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Welcome to Difficult Problems in Cyberlaw, a January course taught by Professor Jonathan Zittrain and Elizabeth Stark, co-hosted by Stanford Law School and Harvard Law School.

If you are a student, please see the Student Responsibilities section and Course Logistics. For admins looking for details on field trips, please visit here. All regular class meetings will be at Stanford Law School Classroom 280B.

This map site has a map of the Bay Area, Stanford campus, and visitor parking at Stanford.

The four main difficult problems to be addressed are:

• Global Network Initiative
• Ubiquitous Human Computing
• Future of Wikipedia
• Cybersecurity

Cross-cutting themes include:

• Due process on the Internet among private sheriffs
• The role of intermediaries
• Motivating good and bad actors
• Collaborating and relying on masses
• Privacy and anonymity on the Internet

WEEK ONE: DEFINING THE PROBLEMS

Monday, January 4th

LUNCH: 12-2pm SLS, Room 280B

Student introductions

CLASS: 7:20-9:20pm SLS Room 280B

A brief overview of the course, its goals and expectations, including an introduction to the difficult problems and the cross-cutting themes.

A quiz on Zittrain's book, The Future of the Internet: And How to Stop It will be given.

Brief introduction to the Global Network Initiative

Readings For Class:

• Read The Future of the Internet: And How to Stop It
• Explore the Global Network Initiative website
• Read the GNI Wiki Primer

Assignments: Before next class, post Day 2 Predictions.

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Tuesday, January 5th

CYBERSECURITY BACKGROUND: BONUS: 2-4pm SLS Room 280B

Professor Zittrain will interview Professor Jack Goldsmith as an overview of cybersecurity as it has evolved and as it can potentially be addressed.

• Bonus Writing Opportunity: produce a summary of the cybersecurity event, to be used as background reading for Thursday

CLASS: 5:15-7:15pm SLS Room 280B

Identify the first-order problems regarding corporate responsibility and free expression on the internet. Examine how GNI attempts to address these problems and then evaluate whether GNI is a success and whether better approaches could be taken.

Introduction to ubiquitous human computing.

Guests:

• Mark Chandler, CISCO
• Chuck Cosson, Microsoft
• Dunstan Hope, BSR

Readings:

• Read Rhys Blakely, Yahoo in second Chinese blog Row, TimesOnline, Feb. 9, 2006.
• Read Colin Maclay, "Protecting Privacy and Expression Online," in Access Controlled (Ronald Diebert et al., eds., MIT Press: Cambridge, MA, 2010).
• Read GNI Guiding Principles
• Read the UbiComp Wiki Primer

Assignments: Before next class, post Day 3 Predictions.

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Wednesday, January 6th

CLASS: 6:30-8:30pm SLS Room 280B

Examine the nature of ubiquitous human computing and potential future applications of human computing and the dangers.

Introduction to cybersecurity.

Guests:

• Lukas Biewald, CrowdFlower
• Bjoern Hartman, see his Mechanical Turk Cats Book
• Aaron Koblin

Readings:

• Visit Mechanical Turk, LiveOps, CrowdFlower or other human computing site
  • Watch the 12-minute video of Lukass' CrowdFlower presentation at TechCrunch
• Skim Nancy R. Mansfield, The information revolution and its impact on the employment relationship: an analysis of the cyberspace workplace, American Business Law Journal (2003).
• Kate Thomas, Insurers Hire Mafia to Spam Congress, SEIU.org Blog, Dec. 10, 2009.
• Read Jonathan Zittrain, Ubiquitous Human Computing, SSRN Paper No 32/2008 (July 2008).
• Read the Cybersecurity Wiki Primer

ASSIGNMENT: Due -- Email Admin with Problem Topic Choice

Assignment: Before next class, post Day 4 Predictions.

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Thursday, January 7th

CLASS: 11:10am-1:10pm SLS Room 280B

Cybersecurity has been identified as one of the greatest threats facing the United States today, but it is ill-defined and almost impossible to address. How can we frame this problem to better inspire solutions? How should government, military, businesses, and internet/tech approach the problem from different angles and do these different approaches work together?

