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Introduction

The goal of this course is primarily to introduce you to a representative subset of the legal problems that lawyers are addressing and will continue to address in this new environment. Coverage is by no means comprehensive; there are many interesting and important areas within the rapidly developing "law of cyberspace" -- such as the law of online contracts, the regulation of encryption technology, new questions about the privacy of online activities, and many others -- that we will not have a chance to discuss in any detail.

Helping you to produce high quality written work is an important secondary goal of the course; we will, therefore, spend a significant amount of time on those written assignments (about which, more below).

Third, I would hope that, in the course of your work this semester, you will become more comfortable with the information retrieval and transmission capabilities of this new medium, both because no discussion of the "law of cyberspace" can be very fruitful without some basic understanding of the special characteristics of the new domain, and because lawyers will increasingly be called upon to demonstrate some familiarity with Internet navigation as businesses (including law firms) increasingly utilize the global network as a means of delivering their services.
 

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Some Course Housekeeping Details

The class meets on Monday from 4-6 PM
My office hours are Mondays, 1:30 - 4 PM.  I'm always happy to meet with you at another mutually convenient time. Please use any of the following methods to contact me to set up an appointment:

Phone: 204-4539

Email: Postd@erols.com Or Dpost@vm.temple.edu

You can communicate with me, and the other members of the class, through the class listserver, or "mail reflector," that we have set up. See description below.
 

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Course Requirements

You must sign up for the listserver as part of the course requirements. I will not require (or grade) participation on the listserver itself -- but I think you will find it a useful adjunct to our class meetings, and helpful to you in completing the course assignments. 

Subscribing to the Listserver

To subscribe to the listserver, send an email message to

The message should contain, in the BODY of the message (NOT the subject line) the words:

substituting your own first and last name where indicated. So, for example, if your name is "John Smith," your message would consist entirely of the following

Once you have subscribed as above, you send messages to the listserver by using the address

Any message you send to this address will be distributed to all of the listserver subscribers.

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Writing Assignments

Due dates for these assignments are not flexible; you must get assignments in on time, for reasons that will become clear in a moment. On the due date for Assignments 2, 3, and 4  -- assignment #1 is different -- I will hand each of you someone else's paper at the end of class.  You are responsible for editing that paper and returning it to the author by the date specified.  After you receive back your own paper as edited by one of your fellow students, you will then prepare a revised [and final] version to be handed in on the date specified below. For each of these assignments (nos. 2, 3, and 4), you are to hand in all (3) versions of your paper -- your first version, the copy as edited by your fellow-student, and your final revised version.

Assignment 1 [Due Sept. 13]

"Alice: Someone here just told me that our Internet Service Provider -- SmallNet, an ISP located here in Philadelphia -- is being threatened with something called the "Usenet Death Penalty." What the heck is that? Should I be worried about that? We've started to do a fair bit of business off of our web site (which is hosted by SmallNet) -- is this "Death Penalty" thing going to mean that customers can't get at our web site? I'll give you a call tomorrow to talk about this -- /s/Bob"

Alice -- who is, to put it charitably, not very comfortable with technical matters -- wants some "talking points" for her phone call with Bob tomorrow. Specifically, she'd like a brief memo -- short and to the point, one page, maximum -- explaining (a) what "Usenet" is, (b) what the "Usenet death penalty" is, and (c) whether there will there be any interference with Small Stuff's web site if the "death penalty" is imposed. [See my basic form laying out a proposed structure for this memo]

Alice is going to be out of town until September 13.  She asks all of you to collaborate on a single memo that you will give to her on her return.

Due date  September 13 [Class 2]

Some research hints. One of the purposes of this assignment is to familiarize you with some of the tools for retrieving information about the Internet on the Internet itself. Descriptions of Usenet can be found in the readings below, but I do not believe that any of the listed readings contain any information about the Usenet Death Penalty. To obtain information about the UDP, you will need (I think) to spend some time online. You should spend some time searching both at one of the commercial legal online services (i.e., Lexis and Westlaw), as well as on the World Wide Web. For the latter purpose, you might find the list of search engines, and other Legal Resources on the World Wide Web listed in Appendix 1. Please keep track, at least in a general way, of the steps you took to find whatever information you come up with -- we will spend at least some time in class talking about the process of finding information on the Web.

