Posted on June 27th, 2011 by William McGeveran
The final morning of the Supreme Court’s session is always dramatic, and this morning was not an exception. But there was a lot more info/law on the menu than usual. Most obviously, the Court struck down California’s ban on the sale of violent video games to minors, 7-2. (Opinion here.) The dissenters were Justice Thomas, [...]
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Filed under: Court Decisions, Digital Media, First Amendment, Privacy, Virtual Worlds, Voting
Posted on September 2nd, 2009 by William McGeveran
This isn’t exactly fast-breaking news, but since I wrote a long post last year about the Lori Drew case and then noted the judge’s decision to rescind her conviction, I wanted to point out that the judge has now issued a written opinion explaining his reasoning. Eric Goldman has some cogent analysis. Like Eric, I [...]
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Filed under: Blogging, Computer crime, Court Decisions, Intermediaries, Internet & Society, Social Networking, Virtual Worlds
Posted on July 2nd, 2009 by William McGeveran
A federal judge has set aside last fall’s convictions of Lori Drew on misdemeanor criminal charges arising from the cyberbullying and resulting suicide of Missouri teenager Megan Meier. Given the awful consequences of the nasty hoax against Meier, it is hard to exactly celebrate. But I did sign an amicus brief arguing that the prosecution [...]
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Filed under: Computer crime, Court Decisions, Intermediaries, Internet & Society, Privacy, Social Networking, Virtual Worlds
Posted on June 25th, 2009 by Derek Bambauer
One beneficial side effect of Internet filtering is that it points up quirks in how countries make content decisions: what’s blacklisted, and why? The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Australia’s proposed Internet censorship system (currently in its second phase of testing) will block access to on-line and downloadable games that aren’t MA-15 or milder. This [...]
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Filed under: Blogging, Digital Media, Filtering, Intermediaries, international, Internet & Society, ISP, Media, Software, Virtual Worlds
Posted on February 18th, 2009 by William McGeveran
Over the weekend the Consumerist blog started a bit of a cyberstorm when it pointed out that recent revisions to the Facebook terms of service removed a provision that used to say all Facebook’s rights to your content terminated if you deleted your account. I was interviewed about it today on NPR’s All Things Considered, [...]
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Filed under: Anonymity, Copyright, Digital Media, Intermediaries, Internet & Society, Media, Peer Production, Privacy, Scholarship, Social Networking, Virtual Worlds
Posted on December 2nd, 2008 by Derek Bambauer
Wired has an article on the trade in virtual world items – armor, swords, ninja monkeys, etc. – that takes place using real-world currency. (It tracks the rise and fall of former child actor Brock Pierce and his startup, Internet Gaming Entertainment. You can also find a how-to outlining the virtual gold trade.) The article [...]
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Filed under: Cognitive Decisionmaking, Computer crime, Digital Media, Intermediaries, Internet & Society, Media, Scholarship, Software, Virtual Worlds
Posted on August 4th, 2008 by William McGeveran
I joined a group of law professors and public-interest groups that filed an amicus brief Friday in the case of United States v. Drew. That criminal case is a repercussion from the horrible and high-profile cyberbullying conducted through MySpace against a small-town Missouri teenager named Megan Meier, who committed suicide in response. Lori Drew, a [...]
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Filed under: Computer crime, Intermediaries, Internet & Society, Privacy, Social Networking, Virtual Worlds
Posted on February 8th, 2008 by William McGeveran
Robert O’Harrow, a Washington Post reporter who is very insightful and current in his coverage of data privacy (and author of a good book on it too), today chronicles the inevitable first stirrings of government fear about virtual worlds such as Second Life: Intelligence officials who have examined these systems say they’re convinced that the [...]
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Filed under: Anonymity, Digital Media, Intermediaries, Internet & Society, national security, NSA, Virtual Worlds
Posted on September 17th, 2007 by William McGeveran
By now it’s basic knowledge — and grist for funny mainstream humor — that young people put overly personal stuff into their social networking pages with abandon, and that schools are flailing around trying ever harder to dissuade them. But I think one Florida State law professor went too far, if this comment on a [...]
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Filed under: Blogging, Digital Media, Internet & Society, Law School, Peer Production, Privacy, Social Networking, Virtual Worlds
Posted on June 19th, 2007 by William McGeveran
At the risk of appearing, inaccurately, to be some kind of an expert in video game law, here is my third post on the subject this month. Earlier, I noted lawsuit threats by the Church of England against the maker of a video game with a gun battle set in Manchester Cathedral. Today, in research [...]
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Filed under: Court Decisions, Digital Media, Media, Scholarship, Software, Trademarks, Virtual Worlds