The UCLA Online Institute for Cyberspace Law and Policy

The Growth & Development of Cyberspace Law
in the United States: Highlights of the Past Decade

The following list was generated by the Online Insitute and members of the online community in general over the last six months of 1999. It contains an overview of highlights in the development of U.S. Cyberspace Law over the past ten years.

While major legal disputes certainly arose in the Early 1990's, it was not until 1996 and 1997 that an actual body of law began to emerge. The area still remains largely unsettled, however, and the debate continues regarding the applicability of analogous legal principles derived from earlier controversies that originally had nothing to do with cyberspace.

1990

• John Perry Barlow becomes perhaps the first person to apply the term "Cyberspace" to the online world, while participating in an online discussion on The Well.

• Tim Berners-Lee begins work on a hypertext GUI browser+editor using the NeXTStep development environment. He coins the term "WorldWideWeb" as a name for the program.

1991

• The First Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy (CFP) is held in Burlingame, CA.

• The Robert Morris "Internet Worm" Case is decided by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals - U.S. v. Morris, 928 F.2d 504 (2d Cir. 1991).

• General release of theWorld Wide Web on central CERN machines.

• Cubby v. CompuServe, 776 F. Supp. 135 (1991).

1992

• The Scientific and Advanced Technology Act of 1992, 42 U.S. Code Section 1862 (a), gives the National Science Foundation (NSF) the authority to allow commercial activity on the NSFNET.

• Trotter Hardy establishes the Cyberia mailing list, a forum for the exploration of emerging cyberspace law issues.

1993

• Directors of CERN declare that WWW technology will be freely usable by anyone, with no fees being payable to CERN.

• E-Mail Privacy Case is decided by the CA Court of Appeal - Bourke v. Nissan Motor Corp., No. B068705 - July 26, 1993.

• Playboy Enterprises, Inc. v. Frena, 839 F. Supp. 1552 (M.D. Fla. 1993)

• Villanova Law Review Symposium: The Congress, The Courts, and Computer-Based Communications Networks: Answering Questions About Access and Content Control (1993) - perhaps the first law review symposium dedicated to cyberspace

• By the year's end, WWW (Port 80 http) traffic measures 1% of NSF backbone traffic. NCSA releases working versions of Mosaic browser for all common platforms: X, PC/Windows and Macintosh.

1994

• U.S. v. Lamacchia, 871 F. Supp. 535 (D. Mass. 1994)

• Apple v. Microsoft & Hewlett-Packard, 35 F. 3d 1435 (9th Cir. 1994)

• Steve Jackson Games v. U.S. Secret Service, 36 F.3d 457 (5th Cir. 1994)

• University of Pittsburgh Law Review Symposium: Law in Cyberspace (Summer 1994)

• Beyond the Internet: Settling the Electronic Frontier, Stanford Law and Policy Review (Fall 1994)

1995

• The "Church of Scientology" Cases reach the federal courts.

• U.S. v. Jake Baker, 890 F. Supp. 1375 (E.D. Mich. 1995)

• Journal of Online Law Posted Online (1995)

• Yale Law Journal Symposium: Emerging Media Technology and the First Amendment (May 1995)

1996

• U.S. Congress passes the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Disputed portions of the CDA are immediately challenged in court.

• U.S. v. Thomas, 74 F. 3d 701 (6th Cir. 1996)

• Oregon Law Review Symposium: Innovation and the Information Environment (Spring 1996)

• Connecticut Law Review Symposium Issue on Cyberspace-Related Topics (Summer 1996)

• Emory Law Journal Symposium: Legal Issues in Cyberspace: Hazards on the Information Superhighway (Summer 1996)

• University of Chicago Legal Forum: The Law of Cyberspace (1996)

• Top Cyberlaw Developments of 1996

1997

• U.S. Supreme Court decides first Internet-related case - Reno v. ACLU, 117 S.Ct. 2329 (1997).

• U.S. Congress passes The 'No Electronic Theft' Act.

• Top Cyberlaw Cases of 1997

1998

• Top Cyberlaw Cases of Early 1998

• The Internet Tax Freedom Act of 1998

• The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998

1999

• ACLU v. Reno II, 31 F. Supp. 2d 473 (E.D. Penn 1999)

• Jury Decision in the Nuremberg Files Case

• Harvard Law Review Publishes Its First Overview of Recent Developments in the Law of Cyberspace (May 1999)

• Bernstein v. U.S. Dept. of Justice,1999 WL 274111 (9th Cir. 1999)

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  sb: 10Mar.00