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CMLawLibraryBlog

The CM Law Library Blog seeks to inform the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law community about key legal education, research, practice, and law library news, with a particular focus on Cuyahoga County and Ohio as well as faculty research interests.

Policing Social Networks

Jessica Mathewson-Library Media Technical Asst.-jessica.mathewson@law.csuohio.edu | June 05, 2008 - 16:03

The UK is considering tightening the reins of social networks, such as Facebook and MySpace. A study recently conducted asked if there should be tighter regulation of social networks. According to the Guardian, 89% of those polled said they want rules to prevent personal information from being abused. The PCC (Press Complaints Commission), which monitors internet and video content in the UK, warns people of the dangers of posting information online and of possible consequences when doing so.

The EU is also considering increased restrictions on social networks. Their internet security agency, ENISA, is expanding its legislation to cover photos taken then posted online. Both the UK and EU agencies believe people need to be educated on how these networks actually work and know that it is difficult to get information off the Internet once it is online.

So where, oh where is the US on this issue? Well, our legislation is geared more toward the safety of children, such as the Deleting Online Predators Act. This was later expanded to include social networks.

What are the ramifications of policing social networks? Any regulation enacted would affect the entire industry. While Facebook and MySpace are the giants in this field, there are smaller networks such as, Ning, which will be effected as well. These restrictions may also affect business type networks, such as Linkedin. In addition to affecting other networks, usage will be affected. People will use or not use these types of media if they know they are being watched or listened to, especially regarding personal matters.

What implications do you foresee for regulating social networks?


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Ohio Law Says No Property Right to Organs Removed During Autopsies

Amy Burchfield, Access & Faculty Services Librarian amy.burchfield@law.csuohio.edu | June 05, 2008 - 15:45

Today the Supreme Court of Ohio ruled that the next of kin of a deceased person upon whom an autopsy has been performed does not a have a property right in the decedent’s organs that have been removed during the autopsy. [Albrecht v. Treon, Slip Onion No. 2008-Ohio-2617 – full text opinion and opinion summary]

The case, a class action suit brought against coroners and/or medical examiners in 87 Ohio’s 88 counties, originated from a single suit involving the brain of a deceased person which had been removed during autopsy. The brain was not returned with the rest of the body to the next of kin and was subsequently disposed of after the autopsy by the coroner.

The ruling also applies to tissues, blood, or other body parts removed during the course of an autopsy.


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Can you trust your yogurt?

Amy Burchfield, Access & Faculty Services Librarian amy.burchfield@law.csuohio.edu | June 05, 2008 - 10:48

While I stood there reviewing the stack of newly-arrived law reviews waiting to be shelved in the library, I didn’t expect to find an article that led me to question the veracity of my breakfast. But the law is a wide and wonderful thing, and there it was—and article on untrustworthy yogurt in the latest issue of Food and Drug Law Journal [online resource]. Ms. Leah A. Satine has written a fascinating article entitled “Is My Yogurt Lying? Developing and Applying a Framework for Determining Whether Wellness Claims on Probiotic Yogurts Mislead” [63 Food & Drug L.J. 537] that takes a critical look at the health claims of everyone’s favorite fermented dairy product.

Food and drug law (and the overlap between the two) is a major practice and scholarship area. For further research ideas, try the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s searchable database of Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations (dealing with all aspects of food and drugs) or browse through the Food Law Prof Blog.

So my yogurt couldn’t pass a polygraph. Does this implicate the fruit?


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