MASSACHUSETTS SCHOOL OF LAW at ANDOVER
Issues in the Internet & The Law - Syllabus
Spring 2014 - Professor Olson
Day One:
I.
Monday, January 13th, 2014
Why does consumer privacy matter, and why should you and
your law firm worry about it?
A. Massachusetts (and other state) Materials
Holders maintaining personal data system; duties
(MA ST 66A § 2)
Security Breaches (MA ST 93H, §§ 1-6)
Code of Massachusetts Regulations Title 950, Chapter 33.00
Code of Massachusetts Regulations Title 201, Chapter 17
Data Privacy Blog: http://www.massdataprivacylaw.com/
Businesses Nationwide Continue to Grapple with Massachusetts
Data Privacy Laws:
https://www.privacyassociation.org/publications/2012_11_01_bus
inesses_nationwide_continue_to_grapple_with_massachusetts
California Class Action lawsuit v. Linked-In (see pdf in course
documents)
B. FTC (and other) Federal Materials
Statutes: Locate and read (skim for an understanding of the
laws) the Privacy Protection Act (42 U.S.C. §2000aa, et. seq.),
Federal Wiretap Act, Electronic Communications Privacy Act
(18 U.S.C. §§2510-2521), & Stored Communications Act (18
U.S.C. §2701 et. seq.)
Section 3 of the 1973 HEW Report: Records, Computers and the
Rights of Citizens (1973) III. Safeguards for Privacy,
http://epic.org/privacy/hew1973report/c3.htm
FTC, Privacy Online – A Report to Congress (1998), Fair
Information Practice Principles, III.
http://www.ftc.gov/reports/privacy3/priv-23a.pdf
Prepared Statement of the Federal Trade Commission Before
the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
United States Senate Washington, D.C. May 25, 2000, Privacy
Online: Fair Information Practices in the Electronic
Marketplace,
http://www.ftc.gov/os/2000/05/testimonyprivacy.htm
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Feb. 24,
2012, Internet Privacy: Protecting Consumers, Building Trust,
Creating Jobs | The White House,
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/02/24/internet-privacyprotecting-consumers-building-trust-creating-jobs
May 24, 2001 Letter from FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection
to Junkbusters Corp and Electronic Privacy Information Center
Amazon.com,
http://www.ftc.gov/os/closings/staff/amazonletter.shtm
FTC Press Release, June 16, 2005, BJ’s Wholesale Club Settles
FTC Charges, http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2005/06/bjswholesale.shtm
See also FTC Press Release, March 25, 2010, Dave & Buster’s
Settles FTC Charges It Failed to Protect Consumers’
Information, http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/03/davebusters.shtm
FTC Press Release dated March 17, 2008, ValueClick to Pay
$2.9 Million to Settle FTC Charges,
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/03/vc.shtm
Other avenues of redress for consumers include the Electronic
Frontier Foundation (All EFF Legal Cases | Electronic Frontier
Foundation, https://www.eff.org/cases?tid=540) and the
Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC – Electronic
Privacy Information Center, http://epic.org) These groups
carefully monitor the behavior of various industries, and keep
consumers informed about miscreant companies.
Day Two: Tuesday, January 14th, 2014
Locate the following cases on either the EFF web site or on Westlaw, read
enough court filings to be able to discuss the procedural and substantive
history of the cases, and prepare to discuss them with the class as though you
are presenting them to a firm committee in charge of accepting or rejecting
cases.
1.
New York v. Harris: Firm A
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Al Haramain v. Obama: Firm B
Authors Guild v. Google: Firm C
Chevron v. Donziger: Firm D
Echostar v. Freetech: Firm E
In the Matter of the 2703(d) Order Relating to Twitter
Accounts: Wikileaks Rop_G IOERROR; and BirgittaJ
(Government demands Twitter records of Birgitta
Jonsdottir): Firm F
In Re: Matter of Search Warrant (Boston College): Firm G
Oregon v. Nix: Firm H
U.S. v. Doe (In re: Grand Jury Subpoena Duces Tecum
Dated March 25, 2011): Firm I
U.S. v. Jones: Firm J
Day Three: Wednesday, January 15th, 2014
Social Media Privacy: Is this a contradiction in terms?
State Materials
Interception of Wire and Oral Communications, Mass. Gen. Laws ch.
272, § 99
Federal Materials
Electronic Communications Privacy Act, (Refer to the law governing
this field again: 18 U.S.C. 2510-2521)
COPPA: 15 U.S.C. § § 6501-6508
Accompanying Regulations: 16 C.F.R. § 312 et seq.
Service providers may sometimes be required to collect and archive
user information and communications because of its industry or the
type of discussions that occur: 17 CFR 240.17a-4(b)(4) (SEC retention
requirements for broker-dealers)
U.S. v. Thomas, 74 F.3d 701 (6th Cir. 1996).
U.S. Dept. of Defense, Global Positioning System Standard Positioning
Service Performance Standard,
http://www.pnt.gov/public/docs/2008/spsps2008.pdf, page v.
