Category Archives: Feminism and Technology

What’s Wrong with Cyberspace? An “Atrophied Sense of Humility and Charity”

Professor Alan Jacobs (English, Wheaton College) has a reflective post on “The Online State of Nature” over at Big Questions Online.  It is inspired at least in part by the cartoon at right (image source: here at xkcd.com). I have … Continue reading

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Humbach Podcast on “Sexting and the First Amendment”

My colleague John Humbach has a podcast here discussing many of the issues he raises in his article, Sexting and the First Amendment, 37 Hastings Const. Law Q. 433 (2010).  Here’s a description of the podcast: Sexting is a new … Continue reading

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Posted in Feminism and Technology, Feminist Legal Scholarship, Pornography's Harms | 1 Comment

“Sexting: Youth Practices and Legal Implications”

 Abstract:       This document addresses legal and practical issues related to the practice colloquially known as sexting. It was created by Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic, based at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, for the Berkman Center’s Youth and Media … Continue reading

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Cohen and Chen on “Trading-Off Reproductive Technology and Adoption”

I. Glenn Cohen (Harvard) and Daniel L. Chen (Duke) have posted to SSRN their article, Trading-Off Reproductive Technology and Adoption: Does Subsidizing in Vitro Fertilization Decrease Adoption Rates and Should it Matter? forthcoming in the Minnesota Law Review.  Here is the abstract: For … Continue reading

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Duncan on Sexting

 Susan Duncan (Louisville) has posted to SSRN her working paper, "A Legal Response is Necessary for Self Produced Child Pornography: A Legislator’s Checklist for Drafting the Bill."  Here is the abstract: This Article explores self produced child pornography, known in … Continue reading

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Could it be you don’t have any?

Fun with corporate website search functions: Via.

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The De-Anonymization of the Internet Begins In Earnest

From this article entitled “Start-Up Links 65 Million IP Addresses To Users, Readies Targeting Platform”: … [T]he company ClearSight Interactive is getting ready to launch a form of targeting based on users’ IP addresses. ClearSight, which describes IP addresses as … Continue reading

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The Internet Pile-on over a Woman Dean’s Paycheck

The legal blogosphere has been embroiled recently in a series of discussions about Karen Rothenberg, formerly dean at Maryland law.  For those living in a cave (or avoiding Above the Law as a paper-finishing strategy), the basic facts are these:  … Continue reading

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Posted in Feminism and Technology, Feminism and the Workplace, Law Schools, Law Teaching, Sexism in the Media | 1 Comment

“Teens and Social Media” – Girls Rule

From the Pew Research Center: Content creation by teenagers continues to grow, with 64% of online teenagers ages 12 to 17 engaging in at least one type of content creation, up from 57% of online teens in 2004. Girls continue … Continue reading

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iMisogyny? There’s an app for that.

Jessica Roy lays it down here at Broadsheet.

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The Internet in 1993

Some of the optimism about online norms was greatly misplaced. –Ann Bartow

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Google’s newly patented “A method of providing an interactive game based on a digital video” reportedly perfect for pornography.

From Gawker: …Didn’t [the PTO] think it was fishy when Google credited 11 inventors on two continents in its newly-issued patent? That‘s a lot of brainpower for child’s play, and even for, as the patent calls it, a broader “WEB-BASED … Continue reading

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Funny? Creepy? Both? Neither?

–Ann Bartow

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On Forging Sustainable Parental Bonds.

Last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine cover story, Who Knew I was Not the Father?, discusses the complexities of identifying which men to label as”fathers.” The article told the heartbreaking stories of men who believed that they were the biological … Continue reading

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Posted in Feminism and Families, Feminism and Law, Feminism and Technology, Feminist Legal Scholarship | 2 Comments

Where are the Women? – Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Advisory Board Edition: 19 men, 2 women.

UPDATE: All of the EFF Fellows appear to be … fellows. EFF Advisory Board members as of today per EFF website: Andrew Bridges is a partner in the San Francisco office of Winston & Strawn LLP where he litigates and … Continue reading

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Deputies Caught Stealing Documents From Defense Attorney During Court Proceeding

From this article: …The tape shows Stoddard walking to the defense table during a sentencing that day. He leans over the table and begins reading from a document in the file of defense attorney Joanne Cuccia, who was speaking before … Continue reading

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Google Search Has Gender Issues

From Stiletto Revolt, where there are several additional illustrations. –Ann Bartow

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Posted in Feminism and Technology | 3 Comments

Maybe there are nude pictures of you on the Internet.

