Assigned Readings

This page contains the readings for the entire class. Please keep in mind that readings will be updated over the course of the semester, so check back frequently to make sure you aren't missing anything!

January 29 - Politics and Technology of Control: Introduction

Readings/Watchings

• Ethan Zuckerman, History of the Internet (approx. 6 minutes, watch all)

• Jonathan Zittrain, How the Internet Works (approx. 4 mins., watch all)

• John Perry Barlow, A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace

• Jack Goldsmith & Tim Wu, Digital Borders (Legal Affairs)

• Eszter Hargittai, The Digital Divide and What to Do About It (New Economy Handbook) (focus on Sections I-III)

• Hargittai’s data is from 2003. For more recent data, see Pew Internet & American Life Project, Digital Differences 2012 (read intro, skim the sections).

• Rebecca MacKinnon, Let’s Take Back the Internet! (TED.com) (approx. 15 mins., watch all)

Optional Readings

• Chris Locke, Doc Searls & David Weinberger, Cluetrain Manifesto (just the manifesto)

• Eric Goldman, The Third Wave of Internet Exceptionalism

• Tim Wu, Is Internet Exceptionalism Dead?

February 5 - Paradigms for Studying the Internet

Readings

• Lawrence Lessig, Code 2.0 (Chapter 7 - focus on "A Dot's Life")

• Nate Anderson, Book Review: Jonathan Zittrain's "The Future of the Internet And How to Stop It" (from Ars Technica)

• Jonathan Zittrain, The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It, (Chapters 1 and 4 only)

• Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks (pp. 379-396 only; stop at "The Physical Layer")

• danah boyd, White Flight in Networked Publics? How Race and Class Shaped American Teen Engagement with MySpace and Facebook (read 1-11, skim 12-18, read 19-end)

Optional Readings

• Ethan Zuckerman & Andrew McLaughlin, Introduction to Internet Architecture and Institutions

• Orin Kerr, The Problem of Perspective in Internet Law (Focus on sections I and II)

February 12 - A Series of Tubes: Infrastructure, Broadband, and Baseline Content Control

Readings

• Yochai Benkler, Next Generation Connectivity (executive summary and introduction)

• Susan Crawford, Wired, We Can’t All Be Google’s Kansas: A Plan for Winning the Bandwidth Race (Wired)

• Adam Thierer, More Confusion about Internet “Freedom” (Tech Liberation)

• Wikipedia, Net Neutrality

Optional Readings

• Sam Biddle, How to Destroy the Internet (Gizmodo)

• Dawn Nunziato, Virtual Freedom (Chs. 1 & 7) (pending)

• Ed Felten, Taking Ted Stevens Seriously

February 19 - Whose Values? International Issues with Internet Regulation

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February 26 - Regulating Speech Online

Readings

• Citizen Media Law Project Legal Guide: Defamation

• Wikipedia, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act

• David Ardia, Free Speech Savior or Shield for Scoundrels: An Empirical Study of Intermediary Immunity Under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (Read all of Section I, Parts C&D of Section II, and Conclusion)

• John Palfrey & Adam Thierer, "Dialogue: The Future of Online Obscenity and Social Networks" (Ars Technica)

• Case Study: The SPEECH Act

• Wikipedia, Funding Evil (focus on the “Libel Controversy” section)

• 111th U.S. Congress, H.R. 2765, “Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage Act” (“SPEECH Act”)

Optional Readings

• Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, 521 U.S. 844 (1997)

Links

Links from Adobe Connect Session

US Constitution: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html

State constitutions: http://www.constitution.org/cons/usstcons.htm

US regulations are in the Code of Federal Regulations: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collectionCfr.action?collectionCode=CFR

Map of the circuit courts and their jurisdictions: http://www.uscourts.gov/uscourts/images/CircuitMap.pdf

The Supreme Court has been taking fewer and fewer cases: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/us/29bar.html?_r=0

The International Shoe test: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Shoe_v._Washington

A very influential case addressing websites is a district court case from Pittsburgh called Zippo Manufacturing v. Zippo Dot Com, Inc: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zippo_Manufacturing_Co._v._Zippo_Dot_Com,_Inc

A more recent case of "Libel Tourism" - this time concerning parties from Ethiopia: http://blog.indexoncensorship.org/2013/02/25/london-libel-ruling-against-ethiopian-dissident-shows-urgent-need-for-reform/

Shaari v. Harvard: http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/427/427mass129.html

This org has done a lot to make sure that online sites have to remove child porn: http://www.missingkids.com/home

The NPR talk show On Point with Tom Ashbrook had a segment on Cyberbullying and Sexual Shaming: http://onpoint.wbur.org/2013/01/28/cyberbullying

March 5 - Copyright Part 1: Guiding Principles and Online Application

Assignments

The second half of assignment 2 (commenting on prospectuses) is due before class today. Information on the assignment can be found here.

