Professor Candice Hoke, along with six prominent scholars and experts in cyber security and copyright law, filed a comment with the United States Copyright Office on February 6,  regarding a proposed exemption under 17 U.S.C. Section 1201 or Software Security Research (Class 25). According to the Comment, “[a]n exemption for software security research is essential to promote the active research and testing efforts necessary to keep pace with evolving cybersecurity risks.”  The text of the Comment is available here: 1201_comments_–_security_research

Associate Dean Mark Sundahl

Associate Dean Mark Sundahl has published a chapter on Financing Space Projects in the newly released Handbook on Space Law published by Edward Elgar Publishing.  The Handbook addresses the legal and regulatory aspects of activities in outer space and major space applications from a comprehensive and structured perspective. It discusses the dichotomy between the state-oriented character of international space law and the increasing commercialization and privatization of space activities.  More information about the book is available here.

The Supreme Court of Canada recently recognized a constitutional right to strike.  In its decision, the Supreme Court of Canada cited an article written by Eric Tucker, Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University (Canada) and Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law (co-authored with Professor Judy Fudge), entitled “The Freedom to Strike in Canada: A Brief Legal History” (2009-2010), 15 C.L.E.L.J. 333.  The Supreme Court opinion is available here:  Sask_Labour_en

Professor Jonathan Witmer-Rich was interviewed on Channel 5 News, for a segment regarding the use of police body cameras which will be broadcast on January 30.  An article based on the same interview is available here (Legal expert says police departments need policies about governing body camera use; retaining video).

C|M|LAW’s Steven W. Percy Distinguished Professor of Law, Heidi Gorovitz Robertson, was quoted in an article, Opposition Mounts vs. Medina County pipeline, by Dan Shingler, on page 4 of last week’s Crain’s Cleveland Business.  Shingler’s article quotes a blog post Robertson wrote for Crain’s Energy Report, The fight over a proposed pipeline route in Medina will be a test of the system, available here.

Chris Sagers, the James A. Thomas Distinguished Professor of Law, organized and wrote an amicus brief on behalf of himself and twenty-five other prominent professors of antitrust and sports law, supporting the plaintiffs in O’Bannon v. NCAA. In that case, a plaintiff class of student athletes won Sherman Act injunction against NCAA rules precluding them from sharing in certain licensing revenues.  The brief supports plaintiffs in the NCAA’s appeal before the Ninth Circuit, arguing that the trial court adequately explained a finding of liability under the so-called “rule of reason” standard.

O’Bannon, a much discussed and controversial case, is important both because it represents a potentially ground-breaking development in student athletes’ long effort to share in some part of the several billion dollars in revenue they help generate each year, and also on technical grounds, because it was the almost unheard-of rule-of-reason case reaching plaintiff victory on the full merits.  On appeal, the Ninth Circuit could make significant new law.

In addition to Sagers, twenty-five other scholars of antitrust and sports law signed, including professors from Harvard, NYU, North Carolina, Notre Dame, U.C. Irvine, the University of Florida, the University of Texas, and Wisconsin.

The brief is available here:  http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2557234

Professor Patricia J. Falk

Professor Patricia Falk was quoted in a news story for NBC News, entitled “‘I Wanted Justice’: Con Victim Turns Focus to Changing Rape Law.”  The news story reports on the case of New Jersey resident Mischele Lewis, who was fraudulently induced to marry a con-man, “with a roster of ex-wives and children.”  In the wake of this case, a New Jersey assemblyman introduced a bill before the New Jersey legislature, which would criminalize sexual assault by fraud.

Professors Falk and Jed Rubenfeld (Yale Law School) were asked to opine about the proposed New Jersey law.  Professor Falk supports the criminalization of sexual assault by fraud, but recognizes that “[t]he biggest problem at the heart of this dilemma is drawing the line” and ask “[h]ow far down the road toward these kinds of lies should a criminal lie extend?”  Professor Rubenfeld opposes laws which attempt to criminalize sex by deception, because he worries that such laws would be overbroad, unenforceable, vague, and potentially unconstitutional.  Both Professors Falk and Rubenfeld has already engaged in an academic debate on the issue of rape-by-fraud, in a series of articles published by the Yale Law Journal Online, available here.

Chris Sagers, the James A. Thomas Distinguished Professor of Law, recently served as Editorial Chair and principle author of a new publication from the ABA Antitrust Section, Handbook on the Scope of Antitrust (more details here).  The scope of antitrust–the law governing when antitrust does and does not apply to given conduct–is itself a large, complex, and highly controversial body of law. Sagers is widely recognized for his work on the issue, and in particular for his conceptualization of the dozens of individual rules and doctrines that go to the question of scope as comprising one, coherent body of law.  His contribution to this particular publication was recognized by the Section, by his identification on the book’s cover as Editorial  Chair (a rarely bestowed recognition, as ABA works are typically published anonymously).

Professor Candice Hoke

Professor Candice Hoke’s article, co-authored with Lorrie Faith Cranor (Carnegie Mellon University) and Pedro Giovanni Leon and Alyssa Au (both from the University of Pittsburgh), was published by the I/S Journal (a journal of law and policy for the information society, published at the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University).

Professor Hoke’s co-authored article, entitled “Are They Worth Reading? An In-Depth Analysis of Online Trackers’ Privacy Policies,” is available here.  Professor Hoke had previously presented a version of this article at a Privacy Law Scholars’ conference at George Washington University Law School in June 2014.