CPSC 183: Law, Technology, & Culture
Brad Rosen (brad.rosen{at}yale.edu)
Fall 2018: M W, 4:00-5:15, LC 101
TAs: Ali Cooper-Ponte, Melis Emre, Danielle Zucker
ULAs: Elizabeth Bays, Marc Shkurovich, Paige Vermeer, Henry Townley, Alex Zafran, Ryan Seffinger, Talbott Paulsen
2018 Midterm Examination Video Links
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. Feel free to review the syllabi from previous years, like such as the 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017. These should give you a flavor of what the class will ultimately look like.
If you have questions prior to shopping period, please email me directly. (Strongly encouraged)
NOTE: Attendance in this class is not optional. 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.
1) Attention Span Wars — You or a Goldfish? 8/29
- You Now Have A Shorter Attention Span Than A Goldfish
- OR DO YOU?
- The scarcest resource you don’t even know you’re spending (read)
- In the future, our attention will be sold. (read)
- Forget the Click, Online Time May Be More Valuable (skim)
- What you think you know about the web is wrong (read)
- Pokémon Go Interest Stories (skim): One, Two, Three, Four
- NY Pokémon Go Legislation/Restrictions (skim): One, Two, Three
- People are quickly losing interest in Pokémon Go (skim)
- Our National Love Affairs With Pokémon Go Might Be Short Lived (NARRATOR VOICE: “It was.”)
- Could 2018 Be The Year ….
- What Is Our Attention Really Worth?
- Advice being given to companies seeking to monetize this mess: (skim if you are inclined/optional)
2) The Past And the Future of Cyberlaw — 9/5
- 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 – 9/10
- 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)
- Second Circuit Sharpens Split on CFAA (skim)
- 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; skim linked petition if you are so inclined)
- Jack L. Goldsmith, Against Cyberanarchy, 65 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1199 (1998) [excerpt]
4) What is law? (Dudley don’t hurt me…) – 9/13
- Lon Fuller, The Case of The Speluncean Explorers:http://www.nullapoena.de/stud/explorers.html
- Regina v. Dudley and Stephens (Wikipedia)
- Just For Fun
5) 15 Minutes of Fame … and exploitation thereof – 9/17
- More Like 15 Seconds of Nanofame
- Jessica Slaughter
- Why My Daughter Will Never Have a Webcam: The Jessi Slaughter Story [VIDEO] [the original has been removed and the link now points to the archive.org version]
- Know Your Meme: About Jessica Slaughter [VIDEO]
- Nick Noonan and Amy Heidemann
- Ghyslain Raza
- Star Wars Kid [VIDEO]
- About Star Wars Kid
- Antoine Dodson
- Laina Morris
- Kelly Martin Broderick
- Matthew Cordle
- Julia Fierro
- George Lindell
- George Lindell Witnesses an Accident [VIDEO]
- Reality Hits You Hard, Bro [VIDEO]
- The Troubling Viral Trend of the “Hilarious” Black Neighbor
- The Creator’s of Kimmy Schmidt’s Theme On Sending Up The “Hilarious Black Neighbor” Meme
- Viral Video News Memes Bring Fame — But Still Feel Almost Racist
- The Moral Compass of Social Media Is Broken
6) Introduction to Digital Copyright – 9/19
- 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”
- Scales of Justice
- Copyright and the Music Marketplace (skim 16-34 and 55-58; read as much as you’re interested in)
7) Fair Use and the DMCA – 9/24
- 17 USC §107
- Pierre Leval, Toward a Fair Use Standard [DO THIS READING TWICE. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT. IT NECESSITATE CAPS. YES I AM YELLING.]
- Swatch Group v. Bloomberg (skip p9-11, 44-47)
- Seltzer v. Green Day
- Warner Bros. v. RDR Books (Skim “Conclusions of Law” and “I. Copyright Infringement,” but pay special attention to “II. Fair Use”)
- DC Comics v. Towle (Holy Copyright, Batman!)
- Lenz v. Universal (dct)
- Lenz v. Universal (9th Cir 2015) (skim)
- The Greatest C&D Response Letter…Ever
8) Fair Use, Remix, and Participatory Culture – 9/26
- Francesca Coppa, A Fannish Taxonomy of Hotness
- Francesca Coppa, Women, Star Trek, and the early development of fannish vidding
- Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music
- Author’s Guild v. Google (skim portions that don’t deal directly with copyright)
- Perfect 10, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc. [summary]
- Cariou v. Prince One and Two
- Dr. Seuss v. Comicmix (read 1-13, focus 11-13)
- Hosseinzadeh v. Klein (skim; read if you are interested. Background here)
- Are Fanfiction and Fanart legal?
