LATEST CHANGES TO SITE

• 12/13/09: BECAUSE OF THE WEBSITE OUTAGE ON SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, I AM EXTENDING MY Q&A DEADLINE BY FOUR HOURS. I WILL RESPOND TO ANY QUESTIONS I RECEIVE UNTIL NOON ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 13TH.
• 12/03/09: Posted outlined answer to sample exam procedural problem three.
• 12/01/09: Posted outlined answer to sample exam substantive problem one.
• 11/23/09: Posted all mind maps to this point in semester (pdfs only for now) and posted information about sample exams.
• 11/18/09: Canceled reading assigned for 11/18/09. We will be meeting to catch-up on old material. We won't be making this assignment up.
• 11/18/09: Posted assignment for those attending the December 4th Symposium at CU.
• 11/11/09: Posted assignment for those attending the November 20th Symposium at DU.
• 11/03/09: Correction to the syllabus: For Wednesday, November 4th, there is no handout assigned.
• 10/13/09: At long last, posted new assignment for Wednesday, October 21st class.
• 10/4/09: Posted modified syllabus for remainder of semester. Please replace your last two pages of your syllabus with this version! (Also, posted mind map for 10/5 class and supplemental reading for 10/19 class.)
• 9/30/09: Posted modified assignment for the October 5th class (class eleven). (See "Changes to Syllabus" under "Course Syllabus," below).
• 9/21/09: Posted modified assignment for the September 23rd class (class nine). (See "Changes to Syllabus" under "Course Syllabus," below).
• 9/14/09: Posted supplemental reading for the September 21st class (class eight).
• 9/9/09: Posted problems we reviewed in class, complete with some answers. We will revisit the rest of the problems (D through G) on Monday, 9/14
• 8/25/09: Posted two supplement reading handouts for the September 2nd class (Class four).
• 8/22/09: We will be meeting in Room 301.
• 8/22/09: Posted syllabus.
• 8/18/09: Posted reading for first two classes.

Book Information

A 2008 Supplement (new version posted 10/20/09) for the book is available as a PDF download. Some of the assignments in the syllabus are drawn from this file.

Because computer crime is such a fast-moving field, I will also be posting supplements to the reading to this website. You are required to consult this website before you begin reading for every class.

Course Syllabus

The classroom has changed. We will now be meeting in Room 301.

Changes to Syllabus

Please note the following changes to the syllabus:

• I have canceled the reading assigned for 11/18/09. We will be meeting to catch-up on old material. We won't be making this assignment up.
• For Wednesday, November 4th, there is no handout assigned.
• For Wednesday, October 21st, read the following pages in Part D, Searching and Seizing Computers with a Warrant:
  • Intro to Part D (351-353)
  • Part D.1: Intro (353-355); US v. Adjani (355-364); Note 4 (366-369)
  • Part D.2: Note 5 only (379-380)
  • Part D.3: Intro (381); US v. Gray (381-387); Notes 1 - 4 (387-389)
  • Excerpted Opinion in US v Comprehensive Drug Testing (word) (pdf), 579 F.3d 989 (9th Cir. Aug. 26, 2009).
  Restated more concisely, the assignment is: 351-364; 366-369 (Note 4); 379-80 (Note 5); 381-389 (through Note 4); US v. Comprehensive Drug Testing.
• I am making some wholesale changes to the Fourth Amendment materials beginning with Class 14, Monday, October 12th. To better help you keep track of the changes, download this addendum to the syllabus and replace the original pages 5 and 6.
• For Monday, October 5, please skip p. 270, Note 7, and United States v. Lee, pp. 270-277. The full assignment is: 264-70 (through note 6) and 277-97.
• For Wednesday, September 23, please skip the article by Ronald J. Rychalk, "Legal Problems with On-Line Gambling," and notes following, pages 181-187 of the casebook. The full assignment for Wednesday is: 180-181; 187-210.

