CPSC 1830: Law, Technology, & Culture
Brad Rosen (brad.rosen{at}yale.edu)
Fall 2026: M W, 4:00-5:15, LC 102
TAs: nick.jones, tobi.tega, [TBD]
CPSC 1830 is a class that is open to non-majors. You do not need a background in tech or computer science to enjoy the class. The class offers some project options for CS majors as well.
As a general rule, we will adapt the syllabus to take into account current events. We may need to add supplemental readings if breaking news changes the topics being discussed. Feel free to review the syllabi from previous years, “like such as” this absurdly, ridiculously, stupidly exhaustive list of previous syllabi: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025. These should give you a flavor of what the class will ultimately look like.
If you have questions during add/drop period, please email me directly. (Strongly encouraged)
NOTE: Attendance in this class is not optional; participation is synchronous. This class is not a gut. The reviews lie. The cake is a lie. There is no spoon. Tceles B Hsup. Do not taunt happy fun ball. You have to burn the rope. I made you look.
1) Attention Span Wars — You or a Goldfish? 9/2
- You Now Have A Shorter Attention Span Than A Goldfish
- OR DO YOU?
- [ACTUALLY ITS ALL SUPER NUANCED AND THE DEBATE IS OLDER THAN YOU THINK (SKIM)]
- The scarcest resource you don’t even know you’re spending (read)
- In the future, our attention will be sold. (read)
- Lost In the Scroll
- Forget the Click, Online Time May Be More Valuable (skim)
- What you think you know about the web is wrong (read)
- What Is Our Attention Really Worth?
- You’re Being Alienated From Your Own Attention
- The Truth About BrainRot, According to Science
- Yes, the internet is destroying our collective attention span
- How digital media turned us all into dopamine addicts
- The Darkly Soothing Compulsion of Doomscrolling
- (someone is trying to make Hopescrolling happen)
- The Great Fracturing Of American Attention
- Welcome to the Age of Foomscrolling
- Notification Overload
- Gen Z/Flip Phones ( 2024 trend still going)
- Flip Phone Summer ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (2025) [Also you can pay for a Brick….]
- OBLIGATORY (and OBVIOUS): Meta Settlement Explainer
2) The Past And the Future of Cyberlaw — 9/4
- John Perry Barlow, A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace
- Lawrence Lessig, Code 2.0 (Preface to the First Edition, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Preface to the Second Edition – read preface to the second edition last – p. xii-23, ix-xi)
- Frank Easterbrook, Cyberspace and the Law of the Horse, 1996 U. Chi. Legal F. 207
- Mike Madison, Is Cyberlaw Making Us Stupid? (also read the comments)
- Jack Goldsmith and Tim Wu, Digital Borders, Legal Affairs, Jan/Feb 2006
- David R. Johnson and David G. Post, Law and Borders–The Rise of Law in Cyberspace, 45 Stan. L. Rev. 1367 (1996) [excerpt]
- Lawrence Lessig, The Law of the Horse: What Cyberlaw Might Teach, 113 Harv. L. Rev. 501 (1999) [excerpt]
3) The Past and Future of Cyberspace – 9/9
- Jonathan Zittrain, The Future of the Internet — and How to Stop It (Chapters 1, 2 – p. 11-35)
- U.S. v. Morris (Concentrate mainly on the “Facts” section, don’t worry if you don’t understand some of the more complicated issues in the “Discussion” section)
- U.S. v. Nosal (2012 en banc) (read Kozinski’s majority opinion, Skim dissent)
- U.S. v. Nosal (2016 panel) (skim majority, read dissent)
- EFF/ACLU Ask Ninth Circuit to Rehear CFAA cases
- Optional: 9th Circuit denial of rehearing (Reinhardt’s dissent worth reading)
- CFAA Circuit Split Writeup (skim)
- Tennessee District Court Deepens The ‘Without Authorization’ Divide
- Violating an Employer’s Computer Use Restriction Is Not a Federal Crime (skim)
- Linkedin data-scraping case highlights calls for SCOTUS review of computer fraud law
- EFF Asks Supreme Court To Review Dangerous Interpretation of Computer Crime Statute (read
- NACDL – CFAA Primer (Note Criminal Sentence Lengths)
- Van Buren vs. United States (2021) (skim)
- Supreme Court Reins in the CFAA (READ – if all the CFAA stuff is confusing, READ THIS TWICE)
- HiQ v Linkedin (2022) (read only CFAA section)
- Amazon v Perplexity (2026) (read because of course there’s an agentic AI angle now)
- Jack L. Goldsmith, Against Cyberanarchy, 65 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1199 (1998) [excerpt]
4) What is law? (Dudley don’t hurt me…) –
Yale Law Tech 
