The UCLA Online Institute for Cyberspace Law and Policy
About the Online Institute
The Online Institute for Cyberspace Law and Policy exists only in cyberspace. It has no offices, no telephone numbers, and no building address. The entire institute is located online, and everything that the institute has to offer is included in these web pages.
Since its inception in September 1995, the institute's goals have included the following:
- To provide resources for academics, practitioners, students, and interested "netizens."
- To help generate solutions to problems that are arising in cyberspace.
- To identify compelling legal and policy issues in this area.
- To further the development of Cyberspace Law as a separate discipline.
- To provide a vehicle for the dissemination of new ideas.
- To help foster the growth of new electronic communities in this area.
Online
Institute Research Assistants:
1997 - Matthew Heyn, Abi Karlin-Resnick, and Carolyn Ko
1998 – Melanie Ho, Carolyn Ko, Stephanie Lasker, Jesse
Mai, Kumar Raja, and Kirsten Roe
1999 - Jesse Mai, Laura Noroski, Kumar Raja, and Sheiva
Taban
2001 – Dorit Michele Glockner, Dulce Vita
What Is Cyberspace Law?
The area of law known as Cyberspace Law (or "Cyberlaw") typically encompasses all cases, statutes, and constitutional provisions that impact persons and institutions when they go "online" and enter cyberspace. While issues of free speech and intellectual property often dominate this discourse, other important areas of inquiry include privacy, safety, equity, jurisdiction, and e-commerce.
Some of the key questions that have been
raised include the following:
1. Freedom of Expression - Should the online world continue to be a freewheeling, unregulated "marketplace of ideas," or have things spiraled out of control? If restrictions are appropriate, what steps should be taken?
2. Intellectual Property - How applicable are traditional copyright laws in an environment where reproduction and distribution of someone else's creations can occur with ease and impunity?
3. Privacy - Why are electronic privacy rights so much weaker than analogous rights in other venues? Does the public care? Should the public care?
4. Safety - What is the nature of the threats posed by hackers, crackers, cyberstalkers, and online harassers? What steps might be taken to keep cyberspace safe?
5. Equity - Has access to cyberspace been granted in an inequitable manner? Should the legal system be invoked to maximize equity in this regard, or should we continue to rely on free market principles?
6. Jurisdiction - With cyberspace existing somewhere beyond state lines and beyond international borders, what laws are applicable, and in what context? And even if these questions are resolved, how can such laws be enforced?
7. E-Commerce - How might traditional laws and policies be applied to problems that may arise in the areas of advertising, promotion, and Internet-based transactions?
In the Spring of 1996, this web site was named 'Web Site of the Week' by PC Week Magazine (April 29th edition).
Return
to Cyberspace Law & Policy Institute Home Page.
sb: 9Aug.2001