Return to Nicholas Johnson's Opening Web Page, www.nicholasjohnson.org
 

Cyberspace Law Seminar, Spring 2008

Participants' Responsibilities

Welcome to the Cyberspace Law Seminar
Attendance, Exams and Grades
Coordinates, Meeting Time/Place, Assistant
Defining a "Seminar" -- and Standards for Grading Papers
Internet Overview
Ombudsperson
Personal Bio Assignment
Seminar as Two Courses
Understanding the Internet
Web Publication, Internet and E-mail Requirements
Appendix: Rationale for Final

Hopefully your experience with this seminar -- including the research and writing on a topic of your choice that interests you -- will be fun as well as instructive, personally satisfying, and useful to your future career.

The information and standards which follow are kind of common sense. Do you take your legal education seriously? Are you in the habit of preparing before class? Fairly compulsive about attending seminar sessions? Make every effort to meet deadlines for submission of papers? Take pride in the quality of your work? If so, you will find little in what follows that you are not already doing.

There are, however, some details regarding the seminar even you will need to know -- especially those involving the "Writing Assignments."

Every law professor believes his or her courses are among the most important in the catalog. So you can discount a little what I am about to say.

But I really do think there is nothing more (a) timely, (b) fun, (c) rapidly changing, and (d) practical for your legal career -- that is, the next 50 years, as distinguished from my legal career during the past 50 years -- than what we're about to do together.

The Internet embodies two of the most significant changes going on today: (a) telecommunications, computer and digital innovations, convergence, networking and expansion, and (b) the resulting globalization of everything. (The latter is the basis for the title of New York Times' columnist Tom Friedman's April 2005 book, Thomas L. Friedman, The World is Flat (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2005).)

The Internet is the fastest growing anything in human history -- and there's "nobody in charge." (Credit: Harlan Cleveland, Nobody in Charge: Essays on the Future of Leadership (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass 2002) -- stimulating, but not assigned, reading.) During the past decade most major global business firms have created an Internet presence. Indeed, much of conventional media (e.g., television and newspapers) -- both the substantive content and the commercial advertising -- have become, in effect, mere references to an Internet URL where the real catalog, report, data or discussion is to be found. Ironically, the Internet is the platform for both (a) a rapidly expanding multi-billion-dollar commerce, with the resulting ever-growing political power of global corporations, and (b) democratization and grassroots movements empowering individual citizens.

As for the legal profession, the Internet (a) impacts the practice of law, including the legal profession's increasing globalization, (b) is a means of access to collections of legal materials, and (c) is the source of whole new bodies of legal issues, conflicts, confusion and cases.

Historically, legislators, judges and lawyers have not usually needed to focus on the extent to which "the law" is tethered to a geographical "place." It was so taken for granted that lawyers seldom even had occasion to think about it. For example, members of Iowa's legislature, the judges in its courts, and the state's lawyers simply accepted without reflection that their authority stopped at the Mississippi or Missouri Rivers' edge. Virtually every jurisdiction and area of the law made similar, unspoken, geographical assumptions.

Now we have a "new world disorder" called "cyberspace" with neither latitude nor longitude on Planet Earth. Seminar participants' CLS08 seminar papers (which will be posted to the Web) will come as quickly to computer screens in Bangkok as in Boston, they are as "local" to Warsaw as to Washington, D.C. (And they are, in fact, getting "hits" from all around the world; as of the beginning of this semester from users in some 156 countries.)

To the extent there is going to be a "law of cyberspace," it requires the rethinking of every area of our centuries-old, geographically-tethered legal system. There are torts in cyberspace, contracts in cyberspace, jurisdictional and other procedural issues, evidence questions, antitrust, copyright and trademark issues, constitutional questions -- and so on throughout the traditional law school curriculum. Cyberspace law becomes, in effect, a kind of jurisprudential game of "52 pickup," wherein we analyze cases and statutes one at a time to figure out what difference it makes that the transaction we're considering is both everywhere on Earth -- and nowhere -- simultaneously.

The earlier in your career you can experience the "de-mystification" of the Internet -- what it is and how you can use it, the kinds of legal issues it raises, and the kinds of solutions lawyers can offer -- the better advantaged you will be in dealing with the world you'll face in this 21st Century.