- Skim: Brownmark Films LLC v. Comedy Partners (7th Cir)
- Skim: Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video
- At any time before the midterm, watch: Fair Use & Remix Culture: Transforming Consumers into Makers of Culture
9) Copyright and Disruptive Technology – 10/8
- Sony v. Universal [Majority Opinion]
- Rewinding to Betamax: The path to consumers’ “right to record”
- American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. v. Aereo, Inc. (skim majority opinion; read Scalia dissent)
- Federal Court Shuts Down Aereo’s Attempt At A Comeback (skim)
- The latest in the broadcast TV/copyright kerfuffle (skim)
- FilmOn – Read article and skim linked opinion
- First Aereo, Now FilmOn: Another Fight for Innovation and Competition in TV Technology
- Hope Fades as FilmOn Loses
- TvEyes (skim up to pg 11, read the rest)
- Second Circuit Gouges TVEyes (skim linked 2nd circuit opinion)
- Bonus Reading: Salsoul v. Madonna (hope for sampling after all)
10) P2P Law and Piracy – 10/10
- LaMacchia Loophole
- Optional: United States v. LaMacchia
- Arista v. Limewire (read p2-4 and p15-31)
- Do Porn Companies Blackmail Illegal Downloaders
- FAQs for Subpoena Targets
- Capitol v. Thomas
- Sony v. Tenenbaum
- Judge Rules BitTorrent Cases Must Be Tried Separately
- Mother Jones: Why it’s getting harder to sue illegal movie downloaders
- PRENDA ROUNDUP (read wikipedia artcle; skim as many of the original sources at the bottom as you find interesting)
- Court Blocks Speculative Invoicing
11) DRM and Anti-circumvention – 10/15
- Gabriella Coleman, Legal Tinkering, Expertise, and Protest Among Free and Open Source Software Developers (p. 435-448)
- Richard Stallman, The Right to Read
- DMCA Rulemaking Primer
- ArsTechnica, LOC asks how should we let you break DRM?
- 2018 Rulemaking (EFF) (skim)
- Lexmark International, Inc. v. Static Control Components, Inc. (read section IV, skim concurrences)
- Who’s Driving This Thing – Anti DRM Victories and Milestones 2015
- Compare/Review: DMCA Rulemaking (2012): What we got and Victory For Users (2015)
- Skim hyperlinks in the second article that discusses the 2015 exemptions.
- DMCA Exemptions (Historical – SKIM/Consult for Reference)
- Proposed 2018 Exemptions and 2018 Exemption Classes
- Unlocking 3d Printers Ruling A Mess (NOTE: 2015)
- Unlocking Shines A Light
- VW and the DMCA & “Let Owners Look Under the Hood“
- Independent Game Developer Pranks Pirates With ‘Game Dev Tycoon’
- Game Dev Trolls Pirates with Unbeatable Boss
- ‘Deus Ex: The Fall’ Prevents Players With Jailbroken iOS Devices From Firing Guns
- (explore) http://www.copyright.gov/1201/ and
- (optional) Randall Picker, Razor-and-Blade Myth(s)
12) Intro to Free Speech – 10/22
- 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)
- [Packingham]
- Court: Bloggers have First Amendment protections
- Jonathan Weinberg, Rating the Net [Excerpt] (OPTIONAL)
13) Defamation and Hate Speech – 10/24
- 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)
- What it’s like to fight hate online
- Findlaw, Cyberbullying: A Rundown of Cyberbulling laws
- You No Longer Need To Be Online To Be A Victim of Cuberbullying
- D.C. v. R.R, 182 Cal App. 4th (2d Dist 2010) (Read majority opinion; skim dissent for the posts made by commenters)
- Kinney v. Barnes (2014)
- WaPo on Elonis (read article; skim linked opinion if so inclined)
- Facebook Posting That Someone Has Herpes Is Criminal Harassment
- People v. Marquan
- Ars Technica, FCC Asked to Monitor “Hate Speech, Misinformation Online”
- Revenge Porn Round-Up: One, Two, Three, Four
- Halle Berry Thanks Jennifer Garner, Adele & More Celeb Parents After Paparazzi-Deterrent Bill Passes
14) Anonymity & Online Identity – 10/31
- 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
- Judge: Public Tweets Have No Reasonable Expectation of Privacy
- People v. Harris
- Leon v. Target (skim but READ pages 8-11)
- Rosario v. Clark (skim)
- “Actually Yes“
- Ehling v. Monmouth (skim)
15) Censorship I — Leaks and Creeps – 11/5
- 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, journalism ethics and the digital age: what did we learn?
