Category Archives: Feminism and Technology

Concurring Opinions is hosting a Symposium on Danielle Citron’s article “Cyber Civil Rights”

Frank Pasquale introduces it here and   here. Participants include: David Fagundes, Michael Froomkin, Nathaniel Gleicher, James Grimmelmann, Orin Kerr, Feminist Law Profs Nancy Kim and Susan Kuo, Daithí Mac Síthigh, Helen Norton, David Post, David Robinson and yours truly. … Continue reading

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In Support of Mark Lemley

This blog reports: The National Law Journal reported yesterday that a U.S. District Court is allowing Anthony Ciolli, former Chief Education Director for AutoAdmit, to move ahead with his lawsuit against Stanford Law Professor Mark Lemley and others for wrongful … Continue reading

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Media Coverage of the Verdict in Allison Williams v. Advertising Sex LLC

For background, go here. From an account at the HuffPo: … “I struggled every single day to maintain my law school studies, in the face of incredible stress and anxiety,” Williams said in a prepared statement. “Still, I refused to … Continue reading

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“Lessons from the Identity Trail: Anonymity, Privacy and Identity in a Networked Society” by Ian Kerr, Carole Lucock and Valerie Steeves

From the publisher: During the past decade, rapid developments in information and communications technology have transformed key social, commercial and political realities. Within that same time period, working at something less than internet speed, much of the academic and policy … Continue reading

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Not a Pleasant Tall Tale

Somebody sent me a link to a funny, innocuous YouTube clip today. After the clip finished I noticed a video recommendation in the sidebar billed as depicting a very tall woman. The clip, which appeared to be some sort of … Continue reading

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Sexting and the Magdalene Factor

The news in recent weeks has reported a spate of child-porn prosecutions against teens accused of”sexting”:sending nude or semi-nude pictures of themselves to friends and classmates:typically using their cell phones. According to a study by the National Campaign to Prevent … Continue reading

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Posted in Feminism and Culture, Feminism and Technology | 1 Comment

Red Tide Rising: Online Erotica in Conservative America

People in red states are significantly more likely to subscribe to internet pornography. At least this seems to be the upshot of a recent study by Harvard economist Benjamin Edelman (here) [and blogged by Professor Ann Bartow here].   According … Continue reading

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Posted in Coerced Sex, Feminism and Law, Feminism and Politics, Feminism and Technology | 5 Comments

Teen Suicide Linked to Cyberbullying

From here: The image was blurred and the voice distorted, but the words spoken by a young Ohio woman are haunting. She had sent nude pictures of herself to a boyfriend. When they broke up, he sent them to other … Continue reading

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Criminal Charges for an Accused Cyberbully

Raphael Golb has been charged with one felony count of second-degree identity theft, plus four misdemeanor charges related to his online sock-puppeting and bullying activities. The Chron reports: The son of a prominent Dead Sea Scrolls scholar was arrested on … Continue reading

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Some air travel stories.

Most of the planes flying in and out of Columbia, South Carolina, are very small. When you take them you have to “gate check” bags that would be carry ons on most commercial airplanes, because the overhead compartments can’t accommodate … Continue reading

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Is Kaiser trying to encourage Spanish speaking women to get tubal ligations more assertively than English speakers?

It sure looks that way. Read this.

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Zip Code Based Study of Porn Consumption Finds Red States Consume the Most

A new study entitled “Red Light States: Who Buys Online Adult Entertainment?” by Harvard Business School Prof Benjamin Edelman, focuses on the consumption side of adult online entertainment, and in particular on subscriber demographics and consumption patterns of those who … Continue reading

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Posted in Coerced Sex, Feminism and Law, Feminism and Politics, Feminism and Technology | 1 Comment

Cyber Civil Rights

Danielle Citron’s article “Cyber Civil Rights” is now in print. She handed me a reprint a few minutes ago, yay! Her presentation is based on this work. She’s talking about women being driven off line, or at least out of … Continue reading

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Live Blogging from W&M Privacy Symposium

Today the William & Mary Journal of Women and the Law hosts its symposium, “From the Courtroom to the Mother’s Womb: Protecting Women’s Privacy in the Most Important Places.”  Here’s the run-down from the morning’s program: Ann Bartow  (South Carolina) … Continue reading

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Posted in Acts of Violence, Feminism and Technology, Feminist Legal Scholarship, Reproductive Rights | 1 Comment

The Ad Council takes on cyberbullying.

