Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MIT 6.805/6.806/STS085: Ethics and Law on the Electronic Frontier
Fall Semester, 2003
Week of class on September 4
Course Overview; Early Internet liability cases
The readings for this week (and every week) should be done before
class, and you should come to class and prepared to discuss them. In
class, we will call on participants and ask them to answer questions
about the readings and to contribute to the discussion. The quality of
class participation will be a factor in grades.
Also, in order to be admitted to the class, you must complete and turn in
the pre-semester writing assignment. No one will
be admitted to the class without having done the assignment.
Topic for today
We'll start with an overall introduction to the course, and a
perspective for thinking about how technology and policy interact in
affecting behavior in the world of the Internet. Then we'll learn how
to read and brief a judicial opinion and look some early Internet
cases involving defamation--the standards that determine liability,
and who is liable.
Readings to do before class
Start by getting a brief background in First Amendment law:
- Read the ACLU briefing paper Freedom of
Expression. This contains a concise summary of the major Supreme
Court cases involving the First Amendment.
Now turn to the Internet:
- Larry Lessig, The Law of the Horse: What Cyberlaw Might
Teach ( PDF
format), Harvard Law Review (Draft, Fall 1999).
You need read only through the end of Section II (page 533). Be
prepared to discuss Lessig's perspective on regulation.
- From the 6.805 archives, read The Internet Censorship
Saga: 1994-1997. Don't feel that you need to follow all the
links, just the ones that seem interesting. But be sure to at least
skim the actual text of the
Communications Decency Act.
- One important legal issue facing Internet service providers the
extent to which they are liable for defamatory statements of their
subscribers. An early major ruling here is the Federal District Court
opinion in
Cubby v. Compuserve (Oct. 1991).
You can find a
summary of the decision here.
- Read Zeran
v. America Online, 1997 U.S. App. Lexis 31791 (4th Cir. 1997). In
this decision, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the decision
of a Florida district court, that the Communications Decency Act
effectively immunizes Internet service providers from liability claims
arising from third-party online content. Since the issue here is
rather technical, it will help to read the summaries by the
Newspaper Association of America and in the New York Times
CyberLaw Journal.
Pre-semester writing assignment
In order to be admitted to the class, you must complete and turn in a short
writing assignment by Wednesday, Sept. 3. No one will be admitted to
the class without having done the assignment.
-
What do you think of the decision in Zeran? Regardless of
your view, write a short essay (300-500 words) arguing that the
decision was wrong. Send your essay as plain text email (no
attachments) to Hal, Danny, and Keith before 5PM on Wednesday,
September 3. You must do this assignment in order to be admitted to
the class on Thursday.
To do after class today
There are two writing assignments due this week involving the
rotisserie. One requires answering a question by Sunday and then
posting a response to someone else's question by Wednesday. The other
is a brief of Reno v. ACLU:
- Register for the writing
rotisserie after class today. There will be a question posted
Friday at noon, and the first part is due Sunday night. The second
part (commenting on someone else's answer) is due Wednesday.
-
Please write (and submit using the rotisserie) a brief of Reno v. ACLU, which is in the
readings for next week. As Danny explained in
class, this should cover:
- the issue before the Court
- the procedural history of the case
- the facts of the case
- the Court's holdings
- the Court's reasoning
Your answer should be short - a page at most. For this question
(unlike the one above) we won't ask you to comment on anyone else's
answer. Your brief is due on Wednesday.
Remember that the each week's readings are to be done before
lecture. Check out next week's reading assignments a couple of days
before class.