INTERNET REGULATION IN THE INFORMATION ECONOMY
Fall 2003

Professor Joel R. Reidenberg
Email: < reidenberg@sprynet.com >
Web page: < http://reidenberg.home.sprynet.com >

• Course description

 

This course will present an overview of key regulatory challenges that the Internet poses for the global information economy. The course will emphasize topics that are the focus of current litigation, legislative initiative or regulatory action. These include methods of regulating the Internet, issues of territorial jurisdiction, the protection of intellectual property, the protection of personal data, and the imposition of civil and criminal liability for Internet activity. In addition to the pratical elements, the course will explore the unique intedependence of the emerging legal and technological rules for the regulation of Internet activities. While the focus of the course will be on law and policies developed in the United States, there will be an important comparative examination with European and French law.

 

• Course Materials

 

 
 
 

The basic readings for the course will be made available through this web page as the course progresses.  Supplemental readings will be circulated by email.  Students are strongly encouraged to subscribe to a cyberlaw news list.   One excellent list is Professor Michael Geist's Internet Law News.  Registration for a free subscription is available at http://ecommercecenter.bna.com/.   Juriscom.net also offers a free newsletter (in French) and you can subscribe by email .

• Class Meetings
 
Class will meet on Tuesdays from 9:15 am to 12:15pm at Sciences Po in Salle 401.
 
• Class Participation and Preparation

 

All students are expected to prepare in advance for class and to participate in class discussions. In the event that any of the links to course reading become outdated, students should either inform the instructor or find an alternate path to the same reading.

Because the Internet often faces traffic slowdowns and the servers storing class readings may have occasional problems, students should plan to access course readings well in advance of class.

• Written Assignments and Grading
 
Each student will complete two writing exercises for course credit.  For the first exercise, each student will research the important counterparts in French or European law for the material assigned for a selected syllabus topic.  Students will choose their topic at the end of the first class.  The results must be presented in an email message (without attachments) that (1) provides a working URL for each document, (2) gives a summary of the French or European legal materials and (3) explains the similarities or differences between syllabus the readings and the research results-- the explanation should include an analysis of the reasoning behind the legal rules in each legal system.  This report should be the equivalent of 2-4 single spaced single space pages. This email must be sent no later than 18H on the Thursday before class discussion of the syllabus topic.   Each student's exercise results will be circulated to the class for their preparation of the topic's discussion.  Students may work collectively on research, but must prepare written submissions individually.

The second exercise will be a short in-class essay at the end of the semester related to the assigned readings.

Grades will be based on the written exercises and class participation.

 
• Virtual Office Hours and Appointments

 

I am regularly available by email <reidenberg@sprynet.com > and generally available for appointments, preferably before or after class.

 

• Course Readings

 
INTRODUCTION
This introduction will present the outline of the course and explore the basic composition of the Internet and some of the organizations involved in designing the infrastructure.  The subsequent course readings are grouped around three themes: (I) Network Rule-Making; (II) Information Flows; and (III) E-commerce.  Each class session will address topics within these themes.  The readings for each theme and topic are indicated below.   During the course of the semester, some of the reading assignments may be prospectively modified.
 
Background reading and browsing:

        Barry M. Leiner et. al , Brief history of the Internet  version 3.31 (4 Aug 2000)

ACLU v. Reno, 929 F. Supp. 824 (E.D. Pa. 1996) (only review the factual findings in Section II of the opinion)

Some important Internet instititutions
           http://www.ietf.org
           http://www.isoc.org
           http://www.w3c.org
           http://www.icann.org

Some general research tools

http://www.google.com
http://www.google.com/en
Professor Jessica Litman's Collection of Sources
Forum des droits sur l'Internet


     Cautionary tales
         FTC Letter to Commercial Alert (June 27, 2002)
         Consumer WebWatch News False Oracles: Consumer Reaction to Learning the Truth About How Search Engines Work (June 30, 2003)

Some legal research tools

http://www.juriscom.net/
http://www.findlaw.com
http://www.foruminternet.org/liens/liens.phtml?id_theme=3
European Commission E-Commerce Law and Policy


PART I:    NETWORK RULE-MAKING

The first part of the course will focus on the sources of rules and rule-making for network activity.  The topics emphasize the technology and the relationship between technology and rule-making authority.

Topic 1:    Sources of Regulation (Nov. 18)

This unit will examine sources and theories of regulation for Internet activities.

          White House, Framework for Global Electronic Commerce (July 1, 1997)

IETF, The TAO of IETF     June 18, 2001
Michael Geist, Cyberlaw 2.0 , B.C. L. Rev. 324 (2003)
Joel R. Reidenberg, Lex Informatica: The Formulation of Information Policy Rules through Technology, 76 Texas L. Rev. 553 (1998)
Lawrence Lessig, Foreword: Conference on Internet Privacy 52 Stanford Law Review 987 (2000)
Lawrence Lessig, Code is Law, On liberty in Cyberspace , Harvard Magazine, January-February 2000
Joel R. Reidenberg, Governing Networks and Rule-Making in Cyberspace , 45 Emory L. J. 912 (1996)
Michael Froomkin, The Internet as a Source of Regulatory Arbitrage in Borders in Cyberspace (Brian Kahin and Charles Nesson, eds.) (MIT         Press,  1997)

Topic 2:    Jurisdictional Conflicts (Nov. 25)

This unit will review the emerging principles of jurisdiction for activities on cross-border  networks.
 

