Welcome to Volume VIII, Issue 3, The Richmond Journal of Law & Technology's final issue of the 2001-2002 academic year. In this issue, the Journal breaks from tradition for the second time this year and presents its readers with a unique reading experience. Because we received a wealth of outstanding student submissions, we decided to dedicate this installment of the Journal to those students we feel have presented us with particularly outstanding and insightful pieces. We hope you will enjoy them as much as we did.
On the whole, the Journal has had an exciting and eventful year. As in years past, we received numerous requests for reprints of past articles for classroom and other academic uses, and have continued to experience a high volume of worldwide reader interest. Also, as a result of the continued growth of the Journal, and law school in general, the Journal moved to a new location within the school. While the prospect of moving our entire operation during the academic year was indeed a daunting one, the law school took great steps to ensure that the transition would go as smoothly as possible. And, in that regard, we would like to take this opportunity to thank the law school for their generosity in presenting the Journal with a beautiful new suite of offices that will help to ensure that the Journal will be able to maintain far into the future the high standard of excellence to which our readers have become accustomed. Finally, the Journal is proud to have teamed up with sponsors McGuire Woods, Barbri, PMBR, and Westlaw to host the First Biennial Richmond Journal of Law & Technology Student Writing Contest. The contest was open to all full time students from every ABA accredited law school in the United States. The resulting submissions provided us with some very interesting and commendable work. At this writing, our judging panel is in the process of naming the winners of the competition, and our readers will be able to read the work of the first place winner in the first issue of volume IX in the fall of 2002.
While the submissions to the writing contest were indeed of very high quality, the Journal is proud to present some equally outstanding student work in this issue. Our first piece is Catherine M. Barrett's comment, entitled FBI Internet Surveillance: The Need for a Natural Rights Application of the Fourth Amendment to Insure Internet Privacy. In this comment, Ms. Barrett questions the standards currently employed to allow the FBI to use its Carnivore e-mail and Internet surveillance technology to track persons suspected of criminal activity and argues that a natural rights rather than a context-based approach should be used to judge Internet users' rights to privacy. In the second offering, Bloom v. Commonwealth: Identifying the Face Behind the Instant Message, Jessica C. Cobaugh examines the evidentiary problems inherent in the prosecution of Internet criminals who use instant messaging software to meet and prey upon young children. Ms. Cobaugh explores the effectiveness of applying the evidentiary standards used for the admission of telephone communications to Internet sources and examines case law to hypothesize what effect these decisions will have on future cases. The third piece in this issue is Mark R. Colombell's comment, entitled The Legislative Response to the Evolution of Computer Viruses. In this comment, Mr. Colombell traces the evolution of federal legal responses to computer viruses, explains where and why these responses have been ineffective, and looks at state legislation enacted to fill the gaps in the federal laws. In addition, Mr. Colombell briefly discusses the concerns of international lawmakers in this area and addresses the civil remedies available to victims of computer viruses. The fourth and final comment is The Legal Implications of Online Universities by Elizabeth D. Kaiser. In her comment, Ms. Kaiser addresses copyright concerns, federal subsidy of broadband access, and student financial aid as they apply to online universities. Ms. Kaiser concludes that the current state of online universities favors wealthier children, deprives access to less wealthy students, and raises copyright concerns that hamper the potential and intent of these institutions.
On behalf of the editorial board and journal staff, I would like to thank you, our readers, for your continued loyalty and support. As outgoing Editor-in-Chief, I am very proud to have been associated with a publication of such high caliber, and to have had the opportunity to help bring you insightful, interesting, and educational works for your pleasure and edification. And, I am confident that this trend will continue in Volume IX with our new Editorial Board under the capable direction of our incoming Editor-in-Chief, John Meadows. The new board already has great things planned for Volume IX, and we are all confident that the Journal will enjoy continued success and growth in 2002-2003.
As always, we welcome your questions and comments at jolt@richmond.edu. Thank you again for your patronage and continued support of the Journal.
Paul A. Fritzinger
Editor-in-Chief
April 17, 2002