Law 897-- Seminar: The Law in Cyberspace -- Syllabus

November 18, 2013

Law 897

Seminar: The Law in Cyberspace

Syllabus

Assignment for Wednesday, September 4:

The seminar files are on the web at http://www.umich.edu/~jdlitman/classes/cyber.htm. Before the first class, explore what's posted there.
Read the Seminar Overview. Print out a copy and bring it with you to class.
Explore the list of potential topics. Identify seven that intrigue you.
Spend at least ninety minutes exploring the links at URL: http://www.umich.edu/~jdlitman/classes/cyber/sources.html. Look at anything that seems interesting, and don't worry about being able to find your way back. Print out the first page of the most interesting thing you see.
Send me an email message: jdlitman -at- umich.edu.

Sunday, September 8:

Topic selections due by noon.

Assignment for Wednesday, September 11:

Read Reno v ACLU, 521 U.S. 844 (1997). (Read both the majority opinion and Justice O'Connor’s concurrence).
Read US v. American Library Association, 539 U.S. 194 (2003) (Read all five opinions: Justice Rehnquist’s plurality opinion, Justice Kennedy’s concurring opinion, Justice Breyer’s concurring opinion, Justice Stevens’s dissent and Justice Souter’s dissent.)
Skim Ashcroft v. ACLU, 542 U.S. 656 (2004). (Read the syllabus and skim the majority opinion.)
Skim ACLU v. Mukasey, 534 F.3d 181 (3d Cir 2008), cert. denied, 555 U.S. 1137 (2009).
Explore the National Conference of State Legislatures 2013 chart of laws relating to filtering, blocking and usage policies in schools and libraries. Click on a few state laws.
Read PFLAG v. Camdenton R-III School District, 853 F.Supp.2d 888 (WD Mo 2012).
Visit stupidcensorship.com and circumventor.com.
Using one of the search engines on the Sources page, find something on the Internet that you believe that children under the age of 12 should be prevented from seeing. Go back to the search engine and find something else that you believe should not be available to the general public on the Internet at all. There's no reason to limit yourself in either search to pornography unless you'd prefer to. You might instead want to look for noxious hate speech, dangerous or deceptive medical advice, instructions for building weapons of mass destruction or engaging in other illegal activity, instances of consumer fraud, invasions of personal privacy, or examples of massive copyright infringement. Be prepared to discuss your selections in class.
If you used a shared or workplace computer to complete this assignment, you may want to delete any cookies, flash cookies, or other records of your browsing history.