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Determining Ownership and Control of IPv4 Addresses

The creation of the Internet ushered in an era of unprecedented legal challenges as jurists and legislators struggled to keep up with rapidly evolving technology.1 Chief among these issues is whether certain types of intangible data, specifically Internet Protocol addresses2 (IP addresses), can be owned and treated as intangible property. The world has nearly exhaustedContinue reading “Determining Ownership and Control of IPv4 Addresses”

Dying for Leave: How Societal Views on End-of-Life Care Pushed Ballard to Expand the Meaning of Care Under the Family and Medical Leave Act

The Seventh Circuit’s recent decision in Ballard v. Chicago Park District shook employers and employment law attorneys to their core, forcing reevaluation of what it means to care for a family member with a serious medical condition under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Ballard, a former employee of the Chicago Park District, requestedContinue reading “Dying for Leave: How Societal Views on End-of-Life Care Pushed Ballard to Expand the Meaning of Care Under the Family and Medical Leave Act”

Bitproperty and Commercial Credit

In the past several years, the growth of virtual property in today’s economy has been explosive. The everyday use of virtual assets, ranging from Twitter and Facebook to YouTube and virtual world accounts, is nearly absolute. Indeed, by one account, Americans check social media over seventeen times per day. Further, a growing number of savvyContinue reading “Bitproperty and Commercial Credit”

Who Owns Human Capital?

This Article analyzes the tax law’s capital income preference through the lens of intellectual capital, an increasingly important driver of economic productivity whose value derives primarily from workers’ knowledge, experience and skills. The Article discusses how business owners increasingly are able to “propertize” labor into intellectual capital—to capture the returns on their workers’ labor byContinue reading “Who Owns Human Capital?”

Judging Aggregate Settlement

While courts historically have taken a hands-off approach to settlement, judges across the legal spectrum have begun to intervene actively in “aggregate settlements”—repeated settlements between the same parties or institutions that resolve large groups of claims in a lockstep manner. In large-scale litigation, for example, courts have invented, without express authority, new “quasi-class action” doctrinesContinue reading “Judging Aggregate Settlement”