Syllabus

 

Week 1: 1/21 & 1/23 Week 2: 1/28 & 1/30 Week 3: 2/4 & 2/6
Week 4: 2/11 & 2/13 Week 5: 2/18 & 2/20 Week 6: 2/25 & 2/27
Week 7: 3/4 & 3/6 Week 8: 3/11 & 3/13 Week 9: 3/18 & 3/20
Week 10: 3/25 & 3/27 Week 11: 4/1 & 4/3 Week 12: 4/8 & 4/10
Week 13: 4/15 & 4/17 Week 14: 4/22 & 4/24 Week 15: 4/29 & 5/1
Week 16: 5/6 & 5/8 Week 17: 5/13

Week 1

Tuesday, January 21: Introduction to Information Law & Policy

Thursday, January 23: Introduction to Information Law & Policy

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Week 2

Tuesday, January 28: Interacting Modalities of Regulation

Thursday, January 30: Interacting Modalities of Regulation

  • Read:
    • Berman, J. and Weitzner, D.J., “Abundance and User Control: Renewing the Democratic Heart of the First Amendment in the Age of Interactive Media,” 104 Yale Law Journal 1619, (1995). [PDF]
    • ACLU v. Mukasey, 534 F.3d 181, 2008 (3d Cir. Pa. 2008) (skip sections III, IV A, IV C, and Conclusion) [PDF]
  • Consider:
    • What was the Internet in 1995?
    • What analogies are offered to explain and describe the Internet?
    • Are they compelling?
    • Why are they offered?
    • How do they relate to law?
    • How do design decisions relate to Constitutional protections?

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Week 3

Tuesday, February 4:  Freedom of Expression (Speech & Conduct)
Guest Lecture: Galen Panger, Ph.D. Candidate, UC Berkeley School of Information

  • Consider:
    • What is speech?
    • How does it relate to the concept of information?
    • What is non-expressive conduct?
    • How do computers complicate this?
    • What concepts does the Internet complicate in these cases?

Wednesday, February 5 – 4:10 pm – 5:30 pm (Optional) 
Distinguished Lecture at UC Berkeley School of Information
NSA Spying, Snowden, and Sparking Change
With Cindy Cohn, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Nicole Ozer, ACLU
210 South Hall

Thursday, February 6:  Freedom of Expression 
Readings are split up according to your last name. If you are on-call, you should read everything.

  • Consider:
    • What does it mean to be viewpoint-neutral?
    • How do we think about data? Its creation? Use? Communication?
    • Is data different based on its creation?

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Week 4

Tuesday, February 11: Freedom of Expression
Guest Lecture: Nicole S. Ozer, Technology and Civil Liberties Policy Director, ACLU of Northern California

Thursday, February 13: Privacy
DOUBLE SESSION (9:30-11am and 12:30-2pm)

Morning Session
Privacy: Concepts, goals and challenges

Afternoon Session
Privacy: Instruments of protection, data protection and information privacy

For Both Sessions, Consider:

  • How does our current use of technology challenge traditional tools of privacy protection? How does social media affect it? Location-based technology? The Internet of things?

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Week 5

Tuesday, February 18: Consumer Protection and Privacy
FTC Mobile device workshop

Instructions: Please look at the definitions and discussions of “personal data” in the OECD and WH papers, and compare the OECD guidelines with the Consumer Bill of Rights. Please read either the Google or Facebook complaint etc. not both.

Thursday, February 20:  No Class (Double 203)

Saturday, February 22: FIRST ASSIGNMENT DUE

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Week 6

Tuesday, February 25: Privacy — Special Considerations and Hot Topics
Kids and Social Forgiveness

Thursday, February 27: Privacy — Special Considerations and Hot Topics
Location Information and the Internet of Things

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Week 7

Tuesday, March 4: Copyright
DOUBLE SESSION (9:30-11am and 12:30-2pm)

Morning Session
Copyright Basics

Afternoon Session
Fair Use, First Sale, and Personal Use

  • 17 USC §§ 107, 117 (definitions of works eligible for copyright; all links HTML)
  • Online Policy Group (OPG) v. Diebold 337 F.Supp.2d 1195 (N.D. Cal. 2004) Excerpt. [PDF]
  • Perfect 10, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc. 508 F.3d 1146 (9th Cir. 2007) [PDF] (Read I and III only)
  • Mulligan, Han, Burstein, “How DRM Content Systems Disrupt Expectations of Personal Use” [PDF]

Thursday, March 6: Starting-Up
Guest Lecturer: Chris Ridder, Ridder, Costa & Johnstone LLP


Week 8

Tuesday, March 11:  No Class (Double 203)

