UbiComp
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Initial Background Reading/Watching List
- JZ Blog Link on UbiComp
- Background: JZ's paper on ubiquitous computing
- On Westlaw: 17-WINTER INTLHRJ 2
- Interesting background on concept of "homeshoring", focuses on LiveOps
Present Day Doctrinal Problem Areas
- American Business Law Journal: The Information Revolution and its Impact on the Employment Relationship: An Analysis of the Cyberspace Workplace
- This is a fantastic survey paper on the many issues raised with employment law in combination with cyber-workers.
- This article seems to assume that cyberworkers will still be working in the United States, but this seems like an unrealistic assumption
- Written in 2003, around the time LiveOps launched (2000)
- Citation: 40 AMBLJ 301
- Section II of this article examines how working over the internet blurs/challenges current law about the employee/contractor distinction.
- "Under the right-of-control test, an employee is not an independent contractor if the employer has the ability to control the time, method, and manner of employment"
- Section IV of this article examines how cyber-working affects non-compete agreements and copyright considerations (such as works-for-hire)
- "The Internet exacerbates this tension by raising previously unheard of issues in drafting and enforcing non-compete agreements."
- Work-for-hire: How does UbiComp affect the work-for-hire test established by Creative Non-Violence v. Reid? ( 490 U.S. 730 (1989) )
- Section V - Employment Regulation
- A: The Burlington/Faragher sexual harassment standard is not clear when applied to cyber-workers
- "The Ninth Circuit held that remoteness will not dilute an employee's obligation to report sexual harassment."
- C: Family Medical Leave Act - depends on employee/independent contractor distinction
- D: Workers Compensation
- E: Fair Labor Standards Act
- F: The National Labor Relations Act
- G: The Occupational Safety & Health Act
- A: The Burlington/Faragher sexual harassment standard is not clear when applied to cyber-workers
- Conclusions
- For employee/contractor distinction, "courts must use the existing and long-standing right-of-control test, but apply it with sensitivity to the unique characteristics of Internet-enabled workplaces."
- As courts evolve toward the Zippo sliding scale, they must set some standard of how much contact remote employment creates between the employee's forum state and the employer.
- Agencies need to adopt specific regulation to deal with cyberworkers
- "When regulatory guidance is insufficient, the legislature must act"
- Congress must clarify how unions can organize and communicate in cyberspace in order to protect labor and management rights.
- Case study: Amazon's Mechanical Turk may violate employment/tax laws because the employee-employer relationship is between the requester and the worker [1]
Potential Difficult Problems in the Future
- What if UbiComp is used for political lobbying?
- In general, any mass movement could be created using UbiComp
- Could employees "outsource" their own work using UbiComp? [2]
Academic Studies of Amazon Mechanical Turk / UbiComp in General
- Papers that study AMT as a tool:
- Lots of papers about solving specific computer science problems using AMT: