Cheryl Gracie

 

Cyber Law Resource Page

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A comment from Cheryl Gracie

Starting points

For those with legal backgrounds

Laws

Journals

Articles of Interest

Other People's Web Sites

Some Basics

A comment from Cheryl Gracie.....

The Internet has had a profound effect on our society. It has transformed the way we communicate with profound effect on our culture and societal institutions, including our laws.

The traditional legal doctrines that used to apply, no longer work. This is because of certain fundamental legal principles upon which most of our law depends have been changed by technology.

First, much of our law is based on geographic concept of a reasonable parson. Technology, particularly the Internet, has blurred these geographic distinctions.

Second, we have always relied on the availability of physical space to separate diverse viewpoints peacefully. This allowed a great deal of diversity in our society in a national sense. The Internet ignores physical separations.

In all areas of law, the impact of technology on our concepts of a reasonable person and protections offered by physically separate space is profound.

Thus, cyberlaw isn't really a particular area of law. Instead, it covers the effect of technologies on many areas of the law. The following distinct areas have emerged. These are taken from the definition of cyberlaw provided by the UCLA Online Institute.

  1. Jurisdiction

  2. Freedom of Expression - free speech issues

  3. Intellectual Property - copyright, patent, trademark, and trade secret law

  4. Privacy - arising under constitutional law, federal and state statutes, and traditional tort case law

  5. Safety - "cybercrimes"

  6. Equity - access and education

  7. Electronic Commerce - electronic banking, digital cash , electronic contracts, online securities offerings, online gambling, and taxation.

Starting points

Findlaw: CyberSpace This is a wonderful, comprehensive, starting point for anyone wanting to explore all the issues.
E-Company Resources I extracted these sources from E-Company magazine
Cyberspace for Non-Lawyers

Larry Lessig, David Post, and Eugene Volokh write a wonderfully comprehensive, even if now somewhat dated, analysis of the law of cyberspace in terms a lay person can understand. Wonderful examples.

Copyright © 1999 Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc

Bitlaw A site devoted to Internet Law with explanations for the non-attorney
Cyberspace Law Center: Findlaw This is the findlaw center's comprehensive site about cyberlaw.
Cyberspace Law Subject Index: John Marshall Law School, Chicago A comprehensive site that focuses on how cyberlaw has impacted traditional areas of law.
Electronic Commerce and Internet Law Course A Basic Online course in Internet Law. It is over now, but it's syllabus provides many good links to "basic" materials.

Search Engines: Law Crawler

 

Law Crawler is a search engine specifically designed for legal research. However, I find that many times I get better results using a general search engine, (like metacrawler), or just going to the UCLA Online Institute
Search Engine: Metacrawler An all purpose search engine that tends to avoid purely "commercial" sites but this is only my own observation....no research to back this up.
The Law Engine

Another research engine. I don't have an opinion about it yet. It also contains a lovely directory.

'LECTRIC LAW LIBRARY

A decent site but not very good for cyber law.

A good place to check for forms

WWW Virtual Library—Law

A pretty decent site maintained by the University of Indiana Law School.

Their site about multi-media is particularly useful.

Court TV Ok....don't sell these people short. Sometimes they have just what you need in plain English.
Nolo Press Ok....don't sell these people short either. Sometimes they have just what you need in plain English.
World Wide Learn A comprehensive site about various topics of law in lay terms
American Legal Sources Online: (Also) A good beginning site.
mycounsel.com A good site for lay people on a variety of topics
West Identified Resources  

For Those With Legal Backgrounds

 

The UCLA Online Institute for Cyberspace Law and Policy

A very useful site from the Institute for Cyberspace Law and Policy. The description of its purpose provides a very good definition of the issues affecting us in Cyberspace

General Legal Resources are listed.

Provides a very good listing of relevant cases with online links when available.

Provides a wonderful list of developments over the last decade.

There is also a "perspectives" section where legal issues are posed in terms of solutions and/or their impact on our lives.

There is also a Internet Law Online Publications

Finally, there is a Cyberspace Law Bibliography

This is obviously my favorite site.

Electronic Commerce and Internet Law Resource Center: Perkins Coie LLP An interesting and very legally accurate collection of resources from the law firm of Perkins Coie LLP
The Product Liability Restatement Of Torts Third: What It Means For Illinois © Although this pertains to Illinois, it is pretty standard and contains much information about the basic law of contracts involving the sale of goods. The growth of e-commerce has a profound impact on this area of law
Cyber-liberties: American Civil Liberties Union

Focus on our freedoms, particularly freedom of speech issues involving censorship and privacy.

Washburns List Comprehensive site of links to most any legal topic
E-commerce Law Source.com Comprehensive site containing information of various topics of law involving e-commerce
The Berkman Center for Internet & Society Harvard's Web Site on Cyberlaw

Laws

Basic Laws

UCLA Online Institute for Cyberspace Law and Policy

Title 17 (Copyright)

Cornell Law School Site

Federal Legal Resources

Cornell Law School: Federal Legal Resources

United States Constitution

U.S. Code , (Download version)

Recent US Legislation (Thomas)

Code of Federal Regulations

Downloadable Code

Michigan Legal Resources

Michigan Statutes Online

Cornell Law School: Michigan Legal Resources

All Law: Michigan Site

Also

Institute of Continuting Legal Research, (ICLE)

Other State Statutes State Statutes Online
Legal Information Institute: Cornell Law School Comprehensive site containing links to all sorts of links to a wide variety of primary sources of law.
Giga Law  
All Law Internet Gateway A comprehensive selection of laws with links to primary sources.
American Legal Sources Online A good place to find and search statutes, cases, etc. for federal and state laws.

