With the explosion of commercial activity on the 'net,
the modern lawyer is being increasingly called upon to solve problems
characteristic of this technology and the new business opportunities
it provides. This course is intended to provide a current snapshot
of the array of legal issues raised by electronic commerce, and to
provide a framework for responding to problems that may arise in the
future. We'll proceed from the premise that successful lawyers in
this new environment will be those who understand the law, the technology,
and the business of the 'net. Specific topics are subject to ongoing
developments in the field, but will likely include most of the following:
Internet networking concepts; personal jurisdiction online; digital
contracting (including state statutory developments, digital signatures,
"trusted systems," and intelligent software agents/’bots);
online consumer privacy (databases, data mining, cookies, and P3P);
digital property rights (including domain names, meta tags, search
engines, the law of linking, MP3's/Napster, and the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act); and antitrust in the information age. Wherever possible,
we'll consider hypotheticals or business school-style case studies
to drive the discussion, and we’ll use class exercises and simulations
to highlight the legal, business, and policy challenges.
R. Polk Wagner