The collaborative process is likely to be difficult.  This assignment is also designed to introduce you to the problem of "collective action."  How does a group of people, mostly strangers to one another, decide on a single course of action to take as a group?  What are the rules?  Who gets to set the rules?  Do you need rules?  What do you do about "free riders," i.e. people who sit back and allow others to do all the work in putting the memo together?  Would meeting in person help?  Who decides that?  Etc., etc., etc.  It is a difficult problem, and I will want to spend some time after you hand in the memo talking about the process by which it was produced and how you did, or did not, solve these problems.  Although the connection to Cyberspace Law in all this may appear obscure, it is actually a deep one, and one that we will explore a bit more later in the semester.

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Assignment 2 -- Due October 4

The head of the company, Ms. Johnson, tells you that they tried, a few months ago, to register the domain name "imagination.com," with Internic, but they found that it had already been registered to Imagination Systems, Inc., a Virginia-based software firm. [You can visit the website at http://www.imagination.com]. Ms Johnson would like to know (a) if there is anything she can do to get the domain name registered to her company, and (b) whether she has a viable claim of trademark infringement against Imagination Systems, Inc.

You are to prepare a short memorandum for Ms. Johnson (3 pages maximum) on whether or not they can raise a claim of trademark infringement. Note: you may assume whatever facts you would like (e.g., about the business operations of the two companies, whether or not either has received a trademark registration, but you must identify those assumptions clearly and expressly at the beginning of your memo. [See my basic form laying out the proposed structure for this memo]

Due date for first version: October 4 [class 5]
Due dates for edits: October 11 [class 6]
Due date for revised version: October 18 [class 7]
Review in class: October 25 [class 8]

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Assignment #3 -- Due October 25

Billton is quite upset; the Philadelphia Inquirer has picked up the story, and his political career, he believes, is in some jeopardy as a result of the publicity surrounding these charges. He claims that the allegations are blatantly, and completely, false. He asks you to advise him on whether he can sue "Monster," and/or Bignet, for defamation. You have persuaded him that the first order of business is to write a letter to the general counsel of Bignet, Laura Lawyer, requesting that they immediately terminate "Monster"'s account, and delete the offending web pages from their system. Please draft that letter [4 pages maximum].
 [See my basic form laying out the proposed structure for this memo]

Due date for first version: October 25 [class 8]
Due dates for edits: November 1 [class 9]
Due date for revised version: November 8 [class 10]
Review in class: November 15 [class 11]

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Assignment #4 -- Due November 15

Last week, your office received notice that Temple has been sued in federal court (in the district of North Dakota) by a resident of North Dakota, Alan Author, for copyright infringement; according to the complaint, one of Temple's professors has posted an electronic version of one of Author's books at the professor's course web page.

University counsel -- i.e., your boss -- wants to submit a motion to dismiss this suit on grounds that the North Dakota court does not possess personal jurisdiction over Temple University. Please prepare a memorandum of points and authorities in support of that motion (8 pages maximum).

Due date for first version: November 15 [class 11]
Due dates for edits: November 22 [class 12]
Due date for revised version: November 29 [Class 13]

[You might be interested in taking a look at an actual memo accompanying a motion to dismiss on grounds of insufficient "Internet contacts," filed by Bruce McCullough of McCullough & McKenty of Wilmington, DE, at http://www.adbility.com/welch_memo.htm

The motion to dismiss itself is at http://www.adbility.com/welch_motion.htm.  The Complaint can be found at http://www.smartbotpro.net/welch.html.  And a little bit about the case (from the *defendant's* perspective, at least) can be found at http://www.markwelch.com/wallace.htm.

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Schedule

Syllabus/Readings

Introduction to Cyberspace

Class 1 [August 23]

Class 2: What is Cyberspace? [September 13]

People often use the terms "cyberspace" and "the Internet" interchangeably. This is probably unfortunate; I think it is most helpful to think of cyberspace as the aggregate of digital computer networks worldwide, and to think of "the Internet" as but one component of that aggregate, one particular network that has its own particular characteristics and features. Be that as it may, it is clear that the Internet is, at least, an enormously important part of the global cyberspace, and we will spend some time in this class discussing its basic features.