Readings/Watchings

• Wikipedia, Copyright Clause

• U.S. Copyright Office, Circular 1: Copyright Basics (read only Who Can Claim Copyright?, What Works Are Protected?, What is Not Protected by Copyright?, How to Secure a Copyright, and How Long Copyright Protection Endures)

• 17 U.S.C. § 107 - Limitations on Exclusive Rights: Fair Use

• Lawrence Lessig, It is About Time: Getting Our Values around Copyright (watch first 6 minutes)

• James Grimmelmann, Why Johnny Can’t Stream: How Video Copyright Went Insane

• Terry Hart, There is No Magic Bullet

• Lawrence Lessig, Remix: Making Art and Culture Thrive in the Hybrid Economy (Introduction only)

• Creative Commons, A Shared Culture (video, watch all) and Spectrum of Rights

Optional Readings

• Jessica Litman, The Exclusive Right to Read (introduction and Sections I and II only)
• Julian Sanchez, Ars Technica, 750,000 Lost Jobs? The Dodgy Digits Behind the War on Piracy

March 12 - Copyright Part 2: Enforcement and Balances

Readings/Watchings

• Digital Media Law Project, Claims Based on User Content and Protecting Yourself Against Copyright Claims Based on User Content

• Electronic Frontier Foundation, Takedown Hall of Shame (peruse)

• Chilling Effects, About and peruse the weather reports.

• Matthew Ingram, Paid Content, How Google did the right thing with the NASCAR crash video, and why it matters

• Erin McKeown, A Perspective On the Complexities of Copyright and Creativity from a Victim of Infringement

Case Study: SOPA/PIPA

• Jonathan Zittrain, Kendra Albert, and Alicia Solow-Niederman, A Close Look at SOPA
• Ethan Zuckerman and Joi Ito, MIT Media Lab Opposes SOPA, PIPA

Case Study: ISP "Six Strikes"

• Brooke Gladstone, On The Media, Interview with Jill Lesser of Center for Copyright Information
• Jonathan Bailey, Plagiarism Today, The 6 Likely Impact of Six Strikes

Optional Readings

• Andy Sellars, Seized Sites: The In Rem Forfeiture of Copyright-Infringing Domain Names

• Wendy Seltzer, Super Bust: Due Process and Domain Name Seizure

March 26 - Collective Action and Decision-making

Readings

• James Surowiecki, Wisdom of Crowds (excerpt)
  • NYT Review
• Ethan Zuckerman's blog review of Infotopia Great summary of the issues in the book.

Optional Readings

• Divided They Blog - a paper showing trackbacks between political blogs, mentioned by Ethan Zuckerman in his review of Cass Sunstein's Infotopia
• On a similar topic: Cross-Ideological Discussions among Conservative and Liberal Bloggers, by Eszter Hargittai, et al.
  • Abstract: With the increasing spread of information technologies and their potential to filter content, some have argued that people will abandon the reading of dissenting political opinions in favor of material that is closely aligned with their own ideological position. We test this theory empirically by analyzing both quantitatively and qualitatively Web links among the writings of top conservative and liberal bloggers. Given our use of novel methods, we discuss in detail our sampling and data collection methodologies. We find that widely read political bloggers are much more likely to link to others who share their political views. However, we find no increase in this pattern over time. We also analyze the content of the links and find that while many of the links are based on straw-man arguments, bloggers across the political spectrum also address each others writing substantively, both in agreement and disagreement.

March 27 - Internet and Democracy

Readings

• Anne-Marie Slaughter, A New Theory for the Foreign Policy Frontier: Collaborative Power

• Zeynep Tufekci, The #freemona Perfect Storm: Dissent and the Networked Public Sphere

• Alexanyan et al, Exploring Russian Cyberspace: Digitally-Mediated Collective Action and the Networked Public Sphere

• Zeynep Tufekci, #Kony2012, Understanding Networked Symbolic Action & Why Slacktivism is Conceptually Misleading

• Gilad Lotan, KONY2012: See How Invisible Networks Helped a Campaign Capture the World’s Attention

Additional Resources

• Malcolm Gladwell, Why the revolution will not be tweeted.

