Internet Law 2005: Syllabus and Course Materials

Week 1: Introduction -- What is Internet Law?

Lawrence Lessig, Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace ("Code"), chapter 1

John Perry Barlow, A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace

As you read, compare these two authors' visions of the Internet with your own. Think about what each means for legal regulation of the Net.

Week 2: Speech and Control

Week 2 Readings HTML or PDF version
Slides: PPT or PDF (these are the slides shown in class)

September 6, 2005

Required:

• Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, 521 U.S. 844 (1997) (excerpts below, full decision available at Findlaw <http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=000&invol=96-511> but not required)
• CDT fact sheet on CDT v. Pappert, 337 F.Supp.2d 606 (E.D. Penn. 2004), <http://www.cdt.org/speech/pennwebblock/20040915highlights.pdf>
  
• Sharon Eisner Gillett and Mitchell Kapor, The Self-governing Internet: Coordination by Design, <http://ccs.mit.edu/papers/CCSWP197/CCSWP197.html>
  
• Code, chapters 3-5
  

For further reading (optional):

• Hobbes’ Internet Timeline, <http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/>
  
• RFC 1958: Architectural Principles of the Internet, <http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1958.txt>
  
• J.H. Saltzer, D.P. Reed and D.D. Clark, End-to-End Arguments in System Design (1981), <http://web.mit.edu/Saltzer/www/publications/endtoend/endtoend.pdf>
  
• Jonathan Zittrain, Internet Points of Control, 44 B.C.L.Rev. 653 (2003), <http://cyber.harvard.edu/works/lessig/what_things.pdf>
  
• Lawrence Lessig, What Things Regulate Speech? 38 Jurimetrics 629 (1998) <http://cyber.harvard.edu/works/lessig/what_things.pdf>
  

Week 3: Online Speech: Not enough or too much?

Week 3 Readings or PDF version
Slides: PPT or PDF

September 13, 2005

• Cubby, Inc. v. Compuserve Inc., 776 F.Supp. 135 (S.D.N.Y. 1991)
  
• Stratton Oakmont, Inc. v. Prodigy Servs Co., 1995 N.Y. Misc. Lexis 229 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. May 24, 1995)
  
• CDA § 230, 47 USC § 230 (1996)
  
• Zeran v. America Online, 129 F.3d 327 (4th Cir. 1997)
  
• Blumenthal v. Drudge, 992 F.Supp. 44 (D.D.C. 1998)
  
• Doe v. 2TheMart.com, 140 F. Supp. 2d 1088 (W.D.Wash. 2001)
  
• Code, chapters 6-7
  

For further reading (optional):

• Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky, Silencing John Doe: Defamation & Discourse in Cyberspace, 49 Duke L. J. 855 (2000) <http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/dlj/articles/dlj49p855.htm>
  
• EFF, Blogging Anonymously, <http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Anonymity/blog-anonymously.php>
  

Week 4: Copyright 1: Direct infringement, sampling, mash-ups

Week 4 Readings or PDF version
Slides

September 20, 2005

• Playboy Enterprises v. Webbworld, 991 F.Supp. 543 (N.D.Tex. 1997)
  
• MAI Systems Corp. v. Peak Computer, Inc., 991 F.2d 511 (9th Cir. 1993)
  
• Kelly v. Arriba Soft Corp., 336 F.3d 811 (9th Cir. 2003)
  
• United States v. LaMacchia, 871 F. Supp. 535 (D. Mass. 1994)
  
• Creative Commons, <http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses/>
  
• The Grey Album / Grey Tuesday, see <http://www.greytuesday.org/>
• Code, chapters 9-10
  

For further reading (optional):

• John Perry Barlow, The Economy of Ideas, Wired, July 1995, <http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.03/economy.ideas_pr.html>
  
• Jessica Litman, The Exclusive Right to Read, 13 Cardozo Arts & Ent. L.J. 29 (1994) <http://www.law.wayne.edu/litman/papers/read.htm>
  
