Thursdays 2:00-5:00 in Room 4-231
6.805 was last offered in Fall08. It is not being offered in Fall09 because Prof. Abelson is on sabbatical. There are tentative plans to offer it in Spring10. Check with the EECS department in the fall.
In this class, we will consider the interaction between law, policy, and technology as they relate to the evolving controversies over control of the Internet. This fall, we be doing an in-depth segment on a new approach to privacy on the Web, which replaces the traditional emphasis on secrecy and access control, by policies and technologies to make data use more accountable and transparent.
Topics we will explore include:
MIT Course 6 students may count 6.805 subject as one of the general engineering concentration subjects required for the S.B. or M.Eng. programs, or use this subject for HASS elective credit (but not both). Students wishing engineering concentration credit should enroll under the subject number 6.805, and students wishing HASS credit should enroll under the number STS085. Graduate credit can be granted through STS (not Course 6), although this will require making special arrangements with Prof. Fischer for extra work.
Students enrolling in the Course 6 MEng program can arrange to do an associated thesis in the area of privacy, transparency, and accountability by simultaneously enrolling in 6.UAP, resulting in an extended thesis proposal and preliminary implementation work by the end of the semester. The thesis can be continued the following semester, and there is a possibility of RA support for appropriately ambitious projects.
General course information
Course organization, enrollment information, required work, and grading policy.
Calendar
Schedule of meetings, topics, and assignments, including readings to
do to prepare for each class.
Student papers
Exemplary papers by students in the class in previous semesters.
A near-invisible niche for the vast majority of its existence, computer culture has only recently stepped into the big leagues and has yet to even learn the rules. Sprung from a world of digital absolutes, nerd brains are woefully unprepared for the fuzzy gray shadings inherent in the legal system. But if they can't play the game, they might as well just forfeit to save themselves the beatings.
-- Greg Knauss (Suck Magazine, Sep. 8, 2000)
The law is the instrument through which a technological revolution [the Internet] is undone. And since we have barely understood how technologists built this revolution, we don't even see when the lawyers take it away.
-- Larry Lessig (The Future of Ideas, 2001)