Wikipedia:WikiProject United States Public Policy/Courses/Spring 2011/Cyberlaw (Brian Carver)

Course description

The emergence of global digital networks, such as the Internet, and digital technologies that enhance human abilities to access, store, manipulate, and transmit vast amounts of information has brought with it a host of new legal issues that lawyers preparing to practice in the 21st century will need to understand and address. Although many are trying to "map" existing legal concepts onto problems arising in cyberspace, it is becoming increasingly evident that this strategy sometimes doesn't work. In some cases, it is necessary to go back to first principles to understand how to accomplish the purposes of existing law in digital networked environments. The course will explore specific problems in applying law to cyberspace in areas such as intellectual property, privacy, content control, and the bounds of jurisdiction.

Assignment overview

Students will complete a "Wikipedia Project" which will consist first in creating a new article or substantially revising an existing article on a topic related to those discussed in this course. Additionally, students will sign up to review and revise the projects of fellow students. There will be a "1st Reviewer" who is responsible for reviewing a classmate's edits within the first five days after they go live and a "2nd Reviewer" that will make additional edits afterwards. Potential topics and sign ups are at the Cyberlaw WikiProject page.

Assignment timeline

The assignment timeline is maintained on the syllabus.

Students

A list of the students in this class (or rather their Wikipedia usernames), along with their Wikipedia articles (which students will select at the appropriate time) is maintained on the Cyberlaw WikiProject page.