Talent Show: Bulletin Board: Kitchen: The Ad Council seems to believe most cyberbullies are women, and all the victims are. –Ann Bartow

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ExpressO’s Channeling Function

I received a copy of this mass e-mail from the good folks at ExpressO, the on-line law review submission service affiliated with the Berkeley Electronic Press: Are your law students asking you for the opportunity to use ExpressO to get … Continue reading

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Posted in Academia, Feminism and Technology, Feminist Legal Scholarship | 1 Comment

“Speech, Privacy, and the Internet: The University and Beyond”

A conference devoted to an interdisciplinary discussion of the legal and ethical issues posed by the new ways in which privacy can be invaded was convened at the University of Chicago Law School last November. You can watch streaming video … Continue reading

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Posted in Academia, Feminism and Law, Feminism and Technology | 1 Comment

Brittan Heller and Heide Iravani are awesome.

Brittan and Heide are two women, heavily victimized by AutoAdmit, who have been willing to stand and fight. An article about the AutoAdmit litigation called “Slimed Online” can be found here at Portfolio.com. Here is an excerpt: Autoadmit, like innumerable … Continue reading

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Posted in Feminism and Law, Feminism and Technology, Sexism in the Media, Sociolinguistics | 3 Comments

Does everything always have to be a competition?

Rather than simply publicizing the accomplishments of a group of women involved in technology, the website Fastcompany.com decided to compile a list of “The Most Influential Women in Web 2.0” The list compilers now say they “inadvertently” set off a … Continue reading

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World Pulse, a global media organization covering world issues through the eyes of women, has announced a call for applications for Voices of Our Future, a new international women’s correspondent network.

From UNIFEM: World Pulse, a global media organization covering world issues through the eyes of women, has announced a call for applications for Voices of Our Future, a new international women’s correspondent network. World Pulse publishes a print and electronic … Continue reading

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Hermione Granger Fan Tributes

I posted seven here, just a fraction of what is available around the Internets. -Ann Bartow

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Paul Secunda, “Blogging While (Publicly) Employed: Some First Amendment Implications”

Abstract: While private-sector employees do not have First Amendment free speech protection for their blogging activities relating to the workplace, public employees may enjoy some measure of protection depending on the nature of their blogging activity. The essential difference between … Continue reading

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What Your Phone Can Do For You

I take back whatever I’ve said about the iPhone’s applications.  Who knew that the iPhone could be a, well, er . . . personal massager?  Betcha someone in Alabama came up with this app. -Bridget Crawford

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Posted in Feminism and Technology | 1 Comment

The Obameter: Tracking Obama’s Campaign Promises

From Politifact: PolitiFact has compiled about 500 promises that Barack Obama made during the campaign and is tracking their progress on our Obameter. We rate their status as No Action, In the Works or Stalled. Once we find action is … Continue reading

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Posted in Acts of Violence, Feminism and Politics, Feminism and Technology | 5 Comments

A conference entitled “The Politics of Reproduction: New Technologies of Life” will be hosted by the Barnard Center for Research on Women in New York City on February 28, 2009

“The Politics of Reproduction” will focus on the global social, economic and political repercussions of new forms of reproduction, including assisted reproductive technology (ART) and transnational adoption. These new technologies have created a “baby business” that is largely unregulated and … Continue reading

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That “Report on Enhancing Child Safety and Online Technologies”

A production of the Berkman Institute for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, it’s available here.   Below is an excerpt from the Executive Summary: At the outset, the Task Force recognized that we could not determine how technologies … Continue reading

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Cyber Sexual Harassment

Podcast of a radio show featuring fantastic feminist law prof Danielle Citron, plus Latoya Peterson of Racialicious and Jill Filipovic of Feminste, is available here. Danielle’s referenced law review article, Cyber Civil Rights, can be downloaded here. Below is the … Continue reading

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Watch out for “Fake College Facebook Groups”

Danielle Citron explains here at Concurring Opinions.

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“If you ever start to feel too good about yourself, they have this thing called the Internet …”

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Track Your Period the Feminist App Way

Search iPhone applications for the word “feminist,” and here is what you’ll find: 1.  Period Tracker 2. Par 72 Golf 3. Twelve Steps Companion 4.  iMensies [sic] (Period Calendar) 5. IMC Calc (BMI Calc). The market for feminist apps might … Continue reading

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Facebook v. Breastfeeding

Good overview of the controversy at Jezebel.

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A case of sexual harassment and mistaken identity in the digital age?