• Etling, Kelly, Faris and Palfrey, Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere: Politics, Culture and Dissent

• Etling and Kelly, Mapping Iran's Online Public

• Faris, Etling, Madison and the Smart Mob: The Promise and Limitations of the Internet for Democracy

• Rosebell Kagumire, Kony2012; My response to Invisible Children’s campaign

• Sara Weschler, A Letter From Uganda on #Kony2012

• A few more Kony 2012-related resources:
  • Sam Gregory, Advocacy, Audience and Agency in Kony 2012: Moving from Critique to Action
  • Ethan Zuckerman, Useful reads on Kony 2012
  • Xeni Jardin, African voices respond to hyper-popular Kony 2012 viral campaign
  • Kate Cronin-Furman and Amanda Taub, Solving War Crimes With Wristbands: The Arrogance of 'Kony 2012'
  • Norbert Mao, I've met Joseph Kony and Kony 2012 isn't that bad
  • Radio Berkman, RB 195: Can 100 Million Viewers Save a Child?
  • Invisible Children Global Night Commute Musical (2006)

March 8 - Law's Role in Regulating Online Conduct and Speech

Readings

• David Johnson & David Post, Law and Borders (excerpts)

• Orin Kerr, The Problem of Perspective in Internet Law (excerpts)

• Simson Garfinkel, Welcome to Sealand, Now Bugger Off, Wired (July 2000)

• Yahoo! Inc v. La Ligue Contra Le Racisme, 433 F.3d 1199 (9th Cir. 2006)

Optional Readings

• Prof. Joseph Weiler: In the Dock, in Paris
• Salon: Online, the censors are scoring big wins
• EFF: Amazon and WikiLeaks - Online Speech is Only as Strong as the Weakest Intermediary
• David Ardia, Reputation in a Networked World: Revisiting the Social Foundations of Defamation Law (Part IV)
• James Grimmelmann, Sealand, HavenCo, and the Rule of Law

April 3 - Control and Code: Privacy Online

Readings

• John Palfrey and Hal Roberts, The EU Data Retention Directive in an Era of Internet Surveillance
• Abelson, Ledeen, Lewis, Blown to Bits, Chapter 2: Naked in the Sunlight: Privacy Lost, Privacy Abandoned
• Jonathan Zittrain, Future of the Internet, Chapter 9: Privacy 2.0
• Warren and Brandeis, The Right to Privacy

Optional Readings

• "Making Sense of Privacy and Publicity." Transcript of talk given by Danah Boyd at SXSW. Austin, Texas, March 13, 2010
• Solveig Singleton, Privacy as Censorship (CATO)
• Lawrence Lessig, Code 2.0: Privacy
• http://paranoia.dubfire.net/2009/12/8-million-reasons-for-real-surveillance.html
• Narayanan and Shmatikov, How To Break Anonymity of the Netflix Prize Dataset
• Brin and Page, The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine
• Noam Cohen, It’s Tracking Your Every Move and You May Not Even Know (NYTimes, March 26, 2011)
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_flesh_search_engine

April 10 - Internet and Democracy: The Sequel

Readings

• Roberts et al. Evolving Landscape of Internet Control
• Read John Palfrey and Jonathan Zittrain: Reluctant Gatekeepers: Corporate Ethics on a Filtered Internet
• Jill York, Policing Content in the Quasi-public Sphere
• Take a look at the ONI blog

• DMCA 512 - the safe harbor provision
• EFF's Hall of Shame
• Copyhype on Viacom v. YouTube: The Second Circuit’s Decision

Apr 24 - The Wikileaks Case

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May 1 - Cybersecurity and Cyberwarfare

Readings

• Jack Goldsmith: Senator Cardin’s Bill to Explore ISP Enforcement of Digital Security
• Zittrain, The Future of the Internet: And How to Stop It; Chapter 3
• Chatham House Report On Cyberwarfare - Executive Summary
• Wikipedia entry on Stuxnet

Optional Readings

• Whitehouse.gov, Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative, Cyberspace Policy Review
• Jack Goldsmith, The Cyberthreat, Government Network Operations, and the Fourth Amendment
• Jane Holl Lute and Bruce McConnell, Op-Ed: A Civil Perspective on Cybersecurity
• Zittrain, Freedom and Anonymity
• Infoweek, Leaked Cables Indicate Chinese Military Hackers Attacked U.S.
• CNET, Cyber attacks rise at critical infrastructure firms