MIT 6.805/6.806/STS085: Ethics and Law on the Electronic Frontier (3-0-9)
Electronic Surveillance and Copyright Control

General information

Class meetings: Thursdays 2:00-5:00 in room 34-303

Enrollment limited. Permission of instructor required. Look here for information on how to request permission.

Important: There are class readings, and also a writing assignment due before the first class. These must be completed and the writing assignment turned in by email before 5PM on Wednesday, September 3. No one will be admitted to the first class without having completed this assignment. See the description of the pre-semester assignment in the material for the first class.

Instructors

Welcome

In this class, we will consider the interaction between law, policy, and technology as they relate to the the evolving controversies over control of the Internet. This fall, we be doing an in-depth treatment of two areas: (1) government electronic surveillance in the wake of 9/11; and (2) the technology and policy of copyright control.

Topics we will explore include:

• Legal background for media regulation in the US.
• Internet filtering -- law and technology.
• Fourth Amendment law and post-9/11 surveillance
• Seminal cases in US copyright law, and well as recent and current cases involving media and the Internet.
• Digital restrictions management and rights expression languages

We will also get a chance to meet and question national leaders engaged in in these issues, including technologists, activists, and legal experts.

See the course calendar for the complete list of topics.

All information for this course is maintained on the Web via the class web site:

http://mit.edu/6.805

The site contains course information, including pointers to assigned readings and source material, as well as archives of exemplary papers by students in the class.

Prerequisites and enrolling

MIT course 6 students may count this 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 6.806, and students wishing HASS credit should enroll under either of the numbers 6.805 or STS085. Graduate credit can be granted through STS (not Course 6), although this will require making special arrangements with Mike Fischer for extra work.

There are no formal prerequisites for this subject, but students should be prepared to do extensive independent research, involving both technology and policy analysis. In selecting participants for the class, we will be looking for people with appropriate backgrounds, such as knowledge of 6.033. Also, due to the importance of class participation, class attendance is mandatory. Please do not request a place if you do not expect to attend all of every class.

Enrollment is limited and will be by permission of instructor. To request a place, send email to keithw@mit.edu. Include your name, your department, your year, your email address, and a brief statement about why you want to take this subject and your background (if any) in related areas. Course 6 students should say whether or not they have taken 6.033. We will contact you before Registration Day to tell you whether or not there is room in the class.

Important: There are class readings, and also a writing assignment due before the first class. These must be completed and the writing assignment turned in by email before 5PM on Wednesday, September 3. No one will be admitted to the first class without having completed this assignment. See the description of the pre-semester assignment in the material for the first class.

Syllabus

The course syllabus and weekly assignment can be found on the course calendar web page.

Readings

Grading and required work

• Class participation: We expect you to participate actively in class discussions, contributing your own ideas and commenting on the ideas of others. The readings assigned each week should be done before class. In class, we will call on you and ask you to answer questions about the readings and to contribute to the discussion. The quality of class participation will be a factor in grades. If you are the type who "does not like to talk in class" you should consider whether you really want to take this class. Class attendance is mandatory.

• Short writing assignments:There will be weekly short writing assignments, that use a system called the writing rotisserie. Each week's assignment will have two parts: (1) writing your own paper (due Sunday evening); and (2) commenting on other students' paper (due Wednesday). All assignments will be posted on the class web site for everyone in the class to read. See the description of the writing rotisserie for details.

• Term project: You will be required to do a term project, leading to a final paper. You can make this an individual project, or work in a group of two or three. This will be a major project, and you should expect to devote a lot of time to it throughout the semester. The project can be purely a research paper, or it can involve design and implementation (but this still requires a paper). Papers may be selected for inclusion in the class archive of student papers on the Web. You should browse through the paper selections for spring 2001 and spring 2002 to get an idea of the scale of work expected.

• Oral presentation: At least once during the semester, you will be required to make an oral presentation on on your project, either a final report or a progress report.

• Midterm Exam: There will be an in-class midterm exam.

• Final Exam: There is no final exam.