The Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School is a leader in the study of the law and policy around the Internet and other emerging technologies.
University of Texas School of Law
University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law; Yale University - Yale Information Society Project; Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society
Date Written: July 14, 2018 Read more about Deep Fakes: A Looming Challenge for Privacy, Democracy, and National Security
In a big win for free speech, the California Court of Appeal has rejected Olivia de Havilland’s right of publicity and false light claims against FX. The court’s ruling [PDF] explains that the First Amendment protects creative works about celebrities whether the work in question is fact, fiction, or a combination of both. While Hollywood will breathe a sigh of relief, the ruling should also protect other speech by ensuring that right of publicity claims are subject to meaningful First Amendment limits. Read more about First Amendment and FX Triumph in “Feud” Right of Publicity Case
Though scholars have identified the expanding scope of First Amendment speech doctrine, little attention has been paid to the theoretical transformation happening inside the doctrine that has accompanied its outward creep. Taking up this overlooked perspective, this Article uncovers a new speech theory: the libertarian tradition. This new tradition both is generative of the doctrine’s expansion and risks undermining the First Amendment’s theoretical foundations. Read more about Expanding the Periphery and Threatening the Core: The Ascendant Libertarian Speech Tradition
The great 21st-century platforms — Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, and the rest — have this year found themselves in the middle of the speech wars. Twitter is struggling to contain vile trolling and harassment, and Facebook has gotten scalded on the little toe it dipped into curating journalism. Read more about A First Amendment For Social Platforms
Revenge porn, also known as nonconsensual pornography or cyberexploitation, has been with us for a while, but only recently — with the hack of celebrities’ iCloud accounts — has it captured the public’s attention. What the exposure of Jennifer Lawrence’s and others’ photos made clear is that the powerful and the powerless are equally vulnerable to the exploitation of their nude photos. And the law is finally starting to protect these victims. Read more about Regulating revenge porn isn’t censorship
Abstract:
Most people believe that privacy and free speech are always at odds. People all over the world have struggled with how to reconcile the problems of media gossip with our commitment to free and open public debate for over a century. The rise of the Internet has made this problem more urgent. We live in an age of corporate and government surveillance of our lives. And our free speech culture has created an anything-goes environment on the web, where offensive and hurtful speech about others is rife. Read more about Intellectual Privacy: Rethinking Civil Liberties in the Digital Age
Jon Hanson and Douglas Kysar coined the term “market manipulation” in 1999 to describe how companies exploit the cognitive limitations of consumers. Everything costs $9.99 because consumers see the price as closer to $9 than $10. Although widely cited by academics, the concept of market manipulation has had only a modest impact on consumer protection law. Read more about Digital Market Manipulation