• Jane Ginsburg, From Having Copies to Experiencing Works: The Development of an Access Right in U.S. Copyright Law, 50 J. Copyr. Soc. 113 (2003)
  

Week 5: Copyright 2: Music on the Net, peer-to-peer, and indirect infringement

Week 5 Readings or PDF version
Slides

September 27, 2005

• Sony Corporation of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 US 417 (1984)
  
• A&M Records v. Napster, 239 F.3d 1004 (9th Cir. 2001)
  
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer v. Grokster, No. 04-480, (U.S. June 27, 2005), <http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/MGM_v_Grokster/04-480.pdf>
  
• Complaint in Capitol Records v. Does 1-250, 04-CV-00472, <http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/RIAA_v_ThePeople/JohnDoe/20040121_capitol_complaint.pdf>
  
• EFF, A Better Way Forward, Voluntary Collective Licensing of Music File Sharing, <http://www.eff.org/share/?f=collective_lic_wp.html>
  

For further reading (optional):

• Mark Lemley & R. Anthony Reese, Reducing Digital Copyright Infringement Without Restricting Innovation, 56 Stan. L. Rev (2004), <http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=525662>
  
• William Fisher, Promises to Keep (2005)
• Peter Biddle, Paul England, Marcus Peinado, and Bryan Willman, The Darknet and the Future of Content Distribution (2002) <http://crypto.stanford.edu/DRM2002/darknet5.doc>
  
• EFF, The Customer Is Always Wrong: A User's Guide to DRM in Online Music

Week 6: Copyright 3: Safe Harbors and Chilling Effects

Week 6 Readings or PDF version
Slides: PPT or PDF

October 11, 2005

• DMCA Safe Harbors, 17 U.S.C. 512 (enacted 1998)
  
• Religious Technology Center v. Netcom On-Line Comm. Servs., Inc., 907 F.Supp. 1361 (N.D. Cal. 1995)
  
• Hendrickson v. eBay, Inc., 165 F. Supp. 2d 1082 (C.D. Cal. 2001)
  
• ALS Scan, Inc. v. RemarQ Communities, Inc., 239 F.3d 619 (4th Cir. 2001)
  
• Online Policy Group v. Diebold, 337 F Supp 2d 1195 (N.D. Cal. 2004)
  
• Chilling Effects, <http://www.chillingeffects.org/>, see Google DMCA Takedowns: A three-month view http://www.chillingeffects.org/weather.cgi?WeatherID=498
  

For further reading (optional):

• EFF, Unsafe Harbors, <http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/20030926_unsafe_harbors.php>
  
• David Nimmer, Repeat Infringers
  
• Tim Wu, Copyright's Communications Policy, 103 Mich. L.Rev. 278 (2004)
  
• Recording Indus. Ass’n of Am. v. Verizon Internet Servs., 351 F.3d 1229 (D.C. Cir. 2003)
  

Week 7: Copyright 4: Anticircumvention, Tech Mandates, and "Trusted" Systems

Week 7 Readings or PDF version
Slides

October 18, 2005

• DMCA Anticircumvention, 17 U.S.C. 1201
  
• Universal v. Corley, 273 F.3d. 429, (2d Cir. 2001)
  
• Lexmark v. Static Control Components, 387 F.3d 522 (6th Cir. 2005)    
  
• Wendy Seltzer, The Broadcast Flag: It’s not just TV, 57 Fed. Comm. L.J. 209 (2005), < http://www.law.indiana.edu/fclj/pubs/v57/no2/Seltzer.pdf>
  

For further reading (optional):

• Julie Cohen, A Right to Read Anonymously: A Closer Look at "Copyright Management" In Cyberspace" 28 Conn. L. Rev 981 (1996), < http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/property/alternative/Cohen.html>
  
• Pam Samuelson, Intellectual Property and the Digital Economy: Why the Anti-Circumvention Regulations Need to Be Revised, BTLJ (1999), < http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/%7Epam/papers/Samuelson_IP_dig_eco_htm.htm>
  
• Fred von Lohmann, Measuring the DMCA Against the Darknet, 24 Loyola of Los Angeles L.Rev. 635 (2005) < http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/DMCA_against_the_darknet.pdf>
  
