Business Law 1 // Ch. 9 Internet Law

In 1998, Congress enacted the __________________________. It gave significant protection to owners of copyrights in digital information. It provides civil and criminal penalties to circumvent encryption software (like DVD) -limits ISP liability for subscriber acts. -Allows for "fair use" expectations for libraries, universities, and others.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Soon after the internet became popular, a few enterprising programmers created software to compress large data files, particularly those associated with music. File-sharing is accomplished through two things, what are they?

Peer-to-peer (P2P) and the use of distributed networks Cloud computing delivers a single application through a browser to multiple users

______________ is an Internet address, consisting of: a "top level domain" to the right of the "dot" (.com, .org, .edu) and -a "second level domain" to the left of the "dot" chosen by the entity creating the domain name, e.g., www.cengage.com

Domain Names

Due to consumer complaints, the _____________ forced many companies to enter a consent decree that allows this entity broad power to review their privacy and data practices.

Federal Trade Commission Companies that violate the terms of the decree can be sued by the FTC

_____________________ is registering a name that is misspelling of a popular brand, (such as googl.com) Web pages using these misspelled names receive a lot of traffic. More traffic generally means increased profit.

Typosquatting

The ___________________ allows the FTC or Federal Trade Commission to share information with foreign agencies that investigate and prosecute cyber crimes. It also provides ISPs Internet Service Providers -- provides ISPs with immunity from liability for supplying information to FTC

U.S. Safe Web Act

An initial issue raised by online defamation is simply discovering who is committing it. Therefore what is a threshold barrier?

A threshold barrier to anyone who seeks to bring an action for online defamation is discovering the identity of the person who posted the defamatory message

_______________________ is the act of registering someone else's name of trademark as a domain name and then offering to sell the registered domain name to that person.

Cybersquatting

The _________________ is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a nonprofit corporation that oversees the distribution of domain names and operates an online arbitration system.

DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM -ICANN started selling new generic top-level domain names

Sharing stored music and movies occurs when file-sharing is issued to download others' stored music files, copyright issues arise. Recording artists and their labels stand to lose large amounts of royalties and revenues if relatively few digital downloads or CDs are purchased and then made available on distributed networks. File-sharing also creates problems for the motion picture and television industries, which lose significant amounts of revenue annually as a result of __________ which facilitates the illegal copying of movies and television programs.

Piracy

To prevail in an invasion of privacy lawsuit, the plaintiff must have had a ____________________________.

Reasonable expectation of privacy -people expect privacy when they enter personal financial information online -people also expect that online companies will follow their own privacy policies -But does a plaintiff have a reasonable expectation of privacy on social media?

A number of laws specifically address issues that arise only on the internet. three such issues are unsolicited e-mail, domain names, and cybersquatting. ________ is the unsolicited "junk e-mail" that floods virtual mailboxes with advertisements, solicitations, and other messages.

Spam Businesses and individuals alike are targets of SPAM Thirty seven states have legislation requiring an "opt out" of further e-mail ads.

The __________________ is part of the ECPA prohibits intentional and unauthorized access to stored electronic communications.

Stored Communications Act (SCA the SCA also prevents "providers" of communications services from divulging private communications to certain entities and individuals

T/F The applicability of and Sanctions of ACPA applies to all domain name registrations of trademarks. Successful plaintiffs can collect actual damages and profits, or statutory damages

TRUE

T/F Some employers and schools will get social media passwords from applicants to see if their accounts include controversial postings

TRUE By 2017, about half of the U.S. states and enacted legislation to protect individuals from having to disclose their social media passwords

The _______________ Permits the sending of unsolicited commercial e-mail, but prohibits certain types of spamming activities.

The Federal CAN-SPAM Act Prohibited activities include the use of a false return address and the use of false, misleading, or deception information when sending e-mail.

Because cybersquatting has led to so much litigation, Congress enacted the __________________________ which makes it illegal for a person to "register, traffic in, or use" a domain name if -the name is identical or confusingly similar to another's trademark, and -the person registering, trafficking in, or using the domain names does so its the bad faith intent to profit from its similarity to the other's trademark.

Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) -however frequent changes in domain name ownership facilitates cybersquatting due to the speed at which these changes occur snd the difficulty in tracking mass automated registrations.

The right to privacy is guaranteed by the __________________________ and some state constitutions. Major social media and internet sites have been accused of violating users' privacy rights.

Bill of Rights

Retailers collect detailed information about consumers' behavior and preference via ___________ in order to personalize online services.

Cookies they are invisible files that computers, smartphones, another devices create to track a users' Web browsing activities.

_________________ is a very important form of intellectual property protection on the internet because: much of the material on the internet is copyrighted, and in order to transfer that material online, it must be "copied." Generally, whenever a party downloads software or music into a computer's random access memory, or RAM, without authorization, a copyright is infringed.

Copyright Law

_____________________ are torts that arise from online conduct.

Cyber Torts -One of the most prevalent cyber torts is online defamation. Defamation is wrongfully hurting a person's reputation by communicating false statements about that persons reputation by communicating false statements about that person to others.

Federal regulators use social media posts in their investigations into illegal activities. Employees can be disciplined or fired for using social media in a way that violates their employer's stated policies. The ___________________________ amended the federal wiretapping law to cover electronic forms of communications.

Electronic Communications Privacy Act there is an exclusion to this act. Excluded from the ECPA's coverage are any electronic communications through devices that an employer provides for its employee to use "in the ordinary course of business"

Many companies form their own internal social media networks. Often referred to as _________________, these are online places for employees to discuss company services and products

Intranet Intranet allows companies to better protect their trade secrets.

__________________ are key words that give Internet browsers specific information about a Web page and increases the likelihood that a site will be included in search research

Meta Tags

_______________ provides a means by which people can create, share, and exchange ideas and comments via the internet.

Social Media ** The emergence of social media sites has created a number of legal and ethical issues for businesses

T/F Social media posts are routinely included in discovery in litigation since they can provide damaging information about a person's intent or what she or he knew at a particular time. Also social media posts have been used to invalidate settlement agreements that contain confidentiality clauses

TRUE Social media is also used to detect and prosecute criminals because a surprising number of them boast about their illegal activities on social media

The _______________ provides broad protection for ISPs. As A General rule ISPs are not liable for publishing defamatory statements that come from a third party.

The Communications Decency Act

________________ occurs when a trademark is used, without authorization, in a way that diminishes the distinctive quality of the mark. It does not requires proof consumers would be confused.

Trademark Dilution in the Online World

What are some other actions involving online posts?

e-mails, tweets, posts, and other online communications can be the basis for almost any type of tort. Suits relating to online conduct may also involve allegations of wrongful interference or infliction of emotional distress.