My dictionary defines "seminar" as "a group of advanced students studying under a professor with each doing original research and all exchanging results through reports and discussions." (The definition provided by dictionary.com is comparable.)

It's not bad as definitions go.

You are presumed to be "advanced students" in every sense: (a) above average in ability, (b) nearly finished with nearly two decades of formal education, (c) essentially standing on the doorstep of the transition from teenage college student (or mid-life career change) to licensed professional, with the maturity, ethics, time management skills and work habits to match, including of course (d) the ability to be fully capable of self-motivation and self-discipline. And speaking of professionalism, something that is assigned reading, if you have not yet read it, is  "So You Want to Be a Lawyer: A Play in Four Acts." Hopefully you will find it to contain very practical and useful advice. Even if not, it will at least give you some insight into the thinking of your instructor regarding legal education and the practice of law.

You will be doing, as the dictionary puts it, "original research."

Ideally, "original research" means that your topic will be sufficiently narrow that you can both (a) master the entire body of relevant material, and (b) contribute something original (as distinguished from a mere description of the law, or summaries of the ideas of others). Properly done, this will substantially lessen, rather than increase, the amount of work you'll have to do. [See "Writing Assignments" for additional guidance and standards.]

Finally, you will be "exchanging results through reports and discussions": preparing individual seminar papers, which will be (1) shared with your colleagues, (2) presented orally, (3) revised/rewritten, proof read, polished, and (4) "published" on the Web.

That is to say, a "seminar" at this law school is, in effect, two courses -- with, indeed, three sources of credits.

(1) One course consists of readings, seminar discussion, possible minor assignments and quizzes, and a final. [See below for rationale for final.] On the assumption you successfully complete the seminar this "course" is worth two academic credits.

(2) A second consists of a writing requirement. You must write no less than one 20-page paper of text -- plus the additional pages of endnotes. That paper entitles you to (a) one additional academic credit, and

(3) one writing credit. (You may write more. For example, if you choose to write a 40-page paper (or an additional 20-page paper), that would entitle you to two additional academic credits (in other words, one more than what you'd get for a 20-page paper), a total of four academic credits for the seminar plus the paper). Similarly, one writing credit is awarded for each 20 pages successfully completed (i.e., two for a 40-page paper).)

As soon-to-be lawyers you also will want to review the "law and regulations" regarding seminars, found in the University of Iowa College of Law, Student Handbook (latest edition). They spell out the requirements regarding revisions, credit hours, writing credits, and so forth. You are responsible for knowing their contents, as they will govern to the extent they are in conflict with anything on this Web site.

For grading standards for your research paper, see "Writing Assignments" and click on "What I'm Looking For; Seminar Paper Grades."
 

There are a number of aspects of the Internet you will benefit from understanding.  Here are some of the questions for which you will want to find the answers -- many of which you will probably already know, this being 2008 and all.

• (1) What is it? How did it get started? Who runs it? How does it work? What does "hypertext" mean? How many countries are "online"? What are the relationships between phone companies, "Internet Service Providers," "browsers," and Web sites? What was the Internet before there was a "Web"? How does AOL fit into all of this? What are "modems" -- telephone and cable? What is the difference between logging in from the law school (or other University facilities) and from home? What's Wi-Fi? How come the Internet is so slow sometimes; what are all the factors that can affect the speed with which a Web page appears on your screen? How can parents -- or countries -- "block" sites? How can a company "do business" over the Internet? Is any business making money from its Web site; which are most profitable and why? How can so many people afford to make so much information available for free?

• (2) How do I use it? What are the basics of getting an account, and the relative merits (and costs) of a local provider (like Internet Navigator) or a national/global mega-provider (like AOL) or a "free" ISP (like NetZero)? How do I get a "browser," log in, go to a Web page for which I know the address (URL), send and receive e-mail, participate in news groups' discussions? What are these free electronic magazines ("e-zines") and "list servers"? How do I find out what's available, and subscribe?