Supplemental Reading

• If you are attending the December 4th Conference at CU, you must, at least 24-hours before the event begins (ie by the morning of Thursday, December 3rd), do all of the following:
  • Review the description for the event.
  • Read excerpts from articles by Professors Freiwald and Kerr.
  • E-mail me two questions you might ask the panelists at the conference.
  And on the day of the event, you must:
  • Be sure to sign in on our class's sign-in sheet at the registration desk on the day of the event.
  • Attend at least two hours of the event.
• If you are attending the November 20th symposium at DU, you must, at least 24-hours before the event begins (ie by the morning of Thursday, November 19th), do all of the following:
  • Review the description and the list of speakers and topics for the event.
  • Read Part III (pp. 96-115) of the article by Danielle Citron (the same article we read a different excerpt from for our 9/21 class).
  • E-mail me two questions you might ask the panelists at the conference.
  And on the day of the event, you must:
  • Be sure to sign in on our class's sign-in sheet at the registration desk on the day of the event.
  • Attend at least two hours of the event.
• For Wednesday, October 21st, see the modified assignment listed above.
• For Monday, October 19, as specified in the Addendum to the Syllabus, in addition to the casebook pages, please read pages 5-21 (PDF pages 6-22, Parts I, II, and III) of this article by Orin Kerr.
• For Monday, September 21, in addition to the casebook pages assigned in the syllabus, please read the following pages from this article by Danielle Citron:
  • Introduction (PDF pages 3 - 9; Journal pages 62 - 68).
  • Part IV.A., Should Website Operators Have Immunity? (PDF pages 59 - 63; Journal pages 118 - 122).
• For Wednesday, September 2, in addition to the pages indicated in the syllabus, please read the following materials from the Lori Drew case:
  • The indictment.
  • pages 22-32 (the Void for Vagueness discussion) of the judge's opinion granting the motion for acquittal.
  NOTE: The assignment was changed early on Sunday, 8/30. If you read the old assignment, which did not include the judicial opinion, you do not need to read the new assignment as well (although to better follow the class conversation, you may want to).
• For Monday, August 24, please read pages 1-13 of the case book (through Part 2.A, "Why Punish Computer Misuse?") and this ten-page handout containing four articles.

Class Mind Maps

• Class Twenty-Six: December 2
• Class Twenty-Five: November 30
• Class Twenty-Four: Chart I marked up during class. (excel format)
• Class Twenty-Four: November 18
• Class Twenty-Three: November 16
• Class Twenty-Two: November 11
• Class Twenty-One: November 9
• Class Twenty: November 4
• Class Nineteen: November 2
• Class Eighteen: October 28
• Class Seventeen: October 26
• Class Sixteen: October 21
• Class Fifteen: October 19
• Class Fourteen: October 12
• Class Thirteen: Map I will use in class, made available before class
• Class Thirteen: October 7
• Class Twelve: Map I will use in class, made available before class
• Class Twelve: October 5
• Class Eleven: September 30
• Class Ten: September 28
• Class Nine: September 23
• Class Eight: September 21
• Class Seven: September 16
• Class Six: September 14
• Class Five: Problems on 1030(a)(5) with answers for questions covered in class. (Note: I wrote the answers before class, so they are less complete than the answers we developed during class.) (Further note: Answers for second half of problems now included as of 11/23.)
• Class Five: September 9
• Class Four: September 2
• Class Three: August 31
• Class Two: August 26
• Class One: August 24

Other Class Materials

Sample/Practice Final Exams

Having never taught this course before as a final exam course, I cannot provide past exams I have used. Instead, I am providing sample exams written by me and other people. Our final, take-home exam will consist of three questions--two issue-spotters and one policy question.

The sample questions that follow are divided into substantive and procedural types, but the questions on the actual exam might blend the two subjects.

I will add other questions and sample examples to this list in the days leading up to the exam, so please check this space again.

• Here are two sample issue spotters I wrote this semester, which cover substantive computer crime law: Substantive Computer Crime questions. To help you further, I have prepared my own answer to Problem One, which I am including in two parts:
  • The problem annotated using Word's "track changes" feature to show what issues I spotted, as I read this.
  • A detailed outline of an answer.
  I do NOT plan to provide a similar outline for Problem Two of the sample exam.
• Pages 530-31 of your casebook include three sample problems having to do with procedural computer crime law. These seem similar (albeit a little more limited in number of issues) to the procedural issue spotters I plan to write. Here is a detailed outline of an answer I prepared for Problem 3 on page 531.
• About the policy question: I am not yet providing a sample policy question (although I may do so eventually.) Instead, here is a quick description: My policy questions tend to be very short, asking a fairly open-ended question about some ongoing policy debate we have discussed in class. They are quite similar to the open-ended, who-is-right? questions I ask in class. For example, I might ask, "How do mandatory minimum sentences for child pornography offenses affect substantive and procedural computer crime law, and what should Congress do about it, if anything?

2008 Supplement (new version posted 10/20/09) to Kerr casebook.

Other Links