The Law of Cyberspace

Winter 1997

Class 1: Tools

• Theme

• The aim of these first sessions is to find a way to talk about the questions that cyberspace will raise. Three writers will organize the discourse, Unger, Coase, Ellickson, in the sense that we will draw upon the three throughout the course. The first sessions will also introduce the net -- both the concept and its present day conception. Read the Gibson for fun (or fury). Use the Cavazos/Morin for reference. Read the rest quite carefully.

• Reading

• Theory

• Roberto Unger, Social Theory (1987)
• Ronald H. Coase, The Firm, the Market, and the Law (1990)
• Robert C. Ellickson, Order without Law (1991)

• The Net

• William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984)

• Packet 1

• The accidental superhighway, Economist, July 1, 1995
• Paulina Borsook, How Anarchy Works, Wired, October, 1995
• Network Economics in Kevin Kelly, Out of Control, at 184 - 202

• Reference

• Edward A. Cavazos & Gavino Morin, Cyberspace and the Law: Your Rights and Duties in the On-line World (1994)

• Link
  
  
• Commerce Net Surveys

Class 2: The Self in Cyberspace

• Theme

• If we can make sense of cyberspace as it is just now, this class asks what it does to people as it is. We look at some psychological work, as well as some pathologies, to get a sense of what the space is doing to people, and why.

• Problems

• Anonymous spaces
• MOO life
• Jake Baker

• Reading

• Sherry Turkle, Life on the Screen (1995)
• Packet 2

• David Batterson, Young Gay Chat Rooms on America Online, Computer underground Digest 6.41
• John Seabrook, My First Flame, The New Yorker, June 6, 1994, at 70
• Dorion Sagan, Sex, Lies, and Cyberspace, Wired, Jan. 1995, at 78
• United States v. Jake Baker, 890 F Supp 1375 (ED Mich 1995)
• Catharine A. MacKinnon, Only Words 10-23 (1993)

• Links
  
  
  • Anonymity and its Enmities
  • Anonymous Remailer FAQ
  • United States v. Jake Baker

Class 3: Cyber Communities.

• Theme:

• Cyberspace has communities. What makes them function? How to they regulate themselves? What is the relationship between the architecture of space and the kind of regulations chosen?

• Problem

• LambdaMoo

• Reading

• Howard Rheingold, The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier (1993)
• Packet 3

• Julian Dibble, A Rape in Cyberspace, The Village Voice, Dec. 21, 1993
• Guy Kawasaki, The Rules of Email

• Links
  

  The Well

  
  

  Ethics and the Internet

  
  

  Internet Conduct Guidelines
  

• Cornell Case

• http://www.netspace.org/herald/issues/111795/cornell.f.html
• http://joc.mit.edu/cornell/decision.txt
• http://www.netspace.org/herald/issues/111795/kolodziejski.f.html

• Netiquette

• http://www.screen.com/understand/netiquette.html

Class 4: The Anarcho-Community in Cyberspace

• Theme

• The first cyber communities were quite different from the communities we discussed in the previous class. The aim of this class is to understand this community - hackers. Notice how the meaning of "hackers" has changed. What is the source of the change? What is the role hackers are to play? The book is a quick read.

• Problem

• United States v. Morris, 928 F.2d 504 (1991)
• United States v. Riggs, 743 F. Supp 556 (ND Ill 1990)
• United States v. LaMacchia, 871 F Supp 535 (D Mass 1994)

• Readings

• Bruce Sterling, The Hacker Crackdown (1992)
• Packet 4

• Timothy May, Crypto Anarchy and Virtual Communities (1994)
• Julian Dibbell, The Prisoner: Phiber Optik Goes Directly to Jail, The Village Voice, Jan. 11, 1994
• Michelle Slatalla & Joshua Quittner, Lee's Friend Phiber Optik Got Kicked Out of the LOD, Wired, Dec. 1994, at 148
• Emmanuel Goldstein, Testimony before the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance of June 9, 1993, Computer Underground Digest 5.43
• Gary Chapman, Barbed Wire, The New Republic, January 9, 1995, at 19
• Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 USC §1030 (1996)

• Links
  
  
• Gary Chapman, Barbed Wire, The New Republic, January 9 & 16, 1995, at 19.
• Illegal Programs (Attack on AOL)
• "Hacking" and "Hackers"
• United States v. Robert Morris
• The Hacker Crackdown
• Fraud
• Crime and Puzzlement
• Good Cop, Bad Hacker
• Civil Liberties in cyberspace
• Net Abuse FAQ

Class 5: Privacy: Intrusion

• Theme

• Privacy is about controlling what others know about you. In this class, we think about the techniques for protecting against intrusion - against a loss of control from others entering where one doesn't want, or intend. The question you should be asking is what role is being played, in each of these contexts, by (1) the law, (2) social norms, and (3) code.

