Internet Law
Spring 2008
Prof. Susan Crawford
Course Information and Syllabus [as of 1/22/08]
T & Th, 9:45-11:00
Room 122
Office: Room K42
susan.crawford@yale.edu
Assistant: Deborah Sestito, deborah.sestito@yale.edu. Rm. 333, 2-4830
Contact
Information: The best way to reach me is by email at
susan.crawford@yale.edu. Office hours are 4pm to 5pm, Monday and
Tuesday. I am happy to make appointments by email for other times.
Course
Materials: Bellia, Berman, Post: CYBERLAW: PROBLEMS OF POLICY AND
JURISPRUDENCE IN THE INFORMATION AGE (3d ed. 2006) and supplemental
materials made available through YLS:Inside.
Course
Requirements: Every class member must participate in the class wiki by
posting a one-page comment (reactions to the assigned readings, to the
questions posted on the wiki, or to what other classmates say about the
assigned readings) by no later than 5pm every Sunday (with a couple of
exceptions for holidays – see below) during the term. You may skip one
week’s post without penalty. Just let me know that you are skipping
that particular week. You are encouraged to use the wiki to post links
to related stories or materials available online and to comment on
other student postings.
The class wiki is part of the
YLS:Inside site for this class. Email me if you have problems. To
create a new page or link to an existing page, enclose text inside
double brackets.
Three times during the term, each class member
will be required to post a comment about a current internet law event
on the Yawling blog. (This blog is part of YLS’s Information Society
Project, and can be found at http://yawling.wordpress.com). You will
receive an invitation from me to register for this blog. Create a
sign-in name (which may be anonymous – just let me know by email that
you are the person with that particular sign-in name), choose a
password, and you’re in. I will make you an “Author” of the blog and
you’ll be able to post there. Let me know when you are posting so that
I can make sure to give you credit for that post. Again, you may, of
course, post anonymously. My communications law students will also be
posting on that blog, so it should be pretty lively.
Wiki and
blog post writings will constitute 1/2 of your grade. I will provide
feedback to you during the semester on these comments and postings,
with a check-plus, check, or zero rating.
Class participation is essential.
You
may choose to take a three-hour final exam or write a 20-30 page paper
for 1/2 of your grade. You must decide whether you are writing a paper
by 5pm on Thurs. Feb. 7, and you should at that point make an
appointment with me to talk about the topic and set a schedule for the
paper.
You should subscribe to BNA’s Internet Law News, http://ecommercecenter.bna.com.
Class 1 – Cyberlaw as a Discipline; Internet Basics
Tues., Jan. 29
pp. 1-20
John Perry Barlow manifesto (external link available on YLS:Inside)
Jeff Tyson, How Internet Infrastructure Works (external link, YLS:Inside)
Compuserve Forum Rules (external link, YLS:Inside)
Class 2 – Internet Basics cont.; Analogy Problems
Thurs., Jan. 31
pp. 21-44
Post 1 - 1-page posting required by 5pm Sunday, Feb. 3 on any of the readings for Classes 3-6
Classes 3 & 4 – Analogy Problems cont.; Consumer Confusion and Online Trademarks
Mon., Feb. 4: Makeup class, 3:45pm to 5pm
Tues., Feb. 5 (regular schedule)
pp. 44-57
plus, on YLS:Inside:
Playboy v. Netscape, 354 F.3d 1029 (9th Cir. 2004)
FragranceNet.com v. FragranceX.com
GEICO v. Google, Inc., No. 1:04cv507 (E.D. Va. Aug. 8, 2005)
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Trademarks (link)
Mark Lemley, The Modern Lanham Act and the Death of Common Sense, 108 YALE L.J.
