syllabus

Law and the World Wide Web
Legal 491s
Ethan Katsh (katsh@legal.umass.edu)
Teaching assistant: Alissa McLean (amclean@student.umass.edu)
Tuesday / Thursday 1 - 2:15
Course web site: http://www.odr.info/courses/fall2004

Main text is Belia, Berman and Post, Cyberlaw: Problems of Policy and Jurisprudence in the Information Age, 2nd ed., (St.Paul: West, 2004)

9/9/04
Course Introduction

9/14/04
How is cyberspace linked to law? In general, the issues, conflicts and challenges we shall look at this semester can be categorized as follows:

Assignment

a. Read George Will, Newsweek article, April, 2001
b. Important: please go to http://ecommercecenter.bna.com/ and subscribe to Michael Geist's Internet Law News.
c. Bellia, pp. 1-2, 14-22
c. Read one of the following:

1. When is a virtual commercial product different from a tangible commercial product? go to http://www.juliandibbell.com/playmoney/2003_10_01_playmoney_archive.html and scroll down to October 17th, 2003 entry. Then read December 23, 2003 entry at http://www.juliandibbell.com/playmoney/index.html
2. Is an ebook a book? Random House v. Rosetta Books (2001)
3. When is an auction not an auction? Gentry, Et Al. V. Ebay, Inc., Et Al (2000)
4. When is speech not speech?  Junger v. Daley, 209 F.3d 481 (6th Cir. 2000); Bernstein v. U.S. Dep't of Justice, 176 F.3d 1132 (9th Cir. 1999);

Additional recommended readings:

a. Jack Balkin, "Digital Speech and Democratic culture: A Theory of Freedom of Expression for the Information Society"
b. When is a lottery not a lottery? Neulevel v. Amazon Books (2001)
c. When is property not property? Zurakov v. Register.com (2001)
d. When is arbitration not arbitration? ICANN dispute resolution policy
 

9/21/04
Some issues for law when communication  of digital information is cheap, fast, and available to all?

Find an article about cyberlaw on LEXIS and email the citation of the article to Alissa.
Reading: Intel v. Hamidi,  Bellia, pp. 34-48

Additional reading:
eBay v. Bidder's Edge, Bellia, pp. 27-34
http://www.faceintel.com/

9/23/04
Regulating and governing cyberspace? ICANN and domain names

Reading:  Bellia, pp. 198-202, 225-231
http://does-not-exist.net/icann-primer/ICANNprimer.htm
http://www.caslon.com.au/icannprofile1.htm

Additional readings:

History of domain names
Jay P. Kesan and Rajiv Shah, "Fool un Once, Shame on You - Fool us twice, Shame on Us: What We Can Learn Fromthe Privatization of the Internet Backbone and the Domain Name System," 79 Washington University Law Quarterly 89 (2001)(LEXIS)(SSRN download)

9/28/04
ICANN and domain names: designing dispute resolution for cyberspace

Reading:  ICANN Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy, Use the database at http://udrp.lii.info/ to find and read five UDRP decisions

9/30/04

Online class - Should the UN take over ICANN?

10/5/04
ICANN, legitimacy and public participation

Readings: John Palfrey, The End of the Experiment
Andrew McLaughlin, The Virtues of Deliberative Policymaking: A Response to "Public Participation in ICANN

10/7/04

Online class

Taxation, gambling and prescription drugs

Readings: New York v. World Interactive Gaming Corp., 185 Misc. 2d 852, 714 N.Y.S.2d 844 (N.Y. County Sup. Ct. 1999) (finding that state and federal law prohibit offer of Internet gambling to New York residents) [an alternate source]

Arthur J. Cockfield, "Transforming the Internet into a Taxable Forum: A Case Study in E-Commerce Taxation," Minnesota Law Review Minnesota Law Review, 85 Minn. L. Rev. 1171 (2001).

10/12/04
Whose rules apply in cyberspace? Russians in Las Vegas and Yahoo in France 

Reading:  Bellia, pp. 142-168, 217-225

10/14/04
Internet Service Providers: a substitute for the state?

Reading:  Bellia, pp. 498-516
Reading: Johnson and Post, "Law and Borders"

10/19/04
Online dispute resolution

Readings: Excerpts from Katsh and Rifkin, Online Dispute Resolution: Resolving Conflicts in Cyberspace
Julian Dibble, A Rape in Cyberspace, The Village Voice, 12/21/93, pp. 36-42 (1993)

10/21/04
Online Dispute Resolution

Virtual guest: Colin Rule - Director of Online Dispute Resolution for eBay

Reading: Excerpts from Rule, Online Dispute Resolution for Business

10/26/04
Technology and lawyers: Will technology make lawyers obsolete? Should 15 year olds be allowed to give legal advice online?

Reading: Michael Lewis, "Faking It," New York Times, July 15, 2001
http://www.elawyering.org/
http://www.judgelink.org/

Additional reading: Herbert Kritzer, "The Professions Are Dead, Long Live the Professions: Legal Practice in a Postprofessional World" 33 Law & Society Rev. 713 (1999).

10/28/04
Technology and lawyers: How do lawyers use technology? Delivering legal services online

Reading: Lauritsen, Lawyering for Tomorrow
Lauritsen, Oh Say, Can You C? Preparing for a New Era of Legal Commerce

10/26/04
Online law schools

11/4/04
Copyright: goals, history and the lessons of Mickey Mouse

Reading:  Bellia, pp. 269-309

11/9/04
Copyright - Napster and Grokster cases

11/11/04
Veteran's Day

11/16/04
Copyright - Software code v. legal code

11/18/04
Technology and the boundaries of free speech: Pornography and obscenity

Bellia, pp. 392-489 and selected First Amendment cases

11/22/04
Hate speech and annoying speech (spam)

Reading:  Bellia, pp. 385-392

11/18/04
Privacy

Reading: Bellia, pp. 555-629, 249 - 268

11/23/04
Privacy cont.

11/25/04
Thanksgiving

11/30/04
Privacy cont.

12/2/04
Project presentations

12/704
Project presentations

12/9/04
Project presentations

12/11/04
Last day of classes

Reading:  Bellia, pp. 683-714