• Findings of Fact, ACLU v. Reno (929 FSupp 824 ED Pa. 1996) This decision, handed down by a special three-judge panel, overturned the "indecency" provisions in the Communications Decency Act of 1996.  We will be examining the legal issues in this case in a subsequent class.  As the court noted, "in order to apprehend the legal questions at issue in these cases, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of the exponentially growing, worldwide medium that is the Internet, which presents unique issues relating to the application of First Amendment jurisprudence and due process requirements to this new and evolving method of communication."  The section entitled "Findings of Fact" (part II of the opinion) remains one of the best sources of background information on the Internet, how it developed, what it is, etc.
• Perritt, Law and the Information Superhighway, Chapter 1 ("NII as a Source of Legal Issues) (On Reserve)
• Barry A. Leiner, et al., A Brief History of the Internet, http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.html

• Christopher Anderson's survey "The Accidental Superhighway," published in the July 1, 1995 issue of The Economist, is a well-written summary of a great deal of information about how the Internet came to be, what it means, and where it might be going. In addition, Hafner and Lyon's Where Wizards Stay Up Late is a wonderful and eminently readable treatment of the origins of the Internet and the rather interesting folks who brought it into being; well worth reading.
• EFF's Extended Guide to the Internet  A bit out of date (revised last in 1994), and containing much more than you'd ever really want to know about the various applications (e-mail, telnet, gopher, world wide web, etc.) available on the Internet, but still a useful reference work.
• The U.S. Department of Interior has put together a very helpful set of Internet 'tours' at their web site You may find different tours more or less helpful, depending on your own level of technical sophistication and taste; I have found John December's Internet Basics, and Patrick Crispen's Internet Roadmap, to be very helpful and very clear.
• What is the Internet, Anyway? RFC 1935, John S. Quarterman, Smoot Carl-Mitchell [a bit on the technical side, but a good summary]
• Krol & Hoffman, FYI on "What is the Internet?", RFC 1462
• Request for Comments (RFC) 1958: Architectural Principles of the Internet,http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/htbin/rfc/rfc1958.html
• The "Introduction" in Stuckey, Internet and Online Law, is a good (though brief) summary
• Johnson-Laird, "Doing Business on the Internet" (in Baumgarten et al., "Online Law: Emerging Legal and Business Issues" (On Reserve); another good (and non-technical) summary of the Internet's major design features

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Class 3: How does the Domain Name System Work? [September 20]

First, obtaining a "name" and "address" on the Internet is a pre-requisite for any other Internet-related activity; without an Internet domain name (and a corresponding "IP address"), one cannot "enter" this environment. The process by which names and addresses are allocated is thus fundamental to the functioning of the system as a whole; how does that process work? Who runs the naming system?

Second, many of the disputes over Internet activity (at least those that have reached a courtroom) focus on that naming process (not surprisingly, given the significance of that process).

Third, the domain name system is in some turmoil at the moment, as the United States government seeks some way to both divest itself of responsibility for operation of the system and to keep the Internet functioning in an "stable" manner.

Focus, in your reading, on the mechanics of the domain name system -- how does it work and how did it get that way? We will have occasion to discuss the interrelationships between the DNS and trademark law in the next class. Be prepared to discuss the Commerce Department's proposal (outlined in the first reading below); you might have to return to that reading after you have read some of the other introductory material listed and gotten a better understanding of the DNS.

Readings

• US Department of Commerce, "Management of Internet Names and Addresses," ("White Paper, June 1998). The material in the section labeled "Background" is an extremely good summary of the current functioning of the domain name system
• David Post, Governing Cyberspace, or Where is James Madison When We Need Him?, (June 1999) (especially the first section, which contains a brief but helpful description of how domain names function)
• Shaw, Internet Domain Names: Whose Domain is This? A good summary of the operation of the DNS. See especially the sections labeled "Introduction" and "The Domain Name System."
• Loundy, David, A Primer on Trademark Law and Internet Addresses, 15 John Marshall J. of Computer and Info. Law 465 (1997) Sections I - III describe and summarize the main features of the DNS; we will cover the remainder of the material Loundy discusses (regarding trademark law) in our next class.
• The Domain Name Handbook Site has a wealth of material about the (relatively) technical side of domain names.