- Raffi Khatchadorian, No Secrets
- David Samuels, The Shameful Attacks On Julian Assange
- 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
16) Censorship II & Great Walls – 11/7
- Google Transparency Report (skim) (note historical changes)
- Twitter Transparency Report (skim)
- Facebook Global Government Requests (skim)
- Warrant Canary (wikipedia)
- Reddit Deletes Warrant Canary
- Jeffrey Rosen, Google’s Gatekeepers
- Bruce Schneier, Review of Access Denied
- David Drummond, A New Approach to China
- WSJ: China Censors Your Internet [PDF]
- The Great Global Internet
- When Do States Disconnect Their Digital Networks? (skim)
- Miguel Helft & David Barboza, Google Shuts Down China Site in Dispute Over Censorship — Follow ups One, Two, Three
- 68 Things You Can’t Say On China’s Internet
- Post Arab Spring Censorship on the Rise
- Browse http://www.herdict.org
17) Search & Seizure in the Digital Age – 11/12
- 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)
- United States v. Raymonda (2d Cir. 2015) (skim opinion and concurrence)
- Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 (1985) (read majority opinion)
- Bryan v. MacPherson, 630 F.3d 805 (9th Cir. 2010) (superseding 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
18) Privacy in the Web 2.0 World – 11/14
- United States v. Jones, 132 S.Ct. 945 (2012) (Read Majority Opinion & Sotomayor’s Concurrence)
- Hoffa v. United States, 395 U.S. 293 (1966) (Read intro and section I, skim dissent of Warren, C. J.)
- Los Angeles v. Patel, (2014) (Skim majority oopinion; Read Scalia’s dissent)
- 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!
- Kashmir Hill, How a Company Takes Full Advantage of your Facebook Information
- Jonathan Zittrain, The Future of the Internet — and How to Stop It (Chapter 9 – p. 200-221)
- Stephanie Golberg, Does Facebook Know Who You’ll Date Next?
- Kashmir Hill (Practice Fusion Roundup): OneTwo
- If You’re Not Paying for It; You’re the Product
- CDT, The Role of Privacy by Design in Protecting Consumer Privacy (optional)
- http://actualfacebookgraphsearches.tumblr.com/
- XKCD: Latitude
- TEDX TALK: Dave deBronkart: Meet e-Patient Dave (optional)
19) Wikipedia, Collaboration, and Network Effects – NOT ASSIGNED — OPTIONAL READING
- 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)
- Do Experts or Collective Intelligence Write With More Bias (skim)
- Declan McCullagh, Michael Jackson’s Death Roils Wikipedia
- Wikipedia, Wikipedia Biography Controversy
- Wikipedia, Essjay Controversy
- Rand Paul and Wikipedia Plagiarism (skim)
- User Influences On Site Policies (skim)
- Joe Pinsker, The Covert World of People Trying to Edit Wikipedia — For Pay
- Gus Lubin, Interview with Justin Knapp
- Patricia Cohen, Museum Welcomes Wikipedia Editors
- Jennifer Schuessler, Moving Wikipedia from Computer to Many, Many Bookshelves
- US Congressional Staff Edits To Wikipedia (skim)
- How I Became Gaming’s Most Popular And Anonymous Photographer
- Richard Pérez-Peña, Keeping News of Kidnapping Off Wikipedia (see also: Wikipedia (media blackout and role of wikipedia))
- Wikipedia Policies (skim):
21) Net Neutrality — 11/26
- Why the Fuck Would You Care About Net Neutrality
- A Super-Simple Way to Understand the Net Neutrality Debate
- Facebook, Internet.org, and the Net Neutreality Bugaboo
- Internet.org is not neutral, not secure, and not the internet
- Packet Switching and Circuit Switching [SKIM] [This will be explained in class]
- What Is Title II?
