for those individuals. This short essay suggests a notice and takedown solution modeled after the DMCA's similar provisions. I argue that such a solution is much more effective for the Google bomb problem than for copyright infringement because the parties involved are much more likely to have similar legal resources than in copyright disputes.

anonymous speech, internet, defamation, autoadmit, google bomb

Abstract:
Virtual products in virtual worlds can have real-world consequences, but one wonders whether the property rights that might attach to them are secure. Between users, property disputes can be settled by determining which user has the greater right without addressing property theory more broadly. But when users wish to assert property rights against virtual world operators, one must consider normative justifications for user property when deciding whether to ignore the terms of an End User License Agreement. This paper compares the competing claims of users and operators to virtual world property by using Lockean labor-desert. I argue that the operators' initial labor-based claims to their worlds severely limit user property rights.

Locke, property theory, virtual worlds, virtual property, Second Life, Bragg

Abstract:
Two categories of criticism have recently been marshaled against Lockean copyright theory. Some argue that Locke's property theory offers no justification for intellectual property rights at all, while others suggest that Lockean rights in intellectual property are too strong. This article responds to each of these criticisms by offering a new Lockean approach to copyright that balances property rights for producers and fair use rights for the public. The approach relies most strongly on Locke's State of Nature/ Civil Society distinction and his dual concern for public and private rights.

Locke, copyright, property theory, labor-desert

Abstract:
Copyright is a system of federal regulation that empowers private actors to silence others, yet no one seriously doubts that copyright is consistent in principle with the First Amendment freedom of speech. Scholars and courts have tried to resolve the tension between exclusive rights in expression and free speech in one of two ways: some appeal to copyright's built-in accommodations to suppress any independent First Amendment analysis, while others apply standard First Amendment tests to evaluate whether and where copyright becomes an unconstitutional burden on speech. Neither of these approaches properly appreciates the constitutional balance struck at the Framing between the Copyright Clause and the First Amendment. This Article develops a free speech theory of copyright informed by this balance. I advocate thinking of Copyright Clause's limits as free speech limits, giving them the force of an individual right.

Copyright, First Amendment, Freedom of Speech, Fair Use, Eldred

Abstract:
The public domain is said to be necessary for a "just and attractive" democratic culture, for meaningful freedom of speech, and for the economically efficient production of information. Though each of these justifications counsels robust access to information, what kind of public domain we should have depends largely on why we want one in the first place. This Note argues that social science research on human motivation suggests that we make the public domain most efficient only by making it more liberal and more republican. In other words, the leading economic theory of the public domain, enriched by an understanding of pro-social motivation, is compatible with liberal and republican theories. This Note organizes research on pro-social motivation around the motivation-fostering effects of empowerment, community, and fairness. By incorporating these norms into the cultural architecture of the public domain, we can promote greater information production at less cost than by relying solely on the intellectual property system's traditional tools of exclusion.

public domain, intrinsic motivation, copyright, intellectual property, motivation

Abstract:
This paper examines the CyberOne mock trial of Bragg v. Linden in Second Life, as an educational tool, a test of virtual world property disputes, and a model for virtual world justice. I argue that while the trial itself did not fully explore the strongest property claims for either users or operators of Second Life, it did effectively teach empathic argument in a new internet space.

Second Life, virtual property, virtual worlds, Bragg, Nesson, CyberOne, Berkman