Ethics and the law on the electronic frontier

Lectures: One session / week, 3 hours / session

Hal Abelson
Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, MIT

Danny Weitzner
Director for Technology and Society, World Wide Web Consortium

Mike Fischer
Professor of Anthropology and Sci. Tech. Studies, MIT

MIT course 6 students may count this subject as one of the general engineering concentration subjects required for the S.B. or M.Eng. programs, or use this subject for HASS elective credit (but not both). Students wishing engineering concentration credit should enroll under the subject number 6.805, and students wishing HASS credit should enroll under the number STS.085. Graduate credit can be granted through STS (not Course 6), although this will require making special arrangements with Mike Fischer for extra work.

There are no formal prerequisites for this subject, but students should be prepared to do extensive independent research, involving both technology and policy analysis. In selecting participants for the class, we will be looking for people with appropriate backgrounds, such as knowledge of 6.033. Also, due to the importance of class participation, class attendance is mandatory.

Important: There are class readings, and also a writing assignment due before the first class. These must be completed and the writing assignment turned in by email before 5PM on the day before the first lecture. No one will be admitted to the first class without having completed this assignment. See the description of the pre-semester assignment in the assignments section.

The class will have many readings, mostly short. Most of these can be found in the readings section. There are also two books that you'll be reading as the semester progresses:

Brin, David. The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Privacy and Freedom? New York, NY: Perseus Books, 1999. ISBN: 0738201448.

O'Harrow, Robert. No Place to Hide: Behind the Scenes of Our Emerging Surveillance Society. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 2005. ISBN: 0743254805.

You should get copies of both of these (or borrow copies, or whatever).

Grades will be based on

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