Spring 2010 The Information Society’

The Information Society

Professor Jack M. Balkin

Yale Law School

Syllabus– Spring Semester 2010

The assigned books for the course are Jack M. Balkin and Beth Simone Noveck, eds., The State of Play (2006); C. Edwin Baker, Media, Markets, and Democracy (2002); Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks (2006), Jonathan Zittrain, The Future of the Internet (2008), Lawrence Lessig, Remix (2008); Neil Netanel, Copyright’s Paradox (2008), and Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody (2008).

All other readings for the course are available on the Internet.

After the assigned readings for each week I will sometimes also list a set of additional readings on related subjects if you are particularly interested in the subject. They are optional.

Dates marked with an asterisk (*) may be rescheduled.

 

Part I: Introduction– Democratic Culture

1. Democratic Culture and Freedom of Speech (1/25/2010)

• Jack M. Balkin, Digital Speech and Democratic Culture

• Yochai Benkler, Property, Commons, and the First Amendment: Towards a Core Common Infrastructure (Brennan Center White Paper, March 2001)
• Universal Studios v. Corley

Additional Reading (N.B. all additional readings are optional)

• Yochai Benker, From Consumers to Users: Shifting the Deeper Structures of Regulation Toward Sustainable Commons and User Access

 

Part II: Virtual Worlds and Social Software

2. Regulating Virtual Worlds (1/26/2010)

• Julian Dibbell, A Rape in Cyberspace

• The State of Play, pp. 13-186
• Clay Shirky, A Group is its Own Worst Enemy

Additional Readings

• James Grimmelman, Regulation by Software

• Lawrence Lessig, Regulation By Code, from Code 2.0
• Lawrence Lessig, The Law of the Horse: What Cyberlaw Might Teach

3. Social Software Platforms, Identity, and Privacy (2/1/2010)

• The State of Play, pp. 189-216

• James Grimmelmann, Saving Facebook

 

Part III– Media and Information Policy

4. Audiences, Markets and Models of Democracy (2/2/2010, 2/8/2010, 2/9/2010)

• C. Edwin Baker, Media, Markets, and Democracy

• Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks, pp. 35-58.
• Jack M. Balkin, Media Access, A Question of Design

 

Part IV – Content Control over the Internet

5. Collateral Censorship and Control over Conduits (2/15/2010, 2/16/2010)

A. Section 230 and the DMCA

• Internet Service Provider Liability Exception 47 USC §230

• Jack M. Balkin, Free Speech and Hostile Environments
• Jack M. Balkin, The Future of Free Expression in a Digital Age
• Rebecca Tushnet, Power Without Responsibility: Intermediaries and the First Amendment
• DMCA Section 512
• Chilling Effects discussion of DMCA Section 512
• Wikipedia, The Sigenthaler Controvery

B. Intermediaries and Cyberbullying

• Nancy Kim, Imposing Tort Liability on Websites for Cyber-Harassment

• Bradley Areheart, Regulating Cyberbullies Through Notice-Based Liability
• Nathaniel Gleicher, John Doe Subpoenas: Toward A Consistent Legal Standard

Additional Readings

• Jonathan Zittrain, A History of Online Gatekeeping

• Fair Housing Council of San Fernando Valley v. Roommates.com, LLC
• Summary of Digital Millennium Copyright Act Liability Provisions
• Digital Millennium Copyright Act Summary– U.S. Copyright Office
• Ken S. Myers, Wikimmunity: Fitting the Communications Decency Act to Wikipedia
• Doug Lichtman, On holding Internet Service Providers Accountable
• Douglas Lichtman and Eric Posner, Holding Internet Service Providers Accountable, SSRN

 

Part V – Copyright and Free Expression

6. Copyright and the First Amendment (2/23/2010)

• Eldred v. Ashcroft

• Neil Netanel, Copyright’s Paradox

Additional Readings

• Suntrust Bank v. Houghton Mifflin Co.

• Castle Rock Entertainment, Inc. v. Carol Publishing Group, Inc.
• Worldwide Church of God v. Philadelphia Church of God, Inc.
• Jed Rubenfeld, The Freedom of Imagination: Copyright’s Constitutionality
• Benkler, Free As The Air To Common Use: First Amendment Constraints On Enclosure of The Public Domain

 

7. Copyright and Free Culture (3/1/2010)

• Lawrence Lessig: Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy 1-114, 253-294

Additional Readings

• Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture, pp. 116-173 The entire book is available [here], [here], [here], and [here]

 

Part VI – Digital Control of Information and Innovation Policy

8. Broadband Policy, Open Access and Network Neutrality (3/2/2010)

• Tim Wu and Christopher Yoo exchange on Network Neutrality, Keeping the Internet Neutral [SSRN] [Legal Affairs]

• Tim Wu, Network Neutrality FAQ
• Jack Balkin, Remarks at FCC Workshop on Freedom of Speech, Democratic Engagement, and Network Neutrality
• Tribe and Goldstein, Proposed “Net Neutrality Mandates Could be Counterproductive and Violate the First Amendment
• Michael Burstein, Towards a New Standard for First Amendment Review of Structural Media Regulation
• Yochai Benkler, et. al., Berkman Center Report on Next Generation Connectivity

Additional Readings

• Turner Broadcasting v. FCC (Turner I)

• Turner Broadcasting v. FCC (Turner II)
• C. Edwin Baker, Turner Broadcasting: Content Based Regulation of Persons and Presses
• Kyle McSlarrow, “Net Neutrality: First Amendment Rhetoric in Search of the Constitution”
• Susan Crawford, The Internet and the Project of Communications Law
• Barbara Esbin: Net Neutrality: A Further Take on the Debate
• Memorandum Opinion and Order, In Re: Free Press and Public Knowledge, FCC 08-183
• National Cable and Telecommunications Association v. Brand X
• Jack Balkin, The Democratic Case for Network Neutrality