This “First Person” column in the Chron describes what the pseudonymous author asserts was a false charge of sexual harassment. His claim is that he was charged with sexually harassing a student who was also a university employee. The student, … Continue reading

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Elizabeth Losh, “Virtualpolitik: An Electronic History of Government Media-Making in a Time of War, Scandal, Disaster, Miscommunication, and Mistakes”

From the MIT Press page: Today government agencies not only have official Web sites but also sponsor moderated chats, blogs, digital video clips, online tutorials, videogames, and virtual tours of national landmarks. Sophisticated online marketing campaigns target citizens with messages … Continue reading

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Colorado man charged with criminal libel over Craigslist posts suggesting his former lover traded sexual acts for legal services from her attorney

Yahoo News account here. Colorado is one of 17 states with a criminal libel statute, according to this site.

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Kimberly Mutcherson, “Making Mommies: Law, Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis, and the Complications of Pre-Motherhood”

The abstract: The article focuses on pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (“PGD”), a technology that allows health care providers and potential parents to screen embryos for a range of characteristics prior to implanting them in a woman’s uterus. Many potential parents use … Continue reading

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“Porn in a flash”

That’s the title of this recent Salon article. Here’s the first paragraph: On a warm summer day two years ago, a 16-year-old girl put on a skirt and headed to the SuperTarget in her hometown of Tulsa, Okla. As she … Continue reading

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Penn Program on Documentaries and the Law

From the Program’s homepage: Lawyers need to be knowledgeable participants in the cultural and social debates such films provoke about the significance of our roles in the creation and maintenance of a just, democratic society. To fulfill this role, we … Continue reading

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Dean Saul Levmore on”The Internet’s Anonymity Problem”

Here, via Leiter.

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Cheryl B. Preston, “Internet Porn, ICANN, and Families: A Call to Action”

The abstract: Although the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) technically does not regulate Internet content, its day-to-day decisions consistently influence not only the structure of the Internet, but its content as well. ICANN policies concerning the approval … Continue reading

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Wikipedia and Feminism

As of this past September, Wikipedia has been cited by U.S. courts almost 300 times,   according to Lee Peoples’ new article, The Citation of Wikipedia in American Judicial Opinions. It’s frightening to think that judges are according wikipedia so … Continue reading

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Query For Readers With An Interest In Internet Governance

Is anyone interested in being involved in a new constituency at ICANN for non-commercial Internet users?   ICANN is looking to add a constituency to increase the breadth of the stakeholder representation on the Generic Name Supporting Organization (GNSO) council, … Continue reading

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“U.S. Judge Kozinski Accused of Ethics Breach by Lawyer Critic”

This article is a fairly detailed overview of the Kozinski porn story, written by Cynthia Cotts of Bloomberg News. And I am quoted in it. Cotts contacted me and asked if I would give her my opinion about some of … Continue reading

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There is no anonymity in cyberspace, part whatever.

The authorities figured out who hacked Sarah Palin’s e-mail account quite easily. When law enforcement refuse to help women victimized by internet harassers and stalkers, it is because they don’t want to, not because they can’t. –Ann Bartow

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2008 World Stem Cell Summit in Madison, Wisconsin

This week stem cell scientists from across the globe are meeting at the University of Wisconsin at Madison to discuss a multitude of issues they face including the scientific, business, legal, ethical and regulatory issues these doctors, clinicians and researchers … Continue reading

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For the Geeky, Nerdy Feminist Law Profs

This.

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Privacy Issues Highlighted in the September issue of Scientific American

Via Dan Solove: Daniel J.   Solove, Do Social Networks Bring the End of Privacy? Whitfield Diffie and Susan Landau, Internet Eavesdropping: A Brave New World of Wiretapping Steven Ashley, Digital Surveillance: Tools of the Spy Trade Katherine Albrecht, How … Continue reading

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“IL Governor Signs Law to Track Domestic Batterers Using GPS Technology”

Ms. Magazine reports: llinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (D) signed a measure into law that allows authorities to track convicted domestic violence offenders via satellite using GPS technology. The new law allows judges to order that offenders wear a GPS device … Continue reading

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“Google must divulge the viewing habits of every user who has ever watched any video on YouTube, a US court has ruled.”

BBC account here. We don’t embed YouTube clips here at FLP but we do link to them sometimes. Hope checking them out hasn’t gotten anyone in trouble. The Order is accessible here. The court apparently concluded that the Video Privacy … Continue reading

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Thomas McGarity and Wendy Wagner, “Bending Science: How Special Interests Corrupt Public Health Research”

From here: In their book, McGarity and Wagner describe how scientists can find their research blocked, or find themselves threatened with financial ruin. Corporations, plaintiff attorneys, think tanks, even government agencies have been caught suppressing or distorting research on the … Continue reading

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Men Hate Us, Another Reminder

Interview with Jessica Valenti of Feministing here at Moblogic, is followed by large numbers of mostly horrible comments.

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