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Do Copyright Professors Pay Attention to Economists?: How Empirical Evidence on Copyright Piracy Appears (or Not) in Law Literature
Get PDFOne of the great empirical questions of early 21st century intellectual property has been whether online copyright infringement causes harm to authorized sales of copyrighted works.
Beginning in 2003, economists turned their attention to studying this question empirically. As of early 2022, there have been 34 empirical studies published in peer-review journals on whether online copyright infringement harms authorized distribution of copyrighted works. Of these 34 studies, 29 have found that online copyright infringement causes statistically significant harm to legitimate sales. Only five (5) peer-reviewed studies found no harm to legitimate sales. Given the weight of empirical studies, it is fair to say that there is a consensus among economists that online copyright infringement does harm legitimate sales of copyrighted works. That consensus is reflected in the economics/management literature, where a supermajority (78%) of citations are to papers finding statistically and economically significant harm from copyright piracy.
But the world seen through law reviews tells a different story: in the law literature a majority of citations are to the five papers finding no harm, with almost half of all citations being to just one 2007 study finding no harm. Most of the 29 studies finding statistically and economically significant harm from copyright piracy are ignored in the law literature.
The paper discusses different possible explanations, including how citations beget citations in law literature, whether law academics are insensitive to the importance of peer-review, the false objectivity of “both sidesism,” and the possibility of ideological preferences shaping citations
Protecting Protectionism in the WTO: A Reinterpretation of the General Exceptions to Protect the IRA's Local Content Requirements
Get PDFThe Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA), as part of the largest in-vestment the United States has made to mitigate climate change to date, amended the United States Internal Revenue Code to reduce the cost of shifting toward renewable energy. Specifically, the IRA expands tax credits available to taxpayers who invest in or produce clean energy and provides a new consumer tax credit for electric vehicles. However, the IRA has come under fire from U.S. trading partners because some of these tax credits contain local content requirements (LCRs)— that is, the Act requires beneficiaries to source products or materials domesti-cally in order to receive the full benefit. Several foreign governments have claimed that the IRA’s use of LCRs violates World Trade Organiza-tion (WTO) agreements to which the U.S. is a party. If another member of the WTO lodges a formal complaint with the WTO and the U.S. re-ceives an adverse ruling, the U.S. could be ordered to repeal the IRA or face sanctions, which would severely hamper U.S. and global efforts to meet emissions goals. Moreover, LCRs could be a very useful tool for countries other than the U.S. to use to facilitate the growth of prosper-ous new renewable energy industries, something essential to sustaina-bly avoiding climate catastrophe. This Note reviews the WTO rules which the IRA may violate and finds that the IRA would not pass muster under prevailing interpretations of WTO agreements. However, evi-dence in the relevant WTO agreements support an alternative that would allow the IRA to survive. This Note proposes such an interpreta-tion and argues that it would be prudent for the WTO to adopt it in light of the current climate crisis. 
The KGB’s Black Box: Intelligence Operations and Bias in the People’s Republic of China
No full textThe Soviet Union's intelligence operations in China helped to fuel tensions between the two communist powers, which were based on analytical biases and the difficulty of operating in China. While the Soviet Union was worried about a potential Chinese attack, it found it hard to penetrate Chinese political circles due to cultural differences and difficulties in recruiting Chinese spies. Prior to the Cold War, Soviet intelligence agencies had an easier time recruiting Chinese nationals as spies, but as the Sino-Soviet split deepened, recruiting agents, penetrating political circles, and making sense of China became more challenging. The Soviet Union's biased analytical framework on China contributed to escalatory tensions and created a feedback loop of distrust. While there are limitations to analyzing leaked USSR official notes carried by a defector, they provide valuable insights into Soviet operations in China. The KGB established its "Line K" department for Chinese espionage and operations, but complained about a chronic shortage of Chinese documents passed along by assets that would enable it to draw serious assessments about the Chinese communist government
Kipling's Manboys and Boymen: Masculinity as Child's Play: An analysis of the representation of masculinity in Rudyard Kipling's short stories through the lens of creative criticism
Get PDFThis thesis delves into the representation of boys and masculinity in Rudyard Kipling’s fiction through the lens of creative criticism. Using the methodology of a thought experiment, the study meditates on whether male characters in Kipling’s nineteenth-century short stories are able to render a mature masculine identity, or whether they exist in a state of half-becoming, as ‘manboys’. The central contention posits that Kipling’s works are devoid of a definitive ‘man’ archetype; instead, they portray characters at varying stages of boyhood, shaping masculinity through skilful engagement in childlike play.