• (3) What are the basics of making the Internet work for me; making billions of pages of information genuinely useful? What are "bookmarks" and "search engines"? Why are they so important? How do I find a site I just visited, but failed to note? How can I "save to disk" a page I find useful? How can I print a Web page? What do I have to do to save my bookmarks to a flash memory stick, CD (or a floppy disk in the A: drive if you have a computer that still has one) rather than to the hard drive of a computer I may be using only temporarily?

• (4) What do I need to know about Internet research techniques in general, and Internet legal research techniques in particular? How can I evaluate the accuracy and worth of material on the Internet? Are there special rules of citation form I need to learn ("How do you 'cite' a 'site'"?).

Earlier generations learned how to use "the library" in junior high and high school -- the card catalog and the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature. Once in law school, we learned how to do legal research with books, and then with Westlaw, Lexis -- as well as FindLaw and other Internet sites.

The general skills involved in legal research are perhaps the most practical thing you'll get out of law school. If you can do thorough, quality legal research and writing in two hours that takes others one or two days you can either go home earlier every day or charge more per hour.

Now we have yet another set of skills to learn beyond those needed for Westlaw and Lexis. Not every law office will have those commercial services; not every client can afford their extra hourly or other charges. And even if your client can afford them there is information on the Internet that Westlaw and Lexis don't provide. Mastery of Internet legal research skills will both save, and make, you money.

• (5) Begin building your own "bookmarks." What are some of the more useful mega-sites (i.e., Web sites that are organized to get you to as many as thousands of other sites)? Legal collections? Sites more specifically related to this seminar and your possible paper topic?

• (6) Are there potential cyberspace law issues that occur to you as you surf around?

• (7) Finally, for those of you who are interested, what resources are available, what skills are necessary, to make your own Web page? What is Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)? How can you make a Web page without learning to write in HTML?

It will come as no surprise that a seminar devoted to "cyberspace law" relies substantially on e-mail and the Internet.

Use of the Internet.

You will need to be able to "surf," use search engines, and otherwise be comfortable interacting with the Web.

• We will be studying the Internet.

• Your assignments are posted on the Internet.

• We will be getting some of our readings from the Internet.

• You will be using the Internet to do research for your paper.

• And, when you and I have finally produced your best possible "final, final" draft it will be published on the Internet.

If you know how to use the Internet, but haven't spent many hours doing so, you are strongly encouraged to log as many hours as possible at the beginning of the semester. I know of no substitute for just spending hours in exploration as a way of coming to understand this "thing," how it can be of greatest use to you now and in the future, and what potential legal topics and issues you would most like to explore with your research paper.

Web Publication.

Publication of your paper on the Web is a requirement, a condition for receiving credit for the seminar. There are at least two reasons for this. One is educational. From a pedagogical perspective, past experience has shown that Web publication provides an added incentive for students to do their very best work and thereby gain more from the seminar and writing experience. Another is the obligation of the faculty and students of any academic institution to create, and then share with the legal community, their own contributions to legal understanding and reform.

Past seminar Web sites receive a lot of hits. There are regular users of our CLS Web sites from (as of December 2006) 156 countries. Your paper will be used by others. Some past seminar students have received requests from editors and publishers to publish papers in hard copy publications. Others have received job offers.

From your own perspective, your paper is a "writing sample" to which you can direct potential employers if you choose. Moreover, a Web site represents a kind of ubiquitous "filing cabinet" to which you can go at a moment's notice to retrieve a copy of your paper no matter where you are with Internet access on Planet Earth. So posting your paper on the Internet is not a casual matter. It may actually positively influence your career in one way or another. Virtually all students have found Web publication to be a significant benefit of the seminar.

Copyright.

As you will learn, if you have not already, present copyright law provides that everything you create is copyright at the moment of its creation -- even your class notes. So you will hold the copyright on your paper, subject only to the license you are granting me to post it to the class Web site. Any income from your paper goes to you. You control the rights to its publication in hard copy form. You are free to post your paper to additional Web sites if you wish. If you want more protection, and are interested in learning more about copyright law, there are some additional benefits to you of formal "registration" with the Copyright Office and you are certainly free to do that.