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Class 4: PROPERTY IN CYBERSPACE, I  [September 27]

Trademarks

Readings for Class 4 (Sept 27)

• Loundy, David, A Primer on Trademark Law and Internet Addresses, 15 John Marshall J. of Computer and Info. Law 465 (1997)
• Burk, Trademarks Along the Infobahn: A First look at the Emerging Law of Cybermarks, Richmond Journal of Law & Technology
• Perritt, Law and the Information Superhighway, Sections 10.11 - 10.14 (Reserve)

Sally M. Abel and Connie L. Ellerbach, Trademark Issues in Cyberspace: The Brave New Frontier, November 7, 1997, http://www.fenwick.com/pub/trademark_issues_in_cyberspace.htm

The above are particularly helpful if you are unfamiliar with the basics of trademark law and need to review general principles. [Another useful source of basic information about trademark law is the Patent and Trademark Office Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Trademarks site.

• Panavision v Toeppen, 141 F.3d 1316 (1998) (9th Cir 1998) [you can skim or omit the material on personal jurisdiction, a subject we will deal with later in the semester]
• Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc., v. Bucci (SDNY 1997)
• Brookfield v. West Coast Video, ___ F.3d ___ (9th Cir. 1999)
• Porsche Cars North America, Inc. v. Porsch.com, 1999 WL 378360, (E.D.Va., Jan. 6, 1999), (Suing domain names in rem, instead of cyber squatter in personam).
• Juno Online Services v. Juno Lighting (ND Ill, 1997)

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Class 5 [October 4] :  PROPERTY IN CYBERSPACE, CONTINUED:  Copyright Liability in Cyberspace

If you are unfamiliar with the basics of copyright law, you must look at at least one of the following general references:

• Perritt, Law and the Information Superhighway, Sections 10.1 - 10.10 (reserve)
• Pamela Sameulson's Copyright Tutorial, and Terry Carroll's Copyright FAQ  are outstanding online overviews of copyright law, as is the Copyright Basics tutorial at the Library of Congress web site.
• Field, Intellectual Property: The Practical and Legal Fundamentals Field's discussion of copyright is at a fairly general level, but you might also find it a useful starting point.
• David G. Post & Thomas R. Trempus,  An Introduction to Copyright Law  [outline prepared to Penn. Bar Institute seminar on Internet Law, April 1998]
• Chapter 6 ("Copyright") in Stuckey, "Internet and Online Law" [reserve]

• Religious Technology Center v Netcom 907 F.Supp 1361 (ND CA 1995)
• Playboy v. Frena, 839 F.Supp 1552 (MD Fl 1993)
• Sega v. Maphia, 857 F.Supp 679 (NDCa 1994)

 

 

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"), Public Law 105-304 (1998), made significant and substantial changes in the law of contributory infrongement for online service providers.  Take a look at Sec. 202 of that Act, entitled "LIMITATIONS ON LIABILITY FOR COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT."  You can find the full text of the DMCA here (PDF format) (as well as here (text) and the here (PDF format)), as well as some excerpts from the DMCA (chosen by me), along with two different summaries of its provisions (one published by the Digital Future Coalition, another by the House of Representatives).