Other Authorities
Julian Dibbell, A Rape in Cyberspace,
http://www.juliandibbell.com/articles/a-rape-in-cyberspace/
Nick Davies, Afghanistan War Logs: Story Behind Biggest leak in
Intelligence History | World News | The Guardian,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/25/wikileaks-war-logs-backstory
Comedian Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show, highlighted the
weakness of Mr. Manning’s pseudonym for concealing his identity, Jon
Stewart | Wikileaks | Bradass87 | Mediaite,
http://www.mediaite.com/onling/best-leak-ever-jon-stewart-mocksmedia-coverage-of-wikileaks-controversy/
John Borland, See Who’s Editing Wikipedia – Diebold, the CIA, a
Campaign, WIRED (Aug. 14, 2007),
http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/08/wiki_tracker
TOR Project: Anonymity Online, https://www.torproject.org/
Policies & Principles – Google,
http://www.google.com/intl/en/+/policy/content.html
Twitter, Twitter Help Center | FAQS about Verified Accounts,
https://support.twitter.com/groups/31-twitter-basics/topics/111features/articles/119135-about-verified-accounts#
Daniel Akst, Helsinki Incident | The Cutting Edge?: The Helsinki
Incident and the Right to Anonymity – Los Angeles Times,
http://articles.latimes.com/1995-02-22/business/fi-34831_1_anonymousremailers
Douglas MacMillan, Apple Swears IPad Partners to Secrecy, Business
Week,
http://businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2010/tc20100318_833402.ht
m
Douglas MacMillan, A Twitter Code of Conduct – BusinessWeek,
http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/may2009/ca2009058_089205
.htm
Eric Bangeman, Faulty IP Address Data Leads to Shaq Attack on
Innocent Family, http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2006/10/8062.ars
Michael Sigman, Pennsylvania 6-5000: A Hotel, A Phone Number, and
a Song, LA Progressive, http://www.laprogressive.com/pennsylvania-6-5000/
Online Number – Online Business Number with Voicemail – Skype,
http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/features/allfeatures/online-number/
Mike Godwin, Virtual Community Standards,
http://w2.eff.org/legal/virtcom_standards.article.txt
Dan Jerker B. Svantesson, Geo-Location Technologies and Other
Means of Placing Borders on the “Borderless” Internet, 23 J. Marshall J.
Computer & Info. L. 101, 102-03 (2004).
GPS-enabled location reporting increasingly make up the backbone of
social media services: https://foursquare.com/
Michael Eyal Sharon, Who, What, When, and Now . . . Where,
https://www.facebook.com/blog/blog.php?post=418175202130
Dan Fletcher, Please Rob Me: Site Shoes Dangers of Foursquare,
Twitter, TIME,
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1964873,00.html
Facebook “Friend” Suspected in Burglary, CBS News,
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/25/earlyshow/main6331796.shtml
Molly Wood, Google Buzz: Privacy Nightmare | Molly Rants – CNET
News, http://news.cnet.com/8301-31322_3-10451428-256.html
FTC Press Release, FTC Charges Deceptive Privacy Practices in
Google’s Rollout of its Buzz Social Network,
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2011/03/google.shtm
Press Release, CR survey: 7.5 Million Facebook Users Are Under the
Age of 13, Violating the Site’s Terms?: Consumer Reports,
http://Pressroom.consumerreports.org/pressroom/
http://pressroom.consumerreports.org/pressroom/2011/05/cr-survey-75million-facebook-users-are-under-the-age-of-13-violating-the-sites-terms.html
Day Four: Thursday, January 16th, 2014
Privacy and Surveillance: Fourth Amendment as Applied to Online
Privacy & Unauthorized Access: Spam, Trespass to Chattels
Cases:
1. State v. Reid, 945 A. 2d 26 (N.J. 2008)
2. Warshak v. United States, 532 F.3d 521 (6th Cir.
2008)(en banc)
3. City of Ontario, California v. Quon, 130 S. Ct. 2619
(2010)
4. Hepping v. AT&T Corporation, 439 F. Supp. 2d 974
(N.D. Cal. 2006)
5. United States v. Arnold, 533 F.3d 1003 (9th Cir. 2008)
6. CompuServe Incorporated v. Cyber Promotions, Inc., 962
F. Supp. 1015 (S.D. Ohio 1997)
7. Gordon v. Virtumundo, Inc., 575 F.3d 1040 (9th Cir.
2009)(I., III.A., B., IV., & VII)
8. Jaynes v. Commonwealth of Virginia, 666 S.E.2d 303
(Va. 2008)
9. Thrifty-Tel, Inc. v. Bezenek, 46 Cal. App. 4th 1559
(1996)
10. eBay, Inc. v. Bidder’s Edge, Inc., 100 F. Supp. 2d 1058
(N.D. Cal. 2000)(I., III.A., & B.)
11. Intel Corp. v. Hamidi, 71 P.3d 296 (Cal. 2003)
12. Register.com, Inc. v. Verio, Inc., 356 F.3d 393 (2d Cir.
2004)
Day Five: Saturday, January 18th, 2014
Corporate/Governmental Partnerships; What is Authority in the New
Technological Age?; How Should Content be Delivered, and Who
Should Pay?