Spring 2005 The Information Society
The Information Society
Professor Jack M. Balkin
Yale Law School
Syllabus
Note: All of the readings for the course are available on the Internet except for C. Edwin Baker, Media, Markets, and Democracy (2002), a copy of which you should purchase for the course.
After the assigned readings for each week I will sometimes also list a set of additional readings on related subjects if you have time.
Week One
1. Introduction: Some Key Concepts (1/24/2005 and 1/25/2005)
A. Regulation of the Internet
-
Lawrence Lessig, The Law of the Horse: What Cyberlaw Might Teach
- Yochai Benkler, Property, Commons, and the First Amendment: Towards a Core Common Infrastructure (Brennan Center White Paper, March 2001)
B. Democratic Culture
Week Two– Media Regulation (1/31/2005 and 2/1/2005)
2. Audiences and Markets
-
Baker, Media, Markets, and Democracy, pp. 1-121, 285-307
3. Democracy, Journalism and International Trade
-
Baker, Media, Markets and Democracy, pp. 125-284
Week Three– Media Concentration (2/7/2005 and 2/8/2005)
4. Media Concentration
-
FCC Report and Order on Media Concentration, July 2d and July 14th, 2003 (Read report and order, and individual statements of the commissioners, Powell, Abernathy, Copps, Martin and Adelstein)
- Baker, Media Concentration: Giving Up On Democracy
- Curtis, Democratic Ideals and Media Realities: A Puzzling Free Press Paradox
Week Four – Content Control over the Internet (2/14/2005 and 2/15/2005)
A. Defamation and Collateral Censorship
- Internet Service Provider Liability Exception 47 USC §230
- Summary of Digital Millennium Copyright Act Liability Provisions
- Zeran v. America Online (4th Cir. 1997) [Alternate version]
- Blumenthal v. Drudge, 992 F.Supp. 44 (D.D.C. 1998) [Alternate version]
B. Filtering and Rating Systems
-
Reno v. ACLU (Reno I), 521 U.S. 844 (1997) (The CDA Case) [Additional version]
- ACLU v. Ashcroft (COPA case)(3d Circuit)
- Ashcroft v. ACLU (COPA case)(S. Ct.)
- CDT v. Pappert
- ACLU, Fahrenheit 451.2, Is Cyberspace Burning
- Balkin et al., Filtering the Internet, a Best Practices Model
- COPA Commission Final Report
- United States v. ALA
Weeks Five and Six (2/21/2005 and 2/22/2005; 2/28/2005 and 3/1/2005)
7. Copyright and Free Culture
Cases
- 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.
8. Integrating Copyright and Freedom of Speech
Commentary
-
Netanel, Locating Copyright Within The First Amendment Skein
- Landes and Posner, The Political Economy of Intellectual Property Law
- Rubenfeld, The Freedom of Imagination: Copyright’s Constitutionality
- Tushnet, Copy this Essay
- BeVeir, Copyright, Trespass, and the First Amendment
- Baker, First Amendment Limits On Copyright
- McGowan, Why The First Amendment Cannot Dictate Copyright Policy
Additional Readings on Copyright and Freedom of Speech
- Tushnet, Copyright As A Model For Free Speech Law [From B.C. L. Rev. Website]
- Constitutional Law Professor’s Brief in Eldred v. Reno
- Hal Varian, Copying and Copyright
- Liebowitz and Margolis, Seventeen Famous Economists Weigh in on Copyright
9. Copyright and the Music Industry
- In Re Aimster
- MGM v. Grokster
- Sony Corp v. Universal City Studios
- Terry Fisher, Promises To Keep (Chapter 6)
- Neil Weinstock Netanel, Impose a Noncommercial Use Levy to Allow Free Peer-to-Peer File
- Clay Shirky, File Sharing Goes Social
- Clay Shirky, Fame vs Fortune: Micropayments and Free Content
- Wu, Copyright’s Communications Policy
- The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales: An Empirical Analysis
- Liebowitz, Will MP3 downloads Annihilate the Record Industry? The Evidence so Far
Week Seven– Privacy (3/8/2005 and 3/9/2005)
13. Privacy and the First Amendment
- Schwartz, Free Speech versus Information Privacy
- Baker, Autonomy and Informational Privacy
- Richards, Reconciling Data Privacy and the First Amendment
- Bartnicki v. Vopper
Week Eight– Spring Break
Week Nine – Digital Control of Information (3/22/2005 and 3/23/2005)
10. Digital Rights Management
- Elkin-Koren, It’s All About Control
- Benkler, From Consumers to Users: Shfiting the Deeper Structures of Regulation Towards Sustainable Commons and User Access
- Universal Studios v. Corley
- Chamberlain Group v. Skylink Technologies
11. The Broadcast Flag
- EFF Primer on the Broadcast Flag
- FCC Decision on the Broadcast Flag
- Susan Crawford, the Biology of the Broadcast Flag
- Public Knowledge on the Broadcast Flag
Weeks Ten and Eleven (3/28/2005 and 3/29/2005; 4/4/2005 and 4/5/2005)
14. The Political Economy of Information Production
-
Yochai Benkler, Freedom in the Commons, Ch. 1-5, 7 (these files are available on Blackboard)
Optional Readings
- Eric S. Raymond, The Cathedral And The Bazaar
- The Open Source Definition
- GNU General Public License
- BSD Open Source License
- Hahn, ed., Government Policy Toward Open Source Sotware
- Apunam Chander and Madhavi Sunder, The Romance of the Public Domain
- Benkler, Freedom in the Commons: Toward a Political Economy of Information
- Benkler, Coase’s Penguin, or Linux and the Nature of the Firm
- Benkler, Sharing Nicely: On shareable goods and the emergence of sharing as a modality of economic production
Weeks Twelve and Thirteen and Fourteen (4/11/2005 and 4/12/2005; 4/18/2005 and 4/19/2005; 4/25/2005 and 4/26/2005)
15. Journalism, Democracy and Politics
A. Participatory Journalism
B. Internet Speech and Democracy
- Responses to Sunstein
- Balkin, What I Learned About Blogging in a Year
- Balkin, The Internet and Democratic Organization
- Clay Shirky, Powerlaws and the Web
- Clay Shirky, The FCC, Power Laws and Inequality
- Drezner and Farrell The Power and Politics of Blogs
- Drezner and Farrell, Web of Influence
- Glance and Adamic, The Political Blogosphere and the 2004 Election: Divided They Blog
- Yochai Benkler, Freedom in the Commons, Ch. 6, 8 (these files are available on Blackboard)
C. Politics and Group Formation
-
A. Michael Froomkin, Habermas@discourse.net: Toward a Critical Theory of Cyberspace
- Beth Simone Noveck, A Democracy of Groups
- Clay Shirky, A Group is its Own Worst Enemy
- Yochai Benkler, Freedom in the Commons, Ch. 9-11 (these files are available on Blackboard)
16. Cybercrime
Week Fifteen (5/2/2005 and 5/3/2005)
17. Virtual Worlds
A. Game Owners and Game Players
- Dibbell, A Rape in Cyberspace
- Bartle, Virtual Worldliness
- Koster, Declaring the Rights of Players
- Castronova, The Right to Play
- Balkin, Virtual Liberty: Freedom to Design and Freedom to Play in Virtual Worlds