The analysis revolves around select short stories including “The Last of the Stories”, “The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes”, “The Cry of Blood”, “The Mark of the Beast”, “The Man Who Would be King”, “The Story of Muhammed Din”, “Without Benefit of the Clergy”, “Beyond the Pale" and “All the Mowgli Stories”.
Central interpretations in the iconic Raj narratives includes an exposure of the fragility and domestic instability of expatriate culture’s dynamics, behaviours, and institutions. “The Man Who Would Be King” is read as an adventure undertaken by schoolboys. In “Without Benefit of the Clergy” and “Beyond the Pale", this playful masculine existence is intertwined with the awkward problem of first love. Moving between short stories, the study keeps a steady eye on the character of Mowgli from “The Jungle Books”, drawing comparing his development to that of other characters.
Navigating Kipling’s literary terrain has traditionally been a challenging endeavour within academia. However, this piece attends to the complexities of Kipling’s expansive imaginative realm. By redefining masculinity through the lens of playful mastery, this study intends a nuanced interpretation of several of his male characters, contributing to broader critical conversations surrounding gender, coloniality, childhood and psychoanalytic approaches to Literature
Order and Disorder: the Governance of the Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong during the late 20th Century
Get PDFDue to the high crime activity resulting from the historical legal disputes over the sovereignty between China and Britain, the Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong was often regarded as a place without law and governance. This paper seeks to discover the nature of the governance mechanism of the Kowloon Walled City while dismantling the above claim. The Kowloon Walled City had the Neighborhood Welfare Association serving as the bridge for communication with the British Hong Kong government, which then also provided basic support and services for sanitation. In addition, many of the past scholarship argued that the Kowloon Walled City as without law and governance, other than the legal dispute, was also due to the intense gangster activities conducted by the triad, mainly the Sun Yee On. However, during the 20th century and before the establishment of the Hong Kong Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), areas under the British Hong Kong government governance were also undergoing the same situation. In this sense, with self-governance from the local Neighborhood Welfare Association, a certain level of intervention from the Hong Kong government, and the fact that gangster activities were a widespread phenomenon, the reality of Kowloon Walled City was not according to the popular imagination. 