- FCC Sets New Net Neutrality Rules
- Court Backs Treating Internet As Utility, Not Luxury [Wapo Coverage here: “Plain English“]
- Net Neutrality Is Suddenly On the Chopping Block
- T-Mobile’s Unlimited Video Raises Net Neutrality Concerns
- Comcast May Have Found A Major Net Neutrality Loophole
- NYTimes, Net Neutrality and Economic Equality are Intertwined
- NYTimes: Net Neutrality Has Been Repealed
- CNet: Net Neutrality Fight Isn’t Over
- FCC Plans Net Neutrality Repeal
- FCC Leading Us Towards Catastrophe
- How the FCC Can Save the Open Internet [PDF]
- Tim Wu: Why The Courts Have to Save Net Neutrality
- Comcast v. FCC Wikipedia summary (Optional but highly suggested: Appellate court ruling)
20) Innovation, Appliancization, Education and Knowledge – 11/28
- Jonathan Zittrain, The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It (Intro, Ch. 5, pp. 1-5, 101-126)
- Venturebeat, App Store Could Spread Like Wildfire (Note: this is from 2008)
- So Why Isn’t There More App Store Competition? (skim)
- Mac App Store – The Subtle Exodus (skim)
- Isaac Asimov, Profession (read)
- Wikipedia, Khan Academy (skim)
- Wikipedia, Access to Knowledge Movement (skim)
- TC, Why is the university still here?
- TC, How Should We Learn?
- NYT – Katie Hafner, An Open Mind
- NYT – Jeff Selingo, Demystifying the MOOC
- NYT – Farhad Manjoo, Udacity says…,
- Jonathan Zittrain, Future of the Internet and How to Stop It, http://futureoftheinternet.org/static/ZittrainTheFutureoftheInternet.pdf (p. 235-45 — Conclusion)
- Supreme Court Appears Skeptical of App Store
- (Skim Transcript)
21) Online Participation – Memes, Communities, and “Citizen Journalism” (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 (and The Original)
- Brad Rosen & Elizabeth Stark, Is Trolling a Valid Pedagogical Technique for Socratic Exploration of Course Material?
- Nope! Chuck Testa [VIDEO]
- Hampster Dance
- Sarah Palin Email Hack
- Kernell Trial Testimony
- Know Your Meme: Shitposting
- 50 Days of Mayhem: How LulzSec Changed Hacktivism Forever
- LulzSec
- Ed Pilkington, LulzSec Hacker “Sabu” released after “extraordinary” FBI cooperation.
- Alexis Madrigal, The Anatomy of a Misinformation Disaster
- EFF, Legal Guide For Bloggers/Reporters’ Privilege
- CS Monitor, When Tweets Repeat a Lie
- Lies, Damn Lies, and Viral Content (yes it is long af. read it anyway. the pdf AVAILABLE HERE is easier to read)
- Kash Hill, Penn State Scandal Teaches Ashton Kutcher a “Google Before You Tweet” Lesson
- The Meme Election
- Truth is a Virus: Meme Warfare and the Billionaires for Bush (or Gore)
- Note: You lived the 2016 election. You can g̶o̶o̶g̶l̶e̶ do an internet search for “memes 2016” election without needing it be assigned. The concepts aren’t new — let’s discuss the foundation
23) Where are we going? (Are we in a hand basket??)
- The Law Can’t Keep Up With Technology (And that’s a good thing) {PDF}
- How the Internet Has Changed Dating (LOOK AT THAT CHART)
- 8 Ways Tech Has Completely Rewired Our Brains
- Modern Tech Changing the Way Our Brains Work
- My Smartphone Gave Me A Painful Neurological Condition
- People Are In Denial About Using Devices While Walking
- The Key of Awesome #97: Look At Your Phone
- Feds Pushing Blocks of Apps While Driving
- Tinder and the Dawn of the Dating Apocalypse
- Teens, Technology and Friends
- Face Time vs. Screen Time
- The Growing Culture of Impatience
- 36 Ways The Web Has Changed Us (2014)
- The Internet Transforms Modern Life (2005)
- Technology Has Made Life Different; Not Necessarily More Stressful
- Beware the Filter Bubble
- Did Facebook’s Big New Study Kill My Filter Bubble Thesis (ed note: No)
- Social Media Is Destroying Human Interaction
- The Price of Public Shaming In the Internet Age