ERIC M. OVERBY, Georgia Institute of Technology
Email: eric.overby@mgt.gatech.edu
CHRIS FORMAN, Georgia Institute of Technology - College of Management
Email: chris.forman@mgt.gatech.edu

We analyze how use of electronic channels affects geographic price variance and levels by enabling buyers to shift demand across locations. Using data from the wholesale automotive market from 2003 to 2008, we find that buyers use the reach of the electronic channels to shift purchases from high-price to low-price locations. This “arbitrage� reduces the variance of market prices, but not their means. These relationships weaken with distance due to transportation costs. The study extends the literature on how electronic trading affects geographic trade and price dispersion by: a) considering the role of geographic location in price dispersion, which has been largely overlooked, b) observing the behavioral mechanism (buyer arbitrage across locations) that leads to lower price dispersion, c) examining how reduced buyer search costs have led to lower price dispersion throughout the entire market, as opposed to only the online or offline components, and d) analyzing dispersion when prices are determined by auction rather than fixed price. The price mechanism has important implications for how reduced search costs affect buyers and sellers. For example, when prices are determined via auction, reduced buyer search costs can benefit sellers by making prices more predictable without also lowering them.

CHRISTOPHER A. SUAREZ, Yale University - Law School
Email: christopher.suarez@yale.edu

As it undertook its massive book digitization project, Google drew the ire of authors and publishers when it began scanning thousands of copyrighted books without authorization. Authors and publishers filed a class action lawsuit that challenged Google’s fair use of their copyrighted works, and the parties subsequently agreed to a comprehensive settlement. While this settlement has many provisions that promote the normative public interest goals of access to knowledge and technological innovation, many other provisions raise antitrust concerns. The settlement establishes a market with high barriers to entry and promotes a court-sanctioned monopoly in the market for searchable, digitized books. Because the public interest values implicated by this settlement are substantial, this paper argues that the FTC and DOJ need to proactively intervene to ensure that the settlement is narrowly tailored to promote competition in the market for searchable, digitized books. Without appropriate intervention, it is likely that the settlement will be agreed to in its current form. A proactive stance by the FTC and DOJ, on the other hand, can help to mitigate anticompetitive concerns. Additionally, such a stance will ensure that the FTC, DOJ, and the public have an adequate opportunity to reflect on the future of digital books and the public interests that are at stake. While the DOJ has recently begun an antitrust inquiry into the settlement, its inquiry must be a vigorous, thorough analysis of the settlement’s antitrust implications. The settlement’s hasty approval could prove costly.

JANE K. WINN, University of Washington - School of Law
Email: jkwinn1@u.washington.edu

Security breach notification laws (SBNLs) have clearly succeeded in bringing the issue of inadequate information security to the attention of American consumers, but it is not clear whether have succeeded in creating stronger incentives for American businesses to invest in better security for databases of sensitive personal information. This paper reviews the development of new governance approaches to regulation, including “responsive regulation,� “smart regulation� and “better regulation� and then applies new governance criteria to SBNLs to show why they are unlikely to have much impact on the information security policies of many American businesses. This paper reviews the practical problems that any business faces when trying to secure large quantities of sensitive personal information, and outlines what a “better regulation� approach to information security regulation targeting sensitive personal information might include.

DIANE MURLEY, Clifton, Mueller & Bovarnick, P.C., Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, John J. Ross-William C. Blakley Law Library
Email: dmurley@earthlink.net

Ms. Murley explores the reasons that law librarians should be using RSS feeds, both for their own current awareness and to distribute information to library patrons. She highlights feeds law librarians can use, compares two feed readers, and makes recommendations for subscribing to and organizing feeds.