Help desk
From Cyberlaw
Law in the Court of Public Opinion Course FAQ
What should I do if my question is not answered here?
- That's easy! Email one of the instructors. You can reach Rebecca at rebeccanesson@gmail.com and you can reach Professor Nesson at nesson@law.harvard.edu. We'll be happy to answer your questions (and add them to the FAQ so our answers can help others as well.)
Cyberlaw Course FAQ
What kind of work will we have to do for Cyberlaw?
- Each day you will be assigned a modest amount of reading for the next class. You will also generally have an in-class activity to be done in groups and group homework that will be due the next day. These activities are meant to be collaborative in nature and we encourage the use of the class wiki and other forms of technology to work on them.
How will we be graded?
- Grading will consist of three parts: (1) class participation, (2) group projects, and (3) the final exam. The group projects will be assigned throughout the term and will result in a portfolio that may be modified and updated at any time up until the end of the term. The final exam will be a last-class take home of 2000 words that will reflect upon the work done during the course.
Wait, so the registrar’s exam page is wrong?
- Yes. The format of the exam is now a last-class take home that will be due by 4:30 pm on Jan 23.
Do you expect me to spend 3 days on the exam?
- No, we just figured it would be nice to allow you to choose when you’d like to write it. An excellent exam could be written in 8 hours or less. You will be reflecting upon the work that you have produced throughout the semester, so it is most important that you put your time and effort into that work.
Help! I don’t understand <some technical issue>.
- Please see the Tech FAQ. The Tech FAQ will be a place on the Class Wiki where members of the class can post the questions and other members can respond.
Are significant others invited...
... to the Cyberlaw/Evidence Winter Camp activities?
- Yes!
What are the citation requirements for the group project write-ups on the class wiki?
- Others' ideas should be credited -- though the format (footnote, bluebook, etc.) is not something Prof. Zittrain is concerned with. (Indeed, a hyperlink may be most convenient to the extent the thing cited is online.)
When will our group portfolios be graded?
- The group portfolios will be graded at the end of the course, and you will have the opportunity to update them (if you so desire) until ++Friday, Jan. 20, at 5 pm++. (Note: There is no class that day.) JZ here: I will treat the actual closing date of the group portfolios as Monday, Jan. 23, at 4:30 pm, as I think I mentioned in class.
How formal in tone should our exam essays be?
Should they be authoritative and academic, like a law review article, with foototes etc., or can they draw on personal experiences conversationally and quote from acquaintances where relevant? (For example, "When I was a kid and used the Cap'n Crunch whistle to hack the phone system..." or "The people I've met playing World of Warcraft seem to feel..." or "When I lived in Korea and had a CySpace account...") I'm not suggesting just telling a personal story; there would obviously be analysis; but is it all right to use personal experiences and viewpoints to lay a groundwork for the analysis?
- Unlike Wikipedia's own policy, it's OK with me to bring relevant direct experience to bear in framing and answering a question. The key is to maintain intellectual rigor, which can be done outside the structure of a formal research paper.
On a related note, in regard to the prohibition on self-identification...
What if it's pretty easy to guess who we are, from personal experiences we may include if appropriate, or even just from the topic we choose as something we "genuinely care about"?
- Use your best discretion here. The key is to internalize and express the spirit of the rule that asks that faculty grade without knowledge of specifically whom they are grading. I'd be hard pressed to think I'd completely identified someone merely on the basis of a chosen topic.
On an unrelated note, would you please write down the Story of Domain Names? Really - it could basically be verbatim from class, and it would be a great piece for any number of publications that people actually read. Anyone second this?
2nded.
- Thanks -- I'm glad you found it useful -- I almost didn't tell it! I will think about how the story might be memorialized.
Evidence FAQ
please add questions about the Evidence course here
Tech FAQ
Please post any technical questions you have here, and we welcome those with technical backgrounds to contribute answers. (from the help desk)
For Last Resort Human Help, email Elizabeth Stark <estark <at> law.harvard.edu>
1. How much technical knowledge will be required for the course?
Technically, none. In fact, what we are looking for more than anything is a willingness to learn about and experiment with new technologies!
