6.805/STS085 Class for Feb. 8

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
6.805/6.806/STS085 Ethics and Law on the Electronic Frontier
Spring Semester, 2001
February 8

Course Overview; The First Amendment and freedom of expression

The assignment for this week (and every week) is due before the class. In particular, you should do the readings below before you come to class and be 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.

Topic for today

We'll start with an overall introduction to the course, and our idea (hope) that the class will create some significant projects related to Internet privacy that bridge law, technology, and policy. Larry Lessig's "code and law" framework provides a perspective for thinking about how technology and policy interact in affecting behavior in the world of the Internet. After this introduction, we'll turn to the legal principles underlying freedom of speech in US law, and their application to communications media, which will form a background to our study of privacy this semester.

Readings to do before class

Read Susan Stellin's, Privacy in the Digital Age, Part 1: Who's watching you online?, and Part 2: How private is your personal information? This article on internet privacy issues, published by CNET in May-June 1996, is still a useful overview, even with all the things that have happened over the five years since the article was written.
Read the article by Larry Lessig, The Law of the Horse: What Cyberlaw Might Teach ( PDF format), Harvard Law Review (Draft, Fall 1999). For today, you need read only through the end of Section III (page 24).

Browse the pages in the 6.805 archive on Computer Communications and Freedom of Expression. From that collection, read the ACLU briefing paper, Freedom of Expression.

From the same collection, read the following landmark Supreme Court cases on the First Amendment, and be prepared to answer questions about them in class:
- Holmes's opinion in Schenck v. U.S., 249 U.S. 47 (1919)
- Read Holmes's dissent in Abrams v. U.S., 250 U.S. 616 (1919)
- Read Brandeis's concurring opinion in Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927)
- Read the Court's ruling in Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969)
Read the following cases on the application of the First Amendment to mass media, such as radio and television:
- Read FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 U.S. 726 (1978).
- Look at Sable Communications v. FCC, 492 U.S. 115 (1989). You need only skim this, but pay attention to Justice White's language regarding least restrictive means and the way the Court distinguishes this case from Pacifica.

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Last modified: February 11 2001, 5:56 PM

Hal Abelson (hal@mit.edu)
Mike Fischer (mfischer@mit.edu)
Danny Weitzner (djweitzner@w3.org)
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