Because maybe you have disrobed in a medical facility: A traffic stop led officers to discover that a Willard man allegedly has been compiling nude photos of patients from the medical facility where he worked. … … The officers later … Continue reading

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Posted in Feminism and Law, Feminism and Medicine, Feminism and Technology, Women's Health | 2 Comments

Wisconsin Teen Charged with Blackmailing Other Students for Nude Photos

From here: A 14-year-old Whitnall [WI] High School student is accused of coercing teen girls into sending him sexually explicit photos of themselves. … … The photos investigation began Sept. 21 when two students provided information to the Greenfield police … Continue reading

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

How are my legal subject areas doing re: gender balance?

Brian Leiter conducted a poll regarding the Top Law Faculties for Intellectual Property and Cyberspace Law. The results give a window into the subject specific gender balance at each of the “Top 24” schools. There were 95 men and 45 … Continue reading

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Settlement in the AutoAdmit Case

From the Associated Press: A lawyer for two former Yale University law students says they have settled their lawsuit against several people they accused of posting sexually harassing and threatening messages about them on an Internet site. San Francisco attorney … Continue reading

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Posted in Feminism and Technology, Law Schools | 1 Comment

Pornography at the National Science Foundation

The Washington Times is not a publication I ordinarily read or have any confidence in. Nevertheless, the allegations made in this article appear to be accurate: … The budget request doesn’t state the nature or number of the misconduct cases, … Continue reading

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Using data from the social network Facebook, MIT students find that just by looking at a person’s online friends, they can predict whether someone is homosexual.

From the NYT: … The idea behind the MIT work, done in 2007, is as old as the adage that birds of a feather flock together. For years, sociologists have known of the”homophily principle”- the tendency for similar people to … Continue reading

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Decal I want…

So I’m going to buy one here when they are back in stock. NB: This is NOT a paid or compensated (in any way) mention. –Ann Bartow

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CFP: 2010 Hamline Law Review Symposium Request for Proposals “The Evolution of Trade Secret Law: Reflecting on 30 Years of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act”

On Friday, April 16, 2010, Hamline University School of Law and the Hamline Law Review will present a symposium to mark the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (the UTSA). The editors of the Hamline … Continue reading

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“A cyberbullying case in Saint Charles County, Missouri, will test a year-old state law on electronic harassment. The law makes it a felony for someone 21 years or older to communicate with someone 17 years or younger by phone or electronic means in order to recklessly frighten, intimidate, or cause emotional distress to that person.”

From CNET News: … Elizabeth Thrasher, 40, allegedly posted a photo and personal contact details of a teenage girl in the Casual Encounters section of Craigslist during the spring. The teen reportedly received phone calls, e-mails, and text messages from … Continue reading

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“A new study conducted by Wikimedia Foundation suggests that only 13% of Wikipedia contributors are women.”

This won’t surprise anybody who actually pays attention to the climate of the editing discussions on many wikipedia pages. This blog post notes: According to the The Wall Street Journal, the survey took place in November of last year, with … Continue reading

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Posted in Feminism and Technology, The Underrepresentation of Women | 5 Comments

Video Memorial to Deceased Porn Actors

Here.   Produced by Shelley Lubben.

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The Scary Spectre of Professional Identity Theft

From Inside Higher Ed: One deleted e-mail marked the beginning of my ordeal. It was finals week, just before Christmas break, when I received a strange message asking me to comment on some kind of online political essay that I … Continue reading

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Posted in Academia, Feminism and Technology | 1 Comment

Kate Harding on Cyberbullying

Via The Guardian. Here is the first paragraph: This week, a New York state supreme court judge ruled that Google (owners of Blogger.com) must turn over the electronic identity of an anonymous blogger who repeatedly attacked New York model Liskula … Continue reading

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

Order Without Law

Well, more or less (emphasis on “less”) … –Ann Bartow

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On Tasers and “Disorderly Conduct”

When I was a kid I used to watch “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom” with some regularity, and learned that tranquilizer darts could stop large angry charging animals (lions, elephants, hippos) as well as much smaller critters very quickly in … Continue reading

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A “Joe Job”?

There was a disturbance in the social media network yesterday, which especially effected Twitter and Facebook. The WaPo reports: … Some news outlets, such as The Register, say the surge in Internet traffic that crushed Twitter was the result of … Continue reading

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A browser-based clone of Civilization.

That would be the game discussed here. Which runs Internet ads like this: Learn more about the game here.

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Posted in Feminism and Technology | 1 Comment

“EA has a new way to annoy its own models: give out prizes for Comic Con attendees who commit acts of lust with their booth babes. Also, if you win, you get to take the lady out to dinner! This is going to end well for everyone involved.”

From Ars Technica, where the associative article reports: … At Comic Con, if you commit “an act of lust” with an EA booth babe and take a picture, you could win dinner with said babes, as well as a great … Continue reading

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Posted in Coerced Sex, Feminism and Technology | 1 Comment

Laura J. Murray, “Reproductive Technologies: Flesh, Paint, Text”

How do you know a reproduction if you see one? Read Laura Murray’s essay here at No More Potlucks.

