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 persond. 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 technolgoy 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.
For a comprehensive definition of cyberlaw, check with the UCLA Online Institute.
Starting points
| Findlaw: CyberSpace | This is a wonderful, comprehensive, starting point for anyone wanting to explore all the issues. |
| 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 |
| 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. |
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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. |
| WWW Virtual Library—Law |
A pretty decent site maintained by the Unversity 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. |
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. |
| 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 |
Legal Issues: Cyberspace Law papers
Articles of Interest
| Internet Law Online Publications: Perkins Coie | A list of very interesting articles, current, about the law in this area. |
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The UCLA Online Institute for Cyberspace Law and Policy |
From my favorite site. See particularly 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 Intenet Law from a distiguished 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 |
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: PerkinsCoie 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 |
Laws
| Basic Laws | |
| Michigan Legal Resources | Michigan Statutes Online |
| 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. |
Some Basics
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Evaluating Information Found on the Internet |
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. 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. |
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Web Searching |
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 distinquish "search engines" from "directories". Finally, the quality of the results of your search will depend on several factors.
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, J.D., M.B.A. |
| 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" concerningf many areas of the law. A good beginners site. Two, in particular, are of interest to cyberlaw |
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 | Another great links page from an attorney |
| Glenn Bacal's 1999 Guide to Internet Research (with Resource List) | Another good, and very comprehensive site, from an attorney |