February 25, 2003 (Session 1): Is cyberspace any different from real space?
with Andrew McLaughlin, Senior Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society

The study of civil liberties – and the raging debates it’s brought with it – has been around for a long time. Is there really something new going on here, now that the Internet is becoming increasingly mature and reaching more and more people? What aspects of the development of the Internet change the dynamics of this debate (for instance, is it the speed of communication, lower cost of technology, proliferation of information, types of information, the nature of databases, ease of access)? What exactly are civil liberties, after all? And, by the way, is cyberspace really a place, or is it an idea, a culture, or a utility? Does it matter, from a legal perspective?

Suggested Readings:
John Perry Barlow, A Declaration of Independence for Cyberspace
Mark Dery, Conversation with Andrew Shapiro
Jesse Walker, Conversation with Lawrence Lessig

March 4, 2003 (Session 2): Privacy of citizens: freedom from government intrusion

Governments have lots of reasons to collect information about us. The IRS, for instance, needs to know a great deal about our financial lives (and does, presuming we tell them the truth when we file our tax returns). The FBI, the CIA, the INS and numerous other law enforcement agencies have access to lots of additional information about us. Data collection of some description is a compelling state interest – yet there clearly need to be limits on how and how much Net-related data the government collects. How should we balance what the government learns about us and what information we can keep from the government in the online context? What legitimate interests does the government have – say, intelligence gathering for national security purposes – in tracking things like e-mail communications, web surfing and the keys we press on our keyboards? Should we be worried about things like FastLane and EZPass that track our movements in real space but leverage cyberspace tools? Should we fear the “Net-wide search”? What do we need to know about the USA Patriot Act of 2001?

Suggested Readings:
Interview with John Perry Barlow
Electronic Frontier Foundation, Analysis Of The Provisions Of The USA PATRIOT Act
via Soylent Communications: Patriot Act II
John Markoff and John Schwartz, Many Tools of Big Brother Are Up and Running
Ted Bridis, Homeland Security Bill Has Internet Provisions
Declan McCullagh, TEMPEST Brewing for PC Privacy?
Declan McCullagh, Terror Act Has Lasting Effects
Declan McCullagh, Thumbs Down on Net Wiretaps
Declan McCullagh, How Far Can FBI Spying Go?
NewsMax.com, Hillary Calls for National ID Card

March 11, 2003 (Session 3): Privacy of consumers: freedom from private sector intrusion
with Simson Garfinkel, author/journalist, affiliate, Berkman Center for Internet & Society (invited)

How much data collection about consumers is too much data collection? What, if any, rights do consumers have relative to the potential intrusions of the private sector, like online merchants, real-world supermarkets and advertisers of all stripes? What about employees relative to their employers? And what about students relative to their universities? What should those rights look like, if they’re lacking today? What about a citizen of one country relative to business partners in another country? And are there different rights in these different contexts, or one set of universal rights? Does the Internet change our thinking in this regard?

Suggested Readings:
Bake your own cookies
Jonathan Zittrain, Welcome to Second Class
Simson Garfinkel, Welcome to Sealand. Now Bugger Off.

March 18, 2003 (Session 4): Intellectual property: a bridge from privacy -> speech
with Derek Slater, Harvard College sophomore and Berkman Center affiliate and
Special Guest Blythe Holden, Berkman Center Fellow

What does an MP3 file have to do with privacy and speech? Potentially lots, it turns out. One of the unintended consequences of the pitched battle over digital media in cyberspace is the potential for a substantial increase in the ability of private and public entities to learn more about what we’re up to online – a clear threat to the privacy interests of individuals. This digital media battle is about intellectual property rights, at its core. Likewise, intellectual property rights, particularly copyrights, can have the effect of chilling speech. Do we have the balance set correctly between protecting intellectual property rights on the one hand and civil liberties on the other? How do recent cases, such as the ruling in January in the dispute between Verizon and the RIAA, change this analysis, if at all?

Suggested Readings:
Lisa M. Bowman, Free speech squeezed by copyrights?
Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Protecting Creative Works in a Digital Age

April 8, 2003 (Session 5): Speech problems in cyberspace
with Dave Winer, Founder, Userland and Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society (see his weblog)

Should we treat speech on the ‘Net any differently than speech in a public place? Or is the Net a private place? Think of political speech: if you post a message to an online bulletin board, is that analogous to standing on a soap-box on Cambridge Common and delivering that same message to passersby? Think of harmful speech: if someone says something terrible about you on the Net, that terrible statement can reach a vast audience. Should the Net be regulated to protect you from harmful speech? Who might do the regulating? What’s the role of the Internet Service Providers in this picture? How, if at all, does the explosion of the blogging movement change this analysis?

Suggested Readings:
ACLU, Fahrenheit 451.2: Is Cyberspace Burning?
Anti-Defamation League's Hatefilter

April 15, 2003 (Session 6): Virtual Worlds
with Will Harvey, Founder, there.com and Professor Dan Hunter, University of Pennsylvania

Virtual worlds help us to understand how we govern the Internet. What laws, rules and norms regulate communities that exist solely in cyberspace? Are the rules well-defined and well-understood, or are they statements of principle, understandings, that govern? Is cyberspace governed by law in the sense that we commonly think of law or is it the technology that's governing? Do you have any civil liberties in pure cyberspace? If so, to whom can you turn to enforce them?

Suggested Readings:
A brief overview of virtual worlds by a confessed addict
A summary of there.com
there.com Member Agreement
Virtual Worlds: A First-hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier

April 21, 2003 (Session 7): Hacktivism
with Anita Ramasastry, Assistant Professor and Associate Director, Center for Law, Commerce and Technology, University of Washington

Suggested Readings:
Charles Nesson and Anita Ramasastry, Cybercrime
Thehacktivist.com, What is Hacktivism?
the electrohippie collective, A response to criticism of 'distributed Denial of Service' (dDoS) protest actions online
DJNZ and the action tool development group of the electrohippies collective, Client-side Distributed Denial-of-Service: Valid campaign tactic or terrorist act?