Who is the Cyberlaw Book For?

Who is the Cyberlaw Book for?

Cyberlaw: Law for digital spaces and for information systems

By John Bandler

This cyberlaw book is for most people who are interested in cyberlaw, or taking a course on cyberlaw.

This page gives more detail to help you decide if it is right for you or your course.

Every reader is different, every person is different, every course is different. We categorize education and experience levels while realizing that every person within a group is different, and starts from a slightly different place.

Choose your speed and choose your adventure

In sum, the book is adaptable and suitable for a variety of groups by adjusting how fast it is read or covered in a course. Think of these ways to read:

Read carefully: go slow, 5 MPH, pulling out of a driveway near where children are playing (or a "no wake" zone)
Read: go at a solid pace, 30 MPH, a residential neighborhood
Skim: read quickly, highway speed, 65 MPH (conditions permitting)
Skippable: Consider not reading it at all, you may already know it. Take a shortcut (detour?) and don't go down that road.

Cyberlaw book infographic 2024-12-23 choose your speed

For any course, at whatever level, I encourage readers and course instructors to avoid the "skip" option. Often, students think they know something but they don't. Even if a student "knows" something, reading it again, especially with a different perspective, can help cement certain knowledge in place or open up a new insight. Every time you walk a path or drive a road is an opportunity to see or learn something new. Even "experienced lawyers" are learning about law every day, including about "basic" aspects of law.

Suitability for these groups of learners and readers

Below is a general summary of how the book can apply to these groups of readers (remembering that groups are made up of very diverse individuals).

As above, speed is how you adapt it. Within a group of learners, one reader may think "That's obvious, I already know that!" and another thinks "Huh?" and has to read it twice (or come back to it later) for it to sink in.

College level learners: A main target area for the book, as I have been teaching cyberlaw to college students for many years. When I first started, I was told they will know basic law from prior courses, but that proved not to be the case. To understand cyberlaw they first needed a foundation in basic law and our legal system, and that's why I built that into the book.
Graduate level learners: Another main target area for the book, as I have been teaching cyberlaw to graduate level students in information technology for many years. When I started, I was told they already had a foundation in basic law, but often that was not the case. These graduate students are highly knowledgeable in technology, but need a foundation in law before getting to cyberlaw.
Professionals: The book is well suited for this group. Many professional non-lawyers work in areas relating to cyberlaw, and this includes information technology, information security, and compliance professionals, as well as managers, executives, and owners. They should understand basics of law, cyberlaw, and technology, so this book works for them.
Law school students: Suitable for many law students, who come with a wide variety of backgrounds and skills, especially depending what year they are in law school. I think law school sometimes presumes too much knowledge while this book does not. Most law students will find considerable new knowledge and some parts and chapters to be a recap, and some sentences obvious. Other law students will be grateful for the comprehensive coverage. This book would be supplemented by reading of cited references, such as case decisions and statutes.
Lawyers: Lawyers also come with different backgrounds and areas of practice. Most lawyers will find a few parts and several chapters to be obvious recaps of what they know, and will find sentences and footnotes that are plainly obvious. Many lawyers will benefit from the introduction to technology and how it is viewed, as well as how cyberlaw applies to traditional law. Many lawyers will benefit from the discussion of data laws.
High school learners: Many high school learners are capable of digesting this book. It is written simply and clearly.
Any reader: This book is digestible for almost any reader. Law cannot be a topic exclusively for lawyers. We are a nation of laws and democracy where citizens have duties and need to understand basics of law. Nonlawyers can play a role in the discussion of the complex cyberlaw issues that affect us all. We can respect the knowledge and experience and opinions of lawyers (as we should for other experts such as in the fields of health and science) while also realizing everyone should know something about the legal issues of the day, and their reasoned opinions can matter also.

Adjust your speed (choose your adventure) infographics

To see an example of how coverage of each part can be tailored for different groups and courses, click on these images.

Cyberlaw book - who is it for 2024-12-23 (1) College cybrerlaw

College students (taking cyberlaw course) and cyberlaw book

Cyberlaw book - who is it for 2024-12-23 (2) college cybercrime

College students (taking cybercrime course) and cyberlaw book

Cyberlaw book - who is it for 2024-12-23 (3) graduate cyberlaw

Graduate students and cyberlaw book

Cyberlaw book - who is it for 2024-12-23 (4) law students

Law students and cyberlaw book

Organized and modular

This book is organized into parts, chapters, and sections. Most chapters are relatively short, sections are very short, and everything is named simply. The title tells you what you are going to read, and this helps you adjust your speed through each part, chapter, and section.

Personal preferences

Every person has personal preferences.

My style, and the style and format of this book will resonate for some but not others. That's OK, each to their own.

