CPSC 183: Law, Technology, & Culture
Brad Rosen (brad.rosen@yale.edu)
Fall 2012: M W, 4:00-5:15, WLH 119
CPSC 183 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. Note: The name of the class has changed from previous years, the content has not.
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. Please review the syllabi from previous years: 2009, 2010, and 2011. These should give you a flavor of what the class will ultimately look like.
Please note: the course topics and speakers are subject to change as the semester progresses and due to speaker availability. After the start of the semester, we will post the provisional syllabus here, but you should pay attention to announcements in class and check back here in case there are changes.
1.) Should Gossip Be News? – 8/29[Note: Time will be set aside to discuss an overview of the course, as well as grading and what you can expect. These readings are to stimulate a class discussion.]
- Pop Star’s Photos Aren’t Fair Game
- Monge v. Maya (Read Pages 9173-9177)
- Snooki Gives Birth
- Naked Prince Harry Photos Inspire Humorous Las Vegas Ad Campaign
2.) The Past and Future of Cyberlaw – 8/31
- 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)
- 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 – 9/5
- 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)
- Jack L. Goldsmith, Against Cyberanarchy, 65 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1199 (1998) [excerpt]
4.) What is law? (Dudley don’t hurt me…) – 9/10
- Lon Fuller, The Case of The Speluncean Explorers: http://www.nullapoena.de/stud/explorers.html
- Regina v. Dudley and Stephens (Wikipedia) (SKIM)
5.) “15 Minutes of Fame” – 9/12
- William Adams
- Lee Paige
- Jessica Beagley
- Jessica Slaughter
- Andrew Meyer
- Amber Lee Ettinger
- Crush on Obama [VIDEO]
- Ghyslain Raza
- Star Wars Kid [VIDEO]
- American Dad Meets Star Wars Kid [VIDEO]
- About Star Wars Kid
- Antoine Dodson
6.) Introduction to Digital Copyright and Fair Use – 9/17
- Constitution Art 1 Sec. 8 clause 8 (Only read the first part and the clause starting with “To promote the progress..”)
- 17 USC §102
- 17 USC §103
- 17 USC §105
- 17 USC §106
- Feist v. Rural Telephone
- Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture (Ch 6-7, 85-99)
- Christina Mulligan, Copyright and Glee
- Andrew Leonard, The Copyright Wars Come to”Glee”
7.) Fair Use Part Deux and the DMCA – 9/19
- 17 USC §107
- Warner Bros. v. RDR Books (Skim “Conclusions of Law” and “I. Copyright Infringement,” but pay special attention to “II. Fair Use”)
- Lenz v. Universal
- Pierre Leval, Toward a Fair Use Standard
8.) Fair Use and Remix Culture – 9/24
- Francesca Coppa, A Fannish Taxonomy of Hotness
- Francesca Coppa, Women, Star Trek, and the early development of fannish vidding
- Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music
- Perfect 10, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc. [summary]
- Skim: Brownmark Films LLC v. Comedy Partners (7th Cir)
- OPTIONAL: Rhythm, melody, life: Human hearts have always warmed to the rhythm of music
9.) P2P Law and Piracy – 9/26
- Sony v. Universal [Majority Opinion]
- Arista v. Limewire (read pages 1-5, and 26-49)
- Remitting the Remittal of Joel Tenenbaum’s Remittitur Motion
- Do Porn Companies Blackmail Illegal Downloaders
- FAQs for Subpoena Targets
- Judge Sides With P2P Porn Plaintiffs
10.) DRM and Anticircumvention – 10/1
- Gabriella Coleman, Legal Tinkering, Expertise, and Protest Among Free and Open Source Software Developers (p. 435-448)
- Lexmark International, Inc. v. Static Control Components, Inc. (read section IV only)
- Spore Complaint (read p. 1-15)
- Richard Stallman, The Right to Read
- DMCA Rulemaking Primer
- ArsTechnica, LOC asks how should we let you break DRM?
