Ann Bartow

Bio: Ann Bartow is an academic researcher from Franklin Pierce University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Intellectual property & Trademark. The author has an hindex of 9, co-authored 62 publications receiving 274 citations. Previous affiliations of Ann Bartow include American University & Brooklyn Law School.

Internet Defamation as Profit Center: The Monetization of Online Harassment

Abstract: Efforts to decrease the sexist aspects of online fora have been largely ineffective, and in some instances seemingly counterproductive, in the sense that they have provoked even greater amounts of abuse and harassment with a gendered aspect. And so, in the wake of a series of high profile episodes of cyber sexual harassment, and a grotesque abundance of low profile ones, a new business model was launched. Promising to clean up and monitor online information to defuse the visible impact of coordinated harassment campaigns, a number of entities began to market themselves as knights in cyber shining armor, ready to defend otherwise defenseless people whose reputations have been sullied on the Internet Of course these companies charge a fee and place particular emphasis on women who they recognize as potential clients. This article raises three concerns about these businesses. First, these companies have economic incentives to foster conditions online that perpetuate acts of online harassment, as the more harassment there is online, the greater the number of potential clients. These companies are also incentivized to create fora with hostile climates and to stir up trouble themselves. Second, these companies have economic incentives to oppose legal reforms that might enable online defamation and harassment victims to seek recourse from law enforcement agencies or through the courts. And finally, though they cloak themselves in the mantel of protectors of the innocent, their real agenda is to sell their services to wealthy corporations and individuals for far more nefarious purposes: to help bad actors hide negative information about themselves. This practice creates information asymmetries that can harm anyone who detrimentally relies on what they incorrectly assume to be the best available information and can lead to increases in the sorts of financial losses and personal vulnerability that access to unmanipulated Internet search results might otherwise reduce.

Internet Defamation as Profit Center: The Monetization of Online Harassment

Abstract: Efforts to decrease the sexist aspects of online fora have been largely ineffective, and in some instances seemingly counterproductive, in the sense that they have provoked even greater amounts of abuse and harassment with a gendered aspect. And so, in the wake of a series of high profile episodes of cyber sexual harassment, and a grotesque abundance of low profile ones, a new business model was launched. Promising to clean up and monitor online information to defuse the visible impact of coordinated harassment campaigns, a number of entities began to market themselves as knights in cyber shining armor, ready to defend otherwise defenseless people whose reputations have been sullied on the Internet Of course these companies charge a fee and place particular emphasis on women who they recognize as potential clients. This article raises three concerns about these businesses. First, these companies have economic incentives to foster conditions online that perpetuate acts of online harassment, as the more harassment there is online, the greater the number of potential clients. These companies are also incentivized to create fora with hostile climates and to stir up trouble themselves. Second, these companies have economic incentives to oppose legal reforms that might enable online defamation and harassment victims to seek recourse from law enforcement agencies or through the courts. And finally, though they cloak themselves in the mantel of protectors of the innocent, their real agenda is to sell their services to wealthy corporations and individuals for far more nefarious purposes: to help bad actors hide negative information about themselves. This practice creates information asymmetries that can harm anyone who detrimentally relies on what they incorrectly assume to be the best available information and can lead to increases in the sorts of financial losses and personal vulnerability that access to unmanipulated Internet search results might otherwise reduce.

Fair Use and the Fairer Sex: Gender, Feminism, and Copyright Law

Abstract: Copyright laws are written and enforced to help certain groups of people assert and retain control over the resources generated by creative productivity. Because those people are predominantly male, the copyright infrastructure plays a role, largely unexamined by legal scholars, in helping to sustain the material and economic inequality between women and men. This essay considers some of the ways in which gender issues and copyright laws intersect, proposes a feminist critique of the copyright legal regime which advocates low levels of copyright protections, and asserts the importance of considering the social and economic disparities between women and men when evaluating the impacts and performance of intellectual property laws.

When Bias is Bipartisan: Teaching about the Democratic Process in an Intellectual Property Law Republic

Abstract: This essay asserts that intellectual property law courses offer law professors the opportunity to teach subject areas rich with complicated statutory and court-made doctrines about which students do not usually have strong or extensively delineated moral views, giving everyone in the classroom a refreshing break from the traditional partisanship of political party politics. It explains that the politics of intellectual property law are somewhat insulated from traditional political party divisions, and as a result, learning copyright law, patent law and trademark law can give students the opportunity to think through complex issues with few concerns about political bias, leading to more open minded grappling with contextual issues of fairness, rights balancing, and social welfare than may be possible with other controversial legal topics.

