01 / Reading Guide
Reading Guide
Who this book is for
For law students who want to connect familiar legal doctrines with networked services and platform decisions. The casebook is useful after general legal foundations because an online dispute can cross several doctrinal fields at once. Readers outside the United States should treat its jurisdictional assumptions as part of the analysis.
Prerequisites
Basic legal reading skills and an introduction to United States public and private law are helpful. Technical primers explain essential computing concepts; they do not require a computer-science degree.
What it covers
The materials move from technology and jurisdiction into speech, content moderation and other internet disputes. Edited cases sit beside questions and realistic fact patterns, making it possible to separate a technical mechanism from the legal characterization placed upon it. A service’s own policy also needs to be distinguished from a rule imposed by law.
How to use it
Draw the actors and data flows in one problem before identifying causes of action. List which party controls each step and which jurisdiction supplies the relevant rule. Compare the platform’s policy with the legal obligation, then change one feature of the service and reconsider the outcome. Read a technical primer whenever a legal argument depends on how the system works.
Edition and sources
The publisher identifies the sixteenth edition, released July 2026; its official contents PDF gives ISBN 9781943689248. The publisher requests voluntary payment and offers a free-download option. Personal downloading is authorized; redistribution is not. Later legal developments may change the analysis of a case.
