UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA,
IRVINE — INFORMATION & COMPUTER
SCIENCE
INFORMATICS 269 — SPRING QUARTER
2012
Computer Law — Course Reference
Instructor: David G. Kay, 5056 Donald Bren Hall. Office hours: Feel free to drop by any time or send electronic mail to kay.
Meeting place and times: Thursdays from 9:00 to 11:50 in 1423 Donald Bren Hall.
Course requirements: For everyone, reading and attending class to discuss the course materials and a take-home final exam (out at the end of the ninth week, due at the start of finals week). For those who want a letter grade (rather than SU), a term project on a computer law topic of your choice, presented orally (half talk, half discussion); we will take signups for these in Week 2.
Readings: I'll assign readings as we go. Most will be on-line; I'll arrange access to the others. The course home page is http://www.ics.uci.edu/~kay/courses/269/.
Approximate course outline (slides):
Week 1 |
April 5 |
Overview of computer law and the course |
Week 2 |
April 12 |
Protecting intellectual property rights in computer software: Copyright, patent, trade secret |
Week 3 |
April 19 |
More on intellectual property |
Week 4 |
April 26 |
Current intellectual property issues Contracting for computer systems and services |
Week 5 |
May 3 |
Free speech and other constitutional issues in cyberspace Privacy protection Fair information practices and fair credit reporting legislation |
Week 6 |
May 10 |
Liability for system malfunction |
Week 7 |
May 17 |
Professional ethics |
Week 8 |
May 24 |
Project presentations |
Week 9 |
May 31 |
Project presentations |
Week 10 |
June 7 |
Project presentations and epilogue |