Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Harvard Law School
MIT 6.805/6.806/STS085: Ethics and Law on the Electronic Frontier
Week 8
Monday Class at Harvard: Too few boundaries - Yahoo!, bordercontrol.com, iCrave TV (Zittrain)
This session takes on the issue of jurisdiction on the internet and the argument for the minimal intrusion of "local" regimes. We will cover two cases where competing jurisdictional ideals have collided on the Net. In one case, U.S. copyright law was brought to bear on a Canadian company in order to protect U.S. business interests. In the other, a U.S. company struggles to resist enforcement of a judgment under French law. Lastly, we will consider technological "solutions" to the problem of compliance across disparate jurisdictions and their implications for the evolution of the internet.
Readings
Thursday Class at MIT -- Midterm
The midterm is today. It will be closed book. It will consist mostly of short-answer questions based on the material we've covered both at Harvard and MIT.
Here are some suggestions for how to study for the midterm:
- Review the notes from the MIT classes, and especially the slides from Hal's lectures, that are posted on the web (linked from the calendar). Make sure to also review your notes from Danny's lecture on Fourth Amendment law.
- Review all the cases we've assigned for the MIT readings. We will not ask you minor details of these cases, but we will expect you to know what the issues were and to understand the basis for the Court's rulings.
- Skim the rest of the readings that were assigned, both for the MIT and Harvard classes. We will not be asking details about these, but we will expect you to remember the main points discussed in class.
Note added after the end of the semester: Here is a copy of the midterm (PDF) that was given.