- (skim) EFF Press Release, EFF Wins New Legal Protections for Video Artists, Cell Phone Jailbreakers, and Unlockers
- James H. Billington, Statement of the Librarian of Congress Relating to Section 1201 Rulemaking (July 26, 2010),
- (explore) http://www.copyright.gov/1201/ and (skim) http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2012/responses/
- (optional) Randall Picker, Razor-and-Blade Myth(s)
11.) Free Software, Patents, Copyleft – 10/3
- America Invents Act (Judicial Review): Link
- Priority Rules: An Empirical Exploration of First-to-Invent Versus First-to-File (only read pages 1–14)
- The Effects of the America Invents Act on Technological Disclosure
- GNU General Public License (read Preamble and 2, 3, 4, 12)
- Ira Heffan, Copyleft: Licensing Collaborative Works in The Digital Age, 49 Stan. L. Rev. 1487 (July 1997) (skip footnotes, skip appendix)
- Christopher M. Kelty, Two Bits (read 98-117)
- Jonathan Zittrain, Normative Principles for Evaluating Free and Proprietary Software, 71 U. Chi. L. Rev 265 (2004) (p. 1-9)
12.) Intro to Free Speech – 10/8
- New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964) (read majority opinion)
- Reno v. ACLU, 521 U.S. 844 (1997), (read majority opinion)
- Ashcroft v. ACLU
- Jack M. Balkin, The Future of Free Expression in the Digital Age, 36 Pepp. L. Rev. 2008 (Read pp. 102-112)
- Jack M. Balkin, Media Access: A Question of Design, 76 George Wash. L. Rev. 2008 (Read I,II,III, skim IV)
- Batzel v. Smith, 333 F.3d 1018 (9th Cir. 2003) (Read majority opinion only, 8431-8460)
- FCC v Fox, 556 U.S. ___ (2009) (Read: Syllabus and the Concurring Opinion by Justice Thomas. Skim the Majority Opinion Sections “Statutory and Regulatory Background” and “Governing Principles.”)
- FCC v. Fox (Fox II)(2012), (Read: Syllabus, Skim: Part 2 and 3)
- Jonathan Weinberg, Rating the Net [Excerpt] (OPTIONAL)
13.) Defamation and Hate Speech – 10/10
- The Restatement (Second) of Torts, § 558 Elements of Defamation (only read § 558)
- Communications Decency Act §230
- Jonathan Zittrain, A History Of Online Gatekeeping, 19 Harv. J.L. & Tech. 253 (Spring 2006), (p. 257-263)
- Barrett v. Rosenthal, 40 Cal.4th 33 (2006) (1-34)
- Doe v. Ciolli (Order Denying Motion to Quash)
- Findlaw, Cyberbullying: A Rundown of Cyberbulling laws
- D.C. v. R.R, 182 Cal App. 4th (2d Dist 2010) (Read majority opinion; skim dissent for the posts made by commenters)
- Ars Technica, FCC Asked to Monitor “Hate Speech, Misinformation Online”
- SKIM: Defamation Case Attacks Google Autocomplete Results, Cyberbullying Law Threatens Student Speech in North Carolina
14.) Censorship I — Leaks and Creeps – 10/15
- Pentagon Papers Case a.k.a. New York Times Co v. United States, 403 U.S. 713 (1971) (read Per Curium Opinion and J. Brennan’s Concurrence)
- Miller v. California, 415 U.S. 15(1973) (read syllabus)
- New York v. Ferber, 485 U.S. 747 (1982) (read syllabus)
- United States v. Ortiz-Graulau, 526 F.3d 16 (2008) (read pp. 1-8)
- Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition (read syllabus)
- Wikileaks, About Wikileaks
- Wikipedia, Wikileaks (SKIM Backlash and Pressure)
- John F. Burns & Ravi Somaiya, WikiLeaks Founder Gets Support in Rebuking U.S. on Whistle-Blowers
- Raffi Khatchadorian, No Secrets
- The Shameful Attacks On Julian Assange
- The Abuse of Private Manning
- Iphone Misc.: One, Two, Three
15.) Censorship II & Great Walls – 10/17
- Google Transparency Report (skim)
- Jeffrey Rosen, Google’s Gatekeepers
- ONI, Cracking Down on Digital Communication and Political Organizing in Iran
- Bruce Schneier, Review of Access Denied
- Jonathan Zittrain, China and Internet Filters
- David Drummond, A New Approach to China
- Miguel Helft & David Barboza, Google Shuts Down China Site in Dispute Over Censorship
- S. 3804: Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act
- Mike Masnick, Even Without COICA White House Asking Registrars to Voluntarily Censor Infringing Sites
- Browse http://www.herdict.org
16.) Search & Seizure in the Digital Age – 10/22
- Fourth Amendment
- Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347 (1967)
- Kyllo v. United States, 533 U.S. 27 (2001)
