International Journal of Law and Information Technology - current issue

An Artificial Intelligence System Suggests Arbitrariness of Death Penalty

Karamouzis, S. T., Harper, D. W. — 2008-02-29

The arguments against the death penalty in the United States have centered on due process and fairness. Since the death penalty is so rarely rendered and subsequently applied, it appears on the surface to be arbitrary. Considering the potential utility of determining whether or not a death row inmate is actually executed along with the promising behavior of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) as classifiers led us into the development, training, and testing of an ANN as a tool for predicting death penalty outcomes. For our ANN we reconstructed the profiles of 1,366 death row inmates by utilizing variables that are independent of the substantive characteristics of the crime for which they have been convicted. The ANN's successful performance in predicting executions has serious implications concerning the fairness of the justice system.

Lord of Your Domain, But Master of None: The Need to Harmonize and Recalibrate the Domain Name Regime of Ownership and Control

Chik, W. B. — 2008-02-29

The world has seen three waves of property. The first hark back centuries and relate to ‘real and personal property’ such as land and chattel, also known as immovable and movable property. The second gained recognition around the nineteenth century and relates to propertization of the ‘labours of the mind’ or ‘intellectual property’. The third wave came within a much shorter period and starting to gain recognition and it is what is known as ‘virtual property’. The law and policy-makers have had to surmount not only a steep learning curve but also in some cases a foundation that is wrought with mistakes when it comes to the treatment that should be given to virtual property. The Domain Name System (DNS) is the best example of a form of virtual property that has given rise to challenges in law making and administration. The ‘land grab’ of domain names in the World Wide Web (WWW) have given rise to a virtual tsunami of registrations and this has led to the subsequent erection of levees in the form of a challenge regime. This paper will identify and consider the problems that the DNS is facing and suggest the changes that have to be made to it in order for it to withstand the forces of what will be an increasingly rising sea of domain names on the WWW.

This paper will begin with a look at the fissures in the seabed of the DNS by comparing how the management and policies relating to domain name registration and challenge have shifted and diverged in different jurisdictions as well as by examining the inadequacies of the original registration regime (ICANN) and challenge policy (UDRP). After identifying the problem, suggestions will be made to resolve them in the best possible way, which require a revisit of the stakeholder and policy interests in the Internet and the ownership and control of domain names that essentially function as an important gateway to the WWW in order to rebalance these interests in an attempt to achieve greatest equilibrium. Amendments will be proposed to both the registration and challenge regimes as well as to the structure and hierarchy of domain name administration which should be a globally coordinated effort just as the DNS is a common entryway to the global property that is the WWW.

Air Passenger Data Transfer to the USA: the Decision of the ECJ and latest developments

Ntouvas, I. — 2008-02-29

How much of European air passengers' personal data should be shared with U.S. border control authorities, and under what conditions should this take place? This article examines a judgement of the European Court of Justice annulling acts of the European Commission and the Council that had allowed the transfer of personal information across the Atlantic. After an account of EC-USA negotiations and the relevant legislative procedure, it considers the findings of the Court as to the formal validity of the above measures, as well as the question of their conformity with substantive provisions of the European Community Data Protection Directive. Finally, it addresses pleas of the European Parliament not dealt with by the Court. The article concludes by supporting the Court's decision, and pointing out the unlawfulness of former and current data transfers of this type.

Can We Protect How We Do What We Do? A Consideration of Business Method Patents in Australia and Europe

McNamara, J., Cradduck, L. — 2008-02-29

In the long history of monopolies, business method patents are a novel and recent edition. In the Digital Age, where time is money and speed is everything, innovative methods for undertaking business are as important to a business as the products or services it provides to its clients. In recent years several reviews, conducted in both Australia and internationally,4 have questioned the appropriateness of patenting business methods. This paper reviews the availability of business method patents in Australia in light of the 2006 decision of the Full Court of the Federal Court in Grant v Commissioner of Patents,5 which confirmed the need in Australia for a ‘useful product’ to issue from the working of a method (business or otherwise) in order for the method to be patentable. This paper will review arguments both criticising and defending business method patents and consider whether business methods warrant special treatment.