Thursday, March 13: Intermediaries and Liability for Content

  • 17 USC § 230 (protection for blocking/screening; link HTML)
  • Fair Housing Council of San Fernando Valley, et al. v. Roommates.com LLC  (Majority Opinion Only) [PDF]
  • DMCA Safe Harbors 17 USC § 512 skip § 512 e-f, h, j (all links HTML)

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Week 9

Tuesday, March 18: Technology Design and Liability

  • Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417 (1984) Read majority opinion (through line 72) [HTML]
  • MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. 545 U.S. 913 (2005). Read majority opinion (OPTIONAL: read Justice Breyer’s concurring opinion.) [PDF]
  • Cartoon Network, LP v. CSC Holdings Inc. 536 F.3d 121 (2d Cir. 2008) [HTML] Read Pages 1-12, Skip I, Read II & III (Pages 21 to the end)

Wednesday, March 19: FTC Alternative Scoring Workshop

Thursday, March 20: Technology Design and Liability

  • Read:
  • Consider

    • What are the risks and benefits of regulating technical design?
    • How are 18 USC 2512 and 17 USC 1201 similar and different?
    • How does 1201 relate to the “substantial non-infringing” use doctrine?
    • On what basis might regulators decide to take different approaches to regulating technology with respect to privacy v. intellectual property? Should we?

Week 10

Spring Break: No Class

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Week 11

Tuesday, April 1: Information Licensing and Consumer Protection

  • Read New America Foundation: “Digital Inclusion and Data Profiling.”
  • Browse equalfuture.us.
  • Additional reading via email.
  • Watch a session of “Big Data: Values and Governance” workshop, then meet with some of your colleagues to discuss the issues raised in the workshop and readings for at least 30 minutes before Thursday’s class.

Thursday, April 3: Contracts and Terms of Service (TOS)

  • Pro-CD v. Zeidenberg, 86 F.3d 1447 (1996) [HTML]
  • Alan Charles Raul, Edward McNicholas, Colleen Theresa Rutledge, and Adam Rusnak, End of the Notice Paradigm?: FTC’s Proposed Settlement Casts Doubt On the Sufficiency of Disclosures in Privacy Policies and User Agreements, 8 PVLR 1070 (2009) [PDF]

Consider:

  • How does the FTC’s use of its deception and unfairness jurisdictions interact with general approaches to contract formation?
  • How do you think the court would have approached the issues raised by Frostwire, Google, or Facebook?
  • What are the implications of the FTC’s jurisdiction for user interface designers? For lawyers?

Week 12

Tuesday, April 8: Liability for Defective Information

  • Cardozo v. True, 342 So. 2d 1053 (1977) [PDF]
  • Aetna v. Jeppesen, 642 F.2d 339 (1981) [PDF]
  • Rosenberg v. Harwood (and Google) (2011) [PDF]

Thursday, April 10: Information Security

  • FTC Statement on Data Security [PDF]
  • In the Matter of Eli Lilly [PDF]
  • In the matter of CardSystems [PDF]
  • California Office of Privacy Protection’s Recommended Practices under the Security Breach Notice law: Read pages 5-15 [PDF]

Saturday, April 12: SECOND ASSIGNMENT DUE


Week 13

Tuesday, April 15: Trade Secrets

Thursday, April 17: Access and Authorization


Week 14

Tuesday, April 22: Privacy, the Fourth Amendment, and ICT

  • Read: U.S. v. Jones, 132 S.Ct. 945 (2012)Read the following excerpts according to your last name: Last names A-I  Opinion (Scalia); Last names J-N  Sotomayor Concurrence; Last names O-Z  Alito Concurrence
  • Listen to the oral argument or if you would prefer, read the transcript (I would suggest you listen though)
  • Consider:
    • How does the collection of information by the private sector relate to Fourth Amendment protections?
    • How does the Fourth Amendment relate to private property?
    • Think of some technical and business developments that place privacy at risk given the state of the law?
    • Does the current state of 4th Amendment law make sense to you?

Thursday, April 24

  • Read:
  • Consider:
    • Under what standard can the government access your email from your Internet service provider?What if your ISP can access your email for purposes other than storage and processing?
    • Under what standard can the government access search terms you enter?
    • How is a search engine classified under the statute?
    • Under what standard can government access location information held by an electronic communication service provider?

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Week 15

Tuesday, April 29: Information Licensing and Consumer Protection

  • Mortenson v. Timberline, 140 Wn.2d 568 (2000) [PDF]
  • Williams v. AOL, 43 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d. 1101 (2001) [PDF]
  • NBA v. Motorola, 105 F.3d 841 (1997) (§§ I and II) [HTML]

Thursday, May 1: Digital Inclusion & Data Profiling


Week 16

Tuesday, May 6: Net Neutrality

Thursday, May 8: Review


Week 17

Tuesday, May 13: Final Exam 9:30 am – 12:30 pm