Legal and Regulatory Environment of Information Science and Technology

Course Composition and Objectives

• Legal Process and Critical Reasoning
  • Explain sources of American law (primarily federal and state constitutions, statutes, regulations, and common law)
  • Illustrate the interaction of and relationship between various court systems (federal and state, trial and appellate)
  • Develop case briefs based on assigned judicial opinions
  • Describe the basic steps in litigation, from the development of a dispute through the pleading, trial, and appeal processes
  • Outline the key elements of a crime
• Intellectual Property
  • Describe the policy rationales underlying trademarks
  • Discuss how trademark law relates to Internet domain name disputes
  • Determine where marks fall on the trademark distinctiveness spectrum
  • Explain the constitutional basis for copyright and patent law
  • Debate the pros and cons of various scopes and exclusivity periods under copyright and patent law
  • Evaluate the effectiveness of various measures taken to protect trade secret status
• Transactional Law
  • Describe jurisdictional issues that arise when business is conducted electronically, rather than face-to-face
  • Compare and contrast forms of alternative dispute resolution, including negotiation, mediation, and arbitration
  • Explain general contract law principles, including the purpose of contracts, contract formation, contract performance, breach, and contract remedies
  • Classify examples of free and open source software agreements
• Regulatory, Compliance, and Liability Issues
  • Discuss the relationship between laws and regulations
  • Identify several ways antitrust law have been applied to online activities
  • Explain the requirements for a state to obtain tax jurisdiction over an out-of-state business operating online
  • Describe various ways that governments have sought to regulate Internet content, including user-generated content
  • Describe constitutional sources of the right to privacy, and common law torts for the invasion of privacy
  • Explain the key federal laws that regulate privacy, including the GLBA, COPPA, HIPAA, and ECPA
  • Explain how the Internet has impacted the possibilities for and execution of criminal conduct
  • Discuss the laws under which cybercrimes may be prosecuted
  • Describe the importance of technology transfer and licensing agreements
• Instructors Choice: Instructors may choose topics and learning objectives that meet the spirit of the course as defined here. Instructors may choose to devote more time to the learning objectives listed above or to add additional, complementary objectives. Supplementary material and objectives should not overlap with the defined content of other courses in the curriculum.
  • Some example topics include:
    • Business Formation and Business Models:
      • Compare and contrast the forms of business organizations (sole proprietorships, partnerships, corporations, etc.)
      • Explain examples of market and non market innovation catalysts
      • Critique the prevailing Internet business models (free, freemium, subscription, donations, pay what you want, etc.)
      • Compare the roles of corporate directors, officers, and investors
      • Summarize the processes for changes in corporation ownership and exit strategies

Course Description

New information technologies are creating a global economy heavily dependent upon networked information, hardware, software, and electronic commerce, which calls for adaptation of existing legal and business practices. In many cases, these new technologies pose problems with which existing laws or legislation are inadequate to cope, but the complexity of the environment makes new solutions elusive. This course examines the legal, regulatory, and political environment within which intellectual property rights and e-commerce in the information technology environment are evolving. These include examination of contracting issues, licensing of information and products, data protection, patents, cyberspace regulation, and implications for personal privacy. The course also focuses on where technology is making regulation difficult by challenging previous concepts upon which our legal and regulatory systems depend.

IST 432 serves as a required course for the Information Context: People, Organizations, and Society option and as an elective for the other options in the IST major. It is also a required course for the SRA major. Additionally, it can serve as an elective for related programs in other colleges.