Copyright aside, I am happy to work with you -- even after the seminar is over, your paper is posted, and the grades are in -- to improve the appearance and Web-formatting of your paper, or make corrections of minor errors you find after it's been submitted, should you want to do that.

How long will your paper be available from the seminar Web site? It has been (and remains) my intention to maintain these sites indefinitely. However, I must, necessarily, reserve the right to have them closed down at any time in the event I die, am no longer associated with the University of Iowa (which is providing the storage space), or for some other reason. Thus, to the extent you want to guarantee the continued availability of your paper from the Web you should keep a copy of it in some medium (or download it from the Web with the "Save As" feature on your browser), and arrange to have it uploaded to another site somewhere.

There is an option available to you for creating your own Web site if you wish. This is not a requirement. Doing it will not enhance your grade -- though it will enhance your Internet and professional skills. If you already have a Web site of your own I'd like to link to it from our main seminar Web site. If you don't, but would like to have one, just let me know.

E-Mail.

You will find e-mail a useful means of communicating with your colleagues and me. No telephone tag. No wondering when I'm coming back to the office. Moreover, it's the fastest way for me to get information to you. And it, and this Web site, provide you with a written record for review -- rather than trying to remember instructions provided in class.

So, one of your first obligations it to get your e-mail address to me as soon as possible. You can just send it to me at .

However, please note that if you do not have an e-mail account, or have one but don't check it at least a couple of times a week, don't be shy. Let me know. That's OK. We'll make some other arrangements for you.

We meet in Room 125, Wednesday evenings from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., from January 16 to April 23, 2005 (with the exception of March 19, which falls in the middle of spring break week, March 17-21). My law school office is Room 445. My phone number at the law school is 335-9146. A better phone number for voice messages is 337-5555, my home office number that bounces to SimulScribe. The e-mail address is noted above. My personal, all-purpose Web site is http://www.nicholasjohnson.org; my blog is http://FromDC2Iowa.blogspot.com. The best postal address is: Box 1876, Iowa City IA 52244-1876. The law school fax number I use is 335-9019. (All phone numbers are, of course, in the 319 area code.)

E-mail is probably the best of these options. But because a student once lodged a formal complaint with the Ombuds when I had not responded to their e-mail in under four hours, I should put you on notice that even e-mail has its limitations if you need a really rapid response. Moreover, like you, with hundreds of e-mails daily in five or more accounts, I cannot promise that there will never be an occasion when you have to wait more than 24 hours. Sometimes I'm out of town or otherwise unable to check e-mail. On rare occasions I even have things to do in my life that do not involve a computer. But most of the time you'll have a reply in less than a day.

My assistant for the seminar is Lisa Schomberg. Her office is Room 405. Her phone number is 335-9091. If you're unable to reach me directly you should feel free to leave paper drafts or otherwise communicate with me through her if you wish. Her hours are 8:00-12:00 noon, Monday-Friday.

1. Because of the waiting list, as a courtesy to me and other students, if there is a possibility you will be dropping the seminar early in the semester please let me know that now.

2. As you ponder that request, know that the seminar will consist of the following assignments and responsibilities (the details of which are, or will be, spelled out elsewhere). Because of some student misunderstandings in the past, they are laid out for you now, before the seminar begins.

• (a) During the first few weeks of the semester there will be reading assignments.

• (b) There will (or can) be quizzes over those readings. The results of those quizzes will count toward your grade (up to, say, 10 percent depending on the number of quizzes).

• (c) You will go through the steps of selecting a topic, researching, outlining, writing and re-writing a seminar paper of at least 20 pages. For more detail, see "Writing Assignments." There are a number of mileposts, or deadlines, to be met, see "Writing Timeline Mileposts." A failure to meet them will reduce your grade and can potentially result in your being dropped from the seminar.

• (d) You will be expected to attend all seminar sessions. Missing more than two meetings can result in being dropped from the seminar. There are no "excused" or "unexcused" absences -- just absences. Thus, if you anticipate fly-backs or family emergencies it is wise to hold those potential absences in reserve.