Likelihood of Confusion

Abstract: The primary objective of this Article is to illustrate the tendency of judges to inappropriately rely on personal intuition and subjective, internalized stereotypes when ruling on trademark disputes. Where jurists perceive consumers as ludicrously easily confused, trademark holders can exploit these views to secure broad trademark "rights," often without offering a shred of evidentiary corroboration concerning such confusion. As a consequence, the proof required to support allegations that a trademark usage creates a likelihood of confusion is potentially lessened in all cases, making trademarks normatively stronger, broader, and ever easier to "protect" for mark holders. Whether consumers realistically benefit from this, in terms of avoiding future confusion, seems highly questionable, especially if they were never actually bewildered or fooled in the first place. Where judges find defendants' unauthorized uses of a trademark repugnant, such as in the context of ribald parodic sexual allusions, they are especially willing to find likelihood of confusion, often in circumstances where actual confusion, as most lay people understand the term, is improbable enough to render such decisions facially absurd. However, when judges find a plaintiff's marked product deserving of derision or ridicule, they are more likely to endorse the concept that free speech rights can supersede the interests of trademark owners. Judicial biases result in inconsistent approaches to balancing speech rights against trademark interests, which in turn foment uncertainty and unfairness. Trademark rights should not be strengthened and expanded by reliance on unproven and demonstrably incorrect allegations about the ignorance, poor reasoning, and deficient observational powers of the public, nor should trademark rights be calibrated by how appalling or appealing a judge finds a product or service. If trademark holders are to be broadly privileged by the courts without explicit direction by Congress, then an alternative doctrinal justification to protecting consumers is required, and the resulting protections should adhere fairly consistently to all similarly situated trademarks. Part II of this Article discusses the foundation and development of pertinent aspects of trademark law and policy, and asserts that the true intended and actual beneficiaries of the Lanham Act are trademark holders, rather than consumers. Part III explains the importance of context in trademark law, especially with regard to assessments of the likelihood of consumer confusion in trademark infringement actions. The use of consumer confusion analysis in trademark dilution cases is also critiqued. In Part IV, the extreme and problematic subjectivity of the likelihood of confusion inquiry is explained and illustrated, as is the tendency of judges to assume that consumers are naive and stupid. Special emphasis is given to the consequences of gender and class stereotyping by judges, with respect to trademark infringement analyses and case outcomes. Part V charts the impact that the substantive defects in trademark jurisprudence identified by the previous portions of the Article have upon freedom of speech when trademark holders object to unauthorized communicative uses of their marks. Finally, Part VI concludes that all consumers should be presumed reasonably prudent, and all trademarks should be treated in a gender and class neutral manner.

Online incivility or sexual harassment? Conceptualising women's experiences in the digital age

Abstract: Synopsis Launched in 2006, the growth of Twitter as a microblogging platform has been exponential, yet little research to date specifically considers women's experiences of the medium. This article draws on a case study of the #mencallmethings hashtag, in which women describe and discuss the verbal abuse that they have received online from men. Providing a broad based context for the specific analysis of the #mencallmethings hashtag, I concentrate on the theoretical contributions made by western feminist research over the last 30 years to embed the aggressive harassment of women online in a wide review of types of threats to women. I argue that the harassment conveyed in the hashtag should be recognised as online sexual harassment , and a form of excluding women's voices from the digital public sphere.

Women in the Legal Profession

Abstract: In recent years, the legal profession has undergone significant change, with rapidly rising numbers of women among its membership. Scholars of legal history, sociology, economics, organizational behavior, and law have examined various dimensions of the feminization of the legal profession. This review traces the parameters of integration and inequality in the careers of women and men in the contemporary legal profession. We document and assess the theoretical explanations of gender inequalities that persist across legal education, hiring, remuneration, promotions, and other professional opportunities in law. We also examine women's responses to their experiences and women's impact on the law and the profession.

Histories of Hating

Abstract: This roundtable discussion presents a dialogue between digital culture scholars on the seemingly increased presence of hating and hate speech online. Revolving primarily around the recent #GamerGate campaign of intensely misogynistic discourse aimed at women in video games, the discussion suggests that the current moment for hate online needs to be situated historically. From the perspective of intersecting cultural histories of hate speech, discrimination, and networked communication, we interrogate the ontological specificity of online hating before going on to explore potential responses to the harmful consequences of hateful speech. Finally, a research agenda for furthering the historical understandings of contemporary online hating is suggested in order to address the urgent need for scholarly interventions into the exclusionary cultures of networked media.

Introduction to the First Edition

Abstract: The major problems of modern software involve finding effective techniques and tools for organizing and maintaining large, complex programs. The key concept in modern programming for controlling complexity is abstraction, that is, selective emphasis on detail. This monograph discusses how the Ada programming language provides ways to support and exploit such abstraction techniques.

Afterword: critical information studies

Abstract: This paper takes measure of an emerging scholarly field that sits at the intersection of many important areas of study. Critical Information Studies (CIS) considers the ways in which culture and information are regulated by their relationship to commerce, creativity, and other human affairs. CIS captures the variety of approaches and bodies of knowledge needed to make sense of important phenomena such as copyright policy, electronic voting, encryption, the state of libraries, the preservation of ancient cultural traditions, and markets for cultural production. It necessarily stretches to a wide array of scholarly subjects, employs multiple complementary methodologies, and influences conversations far beyond the gates of the university. Economists, sociologists, linguists, anthropologists, ethnomusicologists, communication scholars, lawyers, computer scientists, philosophers, and librarians have all contributed to this field, and thus it can serve as a model for how engaged, relevant scholarship might be c...