- United States v. White, 401 U.S. 745 (1971) (read summary)
- United States v. Place, 462 U.S. 696 (1983) (read summary)
- California v. Ciraolo, 476 U.S. 207 (1986) (read summary)
- EFF, Privacy: Searching and Seizing Computers (skim)
- Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 (1985) (read majority opinion)
- Scott v. Harris, 550 U.S. 372 (2007) (read majority opinion by J. Scalia and J. Stevens’ Dissent)
- OPTIONAL: Scott v. Harris Chase Video
- Bryan v. MacPherson, 630 F.3d 805 (9th Cir. 2010) (superseding opinion)
17.) Wikipedia, Collaboration, and Network Effects – 10/29
- Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks (read pp. 59-63, 68-90, but skip Free/Open Source Software)
- Wikipedia, Metcalfe’s Law
- Jonathan Zittrain, The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It (Chapter 6 – The Lessons of Wikipedia)
- Declan McCullagh, Michael Jackson’s Death Roils Wikipedia
- Wikipedia, Wikipedia Biography Controversy
- Wikipedia, Essjay Controversy
- Wikipedia Policies (skim):
19.) Privacy: Who Can You Trust? – 11/5
- Daniel Solove, Justice Scalia’s Dossier: Interesting Issues About Privacy and Ethics
- Kashmir Hill, What Fordham Knows About Justice Scalia
- Kashmir Hill, Justice Scalia Responds to Fordham Privacy Invasion!
- Hoffa v. United States, 395 U.S. 293 (1966) (Read intro and section I, skim dissent of Warren, C. J.)
- Emily Steel & Geoffery Fowler, Facebook in Privacy Breach
- Ian Paul, Facebook Nails Developers Leaking User Data
- Kashmir Hill, How a Company Takes Full Advantage of your Facebook Information
- Twitter Commits To Respecting Do Not Track
- Google Privacy: The 5 Things the Tech Giant Does With Your Data
- Jonathan Zittrain, The Future of the Internet — and How to Stop It (Chapter 9 – p. 200-221)
- Jennifer Van Grove, Are We All Asking to Be Robbed?
- Frank Groeneweld et al, Over Sharing and Location Awareness
- Stephanie Golberg, Does Facebook Know Who You’ll Date Next?
- Kashmir Hill, Facebook Responds to Firesheep Wifi Security Controversy
- TEDX TALK: Dave deBronkart: Meet e-Patient Dave
- If You’re Not Paying for It; You’re the Product
- CDT, The Role of Privacy by Design in Protecting Consumer Privacy
- XKCD: Latitude
21) Online Journalism and the “New” Content – 11/12
Legal Journalism
- http://abovethelaw.com/2006/08/letter-from-the-editor-welcome-to-above-the-law/ – Also, browse Above the Law’s homepage.
- http://abovethelaw.com/2008/10/prissy-potty-puddles-on-the-yale-law-school-list-serv/
- http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/david_lat_interviews_steve_brill/ – watch videos
Journalism moves online
- http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/03/newspapers-and-thinking-the-unthinkable/
- http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/08/07/060807fa_fact1?printable=true,
- http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/article/100696/When-Journalists-Blog-How-It-Changes-What-They-Do.aspx
Twitter and the future of journalism
- http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/01/15/twittering-the-usairways-plane-crash/
- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/02/osama-bin-laden-death-twitter-leak_n_856121.html
- http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/earthquake-twitter-users-learned-tremors-226481
- http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/declan-sullivan-notre-dame-student-killed-video-tower-collapse-tweeted-fall-article-1.192544
- http://storify.com/TheWeek/cnn-s-incorrect-scotus-announcement-twitter-reacts
- http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2012/1031/When-tweets-repeat-a-lie
- http://www.webpronews.com/whitney-houston-death-citizen-journalists-2012-02
- http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/11/11/penn-state-scandal-teaches-ashton-kutcher-a-google-before-you-tweet-lesson/
22) Memes & Online Communities – 11/14
- Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (read Chapter 11 – Memes: the new replicators)
- Rob Walker, When Funny Goes Viral
- Alex Leavitt, Memes as Mechanisms: How Digital Subculture Informs the Real World
- Malcolm Gladwell, Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted (read this carefully it rocks!)
