COS 491: Information Technology and the Law

Spring 2003

Instructor: Edward W. Felten

Readings

The schedule and reading list are subject to change. Please re-check this page periodically.

Feb. 3: Introduction

James Grimmelmann. Law School in a Nutshell. Part I; Part II; Part III

Feb. 10: Jurisdiction

Dan L. Burk. Jurisdiction in a World without Borders. Virginia J. Law and Technology 3, Spring 1997.

D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals opinion in GTE New Media Services v. BellSouth, 1997 (abridged).

News report on Toys "R" Us v. Step Two, 2003.

Summary by Steven Wu of Toys "R" Us v. Step Two, 2003.

California Supreme Court opinion in Pavlovich v. Superior Court, 2002.

Feb. 17

No class due to snowstorm.

Feb. 24: Trespass

Essay 1 due in class.

I. Trotter Hardy. The Ancient Doctrine of Trespass to Web Sites. 1996 J. Online Law, article 7.

Dan L. Burk. The Trouble with Trespass. 3 J. Small & Emerging Business Law 1, 1998.

California court opinion in Thrifty-Tel v. Bezenek, 1996 (abridged).

U.S. District Court opinion in CompuServe v. Cyber Promotions, 1997 (abridged).

U.S. District Court opinion in eBay v. Bidder's Edge, 2000 (abridged).

California Appeals Court opinion in Intel v. Hamidi, 2002 (abridged).

March 3: Competition

The Sherman Act (portions of 15 U.S.C.)

D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals opinion in U.S. v. Microsoft. (Skip sections V and VI.)

Mar. 10: Internet governance

ICANN For Beginners

Kathleen E. Fuller, ICANN: The Debate over Governing the Internet, Duke Law & Technology Review, 2001.

Sharon Eisner Gillett and Mitchell Kapor. The Self-governing Internet: Coordination by Design. In Coordination of the Internet, ed. Brian Kahin and James Keller, MIT Press, 1997.

Lawrence Lessig. Cyberspace's Constitution. Lecture at the American Academy, Berlin.

March 24: Copyright: Linking and framing

Essay 2 due

Copyright Basics. U.S. Copyright Office, Circular 1. (ignore everything after the "International Copyright" section)

Mark Sableman. Link Law Revisited: Internet Linking Law at Five Years. Berkeley Technology Law Journal, vol. 16, 2001.

March 31: Copyright: Secondary liability

Essay 3 due in class.

U.S. Supreme Court decision in Sony v. Universal, 1984.

9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision in A&M Records v. Napster, 2001 (abridged).

Fred von Lohmann. IAAL: Peer-to-Peer File Sharing and Copyright Law after Napster.

April 7: Special Topic

Complaint in RIAA v. Peng.

April 14: Reverse engineering and research

9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Sega v. Accolade, 1992.

9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Sony v. Connectix, 2000.

April 21: DMCA Anti-Circumvention

Relevant portions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act

2nd Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Universal v. Corley, 2001.

District Court ruling in Lexmark v. Static Control

April 28: Pornography and free speech

Lawrence Lessig. What Things Regulate Speech

6th Circuit Court of Appeals decision in U.S. v. Thomas, 1996 (abridged). In reading, skip sections II.A and II.B.

Supreme Court decision in Reno v. ACLU, 1997 (abridged).

District Court decision in Mainstream Loudoun v. Board of Trustees of the Loudoun County Library, 1998 (abridged).