Internet Law

Law 633. This course will examine how the law is responding to the various challenges posed by the Internet. It will look at the application of various sources of law including the United States Constitution, state and federal statutes and regulations and common law principles to the Internet as well as a variety of proposals for new or revised laws to regulate this means of both communication and commerce. Topics to be discussed include efforts to censor the Internet, the legal status of domain names, on-line defamation, jurisdiction over cyberspace and Internet crimes. The course does not require any technical expertise, but instead will focus on the way in which the legal system responds to the creation of new technology either by reasoning by analogy and applying existing legal principles or by creating new legal categories and regulatory techniques.

Required Reading

There is no required casebook for this course. All of the reading material for this course will be posted on this website as the semester progresses. You can expect that the material typically will be available about 3 weeks in advance of the class where it will be discussed. Case material will usually be in the form of a .pdf so that every student in the class will have an identically formatted version of each case.

In addition to the assigned reading, if you scroll down to optional class materals, you will find a variety of links to material related to this assignments including background information about some of the cases, technical information that may be helpful in understanding the analysis of the legal issues, and a variety of other materials.

Syllabus

Assignments

Assignment Eight (Intermediary Liability for Online Content)

V. Intermediary Liability for Online Content
A. Secondary Liability for Defamatory Content
B. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996

Cubby, Inc. v. CompuServe, Inc., Stratton Oakmont, Inc. v. Prodigy Services Co., Section 230, Zeran v. AOL, Inc., Blumenthal v. Drudge, Schneider v. Amazon.com, Inc., Carafano v. Metrosplash.com, Inc., Fair Housing Council of San Fernando Valley v. Roommates.com, LLC, Barnes v. Yahoo!, Inc.
 

Optional Class Materials

(Materials for the next few classes are posted below. A complete list of materials is available at classmaterials.html.


Assignment Eight

Section 230 Hypotheticals

Slimed Online (2009 article)

Section 512 Safe Harbor Provisions - Frequently Asked Questions

Section 512 (complete statutory section)

Chase Masterson

Statutory Materials

ADA Prohibition of Discrimination by Public Accommodations

ADA Definition of Public Accommodation

ADA Public Accommodation Provisions

Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act of 1999

Federal Trademark Dilution Act (current version)

Federal Trademark Dilution Act of 1995 (previous version)

Lanham Act (with links to each section of the Act)

Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy and ICANN Rules

Section 512 (complete statutory section)

Section 230 (complete statutory section)

New Florida Bar Rule 4-7.2 (c) (3) Regulating Online Content

Washington Anti-Spam Act

Federal CAN SPAM Act

Proposed Utah E-Commerce Integrity Act

Discussion of Proposed Utah Law on E-Commerce and Tech Law Blog

Cases

Adams v. New Jersey Steamboat Co., McBoyle (Court of Appeals), and McBoyle (Supreme Court)
eBay v. Bidder's Edge, Intel Corp. v. Hamidi, and Access Now, Inc. v. Southwest Airlines Co.
 
Voyeur Dorm, L.C. v. City of Tampa and Flava Works, Inc. v. City of Miami

ALA v. Pataki, Washington v. Heckel, and National Federation of the Blind v. Target Corp.

Yahoo!, Inc. v. La Ligue Contre Le Racisme et L'Antisemitisme and Sarl Louis Feraud International v. Viewfinder, Inc.

Hageseth v. The Superior Court of San Mateo County

Zippo Manufacturing Co. v. Zippo Dot Com, Inc., Amway Corp. v. Proctor & Gamble Co., Young v. New Haven Advocate, Boschetto v. Hansing, and Tamburo v. Dworkin

Panavision Int'l, L.P. v. Toeppen, Selected Provisions of the Lanham Act, Planned Parenthood v. Bucci, Taylor Building Corp. v. Benfield, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals v. Doughney,  Weather Underground, Inc. v. NCS, Inc., America Online, Inc. v. AOL.org

Rules for UDRP, Educational Testing Service v. aaa, Munchkin, Inc. v. Mamas and Munchkins, LLC, Dluhos v. Strasberg, 1-800 Contacts, Inc. v. WhenU.com, Inc., Rescuecom Corp. v. Google, Inc.

Reno v. ACLU, United States v. American Library Association, Ashcroft v. ACLU, Center for Democracy & Technology v. Pappert

Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, Kowalski v. Berkeley County Schools, Ostergren v. Cuccinelli, Doe v. 2TheMart.com Inc., Solers, Inc. v. Doe, Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Corley

Cubby, Inc. v. CompuServe, Inc., Stratton Oakmont, Inc. v. Prodigy Services Co., Section 230, Zeran v. AOL, Inc., Blumenthal v. Drudge, Schneider v. Amazon.com, Inc., Carafano v. Metrosplash.com, Inc., Fair Housing Council of San Fernando Valley v. Roommates.com, LLC, Barnes v. Yahoo!, Inc.


Exam Review Material

Exam Instructions 2012

Exam Review 2012 - Part One

Exam Review 2012 - Part Two

Student Questions 2012 (last updated 4/18)

Internet Law Examinations

Internet Law Answer Sheets


Recommended Reading

Controversial Copyright Bills Violate First Amendment

Facebook: State Bar Opinions Address Information Gathering (November 2010)

Exposed: The Erosion of Privacy in the Internet Era by Jonathan Shaw (Harvard Magazine, September-October 2009)

News Stories

Urinating Frenchman Loses Case Against Google (March 16, 2012) (news.com.au)

Google Sued by Frenchman Caught on Street View in Embarrassing Pose (March 2, 2012) (PCWorld)

ICANN Plays the Name Game with Domain Names (Feb. 29, 2012) (Nextgov.com)

"Malicious" or "Stupid": Trial of Tyler Clementi's Roommate Begins (The Gothamist) (February 24, 2012)

Twitter Censorship Policy Ignites Global Outrage (Huffington Post) (January 27, 2012)

Feds Shutter Megaupload, Arrest Executives (Wired) (January 19, 2012)

Indictment in Megaupload Case

Revenge Porn: Is Anyone Up On Copyright Law? (January 3, 2012)

Archive of Older Stories

Related Links

ICANN

ICANN for Beginners

ICANN Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy

Internet Engineering Task Force

Special Issues Arising From Use of Trademarks on the Internet

www.eff.org

www.isoc.org/internet

The Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University

http://chillingeffects.org/

E-Commerce and Tech Law Blog

http://www.internetlibrary.com/

Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS)

http://www.whois.net/

http://www.llrx.com/

http://ipjustice.org/wp/

The IT Law Wiki

Mondaq.com (U.S. Intellectual Property Articles)

Early History of the Internet Video

The History of the Internet in a Nutshell

History of the Internet (Wikipedia)

Did You Know?

Citizen Media Law Project

http://www.justice.gov/crt/speeches/2010/crt-speech-100422.html

http://www.smartfast.com/enews/ea_naming_disputes.html

Overview of Trademark Law