Required Texts

Mike Godwin, Cyber Rights: Defending Free Speech in the Digital Age (1998)

Peter Ludlow, ed., High Noon on the Electronic Frontier: Conceptual Issues in Cyberspace (1996)

Recommended Texts

Anne Wells Branscomb, Who Owns Information? (1994)

Clifford Stohl, Silicon Snakeoil: Second Thoughts on the Information Superhighway (1995)

Some Helpful Resources

Matisse Enzer, ILC Glossary of Internet Terms

Denis Howe, The Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

Cornell Law School, Legal Information Institute

FindLaw

FindLaw's Cyberspace Law Center

Class Assignments

Part One: Intellectual Property Issues

Week of January 11. Displays, Output, and User Interfaces.

• Apple Computer, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp., 35 F.3d 1435 (9th Cir. 1994)
• Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. v. Nintendo of America, Inc., 964 F.2d 965 (9th Cir. 1992)
• Lotus Development Corp. v. Borland International, Inc., 49 F.3d 807 (1st Cir. 1995), aff'd by an equally divided court, 516 U.S. 233 (1996)
• Godwin, Chapter 7.
  

Week of January 18. Electronic Publishing.

• Amsinck v. Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., 862 F. Supp. 1044 (S.D.N.Y. 1994)
• Sega Enterprises Ltd. v. Maphia, 857 F. Supp. 679 (N.D. Cal. 1994)
• Religious Technology Center v. Netcom On-Line Communications Service, Inc., 907 F. Supp. 1361 (N.D. Cal. 1995)
• Ludlow, pages 1 - 34
  

Week of January 25. Trade Secrets and Confidentiality on the World Wide Web.

• Barr-Mullin, Inc. v. Browning, 424 S.E.2d 226 (N.C. App. 1993)
• Religious Technology Center v. Lerma, 897 F. Supp. 260 (E.D. Va. 1995)
• Ludlow, pages 113 - 123

Part 2: Networked Communications and Privacy Issues

Week of February 1. Spam.

• Michael W. Carroll, Note, Garbage In: Emerging Media and Regulation of Unsolicited Commercial Solicitations, 11 BERKELEY TECH. L.J. 233 (1996).
• Cyber Promotions, Inc. v. America Online, Inc., 948 F. Supp. 456 (E.D. Pa. 1996)
• Compuserve, Inc. v. Cyber Promotions, Inc., 962 F. Supp. 1015 (S.D. Ohio 1997)

Week of February 8. Data Communications.

• United States v. Smith, 978 F.2d 171 (5th Cir. 1992)
• United States v. Davis, 978 F.2d 415 (8th Cir. 1992)

Week of February 15. Data Communications (continued).

• United States v. Daccarett, 6 F.3d 37 (2d Cir. 1993)
• Brown v. Waddell, 50 F.3d 285 (4th Cir. 1995)
• United States v. Maxwell, 42 M.J. 568 (Air Force Ct. Crim. App. 1995)
• Smyth v. Pillsbury Co., 914 F. Supp. 97 (E.D. Pa. 1996)

Week of February 22. Databases and Privacy Rights.

• Dr. K. v. State Board of Physician Quality Assurance, 632 A.2d 453 (Md. Ct. App. 1993)
• State v. City of Akron, 640 N.E.2d 164 (Ohio 1994)
• Tribune-Review Publishing Company v. Allegheny County Housing Authority, 662 A.2d 677 (Pa. 1995)
• Ludlow, pages 225 - 236

Week of March 1. Databases and Privacy Rights (continued).

• Taylor v. Internal Revenue Service, 186 B.R. 441 (N.D. Iowa 1995)
• Casella v. Equifax Information Servs., 56 F.3d 469 (2d Cir. 1995)
• Godwin, Chapter 6
• DEADLINE FOR APPROVAL OF PAPER TOPICS

Weeks of March 8 and 15: Spring Break

Part 3: Jurisdiction

Week of March 22. The "Seamless Web" and Jurisdiction.

• Bensusan Restaurant Corp. v. King, 937 F. Supp. 295 (S.D.N.Y. 1996), aff'd, 126 F.3d 25 (2d Cir. 1997)
• Cody v. Ward, 954 F. Supp. 43 (D. Conn. 1997)
• Digital Equipment Corp. v. Altavista Technology, Inc., 960 F. Supp. 456 (D. Mass. 1997)
• Zippo Mfg. Co. v. Zippo Dot Com, Inc., 952 F. Supp. 1119 (W.D. Pa. 1997)
• People v. Lipsitz, 663 N.Y.S.2d 468 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1997)
• Minnesota v. Granite Gate Resorts, Inc., 568 N.W.2d 715 (Minn. 1997)
• United States v. Stevens, 842 F. Supp. 96 (S.D.N.Y. 1994).
• Cybersell, Inc. v. Cybersell, Inc., 130 F.3d 414 (9th Cir. 1997)

Part 4: The First Amendment in Cyberspace

Week of March 29. Access Controls and the First Amendment.

• Brian Haselton, Peacefire Home Page (visited Jan. 1, 1998). Selected Documents: Some Non-Profit Sites Blocked By CyberSitter; Some Educational Servers Blocked By Cyber Sitter; Some Commercial Sites and Service Providers Blocked By Cyber Sitter; Some Sites Blocked in the Past By Cyber Sitter.
• David Burt, The Filtering Facts Home Page (visited Jan. 1, 1998). Selected Documents: Responses to Fifteen Common Arguments Against Filters; Filters Block What?; How Filters Really Work.
• People v. Barrows, 664 N.Y.S.2d 410 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1997)
• American Library Assoc'n v. Pataki, 969 F. Supp. 160 (S.D.N.Y. 1997)
• Reno v. A.C.L.U., 117 S. Ct. 2329 (1997)
• Mainstream Loudoun v. Board of Trustees of the Loudoun County Library
• Godwin, Chapter 10

Week of April 5. The Technology of Pornography.

• Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (1973)
• Stanley v. Georgia, 394 U.S. 557 (1969)
• United States v. X-Citement Video, Inc., 513 U.S. 64 (1994)
• United States v. Thomas, 74 F.3d 701 (6th Cir. 1996)
• United States v. Thomas, 893 F.2d 1066 (9th Cir. 1990)
• Ludlow, pages 251 - 301
• Godwin, Chapters 8 & 9

Part 5: The Criminal Law in Cyberspace

Week of April 12. The Digital Criminal.

• Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. U.S. Secret Service, 36 F.3d 457 (5th Cir. 1994)
• Jackson v. State, 636 So.2d 1372 (Fla. App. 1994)
• United States v. Meriwether, 918 F.2d 955 (6th Cir. 1990)
• Ludlow, pages 113 - 172

Week of April 19. The Digital Criminal (continued).

• State v. Riley, 8476 P.2d 1365 (Wash. 1993)
• People v. Krause, 609 N.E.2d 980 (Ill. 1993)
• State v. Corcoran, 522 N.W.2d 226 (Wis. App. 1994)
• American Tel. & Tel. v. Jiffy Lube Int'l, Inc., 813 F. Supp. 1164 (D. Md. 1993)
• Werner, Zaroff, Slotnick, Stern & Askenazy v. Lewis, 588 N.Y.S.2d 960 (Civ. Ct. N.Y County. 1992)