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Course

Cyberspace Law 2.0 - GENL2032

Faculty: Faculty of Law

School: Faculty of Law

Course Outline: http://www.law.unsw.edu.au/

Campus: Sydney

Career: Undergraduate

Units of Credit: 6

EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)

Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 3

Enrolment Requirements:

Exclusion: enrolment in program 3502, 3543, 3571, 3979, 3971

CSS Contribution Charge: 1 (more info)

Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule

Further Information: See Class Timetable

Available for General Education: Yes (more info)

View course information for previous years.

Description

This course surveys how cyberspace (the social space created by computing networks such as the Internet) is being regulated by law and other means, and examines how successful is this regulation. The course takes an Australian perspective, but with a strong emphasis on the development of international regulatory mechanisms. Responses to problems by technical controls will be compared with legal controls. As a survey course, the precise topics to be covered will change from year to year but may include topics such as: theories of cyberspace regulation; governance structures of the Internet - the ICANN example; domain names, identities and reputations; encryption and public key infrastructure (PKI); copyright - can copying be controlled by cyberspace?; content control through censorship and defamation; computer crime and investigation; privacy and surveillance; e-commerce, contracts and consumer rights; and jurisdictional problems and borderless transactions. There will be a team teaching approach with a number of guest lecturers. The implications of Web 2.0, user generated content, social networking and virtual worlds will be given significant attention.

Please see the following link for more information: GENL2032 Cyberspace Law 2.0

Teachers:
David Vaile
Occasional guest lectures by Chris Connolly and others

Recommended Prior Knowledge

None

Objectives

A candidate who has successfully completed this course should be able to:
  • Identify the sources of regulation in the online environment, and how to find them;
  • Understand how technology, business conventions, social norms and law interact to constrain online;
  • Appreciate the risks and appropriate legal and practical remedies in key areas of online activity;
  • Understand the impact of issues of jurisdiction, contract, legislative schemes and personal liability in participation in online communities and e-commerce; and
  • Understand the impact of "Internet 2.0", "Web 2.0" and later technologies such as social networking, user generated content, mass personalisation and ubiquitous location-aware devices on legal and regulatory approaches inherited from the first generation of online services.

Main Topics

  • Domain name disputes
  • Privacy and personal information security
  • Intellectual property
  • Content regulation, censorship
  • Defamation
  • Internet governance
  • E-commerce
  • Consumer protection
  • Cybercrime
  • The impact of jurisdiction, and laws of other nations, on online citizens in Australia

Assessment

  • Class seminar participation (10%)
  • 1 x Case study (30%)
  • 1 x 3000 word essay on a set topic or (optional) contribution to online resource (60%)

Course Texts

Required

No hard copy set text. Access to the online course materials, which have extensive access to primary and secondary sources.

Recommended

Jay Forder and Dan Svantesson, Internet and e-commerce law, Oxford UP, 2008

Refer to the course outline which will be provided by the lecturer at the beginning of the relevant semester.

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Study Levels

Undergraduate Study Postgraudate Study Postgraduate Research Study Non-Award Study

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