If you are particularly interested in the question why "intermediary liability" is, and will continue to be, such an important question in the context of cyberspace activities, see my (short) piece entitled "The Net Squeeze on the Middleman," and Henry Perritt's (longer and more comprehensive) article on "Jurisdiction in Cyberspace: The role of Intermediaries," in Borders in Cyberspace (B Kahin & C Nesson, eds., 1996) (reserve)

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Class 6 [October 11]:  Copyright in Cyberspace, Continued

    RIAA v. Diamond Multimedia, __ F.3d __ (9^th Cir. 1999)

For general background on mp3 and this dispute, see the following:

• The Secure Digital Music Initiative, http://www.sdmi.org/
• Electronic Frontier Foundation, Consortium for Audiovisual Free Expression, Policy Statement, http://www.eff.org/cafe/EFF_audio_statement.html
• Jessica Litman, Free Speech and Electronic Commerce, http://webserver.law.yale.edu/censor/litman.htm
• Vito Peraino, The Law of Increasing Returns: Memo to the music industry: It's time to listen to the sound of the future, WIRED 7.08 (August 1999), http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.08/[available on Web Aug. 24].
• Reuters, MP3 Search Engine Under Fire, Wired News (March 24, 1999), http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/18688.html
• E-Music, http://www.emusic.com/
• MP3.com, http://www.mp3.com/
• Jaron Lanier, Making an Ally of Piracy, New York Times, (May 9, 1999), http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/05/biztech/articles/09internet-music.html
• NY Times coverage of Music on the Internet, http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/reference/index-music.html
• Wired News’ coverage of MP3, http://www.wired.com/news/news/mpthree/

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Class 7:  [October 18]

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Class 8 [October 25]  Speech in Cyberspace, I: Libel and Defamation

• Cubby v. Compuserve776 F.Supp 135 (SDNY 1991)
• Stratton Oakmont v. Prodigy Services, 23 Media L. Rep. (BNA) ¶ 1794, 1995 N.Y. Misc.LEXIS 229, 1995 WL 323710 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. May 24, 1995)
• Chapter 2 ("Defamation") in Stuckey, "Internet and Online Law" (reserve)
• Perritt, secs 4.1 - 4.5

• Zeran v. America Online, Inc.129 F.3d 327 (4th Cir. 1997)
• Blumenthal v. Drudge and America Online, Inc., 992 F. Supp. 44 (D.D.C. 1998)

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Classes 9 & 10 [November 1 and November 8]: Speech in Cyberspace, II: The First Amendment in Cyberspace

    [You might also want to look at the District Court opinion in the first Reno v. ACLU case; indeed, he latter opinion (by the district court) may be the best place to begin your reading -- largely (though not only) because it contains a clearer discussion of the background First Amendment framework applied to this attempt to stamp out 'indecency' on the Internet; Justice Stevens, the author of the Supreme Court's opinion, is not, shall we say, a big believer in 'doctrine' and his opinion is a bit harder to parse (in my opinion)].

    If you are interested, you might take a look at the Electronic Frontier Foundation's CDA Archive, and/or the material collected at the ACLU site, for background information on this case -- which, as I'm sure you are aware, was the first big cyberspace law case, and which raises very important questions about the scope and meaning of the First Amendment in cyberspace (and, perhaps, elsewhere as well).

    For some (rather acerbic, but well-reasoned) commentary on the Supreme Court's opinion in this case, see Eugene Volokh, Freedom of Speech, Shielding Children, and Transcending Balancing.

    See also Carl Kaplan, NY Times Cyberlaw, A Regretful Tone in Judge's Decision on Internet Pornography, February 5, 1999.

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    The use of filtering software has proven extremely controversial.  In addition to the Lessig article above, see

• American Civil Liberties Union, Farenheit 451.2: Is Cyberspace Burning? How Rating and Blocking Proposals May Torch Free Speech on the Internet (1998)
• Jon Weinberg, Rating the Net 19 HASTINGS COMM/ENT L.J. 453 (1997)
• James Boyle, Foucault in Cyberspace: Surveillance, Soverignty, and Hardwired Censors, __ Cinn. L. Rev. ___,
• Pamela Mendels, NY Times, Filters Increasingly Used, May 12, 1999, http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/05/cyber/education/12education.html
• American Library Association, Statement on Library Use of Filtering Software, http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/filt_stm.html
• W3C, Statement on the Intent and Use of PICS, http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-PICS-Statement

    Another important constitutional issue that has arisen, and will continue to arise, regarding the regulation of cyberspace -- the freedom of States to regulate cyberspace activity in light of restrictions imposed by the so-called "dormant Commerce Clause" -- is explored in the very interesting American Library Association v. Pataki, 969 F. Supp. 160 (SDNY 1997) case and in Dan Burk's "Federalism in Cyberspace."