• (e) You will also make an oral presentation of your paper to the seminar. A failure to attend that session and make your presentation when scheduled will result in a failing course grade. (This is because you are the seminar session that evening, everyone’s counting on you, and because it is an essential element of the seminar experience that, by definition, cannot be “made up” after the semester is over. All of which is a good reason for scheduling your presentation as early as possible.)

• (f) There will be a final examination covering the readings and the content of your colleagues’ papers. [See below for the rationale for a final exam.]

• (g) You will receive academic credit for both the seminar and the paper (i.e., 2 hours for the seminar, and 1 additional hour for each 20 pages of a paper) in addition to writing credits for the paper.

• (h) Thus, your single, seminar grade will consist of a combination of (1) your grade on the (a) mileposts products (such as the various drafts) involved in completing your paper, 60 percent. Because (b) your "first final draft" is entirely your work, and is supposed to be the best work of which you are capable, it will count 60 percent of the 60 percent represented by all your writing. For the standards used in grading papers, see Defining a "Seminar" and Standards for Grading Papers, above, and "Writing Assignments." (2) Your grades on the quizzes and final exam will represent 25 percent, and (3) your seminar participation, including your oral presentation, 15 percent.

4. Time and place of final exam. The final is currently scheduled for May 1, 2008. However, it is your responsibility to confirm the place, date and time of the exam as exam week approaches, familiarize yourself with any College of Law regulations and procedures regarding exams, as well as to make your own arrangements for using a laptop in accordance with the College's requirements. The Student Handbook details the administrative regulations and procedures regarding conflicts in examination schedules, and dates for rescheduled and makeup exams.

5. Delivery of seminar grades. When there is a final exam there are, of course, exam numbers; seminar grades can then be posted by number (outside the instructor's office and on the main law school bulletin board). When there is no final exam grades are not posted (as they would be identified by name). Grades will be available online from the University's site. If that won't work for you for some reason, with special advance arrangements with Ms. Schomberg it may be possible to have your grade e-mailed, or sent in a pre-addressed envelope.

One of the greatest resources of any law school is the intellectual quality, and diversity of background and experience, of its student body. We are particularly blessed in that respect at this law school in general and this class in particular. The more we can all know about each other, and the resources we bring to the classroom, the more each of us can take from it. Besides, it's more fun knowing who these folks are with whom you are about to be locked in a room for 14 evenings.

So, please hand in to my assistant within one week of our first seminar session, a brief, one-page essay about yourself that can be shared with other members of the class. You need not, but may, examine examples of prior personal bios, available from my assistant. When all have been received we'll put together a hard copy "bio booklet" of our seminar, make copies, and give you one. (This will be the only "publication"; bio booklets will not be put in the library, posted to the Web, or otherwise made available to the public.)

Obviously, if there is anything you want to keep to yourself you are a skillful enough writer to do so. There's nothing you must include.

But while you wait for the muse to strike, be aware that the following kinds of things would be interesting and useful:

(1) something of your family, community and upbringing,

(2) early ambitions, goals or professional interests,

(3) college majors, intellectual interests, activities,

(4) work, travel or other job-related experiences,

(5) your current obligations and environment outside of law school (e.g., marital and parental status or other family responsibilities, nature and demands of outside employment; hobbies or other activities),

(6) areas of specialization in law school, student activities, or legal internships,

(7) any experiences working for (or dealing with) computer-related firms, law firms, print or electronic media, advertising, or political campaigning,

(8) future goals, expectations and plans for using your legal education,

(9) electronics hobbies (e.g., amateur radio license, computer programming or Web page design).

(1) one page maximum,
(2) single spaced,
(3) using a printer (not handwritten),
(4) with sufficiently dark print to make machine copies possible,
(5) one inch margins all around,
(6) a heading that includes your name and the date,
(7) any reasonable and readable font.

The instructor will make every effort to be open to students' questions, suggestions and complaints. There are a number of available communication channels noted under "Coordinates and Assistant," above. My office door is usually open when I'm there. You should feel free to come by at any time. You may also schedule appointments if you wish for your convenience; it's just not necessary so far as I'm concerned.

But I'm also mindful there may sometime be a concern you would like to raise without my knowing it is coming from you. So that's OK, too. And that's why I like seminar participants to vote one of your number as your ombudsperson to bring such individual or group concerns to me on an anonymous basis.

