What is cyberlaw?
I've been working on my cyberlaw syllabus over the last week, adding in all the things I want to read with my students. (There will be a huge supplement to the casebook.) Here's the challenge with which I need help: cyberlaw is usually taught as a mish-mosh of modules — a drop of privacy, a smattering of trademark, a heh-heh at the Barlow manifesto, a moment of copyright (and, in my case, a big dollop of the broadcast flag/analog hole debate), and some bemusement at internet governance.
But maybe the real subject is not the application of terrestrial law to the internet. Maybe that's not even interesting. Maybe we need to study what's emerging online and how or whether it consists of sets of rules that individuals and ISPs and corporations and governments are following. But how do I reveal that? How do we find it in a law school classroom? What's on the exam (a frequent question I get)?
Send me samples of what a real cyberlaw course should cover. Maybe I should drop all this cybersquatting stuff and the old funny historical cases (and even the new funny cases), much as I enjoy them. Maybe we should spend the whole term on ICANN and the broadcast flag and the CDT v. Pappert case.
Let me know. This is an authentic plea for commentary.