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Class 11 [November 15]: The Law in Cyberspace, I: Personal Jurisdiction

• Perritt, Law and the Information Superhighway, Sections 12.1 - 12.12 (reserve)
• Take a look at my Outline, and summary of cases, regarding personal jurisdiction
• Slutsky, Jurisdiction over Commerce on the Internet

• Cybersell Inc v. Cybersell Inc. 130 F.3d 414 (9th Cir. 1997)
• Minnesota v. Granite Gates Resorts, Inc.,
• Maritz, Inc. v. CyberGold, Inc., 947 F. Supp. 1328 (E.D. Mo. 1996)
• Bensusan v. King126 F.3d 25 (CA2 1997); you should also look at the district court opinion in this case (937 F. Supp 295 (SDNY 1996)). In what ways is the "rule" emerging from these two opinions different?
• Zippo Manufacturing Company v. Zippo Dot Com, Inc. 952 F.Supp. 1119 (W.D.Pa., 1997)
• Bochan v. La Fontaine, ___ F. Supp.2d ____, May 26, 1999. (AOL subscriber can be sued in Virginia)

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Class 12 [November 22]: The Law in Cyberspace, II:  Governing Cyberspace

    First, some theory.  There are probably about as many models of cyberspace governance as there are authors writing about cyberspace governance, for the Internet has already stimulated some interesting thinking about the nature of governance and governing institutions.  We could easily spend much of the semester examining these issues (though they would probably not have made as much sense to you before we had covered the material we looked at in our prior classes).  It is also difficult to summarize these debates in any coherent way, because I am not sure that they have yet stabilized sufficiently to allow for adequate summarization.

     We'll try, in this class, to talk about these questions in the context of something we looked at earlier in the semester: the reorganization of the Domain Name System.  Although there is considerable disagreement about whether or not this reorganization is about "governing the Internet" in any meaningful sense, it will at least allow us to talk about some of the important and difficult governance questions as they apply to the Internet.
 

• David Post, Governing Cyberspace, or Where is James Madison When We Need Him?, (June 1999), http://www.temple.edu/lawschool/dpost/icann/comment1.html

• Department of Commerce response to letter from the Honorable Tom Bliley regarding DNS issues, http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/blileyrsp.htm
• Exchange of letters between Ralph Nader, James Love, Patrick Greenwell and Esther Dyson regarding ICANN’s governance.

• 1.      Letter from James Love and Ralph Nader  (June 11, 1999), http://www.icann.org/nader-questions.htm
• 2.      Response from Esther Dyson (June 15, 1999), http://www.icann.org/chairman-response.htm
• 3.     Patrick Greenwell's response (undated) http://stealthgeeks.net/nader.html

     Finally, a somewhat haphazard and random collection of writings on the more general question of how conduct on the Internet will, or should, be governed follows:

Sharon Eisner Gillett & Mitchell Kapor, The Self-governing Internet: Coordination by Design (September 1996), http://ccs.mit.edu/papers/CCSWP197/CCSWP197.html

A. Michael Froomkin, Of Governments and Governance [Draft May 1999]

Lawrence Lessig, The Law of the Horse: What Cyberlaw Might Teach, Stanford Law & Technology Working Papers [1997]

David R. Johnson and David Post, Law and Borders - The Rise of Law in Cyberspace, 48 Stanford L Rev 1367 (1996)

Joseph Reagle, Why the Internet is Good:  Community governance that works well [Berkman Center Working Draft]

Joel Reidenberg, Lex Informatica: The Formulation of Information Policy Rules through Technology, 76 Texas L. Rev. 553 (1998) [NB: This link requires a Lexis password and ID]

The "technorealism" project

William J. Clinton and Albert Gore, Jr., The Framework for Global Electronic Commerce (1997), http://www.ecommerce.gov/framewrk.htm

John Perry Barlow, A Declaration of Independence For Cyberspace, (Feb. 8, 1996), http://www.eff.org/~barlow/Declaration-Final.html

A. Michael Froomkin, The Internet as a Source of Regulatory Arbitrage; chapter in Borders in Cyberspace (MIT Press, 1997), http://personal.law.miami.edu/~froomkin/articles/arbitr.htm

Carl Kaplan, NY Times Cyber Law Journal, How to Govern Cyberspace: Frontier Justice or Legal Precedent?, March 27, 1998, http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/03/cyber/cyberlaw/27law.html

David G. Post, "Governing Cyberspace," 43 Wayne Law Review 155 (1997).