Decoding Factors Influencing Mental Health Help-Seeking in Asian International Students: A Correlational Survey Study
Get PDFThis study investigates the effects of gender, age, perceived socioeconomic status, and attitudes toward mental health treatment, alongside the awareness and accessibility of mental health services, on the propensity of Asian international undergraduate and graduate students in U.S. colleges to seek mental health support. Utilizing an online survey, responses from a diverse group of 116 participants, aged 18 and above, from universities across the nation were examined through correlation analysis. Findings indicated no significant gender differences in attitudes toward mental health treatment. However, factors such as higher educational level, superior socioeconomic background, longer U.S. residency, and increased awareness and accessibility of mental health services positively influenced attitudes. This quantitative study extends previous qualitative research addressing similar questions, filling a gap by offering broader empirical insights into this population’s mental health service utilization. The outcome underscores the need for university counseling centers to develop targeted interventions that acknowledge the needs of Asian international students. Future research should explore the longitudinal impacts of these factors on mental health help-seeking behaviors to inform ongoing service improvement
A topological proof of the Riemann–Hurwitz formula
Get PDFThe Riemann–Hurwitz formula is generally given as a result from algebraic geometry that provides a means of constraining branched covers of surfaces via their Euler characteristic. By restricting to the special case of compact Riemann surfaces, we develop an alternative proof of the formula that draws on topology and manifold theory as opposed to more advanced algebraic machinery. We first discuss the foundation in manifold theory, defining Riemann surfaces and providing an example of the complex projective line. We then discuss the local topological structure of holomorphic maps between Riemann surfaces, introducing the notion of a branched cover and of branch points. Next, we discuss triangulations of a topological space and use this to intro- duce the Euler characteristic of Riemann surfaces. Using these definitions, we explicate and prove the Riemann–Hurwitz formula on compact Riemann surfaces. To conclude, we discuss consequences of this formula for adjacent fields such as algebraic topology. We provide visual intuition and examples throughout, drawing primarily on Szameuly’s Galois Groups and Fundamental Groups (2009), as well as Forster’s Lectures on Riemann Surfaces (1981), Guillemin and Pollack’s Differential Topology (1974), and a few other supplementary sources. The main prerequisite for this paper is a background in topology and covering spaces
Dilemma between Economic Incentives and the Public Provision of Welfare: SER Trade-offs in China’s economic development and its healthcare reforms, 1979~2022
Get PDFChina experienced drastic economic development over the past decades, beginning with its Open-Door policy in the 1980s which led to its entrance into the world capitalist liberal trade economy. Throughout the process, both the public and private sectors underwent substantial structural reforms and transformations which led to changes in the citizens’ lives in relation to their access to social welfare and services. As a country that has ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), China’s healthcare system will be examined in this paper under the extent to which it has fulfilled the state’s obligations discussed by the ICESCR regarding the principles of substantive equality and non-discrimination. A comparison will be made between rural and urban areas’ healthcare provisions, and the population of rural migrant workers who work in urban areas will be of special concern
Revising the ICESCR’s individual complaint mechanism: the transformative potential of a right to a “dignified minimum existence” for the CESCR’s standards of review.
Get PDFDrawing from an analysis of Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court’s (FCC), the South African Constitutional Court’s (SACC), and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ (IACtHR) jurisprudence, this paper will assess whether their respective methods of adjudication of the right to a dignified minimum existence provide promising alternatives to the CESCR’s current standards of review (the ‘minimum core’ approach and the ‘reasonableness test.’) More precisely, this paper will weigh on the following interrogation: how might the adoption of the right to a dignified minimum existence advance the CESCR’s standards of review for individual complaints?
This essay will first analyze how the non-quantifiable and abstract character of this right could offer the CESCR the possibility to circumvent the practical requirements imposed by a ‘minimum core’ approach (I); before delving into the right’s potential to re-model the ‘reasonableness test’ to help inform the CESCR’s adjudicative methodology when assessing individual complaints indicative of highly precarious circumstances (II)
Challenges Between and Within Rural Minority Demographics
No full textRural minorities in America are in poorer health compared to other demo-graphics, as illustrated by deficits in several health metrics. Such deficits are great in magnitude and temporally persistent. Furthermore, the unrecognized diversity of rural areas means that these deficits affect a larger proportion of rural areas than convention-al stereotype dictates. This review analyzes existing research to characterize the health of rural minorities, focusing on specific challenges and elucidating recurring themes that arise within and between minorities. Specific demographics were chosen for in-depth analysis based on prominence in nonmetropolitan areas, utility as case studies, and availability and quality of research. Population-specific analyses delineate themes that apply across demographics as well as challenges specific to each group, revealing the complexity of rural minority health. Analysis elucidates some key themes surrounding rural minority health. The invisibility of these demographics underlies many surface-level issues such as ineffective interventions and the underfunding of health organizations. Social context also plays a great yet underappreciated role in health, lending complex-ity to this issue through unique demographic-specific challenges. Above all, knowledge gaps are one of the most impactful and long-staying factors affecting rural minorities, impeding solutions and promoting disparity through ignorance on the part of both policy-makers and providers