UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA,
IRVINE — INFORMATION & COMPUTER
SCIENCE
INFORMATICS 269 — WINTER QUARTER
2014
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: Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30 to 10:50 in ICS 259.
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 (talk plus 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 |
January 7/9 | Overview of computer law and the course Background on the legal system, legal principles and reasoning Sources of law Courts and jurisdiction |
| Week 2 |
January 14/16 | Protecting intellectual property rights in computer software: Copyright, patent, trade secret |
| Week 3 |
January 21/23 | More on intellectual property |
| Week 4 |
January 28/30 | Current intellectual property issues Contracting for computer systems and services |
| Week 5 |
February 4/6 | Free speech and other constitutional issues in cyberspace Privacy protection Fair information practices and fair credit reporting legislation |
| Week 6 |
February 11/13 | Liability for system malfunction |
| Week 7 |
February 18/20 | Professional ethics Computer-related litigation and computer-based evidence Computer crime and computer abuse Project presentations. Thursday: Anshu Singh (E-Waste and Recycling) and Moury Bidgoli (Cybercrimes: ID Theft and Cyberbullying |
| Week 8 |
February 25/27 | Project presentations. Tuesday: Saltanat Mashirova (Writing and Spreading Viruses) and Xinning Gui (Antitrust Law in China). Thursday: Alex Yuktanon (Extraterritorial Rights on the Internet) and Siva Thirunavukkarasu (Megaupload.com Copyright Case) |
| Week 9 |
March 4/6 | Project presentations. Tuesday: Rohan Gopalakrishnan (International Copyright) and Rohan Achar (Automated Administration of Justice). Thursday: No class. |
| Week 10 |
March 11/13 | Project presentations. Tuesday: Sonali Madireddi (Legal Aid for the Disadvantaged) and Vaibhav Saini (Source Code Clones in Open Source Software). Thursday: Epilogue |