- XKCD, Map of Online Communities
- Roxanna Myhrum, Couchsurfing Paper (skim)
- Brad Rosen & Elizabeth Stark, Is Trolling a Valid Pedagogical Technique for Socratic Exploration of Course Material?
- Nope! Chuck Testa [VIDEO]
- Hampster Dance
- 50 Days of Lulz
- 50 Days of Mayhem: How LulzSec Changed Hacktivism Forever
- LulzSec
- OPTIONAL: Joshua A.T. Fairfield, Virtual Property
- OPTIONAL: Grimmelmann, Virtual Worlds as Comparative Law (skim)
23) Anonymity & Online Identity
- David Margolick, Slimed Online
- Jose Martinez, Broadway Star of ‘Xanadu’ and ‘Wicked’ Sues To Reveal Twitter Poster Behind STD Claim
- Richard Koman, ‘Skank’ Blogger Talks, Sues Google for 15m
- Special Proceeding Order
- Kashmir Hill, Civilizing the Internet, One Lawsuit at a Time
- Kashmir Hill, Lessons Learned from Skanks in NYC
- Chris Soghoian, Twitter’s Privacy Policy and the Wikileaks Case
- Chris Soghoian, NYTimes, When Secrets Aren’t Safe With Journalists
- Parmy Olson, Lawsuits against Web Trolls are on the rise
- Daniel Solove, The Future of Reputation, Ch. 6 p. 136-150, Chapter 8: pp. 189-205
- Twitter Surrenders Occupy Wall Street Protestor’s Tweets
- Judge: Public Tweets Have No Reasonable Expectation of Privacy
24) Net Neutrality
- Tim Wu, Network Neutrality FAQ
- Tim Wu and Chris Yoo debate network neutrality
- Comcast v. FCC (and wikipedia entry)
- Julius Genachowski, The Third Way: A Narrowly Tailored Broadband Framework
- Alan Davidson and Tom Tauk, A Joint Proposal for the Open Internet
- Verizon-Google Legislative Framework Proposal
- EFF, A Review of Verizon And Google’s Net Neutrality Proposal
- FCC Defends its Trojan Horse Approach to Net Neutrality
- Siva Vaidhyanathan, Google Net neutrality stance gives net’s future to corporations
- NYTimes, Net Neutrality and Economic Equality are Intertwined
- Optional But Highly Encouraged:Jonathan Zittrain and Larry Lessig Take on Net Neutrality
25) Innovation vs. Applianciziation
- Jonathan Zittrain, The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It (Intro, Ch. 5, pp. 1-5, 101-126)
- Reed Abelson, FCC is Looking Into Rejection of Google App for iPhone
- Nick Saint, Apple’s 10 Dumbest iPhone App Rejections
- Mark Millian, Apple: No New Apps in Store During Holidays
- Jeff Helffereich, Apple Posts Guidelines for Mac App Store (and We Have Highlights)
- Chris Foresman, Could the Apple Mac Store Kill Software “Bundles”?
- Nicholas Deleon, Tread Lightly When Embracing the Mac App Store
- Roger Kay, Apple’s Mac OS Lockdown to End Developer Independence
- Nick Bilton, Android App Forwards Private Text Messages
- OPTIONAL: Jonathan Zittrain, The Generative Internet
26) The Future of Education & Knowledge
- Isaac Asimov, Profession
- Wikipedia, Khan Academy
- Wikipedia, Access to Knowledge Movement
- Katie Hafner, An Open Mind, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/education/edlife/18open-t.html?&pagewanted=all
- Capetown Open Access Declaration, http://www.capetowndeclaration.org/read-the-declaration
- Jonathan Zittrain, Future of the Internet and How to Stop It, http://futureoftheinternet.org/static/ZittrainTheFutureoftheInternet.pdf (p. 235-45 — Conclusion)