Cyberwar and Cyberespionage

My paper “Ghost in the Network” is available from SSRN. It’s forthcoming in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. I’m appending the abstract and (weirdly, but I hope it will become apparent why) the conclusion below. Comments welcomed. Abstract Cyberattacks are inevitable and widespread. Existing scholarship on cyberespionage and cyberwar is undermined by its futile [...]

Privacy, Security, and Cybercrime

In a forthcoming paper, I argue that security and privacy issues differ in important ways that are typically neglected by both scholars and courts. If you’re in Chicago at the end of the week, you can hear me drone on about the piece on a panel on cybercrime at a symposium at Northwestern University School [...]

Whereupon I Depress Lifehacker Readers

Because DVD ripping is illegal if you bypass DRM. Which, most of the time, you have to.

Petraeus and Privacy

The resignation of CIA Director David Petraeus, after a cyberharassment investigation brought his affair with biographer Paula Broadwell to light, has generated a fascinating upsurge in privacy worries. (Side note: I believe “working with my biographer” has now superseded “hiking the Appalachian Trail” as the top euphemism for infidelity). Orin Kerr has an excellent summary [...]

Having Solved Piracy, Time for Child Porn!

When I teach Internet Law, I joke that banning child pornography is straightforward since there isn’t a pro-kid porn lobby (unlike, say, banning copyright infringement or adult pornography). I stand corrected: Rick Falvinge, founder of Sweden’s Pirate Party, has taken up the pro-legalization cause. (Interesting choice as a policy focus, but to each their own.) [...]

Research Project on State Information Laws

My friend Sasha Romanosky, a research fellow at the Information Law Institute at NYU and the co-author of a great paper on data breach notification laws, is looking for your help with a research project: Greetings, I am involved in a research project that examines state laws affecting the flow of personal information. This information could [...]

When Cybersecurity Makes Things Worse

Adam Dachis has an interesting and worrisome post up at Lifehacker. (Disclosure: he kindly asked me for input into the post.) It thinks about a post-CISPA world, where privacy exists only at the behest of companies who hold our information. CISPA would immunize these firms for sharing information with the federal government, so long as [...]

The Myth of Perfection

As promised, The Myth of Perfection is now available at the Wake Forest Law Review Online.

Lifehacker on Ubiquitous Infringement

Lifehacker‘s Adam Dachis has a great article on how users can deal with a world in which they infringe copyright constantly, both deliberately and inadvertently. (Disclaimer alert: I talked with Adam about the piece.) It’s a practical guide to a strict liability regime – no intent / knowledge requirement for direct infringement – that operates [...]

Cyberbullying and the Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys

(This post is based on a talk I gave at the Seton Hall Legislative Journal’s symposium on Bullying and the Social Media Generation. Many thanks to Frank Pasquale, Marisa Hourdajian, and Michelle Newton for the invitation, and to Jane Yakowitz and Will Creeley for a great discussion!) Introduction New Jersey enacted the Anti-Bullying Bill of [...]