People v. World Interactive Gaming Corp ., 714 N.Y.S.2d 844 (1999)
Playboy Enterprises v. Chuckleberry 939 F. Supp. 1032 (SDNY, 1996)
Michael Geist,  Is There a There There? Towards Greater Certainty for Internet Jurisdiction , 16 Berkeley Tech. L.J - (2001)

L'affaire Yahoo:

TGI Paris Ordinance en référé (Nov. 20, 2001): Original      English translation submitted to the US courts
TGI Paris, Ordinance en référé (May 22, 2000)

Joel R. Reidenberg, The Yahoo Case and the International Democratization of the Internet , Fordham Law & Economics Research Paper No. 11 (April 2001)

Yahoo! Inc. v. La Ligue Contre le Racisme et L'Antisemitisme , 145 F. Supp. 2d 1168 (N.D.Cal. 2001)
    Brief of Amici Curiae in Support of Yahoo , Yahoo v. Licra, Case No. C 00-21275 JF (NDCA)
 

Of interest:
Italian Court of Cassation (Section V) Penal Judgment No. 4741 (2000)
Materials on The Hague Conference on Private International Law
EU Treaties on Jurisdiction
 


PART II:    INFORMATION FLOWS

 
The second part of the course will study the regulation of information flows on the Internet.  The readings will focus on the allocation of the rights to control information access, dissemination and use.
 
 
Topic 1:     Intellectual Property (Dec. 2)

            Copyright

                  Kelly v. Arribasoft , 336 F.3d 811 (9th Cir, July 7, 2003)
                  A& M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc., US Court of Appeals, 9th Cir., Docket #00-16401 (Feb. 12, 2001)  (skip Parts II; VI; VII(A))
                    In re Aimster Copyright Litigation , 334 F.3d 643 (7th Cir., 2003)

                   Gnutella News, What is Gnutella? (2001)  (read entire page)

 
Of interest:
    Metro Goldwyn Studios, Inc. v. Grockster ,  259 F.Supp.2d 1029 (C.D. Cal 2003)
    Universal Studios v. Eric Corley , 273 F.3d 429 (2nd Cir., 2000)
 
Trademark
 
Panavision Int'l v. Toeppen , 141 F.3d 1316 (9th Cir. 1998) (skip II.A)
Playboy Enterprises v. Netscape Communications , 55 F. Supp. 2d (CD Cal), aff'd mem 202 F.3d 278 (9th Cir. 1999)


Domain Names

        ICANN Watch, ICAAN for Beginners (2003)
        The Coca Cola Company v. The Holy See , FA0304000155454   (July 3, 2003)
 

Topic 2:    Content (Dec. 9)
 
U.S. v. Thomas 74 F.3d 701 (6th Cir., 1997)
Reno v. ACLU , 521 U.S. 844 (1997)
U.S. v. American Library Assoc. , No. 02-361. ( June 23, 2003)
 
Topic 3:  Privacy (Dec. 16)

          US West v. FCC, 182 F.3d 1224 (10th Cir., 1999)
 

Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998     [browse.  Note specifically Sections 1302(2) and 1303(a)(1)]
FTC Announces Settlements with Web Sites That Collected Children's Personal Data Without Parental Permission

World Wide Web Consortium Issues P3P v1.0 as a Recommendation (April 16, 2002)

Jefferson Graham, Privacy vs. Internet Piracy , USA Today, June 11, 2003
Verizon, RIAA v. Internet Services-- It's about privacy- not piracy
RIAA, Backgrounder News Memo Debunking Myths Raised By Verizon In Court Dispute

Joel R. Reidenberg, Ecommerce and Trans-Atlantic Privacy , 38 HOUSTON L. REV. 717 (2001)

            UPDATE:  RIAA v. Verizon,  Docket No. 03-7015, C.A.D.C. (Dec. 19, 2003)


Topic 4:    Intermediary Liability  (Jan. 6)

          N.Y. Attorney General, Press Release: Ten Banks End Online Gambling with Credit Cards (Feb. 11, 2003)

India Blocks almost all Yahoo Forums, ABCNews.com, Sept. 29, 2003
Blumenthal v. Drudge, 992 F. Supp. 44 (DDC 1998)
Doe v. GTE Corp, (7th Cir., 2003)
Jonathan Zittrain, Internet Points of Control, 44 B:C. L. Rev. 653 (2003)
 
PART III:    E-COMMERCE

The last part of the course will focus on specific legal issues related to e-commerce.

Topic 1:    Electronic Contracting (Jan. 13)

 
 Joel Reidenberg, L’encadrement juridique de l’Internet aux Etats-Unis in L'INTERNET ET LE DROIT  (Legipresse: 2001) (read Part I.B)
Uniform Electronic Transactions Act
Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act of 2000 , Publ. L. 106-229
NCCUSL Summary of UCITA
    skim: Uniform Computer and Information Transaction Act
 
 Topic 2:    Spam (Jan. 20)

Lorrie Faith Cranor & Brian A. LaMacchia, Spam! , Comm. of A.C.M. (Aug. 1998)
Jo Twist, Microsoft aims to make Spammers Pay, BBC News (Dec. 26, 2003)
        See also Microsoft, The Penny Black Project
David Sorkin, Summary of State Spam Laws (2003)
White House Press Release: President Bush Signs Anti-Spam Law (Dec. 16, 2003)
        Skim CAN-SPAM Act of 2003