Uniform Commercial Code, Article 2B (draft)

The 2B Guide

The proposed additional article to deal with cyberlaw issues in the Uniform Commercial Code
Other Resources, Cases etc. Brought to you by the UCLA Online Institute
The Perkins Coie Internet Case Digest An interesting collection of Internet Cases not found through search engines.
LawCom Latest in all the news about law
OpenLaw A resource of collected cases from Berkman at Harvard
RENO, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES, et al. v. AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION et al.

Unanimous Supreme Court decision striking down the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (June 26, 1997)

Recent decisions

Journals

Journal of Internet Law Excerpts of the Journal published by attorneys of Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich.
Law News Network Up to date, breaking news
Sanford Technology Law Review The Law Review from Sanford....great attorney perspectives.
Washburn School of Law Comprehensive Site
Harvard Journal of Law and Technology The Law Review dealing with technology from Harvard....great attorney perspectives.
Michigan Telecommunications and Technology Law Review A law review from the University of Michigan
Internet Law Online Publications A list of online cyberlaw journals from Perkins Coie
American Lawyer Media

Web page for the American Lawyer Media organization. Links to the

National Law Journal, weekly

New York Law Journal

Law Technology News

BNA's Electronic Commerce Comprehensive site with case listings.
SSRN Electronic Library A comprehensive site with links to various online journals. Lesig chairs one on Cyberlaw

Articles of Interest

Internet Law Online Publications: Perkins Coie A list of very interesting articles, current, about the law in this area.

The UCLA Online Institute for Cyberspace Law and Policy

Perspectives

Developments

From my favorite site.

See particularly

When is a Threat "Truly" a Threat Lacking First Amendment Protection? A Proposed True Threats Test to Safeguard Free Speech Rights in the Age of the Internet Anna S. Andrews May 1999

THE PUBLIC FORUM DOCTRINE AND ITS POSSIBLE APPLICATION TO THE INTERNET Angioletta Sperti, LL.M.*

Practical E-Law Recommendations for Net-worked Employers An explanation of Internet Law from a distinguished scholar that takes a "practical", but accurate, approach
Developments in the Law: The Law of Cyberspace: Harvard Law Review, May 1999 A wonderfully comprehensive article that provides and overview.
Copyright Considerations Carol Ann Hughes, University Libraries, University Libraries, The University of Iowa.
When Works Pass into the Public Domain A handy reference
Link Controversy A handy site to various resources on the link controversy
REVISING THE COPYRIGHT LAW FOR ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING An interesting article by David J. Loundy

Other People's Web Sites

Peter Suber, Legal Studies, Earlham College This site doesn't deal specifically with cyberlaw....but it is a good site for the basics.
Steve Sowell's Links Page, disclaimer

Another great links page from an attorney. Steve's homepage

Glenn Bacal's 1999 Guide to Internet Research (with Resource List) Another good, and very comprehensive site, from an attorney
Learning Cyberlaw in CyberSpace A basic course
David J Loundy's Web Site An attorney who writes about Cyberlaw issues.

Some Basics

Evaluating Information Found on the Internet

University of Iowa Tools & Resources

Anyone can make information available over the web. Is it worthy of consideration? Librarians pride themselves in an entire profession that was devoted to weeding out the garbage....of course....an attorney might say sorting is sorting and very close to what is meant by "censorship".

Nonetheless, it's important to understand how you can evaluate the source of information that you find on the web and that you do so when working with the information that you find.

The University of Iowa has put together a fine list of tools and resources. I found the following article particularly interesting.

Evaluating Information Found on the Internet: Elizabeth E. Kirk, Electronic and Distance Education Librarian, Johns Hopkins University

Here is a particularly good article from an attorney's perspective. The Practical Litigator's 1999 Guide to Internet Research, by Glenn S. Bacal, J.D., M.B.A.

Web Searching

University of Iowa Links to Searching Resources

Searching for information on the web is very different than searching in traditional places. First, there is the issue of having to evaluate the information. Second, there is the need to distinguish "search engines" from "directories". Finally, the quality of the results of your search will depend on several factors.

  1. The relevancy of the information placed in the data base.

  2. The power of the program to access that information

  3. The skill of the user in effectively using the search tool

If you want a very good reference, try The Extreme Searcher's Guide to Web Search Engines, Randolph Hock, ISBN 0--910965-26-9

Here is a particularly good article from an attorney's perspective. Guide to Internet Research Bacal's Key Rules To Effective Searching, by Glenn S. Bacal, JD, MBA

FedLaw Site

This is a comprehensive site of legal information. Includes state law information as well.

A Brief History of the Internet One of the best articles I have found that explains how the Internet grew to what it is now.
www.lexis.com/law school

This is a comprehensive site that contains many "Web Lectures" concerning many areas of the law. A good beginners site. Two, in particular, are of interest to cyberlaw

Cyberspace Law: E-Commerce

Cyberspace Law: Speech & Privacy

SSRN Electronic Library A comprehensive site that contains information on a variety of topics.
American Bar Association Site From the grandaddy of what governs us.
American Law Institute A good layman approach to topics

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