Internet Law
Spring 2016
Professor Nimmer
Syllabus
Book/ Materials:
There is no book for this class. The materials will be provided electronically by
Professor Nimmer at no cost to students.. The first few days materials, along with an
outline of the course will be posted by the end of December. After that, the primary
communication of materials will be by email to registered students.
Pre-requisites:
There are no prerequisites for this course. It will cover various current issues related to
the Internet covering tort law, contract, copyright, trademark, privacy and other issues.
Grades:
Grades will be based on the following:
1. Participation: (30%): Being prepared for each class and attending. Classes will
most likely involve a combination of random calling on students and opening
discussion for volunteers. Regular attendance is expected and frequent nonattendance will result in negative impact on grade. Regular full preparation for
class is expected and frequent non-preparation will result in negative impact on
grade.
2. Written material (10%): Students may be asked to draft written material on
narrow issues. If so, these will constitute 100% of the grade. If not, this 10% will
fold into the exam.
3. Exam: (60-70%): I presently anticipate a four hour in class exam, with open
material, PowerPoint, but not open notes or other materials. I am open to
discuss this with the class and adjust accordingly.
Goals:
The goal of this course is to explore important legal issues associated with activity on
the Internet, or enabled by it. We will not cover the technology of the Internet (a nonlegal-issue), regulatory issues about the so-called “open Internet, tax issues, or the
general conflict internationally between US law and EU law (although we will touch on
some of that. we will discuss existing law and potential policy on Internet issue.
Topics that will be covered include but are not limited to:
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Federal - State Conflict on Internet law issues
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Communications Decency Act
o Internet Threats
o Revenge Porn Laws
o Blogs
Computer Abuse Act
o Private cause of action
o Hacking
Contracts online
o Contract terms – Arbitration
o Contract terms – no negative reviews
o No robots
o Privacy policy
Digital Copyright Basics
Indirect Copyright Liability Online
Streaming: Cable
Display and Performance
Transformative Fair Use
o Google books
o Scraping data from another’s site
DMCA Safe harbors
DMCA Safe Harbors and Compliant policy
Trademarks online
o Domain names
o Initial Interest confusion
o Keyword sales and purchases
Data Privacy
o Right to be forgotten
o Personal Data Security Issues
 Who bear’s the cost
o Identity Theft