• EFF, Unintended Consequences < http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/unintended_consequences.php>
  
• Dean Marks and Bruce Turnbull, Technical Protection Measures: The intersection of technology, law and commercial licenses, 46 J. Copyright Soc'y U.S. 563 (1999), < http://www.wipo.org/documents/en/meetings/1999/wct_wppt/doc/imp99_3.doc>
  

Week 8: Trademark: Domain names and beyond

Week 8 Readings or PDF Version
Slides

October 25, 2005

• Panavision International, L.P. v. Toeppen, 141 F.3d 1316 (9th Cir. 1998)
  
• People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals v. Doughney, 263 F.3d 359, 364 (4th Cir. 2001)
  
• Playboy Enterprises, Inc. v. Welles, 279 F.3d 796 (9th Cir. 2002)
  
• Lamparello v. Falwell, -- F.3d -- (4th Cir., Aug. 24, 2005)
  
• 1-800-Contacts, Inc. v. WhenU.com, Inc., -- F.3d -- (2d. Cir., June 27, 2005)
  

For further reading (optional):

• Mark Lemley, The Modern Lanham Act and the Death of Common Sense, 108 Yale L.J. 1687 (1999).
  
• Jessica Litman, Breakfast with Batman: The Public Interest in the Advertising Age, 108 Yale L.J. 1717 (1999)
  

Week 9: Intellectual Property and Some Alternatives

Week 9 Readings or Alternate PDF Version
Slides

November 1, 2005

• DVD Copy Control Assoc. v. Bunner, 116 Cal. App. 4th 241, 10 Cal. Rptr. 3d 185, (Cal. Ct. App. 2004)
  
• eBay, Inc. v. Bidder's Edge, Inc. 100 F. Supp. 2d 1058 (ND Cal. 2000) 
  
• Intel Corp. v. Hamidi, 30 Cal. 4th 1342; 71 P.3d 296; 1 Cal. Rptr. 3d 32 (Cal. 2003)
  

  Additional reading
  

• Pamela Samuelson and Suzanne Scotchmer, The Law and Economics of Reverse Engineering, 111 Yale L.J. 1575 (2002), <http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~scotch/re.pdf>
  
• Dan L. Burk, The Trouble With Trespass, 3 J. SMALL & EMERGING BUS. L. 1 (1998) <http://www.isc.umn.edu/research/papers/trespass-ed2.pdf>
  
• I. Trotter Hardy, The Ancient Doctrine of Trespass to Websites, 1996 J. Online L. art. 7 <http://www.wm.edu/law/publications/jol/95_96/hardy.html>
  

Week 10: Privacy 1: Privacy from commerce

Week 10 Readings or Alternate PDF version
Slides

November 8, 2005
Privacy 1: Privacy from commerce

• In re GeoCities, Federal Trade Commission (1999)
  
• In re DoubleClick Inc. Privacy Litig., 154 F. Supp. 2d 497 (S.D.N.Y. 2001)
  
• Browse the TRUSTe website, <http://www.truste.org/>
  
• Jeri Clausing, Privacy Watchdog Declines to Pursue Microsoft, a Backer, N.Y. Times, March 22, 1999, <http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/03/cyber/articles/23privacy.html>
  
• Joseph Reagle and Lorrie Faith Cranor, The Platform for Privacy Preferences, <http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-P3P-CACM/>
  
• Code, chapter 11
  

  For further reading (optional):
  

• Federal Trade Commission, Privacy Online: Fair Information Practices in the Electronic Marketplace: A Federal Trade Commission Report to Congress (May 2000), <http://www.ftc.gov/reports/privacy2000/privacy2000.pdf>
  
• Jerry Kang, Information Privacy in Cyberspace Transactions, 50 Stan. L. Rev. 1193 (1998)
  
• James Boyle, Foucault in Cyberspace: Surveillance, Sovereignty, and Hard-Wired Censors (1997), <http://www.law.duke.edu/boylesite/foucault.htm>
  