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E-mail, Anonymity and the First Amendment: State of Nebraska v. Darren J. Drahota

This case arose out of an e-mail exchange between a student and his professor. Here is an excerpt from the recent decision by the Nebraska Court of Appeals: … The trial court found, summarized, that while there was initially some … Continue reading

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Posted in Academia, Acts of Violence, Feminism and Law, Feminism and Technology, Sociolinguistics | 2 Comments

The Age of Digital Convergence

This conference is off to a wonderful start, with a presentation by Dr. Melissa deZwart an Associate Professor at the University of South Australia School of Law. Spent yesterday touring Hong Kong, starting off with a hike up to the … Continue reading

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

CFP: Gender, Bodies and Technology

From the FLP mailbox:   “Gender, Bodies and Technology”   Proposals are invited for an Interdisciplinary Conference   April 22-24, 2010 Roanoke, Virginia Sponsored by the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at Virginia Tech Proposal Deadline:  September 15, 2009 We … Continue reading

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Best xkcd comic yet…

Large version here.

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More About Barnes v. Yahoo

I blogged about the case previously here. Below is an excerpt from the Ninth Circuit’s holding in Barnes v. Yahoo at page 5316 that gives a quick overview of the facts: In accordance with Yahoo policy, Barnes mailed Yahoo a … Continue reading

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Posted in Acts of Violence, Courts and the Judiciary, Feminism and Law, Feminism and Technology | 1 Comment

Mary Anne Franks, “Unwilling Avatars: Sexual Harassment in Cyberspace”

Abstract: This Article analyzes the growing phenomenon of cyberspace harassment, offering an innovative legal response to it not previously advanced by scholarship on the subject. This Article identifies cyber harassment as a form of “forced embodiment” that reinforces already existing … Continue reading

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When Non-Lawyers Write Wrongly About Patent Law

In this article about patenting genes author Rebecca Skloot writes: Nearly a decade ago, surgical procedures were patented similarly to genes:if you went to the hospital needing, say, a certain kind of appendicitis surgery and your doctor hadn’t licensed the … Continue reading

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Posted in Feminism and Law, Feminism and Technology, Women's Health | 5 Comments

Patent Law and Women’s Health

The ACLU has helped organize a lawsuit challenging a decision by the Patent & Trademark Office granting Myriad Genetic patent rights to two genes that are closely associated with increased risk for breast cancer and ovarian cancer, and on the … Continue reading

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Posted in Feminism and Law, Feminism and Technology, Women's Health | 4 Comments

“This case stems from a dangerous, cruel, and highly indecent use of the internet for the apparent purpose of revenge.”

A unanimous three-judge panel in the Ninth Circuit held in   Barnes v. Yahoo!, Inc. that a claim   for promissory estoppel by an Internet harassment victim was not necessarily precluded by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The … Continue reading

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Posted in Acts of Violence, Feminism and Law, Feminism and Technology | 3 Comments

Scalia’s Views of Privacy Apparently Change When His Personal Information is at Stake

From the ABA Journal: Last year, when law professor Joel Reidenberg wanted to show his Fordham University class how readily private information is available on the Internet, he assigned a group project. It was collecting personal information from the Web … Continue reading

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Posted in Feminism and Technology | 3 Comments

Another post about Posner, this time making reference to a generally lubricous glass-based material containing an appreciable amount of an oxide of boron.

Check out “Judge Posner at the Federal Circuit: Patent on Sex Aid is Obvious” at Patently-O if you want to read about Posner’s take on the patentability of adapting easy-slide thermometer materials for use on sex toys. Here’s the abstract … Continue reading

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“There is a difference between critique and seeking to shut my ass up because I’m not saying it the way you would, singing it the way you want to hear it sung or approaching a subject from the angle you want it to be approached from.”

Sentence pulled from this excellent post by Sharkfu at Feministing.

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Posted in Acts of Violence, Feminism and Technology, The Underrepresentation of Women | 1 Comment

Free Speech and the Internet: Public Radio Interviews of Gary LeBeau, David Rosen, Danielle Citron and Brian Leiter

Listen here.

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“Tormented by Cyberstalker, Ropes Partner Drafts New Legislation on Online Libel”

From Law.com: Ropes & Gray partner Joan Lukey is no stranger to litigation battles. As one of The American Lawyer’s Star Laterals of 2008 — she joined Ropes in June after 34 years at crosstown Boston rival Wilmer Cutler Pickering … Continue reading

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Posted in Acts of Violence, Feminism and Law, Feminism and Technology | 1 Comment