Paulina Borsook, How Anarchy Works, Wired Magazine 3.10, (Oct. 1995), http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.10/ietf_pr.html

U.S. Government Working Group On Electronic Commerce, First Annual Report, Nov. 1998, http://www.doc.gov/ecommerce/E-comm.pdf

 

Class 13 [November 29]

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Resources

The following books have been placed on reserve. You might find them generally useful, both for background to the issues we will be addressing here and as a starting point for research on any number of specific topics.

• Henry Perritt, Law and the Information Superhighway
• Cavazos & Morin, Cyberspace and the Law
• M. Ethan Katsh, Law in a Digital World
• Lance Rose, Netlaw
• Kent Stuckey, Internet and Online Law
• Benjamin Wright, The Law of Electronic Commerce, 2nd ed.
• Kahin and Nesson, eds., Borders in cyberspace : information policy and the global information infrastructure
• Jon Baumgarten, Michael Epstein, and Allen Grogan, eds., Online Law: Emerging Legal and Business Issues (Glasser LegalWorks Seminar 1996)
• Jonathan Rosenour, Cyberlaw
• Kevin Kelly, Out of Control
• Sherry Turkle, Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet

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There are any number of WWW sites devoted to legal questions. You should begin to keep track of those that you encounter during research and reading for this class. The following is an incomplete, idiosyncratic, possibly out-of-date, but hopefully helpful list that should help you find information on most of the topics we will be discussing this semester.

Cyberspace Law Classes

A good place to find useful information on legal issues is by consulting one of the cyberspace law classes up and running on the net. I am aware of at least two collections of links to such course material: Prof. Jessica Litman's and Prof. Bernard Hibbitts'.  I also found Prof. Pamela Samuelson's course a particularly good source of information and useful links.

Web Search Engines

• Yahoo
• Alta Vista
• Ask Jeeves
• Inference Find
• DejaNews
• PHOAKS ("People Helping One Another Know Stuff")
• Magellan Search Voyeur
• HOTBOT Domain Name Lookup
• News Index
• "All in one" search page
• Infoseek
• excite
• Lycos
• Webcrawler
• Einet Galaxy
• Point Now

Good "launch points" for legal information

• Findlaw
• Legal Domain Network (Chicago-Kent School of Law)
• Legal Information Institute (Cornell University)
• Villanova Center for Information Law and Policy
• John Marshall University
• Cyberspace Law Institute
• Franklin Pierce Law Center
• Indiana University
• Harvard Information Infrastructure Project
• Law Journal Extra
• David Loundy's E-LAW locator
• BNA's EPLR document library
• Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute
• Indiana's WWW Virtual Law Library
• University of Texas Law Library's Electronic Reference Desk
• ALSO! (American Law Sources Online)
• Thomas (The Library of Congress -- a wonderful source of information on current legislation)
• U.S. House of Representatives Internet Law Library

• World Wide Web Frequently Asked Questions [FAQ]
• Electronic Frontier Foundation. EFF has extensive archives on a variety of subjects.

Online Publications

• A list (with hyperlinks) of Law Journals available online
• NewsHub
• Journal of Online Law
• WIRED
• c|net NEWS.COM
• Weekly Web Watch News
• first monday
• Social Science Research Network's Cyberspace Law Abstracts
• The Journal of Information, Law and Technology

Lobbies, policy bodies, and and partisan organizations

• USACM
• Christian Coalition Home Page
• Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
• epic.org Electronic Privacy Information Center
• Information Industry Association
• Voters Telecomm Watch
• The Center for Democracy and Technology
• Consumers Project on Technology
• Progress and Freedom Foundation
• Digital Future Coalition