Introduction to Future of Wikipedia

Guests:

• Chuck Cosson, Microsoft

Readings:

• Listen to David Clark, The Internets We Did Not Build.
• Col. Allen & Lt. Col Demchak, The Palestinian-Israeli Cyberwar, Military Review (2003).
• Kim Zetter, Revealed: The Internet's Biggest Security Hole, Wired (2008).
• Review Zittrain, The Future of the Internet: And How to Stop It; Chapter 3
• CENTRA Technology, Cyber Compendium Workshop, Nov. 2009.
• Skim the White House Cyberspace Policy Review (2009); focus on the introduction/overview and the Near & Mid-Term Action Plans.
• Read Future of Wikipedia wiki background paper

Assignment: Before next class, post Day 5 Predictions.

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Friday, January 8th

FIELD TRIP: BONUS: 10:30 am eBay office visit (shuttle from SLS), including JZ talk and meeting with eBay lawyers and security experts

• If you're unable to attend, you might want to watch JZ's Minds for Sale talk.

CLASS: 3:00-5:00pm SLS Room 280B [NOTE CLASS TIME]

Wikipedia has grown quickly and rapidly to become one of if not the largest online content-generating collaboration. Following the 2009 Wikimania, Wikimedia has undertaken a self-review, looking at strategies for the future of Wikipedia. Is it a sustainable model? and if so, to what other fields is it applicable? How can its reception in academia be improved? and what are its applications for education?

Brief introduction of next week's cross-cutting themes

Guests:

• Stuart West, Wikimedia Foundation Board Member
• Mike Godwin, Wikimedia General Counsel
• Phoebe Ayers, Wikimedia

Readings:

• Review Zittrain, The Future of the Internet: And How to Stop It; Chapter 6
• Peruse Wikipedia's Strategy Page
• Strona, The Battle for Wikipedia's Soul, The Economist, March 6, 2008.
• A Stand Against Wikipedia?, Inside Higher Ed, Jan. 26, 2007.
• Browse Wikipedia Watch and Criticism of Wikipedia
• Wikipedia Volunteers Log Off as Wikipedia Ages, Wall Street Journal.
• New editors are joining English Wikipedia in droves?, Infodisiac, Dec. 6, 2009.

Assignment: Before next class, post Day 6 Predictions.

EVENING EVENT: BONUS: Cocktails and hors d'oeuvres at David Hornik's office in Palo Alto after class.

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Saturday, January 9th

Tour of San Francisco (Optional); details TBD. To give input and suggestions, visit Tour Ideas.

WEEK TWO: CROSS-CUTTING THEMES

Monday, January 11th

CLASS: 7:20-9:20pm SLS Room 280B

One potential way to address some of the problems addressed in this course is through innovations and technological solutions. Several solutions have changed the way our browsers work and thereby changed the way we interact with the internet, making life better. In what other areas could a similar approach be applied? Change the technology, save the world.

Introduction to cross-cutting theme of privacy, anonymity and liability on the internet

Guests:

• John M. Agosta, DisputeFinder
• Tye Rattenbury, DisputeFinder
• Rob Ennals, DisputeFinder
• Tad Hersch, DisputeFinder

Readings:

• Visit HerdictWeb
• Zittrain's Comments on Herdict at a Berkman Center Lunch
• Visit DisputeFinder (Test it out!)
• Visit New.net
  • How can .church domain names exist when it does not exist? Look at the new.net domain decoder
  • Compare with List of Internet Domains
• Read Introduction to Ann Bartow, Internet Defamation As Profit Center: The Monetization of Online Harrassment, 32 Harvard Journal of Law & Gender 383 (2009).

Assignment: Before next class, post Day 7 Predictions.

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Tuesday, January 12th

WORKSHOP: BONUS: 1-2pm Faculty Lounge, Stanford law.gov workshop Hosted by Carl Malamud

Some students attend the entire workshop, 10am-3pm

CLASS: 5:15-7:15pm SLS Room 280B

Privacy and anonymity can raise significant issues for accountability for online actions. Users often believe they are more anonymous than they truly are online - how can we better educate the public about the reality of privacy online? Consider the Drumbeat privacy project and creative commons issues.

