CPSC 183: Law, Technology, & Culture
Brad Rosen (brad.rosen@yale.edu)
Fall 2013: 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.
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, 2011 and 2012. 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.) I Spy With My Little Eye Multi-Acre Computing Cluster Complete With Fiber Optic Connections – 8/28
[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.]
- Here’s how privacy advocates shined light on the NSA’s unconstitutional surveillance
- LOVEINT
- http://prismviz.com/ (browse. read. download/use if you have the right hardware)
- Blueprints Of NSA’s Ridiculously Expensive Data Center In Utah Suggest It Holds Less Info Than Thought
- Under the Covers of the NSAs Big Data Effort
- FISC Opinion (skim — read if you’re in the mood for adventure)
2.) The Past and Future of Cyberlaw – 8/30
- 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 – 9/4
- 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 (en banc) (read Kozinski’s majority opinion, Skim dissent)
- Jack L. Goldsmith, Against Cyberanarchy, 65 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1199 (1998) [excerpt]
4.) What is law? (Dudley don’t hurt me…) – 9/9
- Lon Fuller, The Case of The Speluncean Explorers: http://www.nullapoena.de/stud/explorers.html
- Regina v. Dudley and Stephens (Wikipedia)
- Cave In To Your Fear (Giggle)
5.) “15 Minutes of Fame” – 9/12
-
William Adams
- Jessica Slaughter
- Andrew Meyer
- Ghyslain Raza
- Star Wars Kid [VIDEO]
- American Dad Meets Star Wars Kid [VIDEO]
- About Star Wars Kid
- Antoine Dodson
- Laina Morris
- Kelly Martin Broderick
- Matthew Cordle
6.) Introduction to Digital Copyright and Fair Use – 9/16
- 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 – 9/18
- 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
- The Greatest C&D Response Letter…Ever
8.) Fair Use and Remix Culture – 9/23
- 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
- At any time before the midterm, watch: Fair Use & Remix Culture: Transforming Consumers into Makers of Culture
9.) P2P Law and Piracy – 9/25
- Sony v. Universal [Majority Opinion]
- Arista v. Limewire (read pages 1-5, and 26-49)
- Do Porn Companies Blackmail Illegal Downloaders
- FAQs for Subpoena Targets
- Capitol v. Thomas
- Sony v. Tenenbaum
- PRENDA ROUNDUP (read wikipedia artcle; skim as many of the original sources at the bottom as you find interesting)
10.) Free Software, Patents, and Copyleft (9/30)
- Priority Rules: An Empirical Exploration of First-to-Invent Versus First-to-File (only read pages 1–14)
- Has Patent, Will Sue: An Alert to Corporate America
- Electronic Frontier Foundation, Legislative Solutions for Patent Reform
- Defend Innovation, a project of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (click on 1-7 to read the problems and solutions)
- Twitter’s Innovator’s Patent Agreement
- F.T.C. Votes for Inquiry Into Patent Businesses
- Wikipedia, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory Licensing
- FRANDs Forever: How the Smartphone Industry Turned a Gentlemen’s Agreement Into a Full-Scale Patent War
- 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)
11.) DRM and Anticircumvention (10/2)
- 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 (note this is old)
- DMCA Rulemaking: What we got
- DMCA Exemptions
- Unlocking Shines A Light
- Congress Moves To Protect Unlockers
- Dear Author
- NOTE: Readings from Copyright.gov are unavailable due the government shutdown. There may be supplemental readings assigned.
- (optional) Randall Picker, Razor-and-Blade Myth(s)
- 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)
- The Atlantic: Facebook Like Is Now Covered by First Amendment
- Bland v. Roberts (read 36-48; skim background)
- Jonathan Weinberg, Rating the Net [Excerpt] (OPTIONAL)
13.) Defamation and Hate Speech – 10/9
- 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”
- Revenge Porn Round-Up: One, Two, Three, Four
14.) Censorship I — Leaks and Creeps – 10/14
- 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 until the paragraph which begins with “The district court excluded the testimony…”)
- Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition (read syllabus)
- 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)
- Wikileaks, About Wikileaks
- Wikipedia, Wikileaks (SKIM Backlash and Pressure)
- Raffi Khatchadorian, No Secrets
- David Samuels, The Shameful Attacks On Julian Assange
- The New York Times, The Abuse of Private Manning
- Ed Pilkington, Manning Conviction Under Espionage Act Worries Civil Liberties Campaigners
- Glenn Greenwald, et al., Edward Snowden: The Whistleblower Behind the NSA Revelations (if you haven’t yet seen the video please watch that as well)
- Glenn Greenwald, On the Espionage Act Charges Against Edward Snowden
- Jeffery Toobin, Edward Snowden is no Hero
- Iphone Misc.: One, Two, Three, Four
15.) Censorship II & Great Walls – 10/16
- Google Transparency Report (skim)
- Twitter Transparency Report (skim)
- Facebook Global Government Requests (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
- When Do States Disconnect Their Digital Networks? (skim)
- Miguel Helft & David Barboza, Google Shuts Down China Site in Dispute Over Censorship
- Post Arab Spring Censorship on the Rise
- Browse http://www.herdict.org
- CISPA Is Dead For Now
16.) Search & Seizure in the Digital Age – 10/28
- 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.) Privacy – Who Can You Trust – 10/30
- 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
- Google Privacy: The 5 Things the Tech Giant Does With Your Data
- EFF: Who Has Your Back
- EFF: Deeper Dive Into Transparency Reports
- What it’s like to get a national security letter
18.) Privacy In A Web 2.0 World – 11/4
- 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 (Practice Fusion Roundup): One Two
- 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
- http://actualfacebookgraphsearches.tumblr.com/
- XKCD: Latitude
19.) Wikipedia, Collaboration, and Network Effects – 11/6
- 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
- Rand Paul and Wikipedia Plagiarism
- User Influences On Site Policies
- US Congressional Staff Edits To Wikipedia
- How I Became Gaming’s Most Popular And Anonymous Photographer
- Wikipedia Policies (skim):
20) Anonymity & Online Identity – 11/18
- 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
- People v. Harris
- Rosario v. Clark (skim)
- Ehling v. Monmouth (skim)
21) Net Neutrality – 11/20
- 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
- Wired, We’re About to Lose Net Neutrality – And the Internet as We Know It
- Optional But Highly Encouraged: Jonathan Zittrain and Larry Lessig Take on Net Neutrality
- Optional: Rachelle Chong, The 31 Flavors of the Net Neutrality Debate: Beware the Trojan Horse
22) Memes & Online Communities – 12/2
- 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) The Future of Education and Knowledge (PLEASE SKIM LAST YEAR’S READINGS ON “INNOVATION v. APPLIANCIZATION”) – 12/4
- 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)