Scope of the Uniform Commercial Code: Advances in Technology and Survey of Computer Contracting Cases

Since the 1940s, the technology revolution has enabled people to communicate electronically. Sitting at a computer terminal connected to a modem and a telephone wire, it is possible to send a message anywhere in the country (or throughout the world)—to another computer, to a telecopy or telefax machine, even to a telephone. Paper is being replaced by electronic signals as a mode of communication. This revolution calls into question some of the fundamental rules upon which our contracts and the U.C.C. were built. On a broader scale, electronic communication raises issues that include the rights and responsibilities of providers and users of electronic mail systems, apportionment of responsibility in the event of error, and authentication and privacy issues. These developments challenge the legal community. Should the legal community sit passively by, letting business struggle with the legal uncertainties of these modes of communication, stepping in only to attempt to fashion airtight agreements (where called upon to do so) or, more likely, to litigate controversies when they arise? Or should the legal community become an active participant in these developments, helping to channel and direct activity in the best interests of all concerned? Indeed, these developments challenge the extent of [our] perception, understanding, knowledge, or vision. The use of electronic messaging, even in a sales context, is not limited to the buyer and the seller. Where a sales document requires a letter of credit to be issued or goods to be shipped under a bill of lading, those documents also may be electronically generated. Thus, the sales transaction, from the issuance of the original purchase order, through shipment of the goods, to the ultimate payment, may be entirely electronic rather than paper-based. Such paperless transactions raise significant legal questions involving the rights of the parties to the transaction, the rights of third party transferees, and the rights and responsibilities of the electronic messaging system providing the services. These are legal issues which exist whether we choose to deal with them or not. This Article provides an update of current cases governing the law of computer contracting

The Scored Society: Due Process for Automated Predictions

Big Data is increasingly mined to rank and rate individuals. Predictive algorithms assess whether we are good credit risks, desirable employees, reliable tenants, valuable customers—or deadbeats, shirkers, menaces, and “wastes of time.” Crucial opportunities are on the line, including the ability to obtain loans, work, housing, and insurance. Though automated scoring is pervasive and consequential, it is also opaque and lacking oversight. In one area where regulation does prevail—credit—the law focuses on credit history, not the derivation of scores from data. Procedural regularity is essential for those stigmatized by “artificially intelligent” scoring systems. The American due process tradition should inform basic safeguards. Regulators should be able to test scoring systems to ensure their fairness and accuracy. Individuals should be granted meaningful opportunities to challenge adverse decisions based on scores miscategorizing them. Without such protections in place, systems could launder biased and arbitrary data into powerfully stigmatizing scores

Software Sustainability: Research and Practice from a Software Architecture Viewpoint

Context: Modern societies are highly dependent on complex, large-scale, software-intensive systems that increasingly operate within an environment of continuous availability, which is challenging to maintain and evolve in response to the inevitable changes in stakeholder goals and requirements of the system. Software architectures are the foundation of any software system and provide a mechanism for reasoning about core software quality requirements. Their sustainability – the capacity to endure in changing environments – is a critical concern for software architecture research and practice. Problem: Accidental software complexity accrues both naturally and gradually over time as part of the overall software design and development process. From a software architecture perspective, this allows several issues to overlap including, but not limited to: the accumulation of technical debt design decisions of individual components and systems leading to coupling and cohesion issues; the application of tacit architectural knowledge resulting in unsystematic and undocumented design decisions; architectural knowledge vaporisation of design choices and the continued ability of the organization to understand the architecture of its systems; sustainability debt and the broader cumulative effects of flawed architectural design choices over time resulting in code smells, architectural brittleness, erosion, and drift, which ultimately lead to decay and software death. Sustainable software architectures are required to evolve over the entire lifecycle of the system from initial design inception to end-of-life to achieve efficient and effective maintenance and evolutionary change. Method: This article outlines general principles and perspectives on sustainability with regards to software systems to provide a context and terminology for framing the discourse on software architectures and sustainability. Focusing on the capacity of software architectures and architectural design choices to endure over time, it highlights some of the recent research trends and approaches with regards to explicitly addressing sustainability in the context of software architectures. Contribution: The principal aim of this article is to provide a foundation and roadmap of emerging research themes in the area of sustainable software architectures highlighting recent trends, and open issues and research challenges