2. Is there a site with info about how to do different kinds of linking in wikis?
Yup. Check out the help pages on the MetaWiki.
3. There was a reference during the discussion with Barlow to "RFCs." What are they?
Requests For Comment is "a set of technical and organizational notes about the Internet" from the IETF.
4. Here's a useful link for those who want to know more about tech issues:
Class I took in undergrad with more technical overview of the whole Internet and network thing, lectures notes 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 18, 23, 24 and 25 in pdfs are pretty understandable, kinda
5. i see that there is a blogger page, but i don't see what points to it. assist?
Hmm weird. I don't see a blogger page... Usually if you click "what links here" you can figure out what links to it. There's also a tool for "orphan pages" that don't have anything linking to them.
Here is Blogs and Wikis page someone has setup. Many pages can be setup where someone intends to put stuff there, but not yet got a round TUIT. AlMac
6. What's this podcasting thing?
Check out the Wikipedia article on Podcasting. You might also want to check out What makes for a good law podcast and the Legal Underground for examples.
7. how do i add an extra blank line before == headinngs?
I think that you just put an extra line using the enter key? I meant, how do you change the == heading so that it automatically inserts a blank line before it --cc
I just use the key on my keyboard that simulates a carriage return on the old manual typewriters. AlMac
8. I have visited the metawiki site to look for info on how to do specific things in wikipedia, but is there a tutorial page that takes you from A to Z on how to program in wiki language? I feel that when I look at some of the individual help sites, I don't know enough of the basic language to understand what is being said. Thanks.
- I have been looking for that also. Seems to me the Wiki language is a scripting language structurally very similar to HTML and UIM. So if you pick up something like HTML for Dummies (if there is such a title), it should be a good starting place. AlMac
- Notice that you do not need to know the wiki language to do many things on Wiki. If you tell me what your Group page is here or on Wikipedia, I can post something on your Talk page with links to A-Z on doing stuff on Wiki without needing to know anything more than using the square brackets, tildes, and those buttons on the top of the edit box, or sysop can ask me to place that kind of thing on a general page for everyone. AlMac
- This site has a listing of many of the basic Wikipedia commands.
9. What exactly is the difference between an ISP and an OSP? Why was Ginsberg opinion so subtle?
It may be smart to spell out what the letters stand for, since there are some non-internet word strings that have the same acronym,
- ASP Application Service Provider ... they can host your applications on their system, take care of backups, all sorts of maintenance, then if they go bankrupt, you lose access to your data, and you also go bankrupt.
- ISP Internet Service Provider
- Note that my ISP, Sigecom, performs some great on-line services in addition to high speed Internet connection, such as anti-malware. They intercept 99% of viruses attached to e-mail before they even get to me, and 90% of the spam. There are some false positives, which I keep them informed on.
- OSP On-Line Service Provider, such as AOL, which provides a large spectrum of services in which their connection to the Internet could be seen as a tiny fraction of their total business.
- See Teoma search engine for additional links
10. What is a root kit, precisely?
11. What is port 443?
IANA's list of well-known ports assigns port 443 to https (encrypted web traffic):
- https 443/tcp http protocol over TLS/SSL
- https 443/udp http protocol over TLS/SSL
12. What is ssh?"
Secure SHell is a more secure replacement for telnet, offering encrypted remote connections to another machine. It can also be used to create an encrypted tunnel, securing at least part of communications between insecure endpoints.
13. I have an unprotected wireless network in my apartment. I don't care about my neighbors freeloading on my bandwidth, but I don't want them doing something that could get me in trouble with the RIAA. I don't really know a lot about technology, do I have to encrypt the network to protect myself or would any freeloaders from my IP address be distinguishable from myself by a MAC or something else.?
In theory, if anyone in range of your network can connect to it, then they can do anything and effectively be anonymous with the evidence trail stopping at you. They can sit in auto parked in street just outside your residence. They can do anything on your computer, or on the Internet. There's a lot of people out there who just want to steal bandwidth, but there are also people who enjoy vandalism, criminal behavior, even terrorism. Any computer system ought to be protected from vandals, whether through wireless, or malware. AlMac