We'll do that the second seminar session, so be thinking about whether you'd like to serve, or whom else you'd like to have in that position. The pay is lousy, but there is (usually) virtually no work to do.

It has been brought to my attention today that some prospective fall 2004 seminar students have inquired (complained?) about the existence of a final as a part of the grading system for this seminar. Because I do not know who, or how many, are involved, and because the issues relate to everyone taking the seminar, my response is provided here for all to read.

Although this Web page makes more than one reference to the final, no rationale was provided for having a final since no student had ever raised the issue before, and it did not occur to me that a rationale was necessary. Hopefully this brief appended explanation will resolve such questions as may exist.

I don't believe any of the student comments related to lack of notice (but since my information is third hand I cannot know). To resolve any possible concerns on that score, (1) this Web site, with notice of the final, was uploaded and has been available since November 16, and (2) all participants known as of November 17 were sent an email that day, notifying them of the URL for the seminar Web site, and urging them to visit it. (3) Not incidentally, that email contained the line, "Please, if what you find on the Web site is not to your liking let me know. It may be we can modify it in some way for you." My email address is known to you. Not having heard from anyone in response to that invitation, you can understand my surprise and disappointment at being told of your concerns by law school administrators.

1. As is made clear above ("Defining a Seminar"), "a 'seminar' at this law school is, in effect, two courses -- with, indeed, three sources of credits."

You will receive two academic credits for the course that involves reading and discussion of readings (along with such note taking and outlining as it is your practice to do).

Frankly, my preference would be to do away with grades entirely. But neither the academy in general, nor this College of Law in particular, are yet prepared to do that.

Moreover, while most law students realize the value of mastering the legal knowledge and skills they will be drawing upon for the next 50 years of their professional lives, some do tend to do more and better with the incentive of grades.

In any event, I need to have some way of coming up with a grade, a method of making a comparative evaluation on an anonymous basis of students' mastery of the material, preparation and performance. An examination is an administratively practical and traditional way of doing that.

2. Not that many years ago, when our law school's entering L-1s had required first year small writing sections, those sections were another example of, in effect, "two courses" -- one a substantive law school subject, the other training in legal writing. Like our seminar, those sections also involved a graded exam over the substance of the readings and discussions, as well as grades on writing assignments. An exam in a seminar is consistent with that practice.

3. I like to give as good a grades as can be warranted, and grades that represent more than one narrow slice of a student's talents. To do this I have found that it is, on average, to all students' advantage to have as many elements going into their course grade as possible.

Some students come to law school with past training and experience as professional writers; they may have been journalists, majored in English, or actually taught writing in high school or college. There may be some in this seminar.

On the other hand, I have also had students tell me that they have never before -- in junior high, high school, or college -- had to write a research paper. And many tell me they have never before had the degree of detailed editing and discussions of their writing in conferences that I provide.

Those students may, however, do comparatively better than the polished writers when it comes to responding to a law school exam under the pressure of time. Should they be denied the opportunity to show that; doomed from the outset to be at the bottom of the seminar grading curve because of their high school, rather than their law school, education? Isn't it fairer to give everyone a chance to redeem themselves by being able to excel at something?

It is altogether possible, if not probable, that some of those questioning the existence of a final in this seminar will, in fact, end up with a higher course grade with a final than they would have had without it.

4. Because the seminar is over-subscribed, and there is a limit to how many students a faculty member can handle in a writing seminar  and give each the time and attention she or he needs and is entitled to, I sometimes compromise by permitting some students to take the seminar for two credit hours only, with no writing.

The requirement that those who are doing the writing will take a final was in place before I knew that there would be any non-writing participants. But it now appears there will be some of the latter. Thus, what follows is not a stand-alone reason for the final.

But having everyone in the seminar take a final does solve what would otherwise, in this instance, be an "apples and oranges" grading system. It would be very difficult to integrate, and fairly curve, a set of grades with some based only on exams and others based only on papers.

I don't expect everyone to be persuaded by the above, but I do hope it is sufficient to establish that there is some basis and rationale for the requirement of a final exam.