Privacy in Pandemic: Law, Technology, and Public Health in the COVID-19 Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused millions of deaths and disastrous consequences around the world, with lasting repercussions for every field of law, including privacy and technology. The unique characteristics of this pandemic have precipitated an increase in use of new technologies, including remote communications platforms, healthcare robots, and medical Al. Public and private actors alike are using new technologies, like heat sensing, and technologically influenced programs, like contact tracing, leading to a rise in government and corporate surveillance in sectors like healthcare, employment, education, and commerce. Advocates have raised the alarm for privacy and civil liberties violations, but the emergency nature of the pandemic has drowned out many concerns. This Article is the first comprehensive account of privacy in pandemic that maps the terrain of privacy impacts related to technology and public health responses to the COVID-19 crisis. Many have written on the general need for better health privacy protections, education privacy protections, consumer privacy protections, and protections against government and corporate surveillance. However, this Article is the first comprehensive article to examine these problems of privacy and technology specifically in light of the pandemic, arguing that the lens of the pandemic exposes the need for both wide-scale and small-scale reform of privacy law. This Article approaches these problems with a focus on technical realities and social salience, and with a critical awareness of digital and political inequities, crafting normative recommendations with these concepts in mind. Understanding privacy in this time of pandemic is critical for law and policymaking in the near future and for the long-term goals of creating a future society that protects both civil liberties and public health. It is also important to create a contemporary scholarly understanding of privacy in pandemic at this moment in time, as a matter of historical record. By examining privacy in pandemic, in the midst of pandemic, this Article seeks to create a holistic scholarly foundation for future work on privacy, technology, public health, and legal responses to global crises

4th Annual Computer & Technology Law Institute

Materials from the 4th Annual Computer & Technology Law Institute held by UK/CLE in November 2002

Creativity and the corporate brand within small to medium sized creative organisations

This thesis sets out an initial understanding, by providing exploratory insight into aspects of the corporate brand within business-to-business small to medium sized enterprises (SME's) located in the United Kingdom (UK) creative industry sectors. Specifically, it investigates how organisational creativity interrelates with the corporate brand from a mainly internal owner and employee perspective. It asks a) what factors are involved in the corporate brand building and maintenance process, from both an individual and organisational perspective; b) why and how do creative individuals impact upon the corporate brand; c) why and how do the clients impact upon the corporate brand. Calling upon bodies of creative literature, including those relating to situational, organisational and social factors of creativity, the study takes an exploratory, qualitative and inductive approach. Four organising themes and various sub themes are presented. The organising themes have been termed: identification; development; rewards and brand evolution. Each of these interrelates with creativity and therefore the corporate brand. The 'identification' theme captured various individual and organisational identification issues apparent within the data, each with implications for the creative organisation and their corporate brand. The 'development' theme uncovers some of the ways through which individuals look to grow and improve across different experiences. It also outlines how the lack of such opportunities may affect organisational loyalty and the corporate brand. 'Rewards' of various kinds also emerged as relevant to the creative process and the corporate brand. The rewards sought varied in type, and the management of such rewards presented particular problems within these kinds of organisations. Finally, as each of the case study organisations were classed as small to medium in size, issues relating to the growth of the organisation frequently emerged in relation to the corporate brand, as captured by the 'brand evolution' theme. The findings presented within this thesis will be relevant to both the academic and practitioner communities.This thesis sets out an initial understanding, by providing exploratory insight into aspects of the corporate brand within business-to-business small to medium sized enterprises (SME's) located in the United Kingdom (UK) creative industry sectors. Specifically, it investigates how organisational creativity interrelates with the corporate brand from a mainly internal owner and employee perspective. It asks a) what factors are involved in the corporate brand building and maintenance process, from both an individual and organisational perspective; b) why and how do creative individuals impact upon the corporate brand; c) why and how do the clients impact upon the corporate brand. Calling upon bodies of creative literature, including those relating to situational, organisational and social factors of creativity, the study takes an exploratory, qualitative and inductive approach. Four organising themes and various sub themes are presented. The organising themes have been termed: identification; development; rewards and brand evolution. Each of these interrelates with creativity and therefore the corporate brand. The 'identification' theme captured various individual and organisational identification issues apparent within the data, each with implications for the creative organisation and their corporate brand. The 'development' theme uncovers some of the ways through which individuals look to grow and improve across different experiences. It also outlines how the lack of such opportunities may affect organisational loyalty and the corporate brand. 'Rewards' of various kinds also emerged as relevant to the creative process and the corporate brand. The rewards sought varied in type, and the management of such rewards presented particular problems within these kinds of organisations. Finally, as each of the case study organisations were classed as small to medium in size, issues relating to the growth of the organisation frequently emerged in relation to the corporate brand, as captured by the 'brand evolution' theme. The findings presented within this thesis will be relevant to both the academic and practitioner communities