Reading Assignments, Part I.

I. What is the Internet?

Note: this packet contains the reading for the first three classes.

1. Introduction

  1. Reading
    1. Findings of fact in ACLU v. Reno, 929 F. Supp. 824 (E.D.Pa. 1996) .
    2. Michael Froomkin, An Introduction to the "Governance" of the Internet
    3. Neil Randall, What Happens when You Click, PC Magazine Oct. 22, 1996
    4. Neil Randall, How DNS Servers Work, PC Magazine, Sept. 24, 1996
  2. Things to do:
    1. Read the class policies
    2. Subscribe to the class mailing list
    3. Figure out how to make your e-mail program automatically attach a "signature block" or ".sig" to each of your messages. Please ensure that you sign your name to all but intentionally anonymous postings to the class list.
    4. Send me an email (not to the list!) in which you tell me about a paragraph's worth about yourself. Please also include your day & evening phone numbers and both e-mail and relatively lasting postal mail addresses for my files. Your email should demonstrate your mastery of the "signature block" above.

2. Some background

  1. Reading
    1. HTML Basics.  Read either NCSA's Beginner's Guide to HTML or another basic guide of your choice from Yahoo's list of Beginner's HTML.
    2. "Nettiquette"
      1. RFC 1855: Nettiquette
      2. 1267623 Ontario Inc v. Codes Communications, Inc., [1999] OJ No. 2246 (Ontario Superior Court of Justice, June 14, 1999)
  2. Go to the Internet Skills Page and do at least two things from each of the first four categories.
  3. Things to think about:
    1. How would you go about writing an "acceptable use of the Internet" policy for a law school? For a  client's organization?
      1. What risks would you be most worried about?
      2. What are the interest groups involved?
    2. Are there any limits on the ability of a firm, a law school, or an internet service provider (ISP) to impose conditions on users of its computers?
  4. OPTIONAL: I presume that, as future lawyers, you have already read the acceptable use policies that apply to you as UM students. But just in case you have not, here is the UM Law Computer Use Policy.  Can you find the University's internet use policies?  How many are there?  Which one(s) apply to law students?  In case of conflict with the law school's policy, which one controls?
  5. Very optional:

3. The Big Picture

  1. Reading
    1. Froomkin, The Internet as a Source of Regulatory Arbitrage
    2. Delong & Froomkin, Speculative Microeconomics for Tomorrow's Economy
    3. Phil Agre, Information technology in the political process
    4. David Post, Governing Cyberspace: "Where is James Madison when we need him?"
  2. OPTIONAL reading (but lots of fun!) [not included in your packet - online only]
    1. John Seely Brown & Paul Duguid, The Social Life of Information
    2. Phil Agre, The Internet and Public Discourse
    3. Phil Agre, The end of information and the future of libraries.
    4. Roger Clarke, "Information Wants to be Free"
    5. Keith W. Porterfield, Information Wants to be Valuable:
    6. Tim May, CryptoAnarchy and Virtual Communities
    7. Tim May, The CYPHERNOMICON: Cypherpunks FAQ and More DON'T print before reading -- this is hundreds of pages long
    8. Kade Twist, Making the Internet Indian
    9. Lawrence H. Summers, Tax Administration in a Global Era
To Part 2
To Syllabus Index
To Class Policies