Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Fall Semester, 2008
MIT 6.805/STS085: Ethics and Law on the Electronic Frontier
Preparing for the Midterm
The midterm will take place from 2-5 on Thursday, October 23. It will
be run similarly to the Freshman Essay Evaluation. That is, we will
post an essay question at 2:00 and you will have until 5:00 to submit
your response using the homework page on the class Stellar site. The
question will be posted on the Stellar site, and also on this web page
(below). You can take the exam anywhere you wish and you can use any
resources you like, provided you
work alone.
The system will not accept submissions after 5:00PM.
To prepare for the exam, you should read the following paper:
David Post, The Cyberspace Revolution
Keynote Address, Computer Policy & Law Conference,
Cornell University, July 9, 1997.
The exam question will ask you to reflect on the perspective presented
here, drawing upon the material we've covered in class. In studying
for the midterm, focus on the cases we've studied and the readings
we've assigned. It's not necessary to do additional research.
Also, the midterm will be asking you to write in response to a
specific question, not to write a general essay. So don't start
writing before you know what the question is.
Essay question
In answering the following questions, your entire essay (including
both parts) should be 750 to 1300 words in length. Also, if you quote
sources and legal cases, you should paraphrase and use short quotes of
a few words rather than pasting long passages into your essay
verbatim.
You can use any kind of text-editing or word-processing software you
like to write this essay but cut and paste your final text into the
submission box in Stellar. Do not upload a document file.
Question:
Writing at dawn of the popular use of the Web a decade ago, law
Professor David Post (in "The Cyberspace Revolution") argues
that the rise of the Internet and the World Wide Web has forced
governments and citizens into a revolutionary moment. Just as the
American Revolution brought fundamental changes to the relationship
between individuals and the State, now the Net is raising the most
basic question in law: "Who has the authority and legitimacy to make
the law?"
Post suggests that the absence of borders online will lead
to an erosion of State sovereignty and that human society will have to
come up with other means to set the rules by with we conduct our
lives.
Borders have always posed special problems for the law, but
Post is really arguing that because we can't define borders anywhere
online, governance of the entirety of cyberspace is up for grabs.
Write an essay analyzing Prof. Post's argument, answering these two
questions:
-
a) After ten years, is it in fact that case that the legal authority
of governments has declined? Give examples from the cases we have
studied to support your view. (This part counts for 40% of your total exam grade.)
-
b) Regardless of whether you believe Post is correct, what would be
the impact of declining sovereignty on basic values expressed in the
Bill of Rights, namely the First and Fourth Amendment? Give at least
two examples from cases and statutes we have studied, and at least one
example from your own experience of using the Web. Do the outcomes of
the cases you cite support the Post view or some other view? (This
part counts for 60% of your total exam grade.)