Introduction to the cross-cutting theme of due process and dispute resolution on the internet.

Guests:

• Ryan Calo, SLS Fellow
• Ebele Okobi-Harris, Yahoo! Director of Business and Human Rights
• Mark Surman, Mozilla
• Michael Fertik, Reputation Defender
• Carl Malamud

Readings:

• Browse Creative Commons for discussion
• Review Zittrain, The Future of the Internet: And How to Stop It; Chapter 9 on Data Genealogy
• Odia Kagan, Fighting Anonymous Defamation, Int'l Business Law Services, November 26, 2007.
• Consider commercial applications; visit ReputationDefender

Assignment: Before next class, post Day 8 Predictions.

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Wednesday, January 13th

FIELD TRIP: BONUS: Facebook 12:30-2:00pm

CLASS: 6:30-8:30pm SLS Room 280B

How do our due process concerns translate to the internet and online communities? Should due process exist on the internet? Is the internet public or private space and under what terms do we have the privilege or right to access?

Consider, for example, how much due process should be required to remove an account from Facebook, Google or Twitter. How much due process is necessary for a take-down on YouTube and what right of appeal do you have in any of these circumstances?

Introduction to online collaboration and group motivation strategies

Guests:

• Glenn Brown, Google
• Kim Scott, Google

Readings:

• Skim Elizabeth Thornburg, Going Private: Technology, Due Process, and Internet Dispute Resolution, 34 Univ. Cal. Davis 151 (2000).
• Read through the Facebook or Google terms of service (see the primer above)
• Recall Zittrain, Chapter 7, on Private Sheriffs
• Terri Wells, Beware the Google 'Death Penalty',Search Engine News (2006).

Assignment: Before next class, post Day 9 Predictions.

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Thursday, January 14th

CLASS: 11:10am-1:10pm SLS Room 280B

Online collaboration projects require internet organizations to motivate and coordinate large groups of people. This requires both motivating good actors to participate and motivating bad actors either to not participate or to conform to the rules/standards of the site. How can website hosts face these challenges? How involved should the users of cooperatively developed sites be in their governments?

Guests:

• Daniel Hoffer, Couchsurfing
• Micah Schaffer
• Dan Scholnick

Readings:

• F. Gino, Jun Gu, & Chen-Bo Zhong, Contagion or Restitution? When bad apples can motivate ethical behavior, 45 J. Experimental Social Psychology 1299-1302 (2009).
• Browse OpenCouchSurfing.org posts and complaints
• Review readings from Friday, January 8th on Wikipedia and motivation of contributors

CLASS SOCIAL: Bonus, evening, details TBD

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Friday, January 15th

CLASS: 1:00-3:00pm SLS Room 280B NOTE CLASS TIME

Group 1 Presentation of proposed solution (60 min)

Discussion of solution's strengths and weaknesses and other approaches to consider

WEEK THREE: SOLUTIONS

Monday, January 18th

NO CLASS: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

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Tuesday, January 19th

FIELD TRIP: BONUS: Reputation Defender, 1pm

CLASS: 5:15-7:15pm SLS Room 280B

Group 2 Presentation of proposed solution (60 min)

Discussion of solution's strengths and weaknesses and other approaches to consider

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Wednesday, January 20th

CLASS: 6:30-8:30pm SLS Room 280B

Group 3 Presentation of proposed solution (60 min)

Discussion of solution's strengths and weaknesses and other approaches to consider

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Thursday, January 21st

CLASS: 11:10am-1:10pm SLS Room 280B

Group 4 Presentation of proposed solution (60 min)

Discussion of solution's strengths and weaknesses and other approaches to consider

Guests:

• Craig Newmark
• Edward Wes

WRAP-UP DINNER: 7:20-9:20pm SLS Faculty Lounge

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January 31st

FINAL PROJECTS DUE