Summer 2021: Tuesdays and Thursdays. We're scheduled for 6:00-9:15, in Cuneo 218. However, we're not going to use the last class as a final exam (because there's not going to be a final exam), so we'll just meet 6:00-9:00.
I have no idea how everything will go, given Covid. But this class is supposed to be in-person rather than online. Let me know if you have some specific issue. As of 5/15, we're still supposed to be wearing masks.
Text: The textbook will be A Gift of Fire, 5th
Edition, by Sara Baase and Timothy Henry, Prentice-Hall, 2017.
This is also available in an e-book format.
There will be three writing assignments during the semester; the first writing assignment will have a rewriting component, as you resubmit your first draft. Each of these will be ~1000 words or so.
There will be one debate assignment, in which you will debate a topic from this list. You will pair up with another student; I will create a sign-up sheet soon. When your time to debate has arrived, I will flip a coin for one of you; heads gets "agree" and tails "disagree". The other debater gets the opposite. That is, you won't know which side you get until class time. You may use notes, but your goal should be to speak so as to try to convince your classmates. At the end of each debate, I'll take a poll of the others in the class, and also you will get a chance to express your "real" position.
There may also be small assignments each class to either post something on the Sakai discussion board, or to write a short answer to a current question.
My general course groundrules are here. Loyola's academic integrity rules are here.
You are expected to be familiar with the rules for quoting other sources in papers.
Trust and Licensing: class 12?
Tech and Antitrust: class 12
| Class 1: May 25 |
Class 2: May 27 |
| Class 3: June 1 |
Class 4: May 3 |
| Class 5: June 8 |
Class 6: June 10 |
| Class 7: June 15 |
Class 8: June 17 |
| Class 9: June 22 |
Class 10: June 24 |
| Class 11: June 29 |
Class 12: July 1 |
Please submit in Word-type format (.docx, .doc, .odt, .rtf, etc). No pdf!
Paper 1: Draft topics: DMCA or music sampling
Paper 2: Browser privacy or Section 230
Paper 3: Patents or What is hacking or
Antitrust
Two brief (one-paragraph) examples of essay writing (good and not as good) are here.
Learning outcomes:
Understanding of laws and issues in areas such as privacy, encryption,
freedom of speech, copyrights, patents, computer crime, and
computer/software reliability and safety; understanding of philosophical
perspectives such as utilitarianism versus deontological ethics and basics
of the U.S. legal system.
And an interesting followup: Reminder: Please Shut Up (advice from an attorney)
Don't
Call Yourself A Programmer, by Patrick McKenzie
Organizations
Association for Computing Machinery -- The professional organization for computer professionals (oriented towards programmers). See their USACM subgroup for public-policy issues. See also the ACM Code of Ethics.
Electronic Frontier Foundation -- Founded to fight for citizens' rights in the areas of privacy, cyberspace freedom (specifically, freedom of speech), copyrights, and encryption.
American Civil Liberties Union -- Not specifically concerned with cyberspace law, but nonetheless very involved in the fight against the Communications Decency Act. The ACLU has long fought against censorship in any form, and for personal liberties in general.
Electronic Privacy Information Center -- They are concerned with both government surveillance (directly and by searching your records), the scope of government databases, and encryption.
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility -- "CPSR is a public-interest alliance of computer scientists and others interested in the impact of computer technology on society." Includes privacy issues but also professional responsibilities of programmers and workplace empowerment issues.
Ethics Center for Engineering and Science A useful compendium of ethics case studies and other information pertaining to science and engineering.
US Copyright office home page All sorts of information on copyright legislation, including the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.
2600, the Hacker Quarterly, leader in the fight for DeCSS.