 

9. Search Engine Policy (3/8/2010, 3/9/2010)

A. The Google Book Settlement

Special guest lecturer: James Grimmelmann

• James Grimmelmann, The Google Book Search Settlement

• Pam Samuelson, Google Book Search and the Future of Books in Cyberspace
• Lateef Mtima and Steven Jamar, Submission to the court on the benefits of the GBS for access by disadvantaged commuities
• Comments of National Federation for the Blind on behalf of the GBS
• Comments by members of the Stanford CS department on behalf of the GBS
• Robert Darnton, The Library in the New Age
• Robert Darnton, Google & the Future of Books

Additional Reading

• Jonathan Band, The Long and Winding Road to the Google Book Settlement

 
B. Search Engine Regulation (3/9/2010)

• Jeffrey Rosen, Google’s Gatekeepers

• James Grimmelmann, The Structure of Search Engine Law [alternative version 1] [alternative version 2]
• Steven J. Horowitz, Defusing a Google Bomb
• James Grimmelmann, Don’t Censor Search
• Searchneutrality.org comparison of network and search neutrality
• Frank Pasquale, Internet Nondiscrimination Principles: Commercial Ethics for Carriers and Search Engines

Additional Readings

• Eric Goldman, Search Engine Bias and Demise of Search Engine Utopianism [alternative version]

• Frank Pasquale and Oren Bracha, Federal Search Commission? Access, Fairness and Accountability in the Law of Search
• Search King v. Google
• James Grimmelmann, Information Policy For the Library of Babel

 

10. The Internet, Generativity, and Cybersecurity (3/22/2010, 3/23/2010)

• Jonathan Zittrain, The Future of the Internet

 

Part VII – Privacy

11. Privacy and Surveillance (3/23/2010, 4/5/2010)

A. Surveillance and Governance

• Balkin, The Constitution in the National Surveillance State

B. Privacy and the Networked Self

• Julie Cohen, Configuring the Networked Self, Chapters 3,4,5,7 and 8 (on Blackboard)

Part VIII– The Political Economy of Information Production

12. Networked Peer Production of Information Goods (4/6/2010, 4/12/2010 and 4/13/2010)

A. Open Source and Peer Production Models

• Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks, Ch. 2-5, pp 35-175

• Steven Weber, The Political Economy of Open Source
• Lawrence Lessig, Remix, pp. 117-249

B. Wikipedia as a case study in peer production systems

• Jonathan Zittrain, The Future of the Internet, pp. 127-48

• Clay Shirky, A Speculative Post on the Idea of Algorithmic Authority
• Roy Rosenzweig, Can History be Open Source? Wikipedia and the History of the Past, 93 Journal of American History 117

C. Peer Production Models and Social Software

• Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody

Additional Readings

• Eric S. Raymond, The Cathedral And The Bazaar

• The Open Source Definition
• GNU General Public License
• BSD Open Source License
• Yochai Benkler, Freedom in the Commons: Toward a Political Economy of Information
• Yochai Benkler, Coase’s Penguin, or Linux and the Nature of the Firm
• Yochai Benkler, Sharing Nicely: On shareable goods and the emergence of sharing as a modality of economic production

 

Part IX – Journalism, Democracy and Politics

13. Journalism and the Blogosphere (4/19/2010)

A. New Journalistic Forms and the Future of News

• Pew Research Center, Newspapers Face A Challenging Calculus

• Jay Rosen, Audience Atomization Overcome: Why the Internet Weakens the Authority of the Press
• Leonard Downie, Jr., and Michael Schudson, The Reconstruction of American Journalism
• Ed Baker, The Future of News, Part One and Part Two
• John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney, The Life and Death of Great American Newspapers
• Paul Starr, Goodbye to the Age of Newspapers (Hello to a New Era of Corruption) [print version]
• Yochai Benkler, A New Era of Corruption?
• David Swensen and Michael Schmidt, News You Can Endow
• Ackerman and Ayres, A National Endowment for Journalism
• Steve Brill, Turning Around the Times– And Journalism

Additional Readings

• Knight Commission Report on The Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy

• Jeff Jarvis, New Business Models for News
• Clay Shirky, Help, The Price of Information has Fallen and It Can’t Get Up
• Clay Shirky, Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable
• Clay Shirky, It’s Not Information Overload, It’s Filter Failure
• Dan Gilmore We the Media
• Bree Nordenson, Overload!
• Clay Shirky Interview on Journalism and Information Overload, Part One, Part Two

14. The Networked Public Sphere and Democracy (4/20/2010, 4/26/2010 and 4/27/2010)

• Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks, Chapters 6-7, pp. 176-272

• Cass Sunstein, “The Daily We,” from Republic.com
• Responses to Sunstein
• Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse M. Shapiro, Ideological Segregation Online and Offline [SSRN version]
• Matthew Hindman, “What Is the Online Public Sphere Good For?”
• Matthew Hindman, Not the Digital Democracy We Ordered
• Micha Sifry, Critiquing Matthew Hindman’s “The Myth of Digital Democracy”
• Micah Sifry, The Obama Disconnect

Optional Readings

• Daniel Drezner and Henry Farrell The Power and Politics of Blogs

• Daniel Drezner and Henry Farrell, Web of Influence
• Henry Farrell, Bloggers and Parties

 

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