Week 1 (1/14): Cyberspace and information society

1.1: Invention of the Internet and character of cyberspace:

	Brief history of the Internet see Software and Internet Law (SAIL):13-16;
	Stevens J on the nature of the Internet in Janet Reno v American Civil Liberties Union (1997) <http://www.aclu.org/court/renovacludec.html>;
	Leiner et al., A Brief History of the Internet, http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.html>;
	Froomkin, Habermas@discourse.net, Towards a Critical Theory of Cyberspace, "The Internet Standards Process: A Discourse About Discourse", 14 -30: <http://www.discourse.net/>

Optional Reading:Gillett and Kapor, "The Self-governing Internet: Coordination by Design" in Coordination of the Internet, eds, Kahin and Keller, MIT Press, 1997, < http://ccs.mit.edu/papers/CCSWP197/CCSWP197.html>; Lessig, Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, (Basic Books, 2000), Cyberspaces, ch 6.

Discussion

1.2: Rise of information society

	Webster: Theories of the Information Society: 6-29;
	The National Information Infrastructure: An Agenda for Action, Executive Summary: <http://www.ibiblio.org/nii/toc.html>;
	Enabling of electronic commerce: OECD, The Economic and Social Impacts of Electronic Commerce: Preliminary Findings and Research Agenda, 1999, Chapter 5, Societal implications of electronic commerce <http://www1.oecd.org/subject/e_commerce/summary.htm>
	Evans and Fitzgerald, Information Transactions under UCC Article 2B: The Ascendancy of Freedom of Contract in the Digital Millennium, "Introduction" : <http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/unswlj/thematic/ 1998/vol21no2/evans.html>

Optional Reading: Henry H. Perritt, Jr., "President Clinton's National Information Infrastructure Initiative: Community Regained?" 69 Chic.-Kent L. Rev. 991 (1994); Manuel Castells, The Rise of the Network Society (Blackwell, 1996); Boyle, Shamans, Software and Spleens: Law and Construction of the Information Society (Harvard University Press 1996), "Spleens", ch 9.

Discussion
In order to construct appropriate law and policy for a digitally networked society, we must first characterize and define the kind of information society we have and are seeking to realize. Consider for example the extent to which policy documents (NII above), legislation (DMCA) and court cases (Reimerdes, Napster) aimed at applying existing intellectual property law in networked environments, are based on unspoken and unsupported assumptions about the nature of digital information and the information economy.

Further Reading and References

Information Society projects:
Information Society Journal: <http://www.slis.indiana.edu/TIS/>
Yale Information Society Project: <http://www.law.yale.edu/isp/>

Information Society: international perspectives and initiatives:
UNESCO: <http://www.unesco.org/webworld/observatory/index.shtml>
African Information Society Initiative: < http://www.bellanet.org/partners/aisi/>
EU Information Society: <http://europa.eu.int/information_society/index_en.htm>
IS Directorate: <http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/information_society/index_en.htm>
Bangemann Report, Europe and the Global Information Society (1994), <http://www.cyber-rights.org/documents/bangemann.htm>

Manuel Castells, The Informational City (1989) Manuel Castells. 1996. The Rise of the Network Society ( Information Age Trilogy, volume 1.) (Blackwell)
William Drake, ed., The New Information Infrastructure: Strategies for U.S. Policy (1995) Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, The Printing Press As an Agent of Change: Communications and Cultural Transformation in Early Modern Europe (1980) John Feather, The Information Society: A Study of Continuity and Change (1994)
William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984)
John Hagel & Arthur Armstrong, Net Gain: Expanding Markets Through Virtual Communities (1997)
Brian Kahin & Charles Nessen, eds., Borders in Cyberspace (1997)
Nicholas Negroponte, On Being Digital, (1996)
Howard Rheingold, The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier (1993)
Sherry Turkle, Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet (1995); The Second Self (1996).