1678 (1999)
Class 5 – Problems of Geography and Sovereignty
Wed., Feb. 6: Makeup class, 3:45pm to 5pm
pp. 63-83
plus, on YLS:Inside:
Dow Jones v. Gutnick
Wikipedia on the Great Firewall of China (link)
OpenNet Initiative (explore country reports) (link)
Class 6 – Yahoo!, Amazon, and France
Thurs., Feb. 7 (regular schedule)
pp. 94-98, 137-145
plus, on YLS:Inside:
Yahoo! 9th Circuit Opinion (skim – it’s long)
Joel Reidenberg, The Yahoo Case and the International Democratization of the Internet
Materials on Amazon.fr issue (to be assigned)
Nate Anderson, Deep Packet Inspection (link)
NO CLASSES ON FEB. 12 OR 14
Post 2 - 1-page posting required by 5pm Sunday, Feb. 17 on any of the readings for Classes 7-10
Class 7 – Dormant Commerce Clause
Mon., Feb. 18: Makeup class, 3:45pm to 5pm
pp. 98-112
Class 8 – DNS & ICANN
Tues., Feb. 19 (regular schedule)
pp. 166-193, 296-307
optional: The ICANN Experiment (YLS:Inside)
Class 9 – Effect of Technological Change on Legal Rules
Wed., Feb. 20: Makeup class, 3:45pm to 5pm
pp. 195-211
Class 10 – Use of Technology to Supplant Legal Rules
Thurs., Feb. 21 (regular schedule)
pp. 211-238
Post 3 - 1-page posting required by 5pm Sunday, Feb. 24 on Classes 11 or 12 readings
Class 11 – Effect of Legal Rules on Innovation
Tues., Feb. 26
pp. 238-255
Class 12 – Grokster
Thurs, Feb. 28
pp. 255-282
20th Cen. Fox v. Cablevision (on YLS:Inside)
Post 4 - 1-page posting required by 5pm Sunday, Mar. 2 on Class 13 or 14 readings
Class 13 – Google
Tues., Mar. 4
pp. 308-327
plus, on YLS:Inside
Viacom v. Google
Authors Guild v. Google
James Grimmelmann, The Structure of Search Engine Law
Class 14 – Legislative Responses to “Private” Regulatory Power (incl. Red Lion)
Thurs., Mar. 6
pp. 351-387
Post 5 - 1-page posting required by 5pm Sunday, Mar. 9 on Class 15 or 16 readings
Class 15 – Problems of Speech Regulation (incl. Pacifica)
Tues., Mar. 11
pp. 389-426
Class 16 – Filtering Technology and the First Amendment
Thurs., Mar. 13
pp. 440-466
[SPRING BREAK]
[No Sunday Posting]
Class 17 – Case study: Pappert
Tues., Mar. 25
pp. 466-479
Materials on BT Clean Feed and Australian mandate (to be assigned)
NO CLASS THURS. MARCH 27
Post 6 - 1-page posting required by 5pm Sunday, Mar. 30 on Class 18 & 19 readings
Classes 18 & 19 – Section 230
Tues., Apr. 1
Thurs., Apr. 3
pp. 481-511
Fair Housing Council v. Roomates.com (on YLS:Inside)
Post 7 - 1-page posting required by 5pm Sunday, Apr. 6 on Class 20 or 21 readings
Class 20 – Intermediary Copyright Liability
Tues., Apr. 8
pp. 512-532
Class 21 – Perfect10 and Secondary Liability
Thurs., Apr. 10
On YLS:Inside:
Perfect 10 v. ccBill
Perfect 10 v. Amazon
Perfect 10 v. Visa
Post 8 - 1-page posting required by 5pm Sunday, Apr. 13 on Class 22 readings
Class 22 – ECPA
Tues., Apr. 15
pp. 554-583
NO CLASS THURS., APR. 17
Post 9 - 1-page posting required by 5pm, Sunday, Apr. 20 on Class 23 or 24 readings
Class 23 – Retrospective Acquisition of Stored Communications
Tues., Apr. 22
pp. 583-616
Warshak v. U.S. (on YLS:Inside)
Class 24 – Acquisition of Noncontent Information
Thurs., Apr. 24
pp. 616-648
Marcus Declaration (in Hepting)
AT&T Complaint (Hepting)
Post 10 - 1-page posting required by 5pm Sunday, Apr. 27 on Class 25 or 26 readings
Class 25 – What Happened to FISA?
Tues., Apr. 29
Materials to be assigned
Class 26 – Private Acquisition of Communications
Thurs., May 1
pp. 648-670
FTC Online Profiling Report (2000)
EPIC Complaint
Network Advertising Principles (2000), on CTools.
[No Sunday posting]
Class 27 – Information Enclosure
Tues., May 6
pp. 679-714
Class 28 – DMCA and competition
Thurs., May 8
pp. 714-731
Michael Zimmer, PhD
Microsoft Resident Fellow, Information Society Project, Yale Law School
e: michael.zimmer@yale.edu
w: http://michaelzimmer.org