April 10 Assignment: Law & Internet Seminar (LAW 745)

Jurisdiction, Choice of Law, and the Plight of the Regulator

Reading:

1. An example of the problem: Gambling Web Sites
   • Bet and Win !
   • WagerNet.
   • Eurobet Sports
   • Choose a couple of links from the large list of online betting opportunities...
2. A short article on gambling web sites
3. [NOTE: the following links are no longer working. A great pity.] The Virtual Casino Manager's Perspective. Don't miss the great Table of Internet Casinos.
4. Three Attorney General's Opinions
   • The Florida Attorney General's Opinion on Internet Gambling (October, 1995).
   • Minnesota Attorney General's Office, Memorandum on Internet Jurisdiction (July 1995). Here's another copy.
     • Things have been heating up in Minnesota. Here's a a short article on a consumer fraud suit against Vegas.com.
     • Minnesota's brief on jurisdictional issues in State v. Granite Gate. You can also see the complaint in this case if you would like.
     • Please skim the following complaints filed in Minnesota (don't panic: they're short). Pay particular attention to the facts alleged and the causes of action.
       • State v. McClendon
       • State v. Dean. Note the "John Doe" part of the complaint.
       • State v. Excel Intl. et al. Note the venue allegation!
   • The Texas Attorney General's Opinion(May, 1995)
5. US v. Thomas, 74 F.3d 701 (6th Cir. 1996). Here's another copy. Here's an article by Mike Godwin of the EFF on the case. If (optionally) you want to know more -- lots more -- you can visit the EFF archive on the case.

Doing:

Optional

• Project Censored Canada:Karla Homolka
• CompuServe Inc. v. Patterson, No. C2-94-91, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20352 (S.D. Ohio Aug. 11, 1994) (dismissing for want of personal jurisdiction), motion for reconsideration denied, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7530 (S.D. Ohio Mar. 23, 1995).
• Pres-Kap, Inc. v. System One, Direct Access, Inc., 636 So. 2d 1351 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1994).
• David Post, Anarchy, State, and the Internet: An Essay on Law-Making in Cyberspace
• Prof. Stephen Saxby's A Jurisprudence for Information Technology Law.
• Marc L. Caden & Stephanie E. Lucas, Accidents On the Information Superhighway: On-Line Liability And Regulation, 2 RICH. J.L. & TECH. 3 (1996).
• If you have lost all your civil procedure notes, this nice student paper by Shawn Edwards of the South Texas Law School may jog memories, especially Part Three.