• Joel R. Reidenberg, Lex Informatica: The Formulation of Information Policy Rules Through Technology, 76 Tex.L.Rev. 553 (1998), <http://reidenberg.home.sprynet.com/lex_informatica.pdf>
  

Week 11: Privacy 2: Privacy from government

Week 11 Readings or Alternate PDF Version
Slides

November 15, 2005

• Electronic Communications Privacy Act, as amended by USA PATRIOT Act (read the summaries; the full text of the statutes is included at the end for your convenience, but is not required)
• Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347 (1967); Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735 (1979); Kyllo v. United States, 533 U.S. 27 (2001)
• Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. U.S. Secret Service, 36 F.3d 457 (5th Cir. 1994)
• Doe v. Ashcroft, 334 F. Supp. 2d 471 (S.D.N.Y. 2004)
• Barton Gellman, "The FBI's Secret Scrutiny," Washington Post, Nov. 6, 2005 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/05/AR2005110501366_pf.html>

Optional further reading

• Deirdre Mulligan, Reasonable Expectations in Electronic Communications: A Critical Perspective on the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 72 Geo. Wash.L. Rev. 1557, 1565 (2004)
• Susan Freiwald, Online Surveillance: Remembering the Lessons of the Wiretap Act, 56 Ala. L. Rev. 9, 46-52 (2004)
• Orin S. Kerr, Internet Surveillance Law after the USA PATRIOT Act: The Big Brother that Isn't, 2003 NW. U. L. Rev. 607, 616-18 (2003

Week 12: Licensing, Open Source and Otherwise

Week 12 Readings or Alternate PDF version
Slides

November 22, 2005

• Shrinkwrap: Vault Corp. v. Quaid Software, Ltd., 847 F.2d 255 (5th Cir. 1988)
  
• ProCD v. Zeidenberg, 86 F.3d 1447 (7th Cir. 1996)
  
• Browsewrap: Specht v. Netscape, 306 F.3d 17 (2d Cir. 2001)
  
• Free Software: GNU General Public License (GPL)
  
• Creative Commons: Commons Deed and Legal Code to Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5
  
• Code, chapter 8
  

For further reading (optional):

• Yochai Benkler, Coase's Penguin, or Linux and the Nature of the Firm, 112 Yale L.J. (2002)
  
• Jessica Litman, Sharing and Stealing, 26 Comm/Ent 1 (2004)
  
• Mark Lemley, Beyond Preemption: The Federal Law and Policy of Intellectual Property Licensing, 87 Cal. L.Rev. 111 (1999)
  

Week 13: Cybercrime and Other Pests

Week 13 Readings or Alternate PDF version
Slides

November 29, 2005
Cybercrime and Other Pests

• Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1030
  
• U.S. v. Morris, 928 F.2d 504 (1991)
  
• EF Cultural Travel BV v. Zefer Corp., 318 F.3d 58 (1st Cir. 2003)
  
• CAN-SPAM, S.877, 108th Congress, <http://www.spamlaws.com/federal/108s877.shtml>
  
• MAPS, Introduction to the Realtime Blackhole List (RBL) servers, <http://www.mail-abuse.com/wp_introrbl.html>
  
• Yahoo!, DomainKeys, <http://antispam.yahoo.com/domainkeys>
  
• Code, chapters 15-17, appendix
  

For further reading (optional):

• David E. Sorkin, Technical and Legal Approaches to Unsolicited Electronic Mail, 35 U.S.F. L. Rev. 325 (2001), <http://www.spamlaws.com/articles/usf.html>
  
• David Johnson, Susan Crawford, and John Palfrey, The Accountable Net: Peer Production of Internet Governance, 9 Va. J.L. & Tech. 9 (2004) <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/uploads/336/AccountableInternet.pdf>
  
• Electronic Frontier Foundation, Noncommercial Email Lists: Collateral Damage in the Fight Against Spam, <http://www.eff.org/wp/?f=SpamCollateralDamage.html>
  

Week 14: Conclusion: Counseling the Internet Client

No additional reading.

Last updated: December 2005 (final)