MIT 6.805/STS085: Ethics and Law on the Electronic Frontier
in coordination with
Harvard Law School: Internet and Society
Fall Semester, 1999
Week 3, Sept. 20 - 24:
Make-up for last Thursday's Canceled Class, and Washington Internet Politics
Note: Last Thursday's class was canceled, so we will cover
that material instead on Tuesday September 21. The Tuesday
assigmments below are the same as what was assigned for September 16,
except please also read the Supreme Court opinion in
Reno v. ACLU
We'll be looking at this again later in the semester, and we'll be
asking you to read it again. (The writing assignment for September 16
is still due on September 16.)
Readings for Tuesday (be prepared to discuss these in class):
- Cubby
v. CompuServe, Inc., 776 F. Supp. 135 (S.D.N.Y. 1991): A New York
District Court held that that Compuserve could not be held vicariously
liable for statements posted on a Compuserve bulletin
boards. You needn't read the entire opinion, only a
summary of the decision.
- Stratton-Oakmont v. Prodigy Services Co., 1995 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS
229 (1995), (dismissed by settlement, October 24,1995) (Supreme Court,
State of New York, Index No. 31063/94, May 24, 1995): In this case,
Prodigy was held liable for damages caused by postings on the Prodigy
network. Here is an
announcement of the decision and here is the
complete text of the decision. In October 1995 the parties came
to an agreement not to pursue the case, as
reported by Associated Press.
Prodigy filed for a rehearing, but
this was denied.
You need read only the announcement and the AP report.
- Michelle J. Kane, VI. Business Law: 1. Electronic Commerce:
b) Internet Service Provider liability: Blumenthal v. Drudge, 14
Berkeley Tech. L.J. 483 (1999)
(Get from Lexis: link works at MIT only)
Oral reports for Tuesday:
| Topic |
Presenter |
Resources |
| New York Times Co. v. Sullivan |
Marissa Martin |
Link to Supreme Court case from 6.805 collection |
| Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. |
Deepa Parvathaneni |
Link to Supreme Court case from 6.805 collection. See
also the paper by Michael Hadley, "The Gertz Doctrine and
Internet Defamation", cited below.
|
| Zeran v. America Online |
Aaron VanDevender |
1997
Appeals Court decision. See also the paper by
Lisa-Marie Mullen cited below, and the
and the Kane article cited above. |
| Blumenthal v. Drudge |
Helani Galpaya |
District
court opinion (1997), and Kane article.
|
Tuesday class, Sept. 21: Defamation and liability.
Readings for Thursday (be prepared to discuss these in class):
Thursday class, Sept. 23: Washington lobbying on Internet issues
Class meets at Harvard Law School. How laws
are really passed. An inside look at lobbying over Internet issues,
current bills before Congress, and current political agendas. Guests
include:
Writing assignment: Due before class on September 28.
Return to course calendar
Return to course home page
Hal Abelson (hal@mit.edu)
Mike Fischer (mfischer@mit.edu)
Danny Weitzner (djweitzner@w3.org)
Jonathan Zittrain (zittrain@law.harvard.edu)
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Last modified: September 15 1999, 11:51 PM