The Information Society

Professor Jack M. Balkin

Yale Law School

Syllabus

Note: During the first several weeks we will be reading C. Edwin Baker, Media, Markets, and Democracy (2002), a copy of which you should purchase for the course. All other materials will be available on the Internet.

1. Democratic Culture

• Balkin, Digital Speech and Democratic Culture

2. Media Regulation-- Audiences and Markets

• Baker, Media, Markets, and Democracy, pp. 1-121, 285-307

3. Media Regulation-- Democracy, Journalism and International Trade

• Baker, Media, Markets and Democracy, pp. 125-284

4. Media Concentration

• FCC Report and Order on Media Concentration, July 2d and July 14th, 2003 (Read report and order, and individual statements of the commissioners, Powell, Abernathy, Copps, Martin and Adelstein)
  

• Yochai Benkler, Siren Songs and Amish Children: Autonomy, Information, and Law
  
• Baker, Media Concentration: Giving Up On Democracy

 5. The Future of Intellectual Property

(special session with Terry Fisher and John Palfrey)

• Fisher, Promises To Keep (Chapter 6)

6. Commercial Speech

• Kasky v. Nike, Inc.
  

• Nike, Inc., v. Kasky
  
• Post, The Constitutional Status of Commercial Speech
  
• Mainstream Marketing Services v. FTC (The "Do Not Call List" Case)
  
• City of Cincinnati v. Discovery Network
  
• Ayres, Dialing for Dollars

7. Copyright and Freedom of Speech

Cases

• Suntrust Bank v. Houghton Mifflin Co.
  

• Eldred v. Ashcroft
  
• Ty, Inc. v. Publications International
  
• Castle Rock Entertainment, Inc. v. Carol Publishing Group, Inc.
  
• Worldwide Church of God v. Philadelphia Church of God, Inc.

8. Copyright and Freedom of Speech

Commentary

• Rubenfeld, The Freedom of Imagination: Copyright's Constitutionality
  

• Benkler, Free As The Air To Common Use: First Amendment Constraints On Enclosure of The Public Domain
  
• Tushnet, Copyright As A Model For Free Speech Law [From B.C. L. Rev. Website]
  
• Netanel, Locating Copyright Within The First Amendment Skein
  
• Baker, First Amendment Limits On Copyright

9. Trademark, Rights of Publicity, and the First Amendment

• Mutual of Omaha v. Novak
  

• Rogers v. Grimaldi
  
• Mattel v. MCA Records
  
• Comedy III Productions v. Gary Saderup, 25 Cal. 4th 387 (2001)
  
• Winter v. D.C. Comics
  
• Parks v. LaFace Records
  
• ETW Corp, v. Jireh Pub., Inc.
  
• Tushnet, Even More Parodic Than the Real Thing
  
• Lemley, The Modern Lanham Act and the Death of Common Sense

10. Digital Control of Information

• Lessig, The Future of Ideas (selections)
  

• Elkin-Koren, It's All About Control
  
• Benkler, From Consumers to Users: Shfiting the Deeper Structures of Regulation Towards Sustainable Commons and User Access
  
• Universal Studios v. Corley
  
• Chamberlain Group v. Skylink Technologies
  
• Cohen and Burk, Fair Use Infrastructure For Rights Management Systems

11. Digital Control of Information

• DVD Copy Control Association v. Bunner
  

• Samuelson, Resolving Conflicts Between Trade Secrets and the First Amendment
  
• CDT Primer on the Broadcast Flag
  
• EFF Primer on the Broadcast Flag
  
• FCC Decision on the Broadcast Flag
  
• Pollack, The Right To Know

12. Privacy and Autonomy

• Bernstein, Lives on File
  

• Zarsky, Mine Your Own Business (selections)
  
• Froomkin, Cyberspace and Privacy: A New Legal Paradigm?
  
• Kang, Information Privacy in Cyberspace Transactions (selections)
  
• Lessig, Code And Other Laws of Cyberspace (selections)
  
• David Brin, The Transparent Society (selections)
  
• Daniel Solove and Marc Rotenberg, Materials on The USA Patriot Act, from Information Privacy Law
  
• Markel Report on Privacy (read pp. 127-32, 161-73 Sean Fogarty & Daniel R. Ortiz, Limitations Upon Interagency Information Sharing: The Privacy Act of 1974; Stewart A. Baker, The Regulation of Disclosure Of Information Held by Private Parties)

13. Privacy and the First Amendment

• Vokokh, Freedom of Speech and Information Privacy [pdf version] [html version]
  

• Schwartz, Free Speech versus Information Privacy
  
• Baker, Autonomy and Informational Privacy
  
• Bartnicki v. Vopper

14. The Political Economy of Information Production

• Weber, The Political Economy of Open Source
  

• Benkler, Coase's Penguin, or Linux and the Nature of the Firm

15. TBA