My background in prosecution and law enforcement will be viewed as beneficial by some for my experience in criminal law and cybercrime, but I realize some may view that negatively, and I understand that too. Personal opinions can be strong and affect how a book is received.

In sum, I accept that this book is not going to be right for a large number of people. As we look at elections in this country at the national, state, and local levels over the past eight years, voters chose from vastly different candidates. Some chose candidate X, some candidate Y, often an abhorrent candidate to the other side. If voters have such vastly different and irreconcilable preferences, so will readers. This book is not for everyone, sort of like this country song.

Fortunately, there will be some readers this book is right for, and that's who it is for.

Aligning the book to each group by part and chapter

Below are the part and chapter names, which give a good idea about who can benefit from reading them. I have also included a few comments.

Part 1: Cyberlaw learning mindset

1. Why cyberlaw and using the book
2. Cyberlaw sits on a foundation of traditional law
3. Reading, learning, researching, writing, and artificial intelligence tools

Comment:

All should read Chapters 1, 2
I will have my course students read all three because I believe Chapter 3 reinforces some important concepts. I have found there are students at all learning levels who state or demonstrate that they (i) have never done an outline for a paper, (ii) never got instruction on how to do research, (iii) misunderstand rules for citation and quotation, (iv) use AI tools to "read" for them and answer questions or summarize text. A reminder on foundational principles can improve learning throughout the semester.

Part 2: Introduction to law

4. Rules humans create, live by, and break
5. Laws introduced: Rules from government
6. Introducing the US legal system: Substantive laws and procedural laws (laws for conduct, and a process to investigate and resolve)
7. U.S. Constitution and Amendments: The foundation for law and government
8. Crime, criminal law, and criminal justice introduced
9. Civil law introduced
10. The First Amendment and protections for speech from government interference
11. The Fourth Amendment and government search and seizure
12. Jurisdiction

Comment:

This part introduces law and may not be needed for most lawyers (e.g., "skip") and most law students ("skim").
In a law school course, this part can be a "skim", but with a "read" for Chapter 12 on Jurisdiction.

Part 3: Entering “cyberspace”

13. How did we get to cyberlaw?
14. Cybercrime and identity theft
15. Markets for your data and a need for privacy
16. Technology introduced
17. Cybersecurity introduced
18. Applying law to the digital domain

Comment:

This part introduces technology, cybercrime, and privacy.
For technology students, this part can be a "skim", but with a "read" for chapter 18 on Applying Law.

Part 4: Criminal cyberlaw

19. The Western Express cybercrime case
20. Substantive cybercrime laws
21. Criminal procedure and gathering evidence
22. Virtual currency and money laundering
23. Solving the cybercrime problem

Comment:

For law students, can supplement with reading of cited cases and statutes.

Part 5: Civil cyberlaw I

24. Intentional torts (wrongs)
25. Negligence law
26. Contract law
27. Regulation introduced
28. Intellectual property law

Comment:

For law students this may be a "skim" and supplemented by additional reading or exercises applying these laws to cyber situtations .

Part 6: Civil cyberlaw II: Data law

29. Data law introduced
30. Data breach notification laws
31. Cybersecurity and data protection laws
32. Privacy and privacy laws
33. Artificial intelligence
34. Summarizing some data laws

Comment:

Many readers will benefit from this knowledge on data law.

Part 7: International cyber actions

35. International cyber conflict and law

Comment:

This is a "read" for most groups.

Part 8: Speech and expression in depth

36. Cyber speech and the battle for our minds

Comment:

This is a "read" for most groups.

Part 9: Organizations and cyberlaw

37. Business law basics
38. Management and policy work
39. Managing cyber issues
40. Cybersecurity frameworks
41. The Four Pillars of Cybersecurity

Comment:

This is a "read", "skim", or "skip" depending on the group and reader.
Read to learn how to apply cyberlaw to an organization.
Professionals: Read
Law and information systems: Read
Compliance people: Read

Part 10: Conclusion, Resources, Appendix

42. Conclusion
43. My journey to write this book
44. References and additional reading
45. List of diagrams
46. Frequent abbreviations
47. Glossary
48. Index

Comment:

This is purely optional material. Remember the references landing page on this site (see next).

References and additional reading

The book points to extensive references, which this website also contains. This means you can easily go deeper than the book on any topic. My book contains a certain number of words about a topic; perhaps a sentence, paragraph, section, or chapter.

If you want to cover it more deeply, you can read (or assign) additional reading, such as listed references. For example, if my paragraph summarizing a legal dispute is too simple, read the judge's decision itself.

Course instructors

Course instructors: If you are considering this as a coursebook, or are using it as a coursebook, feel free to reach out to let me know how it is going, and if I can be of assistance somehow.