• Problem

• The Worm

• Reading packet 5

• A. Michael Froomkin, The Metaphor is the Key: Cryptography, The Clipper Chip, and the Constitution, 143 U. Penn.. L. Rev. 595 (1995)
• National Research Council, Cryptography's Role in Securing the Information Society (May 30, 1996 Prepublication Copy)
• Michael Adler, Cyberspace, General Searches and Digital Contraband: The Fourth Amendment and the Net-Wide Search, 105 Yale L.J. 1093 (1995)
• United States v. Maxwell, 42 M.J. 568 (1995)
• Smyth v. Pillsbury Company, 914 F. Supp 97 (E.D. Pa 1996)
• Steve Jackson Games v. United States, 36 F.3d 457 (5th Cir. 1994)

Links:


• http://www.epic.org/crypto/export_controls/freeh.html
• SJ Games v. US Secret Service
• CFP Moot court results on forced Clipperizing

Class 6: Privacy: Disclosure

• Theme

• The other half of the privacy problem is the use of information one "naturally" makes available to others. Is there a reason to protect this data? Is there a way? Why is protection like this absent from our legal tradition?

• Problem

• Explore the link to DejaNews
• Explore the link to Voyeur
• HLS

• Reading Packet 6

• Administrative Announcements, Usage of EMail Mailing Lists, HLS Advisor (10/3/96)
• Emily Ryo, Email Forgeries Under Investigation, 103 Harv. L. Record (10/4/96)
• Tom Bell, Anonymous Speech, Wired, October 1995
• Oscar Gandy, The Panoptic Sort ch5 (1993)
• Albert W. Alschuler, Interpersonal Privacy and the Fourth Amendment, 4 N. Ill. U. L. Rev. 1 (1983)
• Robert Post, The Social Foundations of Privacy: Community and Self in the Common Law Tort, from Constitutional Domains (1995)
• Richard Posner, Overcoming Law ch. 25 (1995)
• Susan Freiwald, Uncertain Privacy: Communication Attributes After the Digital Telephony Act, 69 S. Cal. L. Rev. 949 (1996)
• CDT on Cookies
• NPR on Cookies

• Links:
  
  
• Voyeur Search
• DejaNews Search

Class 7: IP

• Theme

• All the important issues of cyberlaw are within the problem of intellectual property. That isn't to say that intellectual property is the most interesting or important question; it just raises perfect cyberspace issues. The most important thing to understand here is the WhitePaper, and its criticisms.

• Reading Packet 7

• Bruce Lehman, Report of the Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights (1995)
• John Perry Barlow, The Economy of Ideas, Wired 2.04 (1994)
• Pamela Samuelson, The Copyright Grab
• National Writers' Union Critiques
• Playboy Enterprises v. Frena, 839 F. Supp. 1552 (M.D. Fla 1993)
• Sega v. Maphia, 857 F. Supp. 679 (N.D. Cal. 1994)
• ProCD, Inc. v. Matthew Zeidenberg, 86 F3d 1447 (7th Cir 1996)

• Links
  
  
  • Intellectual Property and the NII
  • Intellectual Property: Practical and Legal
  • Patent, Trademark, Copyright On-Line
  • Copyright and Fair Use
  • Contracts, Copyrights, and Preemption
  • The Economy of Ideas
  • Playboy v. Frena
  • Sega v. Maphia
  • Religious Technology Center v. F.A.C.T.NET; cf. a list of opinions involving RTC.
  • MTV v. Curry
  • Domain Name policy dispute
  • Trademark Attorneys
  • Rights of Attribution and Integrity
  • Digital Future Coalition
  • Challenge of the Information Highway

Class 8: Speech: small

• Theme

• The question this week is how first amendment values interact with the medium of the net. We focus on three problems. The first is online libel (Cubby and Stratton Oakmont); the second is the intersection between speech and copyright (Netcom); the third is the regulation of speech on private services.

• Reading Packet 8

• Jesse Lemisch, The First Amendment is under attack in Cyberspace, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan. 20, 1995, at A56.
• Cubby, Inc. v. Compuserve, Inc., 776 F.Supp. 135 (S.D.N.Y. 1991)
• Stratton Oakmont, Inc. v. Prodigy Servs. Co., (NY Sup Ct 1995)
• Religious Tech. Ctr. v. Netcom On-Line Commun. Servs., (US Dist Ct, ND Cal, 1995)
• The Howard L. Meyer affair

• Links:



• The Church of Scientology v. The Net
• First Amendment on the net
• Religious Technology Center v. Netcom
• Howard Stern v. Delphi
• Free Speech or Harassment

Class 9: CDA